Kamala Harris wrote about how Tina Turner influenced her – News Block

“When I was a kid, my mom would play ‘Proud Mary’ over and over while I danced around our living room, belting out my toy microphone,” US Vice President Kamala Harris writes in a statement. lovely tribute to the queen of rock ‘n’ roll Tina Turner who died last month.

From Harris’ essay in Rolling Stone:

Many of (Turner’s) songs were rooted in freedom, individuality and self-determination, at a time when such concepts seemed out of reach for black female artists. But Tina Turner did more than just give voice to those values: she lived them. Onstage and off, she was unapologetically Tina. With her very presence representing an affront to the status quo, she stood tall and proud, showing the world that rock stars could look like her too, and reminding us of all the power of living as our true and authentic selves.

Tina Turner sacrificed a lot to be as successful as she was. Throughout her life, she endured racism, sexism, and domestic violence, experiences that no one should have to face. But she met those challenges head-on with courage and conviction. As she later put it, experiences that “could have broken me apart, instead became fuel for my journey, propelling me upwards.”

Turner was the first black artist to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.