"We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" is a song written by

Graham Lyle Graham Hamilton Lyle (born 11 March 1944, in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer. Between 1970 and 1997, he co-wrote 18 British Top 40 hits, 9 ''Billboard'' Hot 100 entries, 4 US Country No ...

and

Terry Britten Terence Ernest Britten (born July 1947) is an English-Australian singer-songwriter and record producer, who has written songs for Tina Turner, Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, Status Quo and Michael Jackson amongst many others. Britten (along w ...

, and recorded by American singer

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the " Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue before ...

. It appeared in the 1985 film ''

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome ''Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome'' is a 1985 Australian post-apocalyptic dystopian action film directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie and written by Miller and Terry Hayes. It stars Mel Gibson and Tina Turner in a story of a lone roving warr ...

'', which starred

Mel Gibson Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an American actor, film director, and producer. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apoca ...

and Turner. On the heels of Turner's multi-platinum record ''

Private Dancer ''Private Dancer'' is the fifth solo studio album by Tina Turner. It was released on May 29, 1984, through Capitol Records and was her first album released through the label. After several challenging years of going solo after divorcing Ike T ...

'' (1984), the song was released as a 7-inch single, an extended version was released as a 12-inch single and on the film's soundtrack album. In the United Kingdom, a shaped

picture disc Picture discs are gramophone (phonograph) records that show images on their playing surface, rather than being of plain black or colored vinyl. Collectors traditionally reserve the term picture disc for records with graphics that extend at lea ...

was also issued. The

power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romance (love), romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn m ...

received a Golden Globe Award nomination for

Best Original Song This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

nomination for

Best Female Pop Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance was a Grammy Award recognizing superior vocal performance by a female in the pop category, the first of which was presented in 1959. It was discontinued after the 2011 Grammy season. The awar ...

. As songwriters, Lyle and Britten received the

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been ...

for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

Recording

Turner was backed by a choral group from

King's House School King's House School is an independent day preparatory school in Richmond, London. Founded in 1946, it has 450 pupils aged between 3 and 13.Boys 3–13. Girls 3–4. Present school The school is currently split into three parts: *King's H ...

in Richmond,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. One of the choir members who appeared on the recording,

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972), known as Lawrence Dallaglio, is an English retired rugby union player, former captain of England, and 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He played as a flanker or number eight ...

, became famous as a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

star and captain of the England national team.

Chart performance

"We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" became one of Turner's biggest

hit singles A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

. It peaked at number two on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, behind only

John Parr John Stephen Parr (born 18 November 1952) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, best known for his 1985 single "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", charting at number one in the US and number six in the UK, and for his 1984 US number- ...

's " St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)". It also reached number three in the United Kingdom and reached number one in Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and West Germany.

Music video

The accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" features Turner dressed in her Aunty Entity costume from the ''Mad Max'' film, a heavy

chain mail Chain mail (properly called mail or maille but usually called chain mail or chainmail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and ...

gown. As several spotlights shine on her, she proceeds to sing atop a platform while various scenes from the movie are interspersed. In the last portion of the video, Turner is accompanied by a children's choir and Tim Cappello, her tour saxophonist, percussionist and keyboardist at the time. The music video received an

MTV Video Music Award The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video categor ...

nomination for Best Female Video.

Official versions/remixes

* Single Version – 4:16 * 7" Instrumental – 4:41 * 12" Extended Mix (Soundtrack Album Version) – 6:07 * 12" Dub Mix (Soundtrack Instrumental Version) – 6:30

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Cover versions

In 2004, Canadian singer Jane Child recorded a cover of the song, titling it "Beyond Thunderdome (We Don't Need Another Hero)" for the album ''What's Love? A Tribute to Tina Turner''. In 2007, Finnish supergroup

Northern Kings Northern Kings is a Finnish symphonic metal cover supergroup, made up of four well known musicians: Jarkko Ahola from Teräsbetoni, ex-Dreamtale, Marko Hietala from Tarot, ex- Nightwish, Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica and Juha-Pekka Leppä ...

covered the song on their debut album '' Reborn''. In March 2016,

Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to imp ...

and

Jencarlos Canela Jencarlos Canela (born April 21, 1988) is an American actor and singer. Canela starred in the telenovela ''Mi corazón insiste en Lola Volcán'', and two other telenovelas. In September 2013, he began a new project called "Scan Me" on his offic ...

performed a cover of the song during the Fox television special '' The Passion''. It was sung in the story where

Pontius Pilate Pontius Pilate (; grc-gre, Πόντιος Πιλᾶτος, ) was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judaea, serving under Emperor Tiberius from 26/27 to 36/37 AD. He is best known for being the official who presided over the trial of ...

(Seal) is torn at sentencing

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

(Jencarlos) to death; the lyrics were amended to remove the reference to ''Thunderdome'', which was replaced with "the love we know".

References

{{Authority control 1985 singles 1985 songs Film theme songs Tina Turner songs Number-one singles in Germany Number-one singles in Switzerland Number-one singles in Australia RPM Top Singles number-one singles Mad Max music Songs written by Graham Lyle Songs written by Terry Britten Songs written for films Rock ballads 1980s ballads Pop ballads Capitol Records singles