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Tina Turner once sang the tune “We Don’t Need Another Hero” for the 1985 film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome which she also starred in, and in 2021 she’s channeling that energy once again towards a German-based tribute performer for looking way too much like the one and only Queen Of Rock ‘N’ Roll.

Tribute acts are far from a new form of entertainment, with many performers making a sizable living by impersonating music icons like Elvis Presley and most notably Michael Jackson. However, Turner says a woman performing as her named Dorothea “Coco” Fletcher may be confusing fans based off her uncanny resemblance while performing on the German two-hour stage play Simply The Best – Die Tina Turner Story. As a result, the OG “Proud Mary” singer is suing Fletcher’s representative agency, Cofo Entertainment.

Take a look at some more backstory on the longstanding lawsuit below, via Daily Mail:

“Turner first filed suit against the company – based in Bavaria – last year when posters for Simply The Best were released.

Her legal team scored an initial victory after a court in Cologne ruled the posters could indeed be misleading to punters, The Times reports.

But the posters were re-designed and Turner lost a follow-up case at the Cologne Court of Appeals, which ruled that the risk of confusion among the public did not outweigh Fletcher’s right of artistic expression.

The case has now reached the Federal Court of Justice, which held its first hearing on the matter last week.”

Cofo Ent.’s lawyer, Brunhilde Ackermann, says that not only would attending fans expect a Tina Turner tribute act to look like, well, Tina Turner, but that anyone who would actually confused 30-something Fletcher with the real 81-year-old Turner would be a “chronically stupid person who looks at everything superficially.”

While presiding Judge Thomas Koch isn’t set to make a final ruling in the case until February 2022, he did question whether or not Tina Turner’s lawsuit was derived from her support of another tribute act she deems as more official.

Do you think Miss Turner deserved to have complete control over who is allowed to use her likeness, or should she just take the tribute as a compliment? Let us know what you think, but in the meantime check out a classic performance from the real Tina of a song that ironically plays to this situation perfectly:

 

Show Some Respect: Tina Turner Sues German Tribute Act For Looking Too Similar  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com