Tina Turner, Fela Kuti, Go-Go’s Top Final Rock Hall Fan Ballot
This year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fan voting concluded late last night, and appropriately, the “Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll” Tina Turner emerged victorious.
Turner led the fan vote with more than 585,000 ballots. Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti secured the runner-up position with more than 545,000 votes. Rounding out the top five were new wave chart-toppers the Go-Go’s, heavy metal titans Iron Maiden and alt-rock stalwarts Foo Fighters.
Although the Rock Hall only shared the top five names when reporting the final vote results, as of late last night Carole King was in sixth place, followed by Todd Rundgren, Devo, Dionne Warwick, Chaka Khan and Kate Bush.
These top five artists as chosen by the voting public will comprise a fan ballot that gets tallied alongside more than 1,000 other ballots submitted by artists, historians and music industry moguls.
Turner, an eight-time Grammy winner and 1991 Rock Hall inductee as one-half of Ike & Tina Turner, has staked her claim as rock royalty for more than 60 years. She got her start performing with Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm in 1957 and appeared on the song “Boxtop” the following year under the name “Little Ann.”
In 1960, Turner made her recording debut with her classic stage name on Ike & Tina Turner’s first single, “A Fool in Love.” The song reached No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 and went platinum, making it one of the first R&B singles to become a crossover pop success.
Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Ike & Tina Turner Revue established a reputation as one of the most incendiary live acts on the R&B circuit. They racked up a slew of hits, the biggest being a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary,” which peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 and won the duo a Grammy for best R&B vocal performance by a group in 1972.
Ike & Tina Turner’s partnership dissolved in 1976, and the duo divorced in 1978. Turner’s solo career languished during this time, but in 1984 she launched a remarkable comeback with the pop- and R&B-inflected Private Dancer. The record went quintuple platinum and spawned the No. 1 hit “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Another platinum album, Break Every Rule, followed in 1986, with lead single “Typical Male” reaching No. 2 on the Hot 100.
Tina, a documentary about Turner’s life, debuted on HBO in March. In the film, Turner reflects on her dream "to be the first Black rock and roll singer to pack places like the [Rolling] Stones."
“Look what I have done in this lifetime with this body," Turner says in the Tina trailer. "I’m a girl from a cotton field. I pulled myself above what was not taught to me.”