St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Music Director Stéphane Denève had a request when he greeted the audience at Powell Hall for Eternal: A Tribute to Tina Turner Sunday night. “Make yourselves at home.”
“The symphony is for everyone,” Denève said. “So feel free to clap, to dance, to stand up — to party like Tina Turner would have wanted.”
To say the crowd obliged would be an understatement.
By the third bar of “Better Be Good to Me,” which opened the concert, the audience made it clear they came ready to celebrate. By night’s end, a gentleman named Joe danced like his pants were on fire when Tamika Lawrence tore into Turner’s version of “Disco Inferno.” When Kennedy Holmes turned her microphone toward the crowd, they belted “What’s Love Got to Do With It” like a choir of superfans. And Lawrence used the conductor’s stand as a prop for a sultry, theatrical “Private Dancer.”
Turner would have been beyond pleased with the nearly sold‑out crowd’s response to the orchestral spin on her classics.
Organized by St. Louis City SC and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra — and presented by Purina as part of the launch of City SC’s Turner‑inspired kit — the concert featured guest soloists who understood the assignment. They didn’t just sing Tina Turner songs. They honored her.
“Thank you for being here and making more history for St. Louis,” said Lee Broughton, Chief Brand Architect for St. Louis City SC. “I think this is a first for a sports team: honoring a female icon on a shirt. But then to have one of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras perform her oeuvre — that’s just plain swagger.”
SLSO musicians personified that swagger in their Turner‑inspired kits and adidas kicks. Just as Turner became the first Black woman and first female solo artist to grace the cover of Rolling Stone, she is now the first female artist to appear on an adidas kit.
“Tina Turner found herself in St. Louis — and it is where she became the powerhouse the world grew to love,” Broughton said. “It was that resilience, triumph, and aspirational belief system that we are channeling together now.”
That spirit resonated throughout the newly restored Powell Hall, now wrapped around the all‑new Jack C. Taylor Music Center.
“My grandfather Jack Taylor always said, ‘Every world‑class city should have a world‑class symphony orchestra,’” said Carolyn Kindle, President and CEO of St. Louis City SC. “As a result of his leadership, we as a family have spent time, treasure, and talent into helping do just that — and ensuring they have a world‑class home to play in.”
Sunday night, SLSO shared that home with fans of the icon St. Louis and East St. Louis built.
What made the night extraordinary was that the guest soloists weren’t simply hired voices. They were Turner disciples.
Scott Coulter told the audience he bought Turner’s autobiography I, Tina with money he earned cutting lawns. He brought the book onstage, placing it atop the piano where John Boswell played all evening.
“It has lived with me — from my parents’ home, to my dorm room, to my first apartment, to my current home in New York,” Coulter said. “It tells an extraordinary story — about a young artist, a dreamer — who faced trials and tribulations but overcame them all to become a survivor and an icon. That is a story worth celebrating.”
With Denève and Anthony Parnther sharing conducting duties, the celebration was full and fierce.
Throughout the night, the orchestra didn’t just accompany the vocalists — it expanded Turner’s catalog into something symphonic, cinematic, and spiritually charged. “The Best” became a showpiece for the ensemble’s power: the strings soared with sweeping, film‑score intensity, the horns punched through the chorus with arena‑level force, and the saxophone solo landed like pure chef’s kiss — the kind of phrasing that made the entire hall vibrate.
On “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” Holmes’ vocals floated over an arrangement shaped with orchestral eloquence. The woodwinds breathed through the melody with jazz‑like nuance, the strings carried long, expressive legato lines, and the rhythm section laid down a subtle but steady pulse that gave the ballad its emotional backbone. It was Turner’s vulnerability refracted through orchestral color.
And when Shaleah Adkisson delivered a restrained, “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” the orchestra rose around her like a cathedral. Adkisson, Lawrence, and Coulter carried most of the program, with Holmes and Grammy‑winner Brittany Howard serving as special guests.
After Denève introduced Howard as “a voice that transcends every boundary,” she shared a story about her first lesson on Tina Turner. Howard first saw Turner on a wood‑framed TV console as a five-year-old child.
“There was this woman on the screen. She was flinging her hair. She was stomping her legs,” Howard said. “I said, who is that? My mom said, that’s Tina Turner. You know her legs are insured. I still don’t know if that’s true.”
If Turner’s legs were insured, Lawrence’s knees and hips should be too. She twisted, squatted, hit the floor, and worked the stage with a ferocity that felt like a spiritual inheritance.
When she asked the audience how they were feeling, a man shouted, “We are all missing Tina.”
“We are missing Tina,” Lawrence replied. “But I feel like she’s in the room right now — because it feels extra tingly and extra electric.”
She channeled that electricity into Turner’s cover of “Respect,” honoring both Turner and Aretha Franklin.
“Mother Tina’s version must have been good, because Mother Aretha never said anything bad about it,” Lawrence said. “Mother Michelle (Obama) said, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ Mother Aretha said, ‘When they go low, take it to the flo’.”
Her hips caught every beat before she belted, “What you want, baby, I got it…”
The crowd leapt to its feet — one of many standing ovations throughout the night.
Adkisson’s “Let’s Stay Together,” Holmes’ “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” and the finale — a reprise of “The Best” with Howard returning to the stage — brought the night home.
Living It content is produced with funding by the ARPA for the Arts grants program in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis and the Community Development Administration.
