"As much as you expect it, it's still hard. It's going to be tough for everybody. It is irreplaceable." Jackie Lombard learned on Wednesday evening of the disappearance of Tina Turner by her relatives in Switzerland. The show producer, who lives between Paris and Los Angeles, has organized every French tour of the superstar since her solo premiere in 1987. The latter's illness had distanced them for a few years, but she does not forget anything of their two decades of collaboration.
What memories do you have of Tina Turner?
JACKIE LOMBARD. A lot. We did so many shows together between 1987 and 2009! The first that comes to mind is his farewell to Bercy in 2009. She had done a France Stadium in 2000, which was supposed to be the last concert in France, but she came back in 2009 and she was in incredible shape. It was magical! She was still running in stilettos on the catwalk above the audience! I also keep the image of her in 1990 at the Palace of Versailles. We had installed a bleacher in the Swiss pond but there were huge showers and the ground had collapsed. We had emptied the stand, the VIPs with their feet in the slush and she had still insisted on singing in the rain, in front of the empty stand. She was like that, Tina.
VIDEO. Singer Tina Turner has died at the age of 83
On stage, was it the best for you?
It was crazy, this woman! I will never forget the show she did with sciatica that made her suffer martyrdom. She gave everything on stage but she never went up without her fetish white pearl necklace. Once she had forgotten it and we were afraid that she would not do her concert. It was the wife of Roger Davis (one of his two world producers) who had lent him hers. After the end of Ike and Tina Turner, it was Roger who revived Tina's career and made her a solo star. We see it in the biopic "Tina". During her shows at Bercy in 1996, she had taken in the first part a certain Bruce Willis, who was an absolute fan of her. They even did a duet. But Willis' voice had only lasted the first two nights. He had to cancel the last one.
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What was she like behind the scenes?
Of a rare simplicity, always elegant and available to everyone. When I think of her, I see a concert she gave in Lyon, at the Halle Tony-Garnier. She had arrived cross-legged, with a charming little vest, and had agreed to do an interview outside, cool, on a chair. She loved the France and the France reciprocated.