Nutbush · St Louis · London · Rio

Tina TurnerStripped back to one voice, 1939–2023

Tina Turner laughing on stage in a short fringed dress, in black and white — Hamburg, 1972. Heinrich Klaffs · CC BY-SA 2.0

Tina Turner laughing under a huge spiky blonde-brown wig, in a sequinned top — Los Angeles, 1985. Iris Schneider, Los Angeles Times · CC BY 4.0

Tina Turner seated with a microphone, her wig loose and wild, in a black top — Break Every Rule, 1986. HBO · Public domain

Tap a year to part the fringe.

A one-room school in Nutbush, a club across the river from St Louis, a London studio where a crowded mix was pulled back until only her voice stood up, and the biggest paying crowd a solo singer had drawn. Part the curtain, then go and stand there.

121 Sunny Hill Cove, Brownsville, Tennessee · 1940s

Lift the lids.

Anna Mae Bullock, later Tina Turner, went to this one-room schoolhouse. Her great-uncle built it in 1889.

It was saved and moved from Nutbush, a small farming community just outside Brownsville, to the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center. The museum opened inside the renovated school in 2014.

A glittering copper sequinned top in a glass case above a hand-painted Welcome to Nutbush sign — A sequinned stage top and a Nutbush sign on show at the Heritage Center, 2012. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0

A framed photograph of Tina Turner in white beside a record on a museum wall — A Tina Turner display at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, Brownsville, 2012. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0

An old wooden school bench in a shaft of light on worn floorboards — Inside Flagg Grove School at the Heritage Center, during its restoration in 2013. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0

Three desks from the one-room school. Lift a lid.

The room keeps an authentic chalkboard and the original desks and benches, and shows what school was like for African-American children from the 1940s to the early 1960s. As you go round you also see her last concert.

Open Monday to Saturday 9am–5pm and Sunday 1–5pm; closed Easter Sunday, 4 July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. Off I-40 at Exit 56.

Sources

West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center

Tina Turner Museum

121 Sunny Hill Cove, Brownsville, Tennessee

Her one-room school from Nutbush, moved to Brownsville, with her costumes, gold records and yearbook inside.

Mon–Sat 9am–5pm · Sun 1–5pm

Plan a visit

A green Nutbush road sign beside a straight two-lane road through flat fields — The Nutbush sign on State Route 19, 2004. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY-SA 3.0

2002

Nutbush and the Tina Turner Highway

Nutbush, in Haywood County, was her childhood home. She was born in nearby Brownsville on 26 November 1939.

Her 1973 song Nutbush City Limits is about the town. She sang in the choirs of the family churches, Woodlawn and Spring Hill Baptist. People dance a line dance, the Nutbush, to the song.

A farming community on a public road. Drive Route 19 from Brownsville; stop only where it is safe to pull off.

Sources

Route 19

Tina Turner Highway

In 2002 the stretch of State Route 19 between Brownsville and Nutbush was officially named Tina Turner Highway.

A brick Welcome to Brownsville sign in a planted bed — Brownsville’s welcome sign, 2012. The statue stands in Heritage Park in the town. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0

27 September 2025

Tina Turner statue, Heritage Park

A bronze statue of her was unveiled in a Brownsville park on Saturday 27 September 2025, during the annual Tina Turner Heritage Days.

The sculptor was Fred Ajanogha. The figure is 7 feet 9 inches tall on a 2-foot base, cast by a West Tennessee foundry. It stands in Brownsville Heritage Park, a short distance from Carver High School, which she attended. Ford gave $150,000 towards it.

A public park in Brownsville, a short walk from Carver High School. Free, any time.

Sources

St Louis and East St Louis · the 1950s

Cross the river.

She was 16 when she arrived in St Louis. She moved to St Louis as a teenager and graduated from Sumner in 1958, as Anna Mae Bullock.

School at Sumner, in the Ville.

Tina Turner in close-up with long dark hair, in black and white — Tina Turner in 1971, thirteen years after Sumner. Rob Mieremet, Anefo · CC0

A long red-brick school with a cupola behind a playing field — Sumner High School in the Ville, St Louis, 2012. Paul Sableman · CC BY 2.0

1958

Sumner High School

Sumner opened in 1875, the first high school west of the Mississippi to give diplomas to Black students.

