Eat the cake, Anna Mae
The day Beyoncé and Jay Z made fun of Tina Turner and domestic violence and the world seemed to like it
Last January 26th the world watched the Grammys, where Beyoncé and Jay Z made the opening number singing “Drunk in Love”. The song is from Beyoncé’s last self-titled album and became a worldwide hit very quickly. But there is something wrong about the lyrics of that song and most people did not notice it.
“I’m Ike Turner, turn up/Baby, no, I don’t play, now eat the cake, Anna Mae/Said eat the cake, Anna Mae!”
Anna Mae Bullock is Tina Turner’s birth name. Ike Turner was her abusive husband. In a 1985 interview with Spin magazine, Ike admitted, “Yeah I hit her, but I didn’t hit her more than the average guy beats his wife…. If she says I abused her, maybe I did.”
Tina was abused by Ike during many years, she even tried to commit suicide after a fight they had in 1968. In the film What’s Love Got To Do With It?, a biopic based on the life of Tina Turner, there is a scene in which Tina and Ike eat a cake in a restaurant, as Tina refuses to eat, Ike insists and attacks her. This is the scene:
Eat the cake, Anna Mae. So that’s what Jay Z does to Beyoncé when they go to a restaurant? Maybe not, but is what many women go through in their lives, this is called domestic abuse, it’s a terrible crime, and it’s in the lyrics of Drunk in Love.
We could all see it on the Grammys. People loved the presentation. Guess we shouldn’t care about domestic violence anymore. Even Beyoncé, the Who Runs the World (Girls) power woman, has given up.
