A song recorded for Tina Turner’s blockbuster album Private Dancer, that was presumed lost, has been rediscovered and will receive its first play on BBC Radio 2 later.

Hot For You, Baby, was cut at Capitol Studios in Hollywood and originally intended to be an album track.

But it was ultimately jettisoned in favour of era-defining pop hits such What’s Love Got To Do With It, Better Be Good To Me and the album’s title track.

Presumed missing, the master tape was recently rediscovered as her record label compiled a 40th anniversary re-release of Private Dancer.

An up-tempo rocker, full of showboating guitar chords and an extremely 1980s cowbell, Hot For You, Baby is a prime example of Turner’s raspy, physical style of soul.

The track will receive its first play on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Thursday, between 08:30 and 09:00 GMT.

Produced by John Grant, the record executive who masterminded her mid-career comeback, it was written by Australian musicians George Young and Harry Vanda.

It had already been recorded once by Scottish-Australian singer John Paul Young, the voice behind disco classic Love Is In The Air.

However, his version largely flew under the radar when it was released in 1979.

Private Dancer, released in May 1984, launched an unprecedented second act in Tina Turner’s career.

She had escaped an abusive marriage to musician Ike Turner at the end of the 1970s, but the divorce left her penniless, living off food stamps and playing ill-conceived cabaret shows to pay her debts.

The music industry had largely written her off – but in England, where pop was in thrall to American R&B, she still had some heavyweight fans.

In 1981, Rod Stewart invited Turner to play with him on Saturday Night Live; and the Rolling Stones asked her to be part of their US tour. More importantly, perhaps, David Bowie told Capitol Records that Turner was his favourite singer.

But the turning point came when she hooked up with British producers Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, of the band Heaven 17, to record a synth-pop version of the Temptations’ 1970 hit Ball of Confusion.

A huge hit in Europe, its success persuaded Capitol to let her record an album, but they hardly threw their weight behind it.

The budget only paid for two weeks in the studio, and many of the songs Turner recorded were other artists’ cast-offs (both Cliff Richard and Bucks Fizz had turned down What’s Love Got To Do With It).

But she used her time wisely – recording all but one of Private Dancer’s songs in the UK with five different British production teams.

With the country in the grips of new wave and the new romantics, Turner was steered away from raw, fiery soul that first made her famous. But somehow, her electrifying vocals were a perfect fit for the chilly, programmed grooves she was given.

“Turner seems to completely understand the touch that each of these songs needed,” wrote Debby Miller, in a contemporaneous review of Private Dancer for Rolling Stone magazine.

In the New York Times, Stephen Holden described the record as “a landmark, not only in the career of the 45-year-old singer, who has been recording since the late 1950s, but in the evolution of pop-soul music itself”.

The album went on to sell more than 10 million copies, and earned three Grammys, including record of the year for What’s Love Got To Do With It.

Turner also performed the song on the live TV broadcast, wowing audiences with her vocals despite fighting a bad case of the flu.

A support slot on Lionel Richie’s US tour in 1984 reminded audiences of her ability to tear the roof off any venue she set foot in.

By 1985, Turner was one of the world’s biggest acts in an era of stadium superstars like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince.

The decision to withhold Hot For You, Baby from the original tracklist of Private Dancer makes sense. It sounds a little cheesy next to the sultry, sophisticated material that eventually populated the record.

But fans will welcome the chance to hear Turner let rip, back in her prime, with a promise to “love you all night long”.

Mark Goodier, who is currently covering the Radio 2 breakfast show, said: “To have something new to hear from Tina Turner is a treat for fans of all generations and a reminder of her unique talent.

“I’m lucky enough to have both interviewed Tina and seen her perform live. She was an outrageously good performer and at the same time a remarkable graceful lady, whose every note was shaped by her incredible life.”

As well as being released as a single, the track will feature on a new five-disc deluxe edition of Private Dancer, which is due for release in March.

The collection will also feature B-sides, remixes and live tracks, as well as a film of Turner playing Birmingham’s NEC Arena in March 1985, featuring guest appearances by David Bowie and Bryan Adams.

