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 Mon
Jan 24, 4:29 PM ET
ANGELA PACIENZA
TORONTO (CP) - A fit looking Tina Turner brought her pipes and legs to the
city on Monday, launching a week-long promotional blitz for a new
compilation CD.
 The
65-year-old superstar, wearing tight pants and high heels, thrilled about
120 contest winners in a television studio audience, performing four songs
for a Canada AM segment airing Tuesday morning.
All the Best, a double-CD of new and old material spanning more than four
decades, marks a return to the limelight for Turner, who took time off
after a 2000 world tour dubbed her final outing.
She hinted Monday that she's contemplating doing a few shows here and
there, although she's wary about disappointing fans who recall the
vivacious, sexpot of the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
"I've had a good rest. I'm thinking about the possibility of getting
something together," she said using a fan to cool off after a sweaty set,
filled with plenty of her trademark shimmying.
"It's not easy to do a concert for me now because I don't want to do what
I did, and I don't want to be any less than what I was."
Between makeup touch-ups and three outfit changes, she had little time to
mingle with fans. She nodded here and there, but didn't sign any
autographs.
She also kept the banter to a minimum, chit-chatting about the snowstorm
outside.
"I love the weather. This is my first snow (of the year)," said the
well-traveled Turner, who lives near Zurich, Switzerland.
 She
also gushed about the loyalty of her Canadian fan base and singer Bryan
Adams, with whom she had a smash hit, It's Only Love. She said the two get
together "from time to time when he's in Switzerland."
The CTV appearance - during which she performed her 1980s mega-hit song
Private Dancer as well as her current single Open Arms - was her only one
open to fans while in Toronto.
Invitations were restricted to media, record store buyers and industry
executives for a cocktail reception later in the day at Caban, a trendy
furniture shop on Queen Street West.
Her limited time with the public didn't stop some "superfans" from trying
to get some face time with their idol.
Two members of the International Tina Turner Fan Club flew in for the CTV
taping, which lasted about a half-an-hour.
"We go everywhere Tina is," gushed Debbie Brown, a professor from Ithaca,
N.Y., who drove five hours through a snowstorm to get to Toronto in time.
"There's nobody like Tina. The woman sweats. She gives you everything."
At her side was a 33-year-old man who traveled from Hamburg, Germany.
Andreas Schroeder, a rabid fan who brought with him photos taken with
Turner outside her home, said the singer's ability to flip between her
private and public self is impressive.
"When you meet her she's quiet, but on stage she's screaming and
shouting," he said through broken English. "She's two persons - she's a
professional."
The duo plan to shadow Turner's movements this week. They will next fly to
Chicago for an Oprah taping on Tuesday, before traveling to New York for
Regis and Kelly, and The View.
The leggy star with the big, big voice arrived in Toronto on Saturday. She
spent time rehearsing with her backup dancers for the week's various high
profile TV shows.
Born Anna Mae Bullock, Turner started her career as a teenager in 1953.
Her marriage to bandleader and guitarist Ike Turner brought the couple
fame with duets like River Deep Mountain High, Proud Mary and Nutbush City
Limits.
She started her solo career in early 1980 after leaving her troubled
marriage, made public in the film What's Love Got To Do With It. |