Chuck Berry graduated from Sumner in 1944, a decade before her; the opera singer Grace Bumbry also started here. It has anchored the Ville for nearly 150 years. In the mid-20th century it had more than 2,000 pupils; in recent years about 200.

A working public school. Look from the street; do not go in.

Sources

The arches of the Eads Bridge across a wide river from a riverside park — East St Louis, looking across the Mississippi at the Eads Bridge, 2023. The club is not marked. w_lemay · CC BY-SA 2.0

1950s

Club Manhattan

With her older sister Alline she got into Club Manhattan on the east side of the river, where Ike Turner’s band was the house band.

Before long the teenager was on stage with the band, and soon she became Tina Turner. There were music clubs on both sides of the river; East St Louis was described as a wide-open town.

Tina Turner singing in a yellow fringed dress beside Ike Turner in white with a guitar — The Ike & Tina Turner Revue in Hamburg, November 1972. Heinrich Klaffs · CC BY-SA 2.0

Club Manhattan is not marked. Stand on the East St Louis riverfront and look back across the Mississippi to St Louis.

Sources

A brass star set into a pavement with a bronze plaque below it — Her star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, Delmar Boulevard, 2018. Devryjones · CC0

Delmar Boulevard, the Delmar Loop, University City, Missouri

A star on Delmar.

Each person honoured gets a star and an engraved plaque. Hers is among them.

The local entrepreneur Joe Edwards dreamed up the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1988; it runs along the Delmar Loop. The Loop lies partly in St Louis and partly in University City.

Set into the pavement on Delmar Boulevard. Free, any time.

Sources

Moonrise Hotel

6177 Delmar Boulevard, St Louis

A hotel in the middle of the Delmar Loop, on the same boulevard as her star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Check rates

Sharpleshall Street, Primrose Hill, London · 1984

Back it off.

In 1984, over a few weekends, Terry Britten produced What’s Love Got to Do with It here, with John Hudson engineering. Britten wrote it with Graham Lyle.

The finished mix filled up with Fairlight strings, percussion, Tessa Niles’s backing vocals, real drums and a harmonica part on a DX7.

Fairlight strings

Percussion

Tessa Niles backing vocals

Real drums

DX7 harmonica

Linn drum

Guide bass

Damped guitars

Synth harmonica

Lead vocal

Too much in the mix. Pull the overdubs down.

A row of white-stuccoed Victorian houses on a quiet London street — Sharpleshall Street, Primrose Hill, April 2026. No Swan So Fine · CC BY-SA 4.0

Mayfair moved to Sharpleshall Street in Primrose Hill and closed in December 2008.

The studio closed in 2008. Walk Sharpleshall Street; the building is not marked.

Sources

Hollywood and Chicago · 1984

Two tapes in the vault.

Both were recorded in the year she came back. Open a box to see when they came out.

The round Capitol Records tower with its stacked curved awnings against blue sky — The Capitol Records Tower, 1750 Vine Street, Hollywood, 2019. Codera23 · CC BY-SA 4.0

1750 Vine Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles

Capitol Studios

Hot for You Baby was recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood and was meant as a Private Dancer album track.

Box closed.

A working studio. See the tower from Vine Street; the studios are not open to visitors.

Sources

A brick corner block on a Chicago avenue with shops and traffic lights — Armitage Avenue at Halsted Street, Lincoln Park, 2013. Park West is further east on the same avenue. Thshriver · CC BY-SA 3.0

322 West Armitage Avenue, Chicago

Park West

Her World Tour ’84 show here on 2 August 1984 was recorded, and came out on the 2025 Private Dancer set.

Box closed.

A working concert hall. Go in with a ticket to a show.

Sources

Two boxes, both dated 1984.

Marston Green, Solihull, near Birmingham · 23–24 March 1985

Bring on the guests.

Tina

Two nights, one stage. Bring a guest on.

Her Private Dancer Tour film was shot here over two nights, 23 and 24 March 1985.

