A Tina Turner impersonator is being sued for looking too much like Tina

12 November 2021, 12:13

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Dorothea Fletcher tours Germany as Tina Turner with her Simply The Best show.

A Tina Turner tribute act is being sued for looking too much like Tina Turner.

US-born Dorothea Fletcher is based in Germany, where she sings Tina's hits with her Simply The Best show.

Of course, no-one is suggesting that anyone could mistake 30-something Dorothea with the 81-year-old Tina, who retired from performing back in 2009.

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But Tina's people think that the photo of Dorothea on her promo posters look so much like the younger Tina that people may think that the real thing has given her blessing to the tribute show.

Tina's people won the first ruling in a Cologne court that the posters could mislead fans, The Times reports, but after the promo images were redesigned Tina lost the follow-up case at the Cologne Court of Appeals.

That court weighed up Dorothea's right to artistic expression against the risk of confused fans, and the case has now reached Germany's Federal Court of Justice, where a decision is due in February 2022.

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Dorothea appeared on ITV's This Morning to talk about the case, and the implications for all tribute acts if she loses.

"It would be a big problem," she said.

"The industry is huge as you know... I think that would be really bad news if that should happen – but I don't think that's gonna happen, we're gonna be positive, that's not gonna happen."

Dorothea suggested that the root of the lawsuit could be Tina's team's concerns that her show is competition for the Tina - The Tina Turner Musical.

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The officially-endorsed stage show has made its way to Germany after its success in the West End and on Broadway.

"What a shame... I never thought our tribute to her would cause such a fuss," she said.

"But on the other hand, we must be doing something right."

The real-life Tina Turner was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist last month, having previously been inducted alongside Ike Turner in 1991.