Tina Turner has an amazing voice and knows how to put on a powerhouse performance. And recently, Turner provided her talents to a spiritual album.

Awakening the world

“Awakening Beyond”, which was released November 24, 2017, is a musical project that embraces spiritual insights from around the world. The album is the fourth album from the Beyond Foundation, a non-profit that supports causes that unite cultures worldwide. So, in that vein, “Awakening Beyond” features the voices of women from six different backgrounds and traditions. Those histories include the United States, Israel, Syria, Nepal, Switzerland, and India.

The album creators hope “Awakening Beyond” will spark worldwide spiritual transformation via diverse women’s voices.

Tina Turner brings the power

One of the voices on “Awakening Beyond” belongs to Tina Turner — yes, that Tina Turner. Turner and Regula Curti—Curti and her husband founded the Beyond Foundation in 2007—were brought together because of their mutual love of music, healing, and spiritual change.

“Turner feels equally strongly that it’s time for us to all move beyond the division, into greater spiritual connection and mutual recognition,” reports the Beyond Foundation.

“I’ve had bad times, as we all have, though I hope it doesn’t show,” says Turner. “But now the good times are here and I’ve made the decision to go beyond and I would like to take as many people with me as possible.”

“When we pray, we’re all sending it in the same direction,” Turner adds. “I believe that that fusion can help change the world.”

Getting spiritual

Many of the songs on “Awakening Beyond” are energetic and uplifting. However, other tracks—most notably the album’s last song—are serene.

“Music can work wonders,” says Sawani Shende Sathaye, one of the other vocalists on the album. “It has meditative values and it can bring peace to those in trouble or in illness.”

In addition to featuring flawless female voices, “Awakening Beyond” also features an orchestral score composed by Syrian-American composer Kareem Roustom. The Philharmonia London Orchestra performs the score.

“Awakening Beyond” also features the voices of Regula Curti, Ani Choying, Dima Orsho, and Mor Karbasi.

Related on EcoSalon
What Your Favorite Music Says About You, According to Science
Women on Film: Ike, Tina and The Realities of Domestic Violence
Sex and Intimacy: What’s Love Got To Do With It? Sexual Healing

The post Tina Turner’s Latest Collaboration is Full of Female Power appeared first on EcoSalon.

What will it take to make people understand the horror of domestic violence?

In the current cultural wars, the assault on women’s rights is escalating. Republican candidate Rick Santorum wants to give states the right to make birth control illegal. Virginia’s Bob McDonnell wants mandatory vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions. Singer Chris Brown continues to make a mockery of domestic violence victims, shouting a big “huzzah” when society tries to reprimand him for making girlfriend Rihanna’s face look like tenderized meat.

For Chris Brown, the message is clear – if you’re charming or talented enough, you can get away with whatever you want. He has unabashedly refused to NOT behave like a spoiled brat. Legions of fans continue to support him, like @shamoox18 who dreamily tweeted “Not gonna lie…I think I’d let Chris Brown beat me. #sosexy #lovehim #awkwardtweet #dontevencare.” Rihanna herself is now collaborating with Chris Brown. Twitter’s #teambreezy is on top.

So maybe it’s time we remind ourselves what domestic violence really looks like.

Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett give us a chilling depiction of domestic violence as Ike and Tina Turner in 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do with It? The film depicts the rise of Tina Turner, who went from small-town singer to star alongside husband Ike. She finally left their abusive marriage in 1976 after suffering a beating – depicted here – while in Dallas for a performance. After their 1977 divorce, Tina Turner walked away virtually penniless but retained the right to use her stage name. In the 1980s, Turner’s career launched into superstardom, shuttling the singer farther away from her abused past.

But just what was life like for Tina? Bassett described her performance as “a car going from zero to 60 in ten seconds.” As she wrote in her autobiography, Friends: A Love Story, while filming “you had to turn on a dime, from peaceful and serene, everything’s okay to – Pow! – getting the crap beat out of you. From calm to where you’re fighting, scared for your life.”

This is terrifying, until you remember that Bassett is merely describing acting in a scene. Important to note is that this life is a reality for the 4.8 million American women who are raped and battered each year. Are we a culture that celebrates punk cowards like Chris Brown and Team Breezy so easily? That places women’s health and lives above our own political beliefs?

The post Women on Film: Ike, Tina and The Realities of Domestic Violence appeared first on EcoSalon.