How Tina Turner became the unlikely Queen of Rugby League

Thanks to her unparalleled career in music Tina Turner was known as universally as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”. However, Nutbush’s finest earned herself a new title in late 80s and early 90s thanks to her role in Australian sport.

In one of the most surprising career crossovers, Turner became an iconic figure in Australian rugby league earning her the title of the “Queen of Rugby League” – adding to her late stage career peak, especially down under. Let’s take a look at how a grandmother from rural Tenesse changed the fortunes of Australian rugby league.

Image Credit: YouTube @FoxLeague

Tina Turner’s rollercoaster career goes all the way back to the mid-1950s when she played with her future husband Ike Turner’s band, the Kings of Rhythm. By 1960, she would be known worldwide as Tina Turner on her first real hit, 'A Fool In Love'. She’d enjoy many more over the coming decades, 'Nutbush City Limits, River Deep, Mountain High, and What’s Love Got To Do With it, to name a few.

Fast forward to 1988, we find Tina Turner, who despite having been in the business for almost 30 years, enjoying a new career peak, having scored her first number one single with 'What’s Love Got To Do With It' just a few years earlier.

The game of rugby league, the 13-man, limited tackle version of rugby, was in a less impressive state though, and New South Wales Rugby League (NSWRL) bosses John Quayle and Ken Arthurson felt the game needed to do something radical to improve its image, particularly with women who were put off by the rough nature of the sport. 

A chance encounter between Quayle and Tina Turner’s Australian manager at an airport threw out the perfect opportunity to re-brand the Winfield Cup with a more female-friendly image, and the NSWRL heads moved fast to make a formal pitch to the US icon to become the face of the next competition.

Farfetched on paper as Turner had never even heard of the sport, predominantly played in the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales, and it seemingly had little in common with the US pop star, who by this stage was also a grandmother.  

Pundits at the time also struggled to get their heads around the idea, and Quayle and Arthurson faced a lot of criticism for spending what was an enormous amount of advertisement money on what seemed like a bizarre marketing pitch.

Turner was curious though and warmed to idea, becoming the face of the 1989 campaign along with her hit 'What You Get Is What You See', which she filmed a promo for in the UK alongside Manly legend Cliff Lyons and Cronulla hardman Gavin Miller.

While the campaign did well, it would be the next year that things would really take off for Turner and the NSWRL, with the campaign for ‘The Best’. An instant hit that saw Turner in the gym with a host of the game’s biggest names, playing off each other.

'The cost involved was a bit of a risk, but it more than paid for itself with the impact the campaign had,' Ken Arthurson told the Daily Telegraph in the wake of Turner's death in May 2023.

'Tina, as big as she was, was a pleasure to deal with. Nobody could do anything but speak so highly of her. She was a professional to deal with and totally energetic and warm and bubbly," he said. 

'She took rugby league to another level. It was the most outstanding, successful sports marketing campaign I can remember. At that time, rugby league was the most dominant sport in Australia and she took it to another level.'

Balmain Tigers legend, Wayne Pearce who appeared in both the 1989 and 1990 ads, said the campaign helped make the game more popular with families.

“Those campaigns won worldwide acclaim, and they bring back some great memories,' Pearce told News Corp in 2023. 'It resonated with kids and women, and the popularity of rugby league was never greater due to those two campaigns.”

Turner would also have one of the most iconic grand final shows in the game’s history when she performed 'The Best' the Sydney Football Stadium in 1993 with the 42,000-strong crowd singing it right back to her. 

Turner’s involvement with the NSWRL would run from 1989 to 1995 when it became the ARL (Australian Rugby League), and this period is often regarded as a golden era for lifelong fans of the game.

In 2020, the NRL decided to pay homage to the 1990 campaign, this time using a rendition from one-time collaborator Jimmy Barnes. Tina Turner gave her blessing, saying: "Thirty years on, to see the song being celebrated and the campaign re-launched is very humbling. To this day I have very fond memories of the campaign and the grand final performance.”

Turner would pass away at home in Switzerland on 24 May 2023, at the age of 83, but would not be forgotten by the rugby league community she helped inspire 30 years ago.

At the 2023 Grand Final, the NRL paid tribute to Turner – 30 years on from her own iconic halftime show performance – with the cast of the Tina musical performing a medley of her hits, including ‘The Best’.

This time it was to a stadium of 82,000 people and 3.25 million at home. The game has definitely grown since 1989, and it’s fair to say Tina Turner had a special role in getting it to where it is now.