There's something we like about underdogs and comebacks. We route for them, we want them to succeed. It's that artist that showed great potential and we enjoyed their work so much, but they vanished. Or the actor that went over the limb and was all but forgotten and then returns to the limelight in star fashion. It's the sports myth that hangs up their shoes due to an injury and make a remarkable comeback to claim their place in history.
These people give us inspiration, faith and enhance our power of will.
Today, we gathered some of the most astonishing comebacks of all time across the music industry, Hollywood, sports and personal challenges. Prepare to be inspired.
Michel Jordan
Profession: Basketball legend
Retired: 1993
Comeback: 1995
Achievement: Being God!
Michael Jordan's legendary dunk
Probably the best player that ever walked the basketball court. The records and precedents he set as a player, as a presenter and marketing persona are endless. Everybody wants to be like Mike!
After making the Bulls champions in a 3-peat, he decided to try his luck in baseball. Public opinion thought this was a joke and that Air Jordan is about to tarnish his NBA legacy forever.
Michael Jordan's attempt to be in the MLB
Luckily it didn't happen. The MLB suffered a player strike and after 18 months Jordan decided to return to the NBA. The next three years he would dominate the NBA again leading to a 3-peat championship repeat.
His is still considered the best player to ever play basketball.
Michael Jordan celebrates sixth championship
Britney Spears
Profession: Popstar
Demise: 2008
Comeback: 2016
Achievement: Hitting us one more time and one more and one more….
Brittney Spears 1998
Britney has been with us since 1998. She was then only 17. We saw her get married, divorced, lose her children, spiral out of control, going in and out of rehab, shaving her hair and then just generally declining.
In fact, until recently, some had already given up on her. Not Britney.
Britney Spears shaves her head
Maybe it's the "Leave Britney Alone" youtube video, maybe it's the media that understood that it had put too much pressure on the singer, and maybe it was just Britney bouncing back.
It started in 2012 with her joining The X Factor in the US, continued with a lingerie line in 2014 and a Sin City deal in Vegas and now with her album Glory and a global tour in 2017.
Britney Spears arrives at the Pre-GRAMMY Gala 2017
Elvis Presley
Profession: Rock legend
Demise: 1962
Comeback: 1968
Achievement: The King was back
Elvis playing live during the '68 Speciali recordings
The King of Rock n' Roll had been side tracked for 7 years. He wasted the time making worthless movies that no one cared about and steering away from his forte' – singing. Even Elvis didn't care about these flicks, and had lost the taste for Hollywood. Later they became cult movies, as these things go…
It was 1968, the Beatles were reinventing "cool" and rock n' roll and the King had appeared live in 7 years. He hadn't had a #1 hit in 6, and he was losing his fans. So his manager hatched a plan and got NBC to fund an hour Christmas special and a Christmas special was called "'68 Comeback Special."
The King was in his element from the go
It aired in December 3 1968. Elvis, anxious before the show started stepped right into his element. Choseing to do new songs and some of his hits, in a 4 recording before 4 different audiences for the show, Elvis rocked it, sexed it, cooled it and reminded everyone why he was "The King".
His career skyrocketed until his marriage collapsed and his health started deteriorating in 1973.
The cover for the double album the pursued
Tina Turner
Profession: Popstar
Demise: 1976
Comeback: 1984
Achievement: Becoming more popular that her abusive husband Ike Turner
Tina & Ike Turner 1975
Tina Turner (originally Anna Mae Bullock) was abused to think that her success as a popstar came from her abusing husband Ike Turner. Ike had been the big hit in St. Louis, Tina's hometown and rarely let women sing. After much pleading and auditions, she started singing with Ike in the 1958 and by 1960 he had renamed her "Tina". Rumors are that Ike was afraid she'd run off and he could always replace her with a different "Tina".
Additionally, Ike taught her improved singing techniques. By 1969, Ike & Tina were an international success, mainly thanks Tina's vocals. Ike turned to cocaine and abuse and they finally divorced in 1978 after two years of processions. Ike insisted she give up the name Tina Turner, but the courts ruled against him.
Tina Turner posing for the Private Dancer album 1984
The separation "forced" many promoters to sue for losses and Tina lived with friends, played small clubs and received food stamps. In 1979 she convinced Roger Davies to manage her comeback. It started slow, with guest performances and duets, but in 1984 "Private Dancer" finally scoring her first #1 hit.
