For most of the world, Tina Turner was the ultimate symbol of energy—legs that never stopped moving, a voice that could slice through arenas, and a presence that turned pain into performance. But toward the end of her tumultuous first career and the beginning of her true transformation, she turned inward. And in that silence, she found something more powerful than applause: she found Buddhism.
Tina’s introduction to Buddhism didn’t come from a mountaintop or a spiritual retreat. It began in the middle of chaos. At the height of her personal suffering in the late 1970s, still trapped in an abusive relationship with Ike Turner, a friend handed her a phrase to chant: Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. She didn’t know what it meant. But she was desperate.
She tried it—quietly, awkwardly, then persistently. And something began to shift.
The chant, central to Nichiren Buddhism, emphasizes the power of individual inner strength and the belief that every person has the ability to overcome suffering. For Tina, it became a life raft. “It helped me hold on when everything around me was crumbling,” she later said.
When Tina finally left Ike in 1976, she didn’t just walk away from a man—she walked toward a spiritual path that would sustain her for the rest of her life. While rebuilding her career, often sleeping on friends’ couches and performing in small clubs, she continued chanting. The rhythm of those words became the heartbeat beneath her comeback.
As she re-emerged in the 1980s with Private Dancer and “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” her voice carried not just power, but peace. Buddhism didn’t make her less fierce—it made her more grounded. She credited her practice with helping her navigate the music industry, protect her boundaries, and make decisions rooted in self-respect.
Tina never kept her spiritual journey a secret. She openly spoke about chanting, meditation, and inner work. In 2010, she even released an album of Buddhist and Christian spiritual music with Dechen Shak-Dagsay and Regula Curti called Beyond. It was a far cry from “Proud Mary,” but no less passionate.
The most touching part of her spiritual life was how fully she embraced it. In interviews, she spoke often about karma, rebirth, and compassion. In her Swiss home, she created a dedicated space for daily practice, surrounded by statues, scrolls, and incense. Meditation was not a performance—it was her refuge.
But Tina’s spiritual journey wasn’t about escaping pain. It was about transforming it. Buddhism didn’t take away her past—but it gave her a way to hold it without letting it break her.
In her later years, after serious health struggles and the loss of her son Craig, Tina didn’t turn bitter. She turned inward. Her final public appearances showed a woman calm, clear-eyed, and radiant in a different way. She no longer needed to prove her power. She had found something deeper.
When she passed away in 2023, tributes focused on her strength and stardom. But those close to her knew that her truest victory wasn’t topping the charts—it was achieving peace.
Tina Turner’s voice once shook the walls of stadiums. But it was in quiet chanting, not roaring crowds, where she truly found herself.