Turner died in 2023 at the age of 83. No cause of death was given, but she was known to be struggling with a kidney disease, intestinal cancer and other illnesses.

On 14 October 2023, an unusual event was held in Ukraine’s most prestigious venue, Palace Ukraine in Kyiv.

Anton Tymoshenko became the first Ukrainian stand-up comedian to give a solo performance there.

“I grew up in a village with fewer people than Palace Ukraine can hold,” he said after the concert. “So many people had told me: It’s not going to happen… stand-up comedy has not reached that level.”

It has now, to a large extent because of the full-scale invasion launched by Russia.

The invasion turned many Ukrainians away from the previously popular and lavishly promoted Russian acts and triggered a renewed interest in Ukrainian culture.

Key Ukrainian comedians say they are now making jokes to help the public deal with the grim reality of war and also help the army by raising funds.

“Stand-up comedy is a budget version of psychotherapy,” Anton Tymoshenko tells the BBC.

“I like to relieve social tension with my jokes. When that happens, that’s the best thing.”

Another popular performer, Nastya Zukhvala, says Russia’s full-scale invasion in February gave stand-up comedy in Ukraine “a boost,” albeit for darker reasons.

“The demand for comedy looks totally natural to me now because comedy supports and unites.

“It can also make reality look less catastrophic. It is a tool which can help us process this stream of depressing information,” she tells me.

“To stay optimistic or even sane, we’ve got no other choice.”

So what are the jokes that are making Ukrainians laugh?

This kind of humour is grim, says comedian Hanna Kochehura, but making fun of the danger makes it easier to cope with.

“It looks even darker from abroad, and it’s clear why. Anyone who’s in Ukraine knows that there are no safe places here,” she says.

“You never know if this air raid is going to be your last. You don’t know if a Shahed drone is going to target your house or your family’s house.

“Naturally, all our themes are related to the war. Because it’s our life now. Stand-up comedy is a frank genre where comedians speak about their own experiences or thoughts,” Ms Kochehura says.

Here’s an example – a joke from Anton Tymoshenko’s performance at Palace Ukraine:

“I never worried about a nuclear attack because I know it would mean death for rich residents of Kyiv. I live on the outskirts – but the nukes will hit central parts. Before fallout reaches me, it will have to make two changes on the metro.

“More realistically, I’ll get killed by Iranian Shahed drones. The sad thing is – did you hear the noise they make? They sound very demotivating, like the cheapest kind of death.”

“People can laugh at the news,” Anton tells me.

“If we’re not allowed to use [Western] missiles against targets in Russia — yes, that is funny because it is absurd. I build upon this absurd fact, and it becomes funny.

“Of course, Ukrainians find it funny.”

Western allies were initially reluctant to allow Ukraine to use their missiles against targets in Russia for fear of escalation. But the permission was granted after months of pleading by Kyiv: first shorter-range weapons in May 2024, then long-range missiles in November.

Joking about the war is fraught with pitfalls.

Anton Tymoshenko says he is trying not to “trigger” his audiences or add to the trauma from which they may already be suffering.

“Stand-up comedy in wartime is the most difficult type. Making jokes without offending anyone is possible to do, but that would be like joking in a vacuum,” he says.

But, it is usually possible to see where the line lies according to Nastya Zukhvala:

“I feel what other Ukrainians feel. If I find something sad or tragic, I don’t see any need to turn it into stand-up comedy.”

There’s also a very practical side to stand-up comedy in Ukraine – helping its army.

“Almost all of the comedians I know have been helping the armed forces. All of us are involved in raising funds [for the Ukrainian army]. We hold charity shows and many perform in front of the military,” says Hanna Kochehura.

Some, like Nastya Zukhvala’s husband Serhiy Lipko, a comedian himself, are in the army.

“Culture, humour or psychology – that’s all fine and well, but everything must be of practical use to the military. When so many missiles are on the way to hit you, you’re not as interested in talking about art alone,” says Mr Tymoshenko.

“My main task is holding concerts so I can raise funds for them.”

He says he has donated more than 30m hryvnyas (£580,000; $710,000) since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.