A bright atrium under a glass roof with signs to the halls — The NEC, Birmingham, March 2026. Philip Halling · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Queen opened the NEC in 1976. Its arena, the seventh hall, opened in December 1980 and is now branded bp pulse LIVE.

The arena is now bp pulse LIVE, beside Birmingham International station. Go to a concert.

Sources

Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush Bay, Sydney · 1985

The same year, Bartertown.

A flooded quarry pit with a circular walkway on stilts around its rim — The old brick pit at Homebush Bay, with the Ring Walk around it, 2007. J Bar · CC BY 3.0

In Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) she plays Aunty Entity, the ruler of Bartertown.

The Bartertown set was built in the old brickworks, the Brickpit, at Homebush Bay. She sang the film’s songs too: We Don’t Need Another Hero reached No. 2 in the US and No. 3 in Britain.

A curved elevated walkway lined with panels in every colour — The Brickpit Ring Walk, Sydney Olympic Park, 2007. aussiegall · CC BY 2.0

The ring walk, by Durbach Block Architects, opened in 2005. It runs 550 metres, 18.5 metres above the pit floor. The pit is now home to the green and golden bell frog.

A free elevated walkway in Sydney Olympic Park. Park off Marjorie Jackson Parkway or come by train to Olympic Park.

Sources

Printed Originals · Our poster store

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (French)

An original French petite poster for the film in which she rules Bartertown. 15.7 × 21.7 in, rolled, mint.

In stock

View poster

Avenida Rei Pelé, Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro · 16 January 1988

Fill the Maracanã.

An empty bowl, 16 January 1988.

On 16 January 1988 she played the Maracanã on the Break Every Rule tour.

An aerial view of a round white-roofed stadium in a city — The Maracanã from the air after its rebuilding, June 2013. Brazilian Government · CC BY 3.0 BR

The stadium opened in 1950. After later rebuilding it holds 73,139.

A working football stadium, rebuilt since 1988. See a match, or check the official stadium tour before you go.

Sources

Viator · Ad / affiliate

Maracanã stadium tours

Rio de Janeiro

Live marketplace results for Maracanã visits in Rio. Check whether the stadium itself is included.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

A lakeside village of white houses below wooded hills, seen from the water — Küsnacht from Lake Zurich, 2024. Jules Verne Times Two · CC BY-SA 4.0

Küsnacht, on Lake Zurich, Switzerland · 1995

The lake.

She moved to Switzerland with her partner Erwin Bach in 1995.

In 2013, soon after they married, she became a Swiss citizen.

She died at home in Küsnacht, on the shore of Lake Zurich, in May 2023, aged 83. People came to the gates to light candles and leave messages.

Her home is private. See the village from the lake or the lakeside path; do not go to the house.

Sources

Visit

Where it is now

10 places you can visit. Club Manhattan and the Brownsville statue are named without a pin; her Küsnacht home is private.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open Monday to Saturday 9am–5pm and Sunday 1–5pm; closed Easter Sunday, 4 July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. Off I-40 at Exit 56.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A farming community on a public road. Drive Route 19 from Brownsville; stop only where it is safe to pull off.

A Tina Turner display at the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center, Brownsville, 2012. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0
121 Sunny Hill Cove, Brownsville, Tennessee
Tina Turner Museum at Flagg Grove School
Anna Mae Bullock, later Tina Turner, went to this one-room schoolhouse. Her great-uncle built it in 1889.
Open Monday to Saturday 9am–5pm and Sunday 1–5pm; closed Easter Sunday, 4 July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. Off I-40 at Exit 56.
Sources
The Nutbush sign on State Route 19, 2004. Thomas R Machnitzki · CC BY-SA 3.0
State Route 19, Nutbush, Haywood County, Tennessee
Nutbush and the Tina Turner Highway
Nutbush, in Haywood County, was her childhood home. She was born in nearby Brownsville on 26 November 1939.
A farming community on a public road. Drive Route 19 from Brownsville; stop only where it is safe to pull off.
Sources

Stay

Sleep on the Delmar Loop.

A hotel on the boulevard where her star is set in the pavement.

Moonrise Hotel

6177 Delmar Boulevard, St Louis

A hotel in the middle of the Delmar Loop, on the same boulevard as her star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Check rates

Go there