She went on to become one of popular cultures icons. Ike died in 2007 from cocaine overdose and other drug related complications.
TIna Turner (middle) marrying Erwin Bach (right). Opera Winfrey (left) was one of the guests.
Mickey Rourke
Profession: Actor
Demise:1992
Comeback: 2008
Achievement: From hot stud to character actor
Mickey Rourke in the 1980's
Mickey Rourke was every woman's dream. Hot, charming, sexy, didn't say much and a very good male actor. At the height of his career he played opposite Kim Basinger in 9½ Weeks but then decided he just doesn't like doing it. During the Reagan and Bush administrations, conservative America thought he was controversial and despite earning immense success in Europe, he had lost all respect for himself as an actor and respect for Hollywood.
So he turned to his old time sport – boxing. During his 12 year boxing career (which was nothing to write home about) he suffered a broken nose, ribs, a split tongue and a compressed cheekbone. By the late 90's his face needed plastic surgery, but the result was far from satisfactory.
Mickey Rourke's boxing debut, 1991
Rourke made his comeback in 2008 in "The Wrestler". He did a number of small roles before, but this was his comeback playing a wrestler at the end of his career. The role earned him British Academy (BAFTA) award, a Golden Globe award, an Independent Spirit Award, and an Oscar nomination as Best Actor. Feeling he had no chance of winning the Oscar due to his past tense relations with Hollywood he knew he wouldn't win the Oscar, but the winner Sean Penn acknowledged Rourke in his acceptance speech.
It's been hard to keep him away from the big screen since.
Mickey Rourke today
Adele
Profession: Popstar
Demise: 2011
Comeback: 2012
Achievement: Fifteen Grammy's and her voice
Adele's concert in the Royal Albert Hall 2011 before the Vocal-cord haemorrhage
When Adele's album 19 hit the market, it reached multiple platinum sales in half the world, including her homeland England and the ever important market – the US. All this happened in 2007-8. She started to enjoy her newfound stardom status and was working on a new album and went touring to promote it.
During mid 2011 Adele suddenly announced she was canceling the rest of her American tour. She had a vocal-cord haemorrhage.
Adele holding her trophies after the 2012 Grammy Awards
Vocal-cord haemorrhage seems to plague many of today's lead singers including Steven Tyler and John Mayer. Adele underwent microsurgery and was back with her singing voice for the Grammy awards 4 months later. The album 21, released in 2011, was a record breaking album earning her 6 Grammy awards and the most selling album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.
Today she is considered one of the most prominent musicians in the world.
Adele today. What a Diva
Muhammad Ali
Profession: Boxer
Demise: 1966
Comeback: 1970
Achievement: To float like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee.
Muhamad Ali
Muhammad Ali floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee. And like a bee, his sting, for 6 years cost him his career, fame and fortune.
Known for his arrogance, provocative and outlandish demeanor, and his instinct to lean back from a punch rather than defend, Ali was everything the public wanted in a boxer and the conservative white institute didn't. He was a star!
Muhammad Ali with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King opposing Vietnam
In 1964, he became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion, and in 1965 he had won the WBA title as well. He was also an African American activist, changing his name and in 1966 refusing to go to 'Nam " stating "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger."
As a result, from 1967 to 1970, until the court stepped in he was denied his boxing license. He regained his license in 1971 and in 1974 went to take the title from Joe Frazer in the "Rumble in the Jungle".
He is still considered one of the greatest boxing legends ever.
Sports Illustrated's Headline after Ali beat Foreman
Barcelona FC Football (soccer club)
Profession: Football club
Demise: 2017 UEFA Champion’s League quarter finals 1st leg
Comeback: 2017 UEFA Champion’s League quarter finals 2nd leg
Achievement: A man made earthquake
Barcelona players celebrating in the locker room after the match
Barcelona is considered one of the best football clubs in the world. They have an attacking unit that includes 3 of the top ten players in the world and they have Leo Messi. Things hadn't been adding up for a while for the club, and the 2017 UEFA Champion’s League quarter finals 1st leg was a catastrophe.
They were beaten 3:0 by Paris Saint Germaine and their options looked bleak coming in to the 2nd leg. No one had ever come from such a deficit in the first leg.
