Saturday, September 5, 2026
What’s love got to do with it? – by Tracy L. Moore
In May of 1984, a popular song by Tina Turner was released titled “What’s love got to do with it”. She was not the first to sing the song but I would dare to say that it became her anthem.
I learned that she initially felt the song was terrible for her to sing because the song was a pop song, totally unlike her usual R&B or rock and roll style. The song paradoxically sounded anti-romance, or anti-love.
In delving deeper into this song whose chorus is unforgettable, the words are more than surface trivialities. At its core, it is a call to action to separate physical attraction from being emotionally vulnerable so as to avoid getting hurt, especially after domestic violence and physical abuse of which Tina (myself and others whether female or male) was a first-hand witness.
At its core, the song is a call to action, to first love one’s self. It takes courage to walk away from being someone’s punching bag, body battered and bruised, to walk away from verbal assaults, that cut deeper than knives, piercing beyond body to the soul, deep into the psyche where it leaves battle scars that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
It is almost easier to dismiss the old-fashioned idea of love, preferring to cling to physical chemistry rather than a deep emotional attachment. Notice that I did not say physical intimacy, oh no because this requires depth, strength, courage. Physical chemistry is the initial, magnetic spark of attraction and does not last. Physical intimacy is the intentional, shared practice of closeness and vulnerability. Physical chemistry is motivated by one’s hormones such as dopamine, testosterone and estrogen. Physical intimacy is motivated also by hormones like oxytocin which deepens and sustains that intimacy.
At its core, the song asks who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? It sounds like a caution to guard yourself against pain and depending on romance. Self-preservation is important to survival after years of distrust.
This song is very empowering. It is a call to action for women to be independent of the fairy tales of our childhood of being kissed by a frog or being rescued by Prince Charming. Simultaneously, it is a call to action for men to stop being so independent on only themselves, that a relationship is a partnership, that it takes more than outer beauty and sex (physical chemistry) to live happily ever after. There must be mutual love, respect, and communication from both people.
The chorus to this song can linger in your head, becoming a loop until it is stuck in your head, becoming an earworm. What do I mean by that? Scientifically, an earworm is known as an involuntary musical imagery (INMI). It means a catchy chorus literally triggers a mental loop in your brain’s short-term memory.
Our brains do not like unresolved patterns. So, when you hear a catchy tune like What’s love got to do with it”, your brain plays the tune over and over, searching for an answer, a conclusion to the whole matter. In other words, your brain is seeking closure to the question.
When you hear the song, and the loop, that annoying earworm, begins in your head, I want you to look beyond the initial negativity regarding your past love and relationships, and look deeper, find a deeper, more beautiful truth that LOVE HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT.
The chorus of “What’s Love Got to Do with it” is a massive earworm. A person can get stuck on this surface hook – the cynical, protective shell of the song that asks the question, as if love is just a “second-hand emotion”.
If you stay stuck on that cynical surface loop, you will miss the whole point of the journey.
The song actually wants us to go further, to go deeper.
And Tina Turner was the perfect artist to bring this message home. She was not the first person to sing this song, beautifully written by songwriting duo Terry Britten and Graham Lyle.
The song was not about giving up on love. Though she experienced DV horrendously, this woman reclaimed her power, walked away from a toxic relationship, and chose a deeper kind of love.
- Love of self – stepping out of a bad situation and realizing you are worth more.
- Love of others and of the planet – moving past selfish desires into a grander, connected type of love
- Love of God / the Divine – finding a higher purpose and peace
Wow!
On the surface, the song sounds like someone who has given up on love.
But love actually has everything to do with it.
I challenge you, dear reader, to stop looking at life’s tough moments through a cynical lens. I encourage you to dig deeper to find the love hidden underneath.
Even in my own darkest, most painful places of domestic violence and abandonment, love still has everything to do with it because it led to my healing, my strength, and my three greatest treasures which are my Son and two Daughters.
When Tina Turner sang this song, she was a survivor reclaiming her narrative. And this is where the song becomes personal for me. In 1986, I walked into a marriage believing it was built on faith and love, only to face the merciless reality of domestic violence, fueled by addiction.
For a long time, I could have looked at my life and asked, ‘What’s love got to do with it?’ with absolute bitterness.
But I refused to let the negative loop, that earworm, win. Love had everything to do with my survival. It had everything to do with my healing. And, most of all, love gave me my three greatest treasures – my wonderful son and my two beautiful daughters, and four beautiful grandchildren, along with more daughters, sons and grandchildren that did not come through my bloodline but are still dear to me. They are the living proof that even when a relationship fails us, LOVE ITSELF NEVER FAILS. It simply transforms into something much bigger, much deeper, and entirely worth fighting for.
Today, I look back at how far I’ve come since 1986, and I smile. Like the great Dolly Parton once said, ‘I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.’
I refused to let a toxic past limit my future, my joy, or my capacity to love. Love has everything to do with it – and the best verses of my song are still being written.
