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Agence France-Presse

Tina Turner is best known as a trailblazing rocker but Australia also remembered her on Thursday for her “unique” role in the history of rugby league in the country.
As tributes poured in from around the world to one of music’s biggest names, who died on Wednesday aged 83 in Switzerland, many Australians fondly recalled her influential love affair with the sport.
“She played a unique role in probably the most iconic sports marketing campaign in our history,” said National Rugby League chief executive Andrew Abdo.


“It was inspirational and it got people thinking about rugby league differently,” Abdo said. “The thing that made that campaign so successful was Tina – what a wonderful person she was.”
Australian rugby league is now massively popular and a business behemoth, but it was a different story in the late 1980s, when it was derided by some as working-class and macho.
The sport’s top brass decided it needed a revamp to attract a new audience, particularly women and families, and that is where the American “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” came in.

Then-general manager John Quayle’s assistant happened to be friends with Roger Davies, an Australian rugby league fan living in America and Turner’s manager.
It led to her hit, What You Get Is What You See, being used in a risqué 1989 marketing campaign featuring montages of sometimes shirtless players on the beach and the pitch as Turner belted out the song.
“There was a lot of opposition to it because we were using at the time – and it was stated – ‘a black American grandmother’ to promote the game of rugby league and that was very controversial,” Quayle told national broadcaster ABC on Thursday.
“It was controversial until such time that people heard it. And when they heard it and people saw that commercial, they acknowledged across the nation that it was one of the greatest sporting advertisements ever.”

An overwhelming success, it was quickly followed with another promo featuring her power ballad Simply The Best, which is credited with sending rugby league to unprecedented levels of popularity in Australia.
In an even bigger coup, Turner was then brought to Australia to perform live at the 1993 grand final in Sydney, joining the celebrations at full-time to entrench herself into rugby league folklore.
Quayle recounted that although Turner knew “nothing” about the sport initially, she “warmed to it”.
“She loved the players. She understood after a little while how fit they were, how good looking they were,” he said.
The [1993] grand final was my first rugby league game and I’ve never forgotten it
Tina Turner
“Simply The Best” was reused ahead of the 2020 season, with Turner saying she was “thrilled”.
“Thirty years on, to see the song being celebrated and the campaign relaunched is very humbling,” ABC cited her as saying then.
“The [1993] grand final was my first rugby league game and I’ve never forgotten it.”


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Australia

Tina Turner remembered for ‘unique’ part in Australian rugby league

Tina Turner was the face of the rugby league, Daily Mirror March 1990.

Tina Turner attends a press conference to promote the Australian Rugby League with Wayne Pearce and Mario French in January 1990. Photo: Getty Images

Tina Turner was the face of Australia’s rugby league and appeared on the cover of the Daily Mirror March 1990. Photo: SCMP

Tina Turner filming of the Simply the Best advertising campaign for the 1990 Rugby League season with players (L-R), Allan Langer, Andrew Ettingshausen, and Wayne Pearce. Photo: Peter Muhlbock/Rugby League

Tina Turner, legendary superstar and queen of rock ’n’ roll, dead at 83

Tina Turner performs in Moscow in November 1996. Photo: Reuters

Beyoncé and Tina Turner perform at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in February 2008. Photo: Reuters

Mick Jagger and Tina Turner at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in New York in January 1989. Photo: Reuters

Tina Turner shakes hands with Britain’s Queen Elizabeth following the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in November 1989. Photo: PA Wire/dpa

Tina Turner’s life story from her point of view: Tina documentary makers on how they see their biopic of the legendary singer

Tina Turner performs on stage in 1976. The HBO documentary Tina explores the extraordinary life of the iconic singer and the personal traumas she has overcome. Photo: AP

Turner opens up about her most private thoughts and fears in the HBO documentary Tina. Photo: DPA

Turner performing in 1973, from the HBO documentary Tina. Photo: AP

Turner (centre) performs at the POPB stadium in Paris, France in 2009. Photo: AFP

Turner in a scene from the documentary Tina. Photo: AP

Tina (centre) premiered on HBO Max on Saturday, March 27. Photo: AP

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2021: Tina Turner, Kate Bush, Mary J. Blige and Carole King among record 7 women artist nominees

US singer Tina Turner was one of a record seven female acts nominated for the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Photo: AFP

US singer Mary J. Blige performs during a Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway. She is among seven female acts nominated in 2021 for a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Photo: AFP

Carole King was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 as a songwriter, and is nominated this year in the performance category. Photo: RD/Kabik/Retna Ltd/Corbis

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The late singer is credited with sending rugby league to unprecedented levels of popularity in Australia for her part in the sports ‘most iconic’ marketing campaign
The idea of ‘a black American grandmother’ promoting the game of rugby league originally received a lot of opposition


The late singer is credited with sending rugby league to unprecedented levels of popularity in Australia for her part in the sports ‘most iconic’ marketing campaign.


Tina Turner remembered for ‘unique’ part in Australian rugby league

The late singer is credited with sending rugby league to unprecedented levels of popularity in Australia for her part in the sports ‘most iconic’ marketing campaign The idea of ‘a black American grandmother’ promoting the game of rugby league originally received a lot of opposition

The late singer is credited with sending rugby league to unprecedented levels of popularity in Australia for her part in the sports ‘most iconic’ marketing campaign

The idea of ‘a black American grandmother’ promoting the game of rugby league originally received a lot of opposition