Barcelona players celebrating the final goal
Barcelona proved the critics wrong and their supporters around the world right. They needed four goals to tie and five goals to proceed in the tournament. Cavani from PSG scored in the 62nd minute dampening Barca supporters' spirits globally. The last play of the match was a penalty for Barca that were already leading 5:1. They scored and moved on.
Seismic readings showed a 1.0 Richter scale earthquake after the sixth goal.
The seismic readings throughout the game. note the tremors after each goal
Rick Allen
Profession: Def Leppard, Drummer
Demise: 1984
Comeback: 1986
Achievement: Becoming "The Thunder God"
Rick Allen prior to the fateful 1985 New Years Eve
Rickey Allen is probably one of the most inspiring comebacks in music history. Forming the band Def Leppard with his mates in 1978 (he was 15) Rickey dreamed of becoming a rock n' roll drummer. He did. With style. And then fate kicked in.
After releasing their 1984 album Pyromania, the band returned to the studio to record another album. On December 31st 1984 Rick lost control of his Corvette, broke his right shoulder and lost his entire left arm. Most drummers at this point quit. Not Rick!
Rick Allen's Corvette after the accident
With the encouragement of Deff Leppard fellow bandmates, Stats Quo drummer Jeff Rich and engineers from electronic drum designer "Simmons" and a lot of practicing, in 1986 Rick returned to the stage at the "Monsters of Rock" festival.
The crowd, obviously, went wild! Gigwise now ranks him #7 in The Greatest Drummers of All Time list. Fans call him "The Thunder God".
Rick Allen today
John Travolta
Profession: Actor
Demise: 1981
Comeback: 1994
Achievement: Academy Award
John Travolta in Grease
The once hot dancing charmer was on everyone's bucket list way back then in the late 1970's. With box office hits like "Grease" and "Urban Cowboy", the iconic Vincent "Vinnie" Barbarino character from "Welcome back, Kotter", the 1980's were supposed to be his oyster.
They weren't. A series of bad career choices had left him out of the A-List and saw stars like Tom Cruise and Richard Gere take the center stage with parts that he had turned down. Eventually, in 1987 he takes a break.
Could it get any worse?
His return is slow, but sure, using what he knows. He looks good, he's comic, and he's a charmer, even in 1991 when he supports Bruce Willis and Christie Alley in "Look who's talking". Then Tarantino offers him to be Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction.
It's true. He's received a Razzie in 2007, but wait for his upcoming "The Life and Death of John Gotti"…
John Travolta in his
Academy Award winning role
Steve Jobs
Profession: Entreprenuer
Demise: 1985
Comeback: 1997
Achievement: iTunes, iMac, iPhone, iPad, iMortality
Young Steve Jobs with an Apple
We all know the story. Jobs founded Apple Computer in his garage with two friends who later got him ousted. He then went and founded a new company.
In 1997 Jobs' new company was acquired by Apple for a whopping $427 million and reinstated Jobs as CEO! How's that for a middle finger?!
Steve Jobs with an Apple G3 in 1997
He also founded Pixar and in 1995 "Toy Story" was released from the studio. In 2007 Apple launched the first iPhone after previously launching iPods and iMacs. Products revolutionized the our lives.
Can you imagine a world without iPhones and iTunes?
Steve Jobs
Abraham Lincoln
Profession: Politician
Demise: 1854
Comeback: 1860
Achievement: Winning the civil war and freeing the slaves in America
Abraham Lincoln 1854
History is strange. Lincoln was a republican and he opposed slavery from the start. He spoke out against so many pro-slave events that the list is endless. Yet, he lost the senate elections in 1854, and again in 1858.
So how did he become a presidential candidate?
Abraham Lincoln and his cabinet proclaim the end of slavery
His comments throughout the senate campaign against slavery gained him national fame. Republicans feared that Slave Power and James Buchanan's presidency was leading the Union away from what they thought the Declaration of independence. He won due to a power split amongst the democrats. He also won the Civil War and abolished slavery.
To this day he is considered one of the greatest presidents of the United States.
