It was Saturday, January 10, 1988. Tina Turner would make their first (of only two) appearances in Brazil, bringing the show “Break Every Rule World Tour” to the Pacaembu Stadium, in São Paulo. The tour had started in March of the previous year in Germany. It passed through all continents. No one dreamed that Brazil was on the script.
I remember how excited I was when I found out that she would be coming to perform in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (which entered the Book of Records as the concert by a female artist with the biggest audience in history… 180,000 spectators). And… Until that moment, Jorge Marcelo Oliveira suffered from having a ticket, not knowing anyone who would go, much less not knowing what to do. Anyone who knows me today may find it strange, but I was a shy, lonely young man who suffered from a very oppressive mother.
That Saturday morning, I decided to go to my friend Elaine’s apartment in the ‘Joga Chave’ building on Rua Conceição, in the center of Campinas. She knew my sadness. Her boyfriend Guilherme bought Folha de S. Paulo and the show was on the cover of the Ilustrada section. He passed the newspaper to me. I devoured it and the section ‘tickets are still available’ caught my attention. I closed the newspaper and said:
“I’m going to the show”.
Both were surprised. I said goodbye to the duo and went to my house. When I arrive, I inform my mother of my decision. Of course she put all the negatives, like
“Like this?”
“Are you going alone?”
“Are you taking the bus?”
“Don’t you have any friends to go with you?”
“Why don’t you call ‘I don’t know who’ to come with you?”
“São Paulo is very dangerous!”
“And you never went to the stadium?”
I wasn’t surprised by his reaction. I knew you wouldn’t support me. However, without paying attention to any of his questions, I went to take a shower, chose an outfit, put my backpack on my back. I said something like this:
“Don’t worry! I go alone! And I’m going to see the show! A kiss and goodbye!”
I believe it was one of the first times in my sweet, confused 20s that I was sure what I was going to do. I took a bus to the bus station. I bought tickets and got on the ‘Cometão’.
At the São Paulo bus station I went to the information desk. I asked how I would get to the stadium. Pessoa explains that he would have to take the subway to Avenida Paulista and a bus. I asked if I could go without taking the bus. Pessoa said yes, but he would have to walk a lot.
In the middle of Avenida Paulista, the rain fell mercilessly. I asked a newsboy how he got to the stadium. He said it was better to take a bus. He said he wanted to walk. He explained the way and off I went.
I just checked it on Google Maps: 35 minutes. However, I must have taken a little longer, because I really didn’t know anything about the path. Follow firm and strong.
I arrived. I looked for the box office. In line, a guy approached me. She explains that a friend has given up and that she would sell me the ticket to the lawn at the original price. I was suspicious of the honesty of the good guy, but I bought it.
Yes, it was original. After a long queue, I entered. It was the first time he stepped into a football stadium. The size of the place was impressive. I walked as close to the railing as possible. It was already crowded and I could only get very far away. The rain lessened but continued.
I was on my feet for hours. I managed to leave to go pee and tried to go back to the same spot. Impossible. I stayed further. The rain stopped. Not a drop. Night came on, as well as the stadium lights. The smell of marijuana was overwhelming.
Suddenly the lights went out. People started screaming and my body was thrown forward.
With the first chords, I was already well ahead. When Tina Turner walked onstage, I was pushed again. I was within possible distance of seeing it in detail.
It was an indescribable emotion. His vocal power… His timbre… His rhythm… His magnetic personality… His charisma… His affection for the public… His wigs… His legs… He could repeat the possessive pronouns 200 times, which would be little to explain the impact of that on a 20-year-old resident from a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo.
It was almost two hours of frantic emotions that it took me years to forget. In fact, being very precise… I believe that Madonna’s concert in São Paulo in October 1993 also made a big impact on me. However, they were different feelings. They are completely different artists. Madonna is a performance artist, her concerts are theatrical shows, with many scenic elements, a huge number of dancers… Choreographies… I loved it too… But… Tina Turner was something else! She was a singer. In the most exact definition of the word.
Tina died this Wednesday, May 24. She was 83 years old. She had been battling bowel cancer for years. Few people knew that she was sick. She was very discreet about it.
Her last images showed that she was strange. She was always skinny, however, she was puffy. He didn’t know what she had, but he was sure it wasn’t something good.
Anyway… An icon died. Nobody will replace her. There won’t be a ‘new Tina Turner’. Maybe Beyoncé is the closest we have. However, she is not Anna Mae Bullock!