Brownsville, Tennessee, wished to honour its most well-known daughter, Tina Turner, however it ended up turning into a meme as a substitute.
Over the weekend, a 10-foot bronze statue of Turner was unveiled in Heritage Park, situated close to her former excessive college.
The monument, designed by Atlanta-based sculptor Fred Ajanogha, was meant to seize the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll mid-performance: microphone in hand, hair wild, legs powering the type of strut that crammed arenas.
The mission was backed by Ford Motor Firm, which chipped in $150,000 (£118,000) by means of its Good Neighbor Plan.
‘We’re proud to help this statue locally the place Tina Turner’s journey started,’ Ford Neighborhood Relations Director Gabby Bruno mentioned.
However when the fabric got here off, followers weren’t precisely rolling on the river with pleasure. As an alternative, social media was flooded with feedback that veered between bewildered and brutal.
‘…is Tina Turner within the room with us??’ requested @basicbeach.
‘They don’t even care how they make our icons look any extra,’ groaned @LECKS_
Others didn’t maintain again, with @mistergeezy declaring the statue appeared like ‘Ronald McDonald with a shaggy wig.’
@HappyT1meHarry requested: ‘Who’s making these statues recently? Completely horrible.’ And @BCConservative questioned if Ford had been scammed: ‘Was it donated or FREE? I hope no person really paid cash for that!’
Even these making an attempt for diplomacy couldn’t resist a jab. ‘Phrases fail,’ wrote @jameszimmermann. ‘Nice artwork does that, leaves you speechless. So does an abomination like this.’
It’s not the primary time a star tribute has backfired. Cristiano Ronaldo’s airport bust nonetheless haunts Lisbon.
A statue of Lucille Ball in upstate New York was nicknamed ‘Scary Lucy’ till it was changed.
And who might neglect Liverpool’s eyebrow-raising likeness of Mo Salah that appeared extra like a Funko Pop than a Premier League star?
Tina Turner’s followers had hoped for one thing completely different for the icon.
Turner, who died in Might 2023 at age 83, survived an abusive marriage, reinvented herself within the ’80s with hits like What’s Love Obtained to Do With It, bought greater than 100 million information, and have become the blueprint for sheer resilience.
The Brownsville statue, in distinction, appears to have captured… none of that.
To be honest, public monuments are notoriously onerous to drag off. Bronze has a method of turning expressive faces into unusual caricatures, and a nonetheless determine hardly ever displays the vitality of somebody whose energy was all in motion.
However nonetheless, for followers who trekked again to Turner’s hometown to have a good time her, the likeness felt much less like an honour and extra like an insult.
Whether or not Brownsville doubles down on the statue or finally commissions a brand new one stays to be seen. For now, the consensus on-line is obvious: Tina Turner deserved higher than Ronald McDonald in a miniskirt.
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