Abraham Lincoln presidential portrait
New England Patriots
Profession: American Football club
Demise: Super Bowl LI first half
Comeback: Super Bowl LI Second half
Achievement: Winning and setting the record comeback in Super Bowl history
Super Bowl LI screenshot showing the 25 point deficit
The Super Bowl is the single biggest cultural even the US. Super Bowl Sunday is the second most food consuming day in the US after Thanksgiving. In the 50 games that took place since 1967, no team has ever upset more than a ten point deficit.
The Patriots found themselves with an under playing star – Tom Brady, and a 18 point deficit at the end of the first half. Patriot fans prepared for the worst.
New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady looking for a pass
Things didn't get better after Atlanta scored another touchdown bringing the deficit up to 25 points mid third quarter. Tom Brady upped his game and making passes and runs, he was unstoppable leading the Patriots to victory.
Unbelievable!
Patriots celebrate a heroic victory
Nintendo
Profession: Gaming Console Company
Demise: 1990's
Comeback: 2006
Achievement: Revolutionizing gaming and fitness. Wii!!!!
Nintendo's original Game Boy
Roughly translated from Japanese, "Nintendo" means "to leave one's fortune in the hands of fate". Starting as a card company in 1889 Nintendo is something of a comeback professional. In 1979 the company shifted its focus to video gaming and produced Donkey Kong and Mario. But the days of Gameboy and other consoles were over by 1993.
Two unsuccessful products and Nintendo could have been like Blockbuster.
The revolutionary Wii with it's unique Wii Controller
It didn't. Instead they looked at Sony and its success with gaming consoles, and decided it could do better. Nintendo developed Wii, a console that had motion sensor control. The controller was wireless and the players could use it as a tennis racket, bowling ball, golf club or anything a game designer wishes.
It was the first of its kind, and changed gaming forever.
Mario is more famous than Mickey Mouse
Mariah Carey
Profession: Popstar / Model
Demise: 2001
Comeback: 2005
Achievement: Insuring her legs for $1.26 billion
Mariah Carey today
Where do we start with Mariah Carey? The diva that has done it all. In the 90's she was the most selling artist in the US. Until everything tumbled down with a failed bioflic and accompanying soundtrack, another failed album and then a divorce. There were even rumors of attempted suicide. She was at one point hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.
And the media and world hailed her downfall.
Mariah Carey on the back cover of "Glitter"
In 2005 she released "The Emancipation of Mimi" that sold 4.2 million copies by the 2005 Billboard Music Awards. In 2006 she was said by Gillette to have "Leg’s Of A Goddess ."
During the campaign they insured her legs for $1.26 billion.
Gillette erected a 16 foot statuary likeness of her leg
Frank Sinatra
Profession: Popstar
Demise: 1952
Comeback: 1953
Achievement: Doing it his way
Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed in "From Here to Eternity"
After the 40's were over and the 50's boom begin, Frankie was losing his audience. Recording unworthy songs like “My Cousin Louella” and “Mama Will Bark” at the studio's pressure just didn't cut it for anyone.
In 1952 Columbia Records let him go.
Frank Sinatra wins album of the year Grammy 1966
So Frankie went to Vegas, pretty much inventing the music scene there. But it was his former days of glory that would land him a supporting role in "From Here to Eternity" and an academy award. The path to Capitol Records was opened to him with new opportunities, allowing him to zig-zag between different styles and personas, capturing a wider public.
Doing it his way.
Frank Sinatra in a recording in the 1950's
Miley Cyrus
Profession: Entertainer
Demise: 2014
Comeback:2017
Achievement: Being Miley Cyrus, and Hannah Montana and working our world as both
via: Pinterest
It is hard to exactly call it a comeback since she was never totally out of sight. Although Miley only officially took her hiatus from making music in 2015, she started forming a very wild and kind of gross image when she shed her Hannah Montana wig and picked up a joint.
via: Pinterest
As her Instagram got weirder, her frame got skinnier and her music got way riskier (her performance with Robin Thicke anyone?) people started to worry. Luckily, the break from the spotlight seemed to do her a fortune of good.
via: Pinterest
She reignited her romance with long-time lover Liam Hemsworth and revealed she stopped smoking marijuana presenting a much cleaner image to her fans. When she dropped her high-anticipated album ‘Younger Now’ in 2017, she was officially back, and her fans have never been happier.
Winona Ryder
Professional: Actress
Demise: 2001
Comeback: 2016
Achievement: One of the most iconic actresses of the 1990’s
