Tina Turner. She was the first artist to sign on to perform at the first MTV Video Music Awards 40 years ago on Sept. 14, 1984.And with her blond mane and black miniskirt, the rock ’n’ soul legend shimmied across the stage at New York’s Radio City Music Hall to “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” which was reigning atop the Billboard Hot 100 as her first and only No.

1 solo single.Turner, in the midst of a career comeback that would culminate with three Grammys in 1985, was just one of the pop icons who had everything to do with the VMAs becoming the hot new music awards show just three years after MTV launched.“Once you book a couple of big stars, and once you’ve got some other people that are agreeing to be on it, then others go, ‘Oh, yeah, I can be on that too,’ ” Bob Pittman — the co-founder of MTV who was one of the producers of the first VMAs — told The Post.“And the secret of booking a big event is you start with your A acts.

Because if you do start with a B act, no A acts will come because they think it’s for B acts.”But with Turner and then other ’80s stars such as Rod Stewart, David Bowie, ZZ Top and Huey Lewis and the News joining the performer lineup — along with a relative newcomer named Madonna — it was clear the VMAs were instantly becoming an A-list awards show.The idea for the VMAs — which will take place at the UBS Arena in Elmont, NY, Wednesday — came about as a way for MTV to claim its territory as the home of music videos.“As MTV began to be a success, you then start worrying about, ‘What’s our franchise?’ ” said Pittman, who is now chairman and CEO of iHeart Media. “And what we knew was we didn’t want other people to be giving out awards for video music and making it sort of a commodity.“We wanted.

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