Tina Turner died on Wednesday, her publicist said. She was an exuberant rock goddess with wild hair, who wore heels and sold out stadiums. She won a dozen Grammy Awards, and had a music career that spanned five decades.
She was 83.
Bernard Doherty said, “With her the world has lost a music icon and a model.” He also said that a private ceremony will be held for family and close friends.
The story of Turner’s turbulent but high-flying life became music industry legend. It was also the inspiration for a 1986 hit autobiography (I, Tina), a Hollywood biopic (What’s love got to do with it) and a Broadway Jukebox Show (“Tina: The Tina Turner Musical”)
Tina Turner during a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1969.
Walter Iooss Jr / Getty Images
She rose from rural roots to national stardom as half of the sensational duo Ike & Tina Turner, and then established herself as one the most popular Black women solo artists around the world.
Her massively successful solo music career broke down barriers for future generations. She was the first Black woman to be featured on the cover Rolling Stone , in only its second issue.
Turner went through personal traumas and upheavals along the way. She claimed that Ike, her ex-husband, and collaborator in the arts, had subjected her years of physical abuse, and attempted to control virtually every aspect of her life.
Ike’s relationship with me was the cause of my greatest unhappiness. Initially, I was in love with him. What he did for me was amazing. He was unpredictable,” Turner wrote, in “I, Tina”, a memoir written by Kurt Loder, a music critic and MTV News reporter.
Turner was able to separate from her husband in the late 1970s and go out on her own. Turner made one of the greatest comebacks ever in rock music. She reinvented herself as a liberated, gleefully freed hit-maker and topped Billboard charts.
Turner was a gifted vocalist, who sang with abandon. She recorded a number of chart-topping songs in the 1980s. But one song in particular, “What’s Love got to do with It”, a show-stopping track from the album “Private Dancer” in 1984, made her a star.
Turner’s biggest hits of the era include “Better be good to me,” “We Don’t Need Another Hero” (Thunderdome), “Typical Male,” and “The Best.”
She toured the world in the following decades, won awards, appeared in movies and became one of the most iconic musical figures of the 20th century. After completing her 50th Anniversary Tour, she decided to retire.
Turner told a crowd of 75 000 people in Zurich at the Letzigrund Stadium that Turner had done enough. “I have been performing for 44 Years. “I really should hang up the dancing shoes.”
Turner won eight Grammy Awards in competition, along with three Grammy Hall of Fame awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award. She has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with Ike, and then again as a soloist.
Beginnings humble
Anna Mae Bullock, a sharecropper’s daughter, was born in rural Brownsville on November 26, 1939. As a child, she loved singing. She embraced the R&B scene in St. Louis when her family moved there.
She met Ike at a concert by his Kings of Rhythm band in the mid-1950s. She was soon a member of the band, and performed under the alliterative nickname he gave her, Tina Turner.
Ike and Tina Turner Revue attracted attention with their lively performances. Ike was an accomplished musician, but Tina was the star, captivating audiences with her powerful vocals, energetic dancing, and raw verve.
The group had a difficult time finding success in the studio until 1960 when “A Fool in Love”, a song by the revue, topped the charts. Ike and Tina married two years later. The duo then recorded several hit singles.
Jann Wenner, co-founder of Rolling Stone in 1967 wrote: “Tina Turner’s an incredible chick.” She wears a very short miniskirt that is way above her knees with thousands of sequins. Her dancing is unrestrained.
The reporter continued, “Unlike the politely hand-clapping Motown group, she and the Ikettes do some fantastic boogaloo.” Tina Turner’s music is worth paying attention to, no matter what your opinion of it may be.
The Turners’ marriage had been troubled behind the scenes. Ike, a man who battled addiction and mental issues, often abused his wife emotionally and physically. He had affairs with several women.
Ike and Tina Turner in London in 1965.
Chris Walter / WireImage via Getty Images
Years of abuse took their toll, and she finally decided that enough was enough. After a fight with Ike on the way to the Dallas Statler Hotel on July 1, 1976 she left on her own, leaving only 36 cents in her pocket and a Mobil Credit Card.
She filed for divorce in the following month, citing irreconcilable disagreements, and it was officially finalized in 1978. Ike claimed that the two had never been legally married because he was still married to another woman when the divorce proceedings were filed in 1977.
Turner struggled to find her feet for the next few months. She paid off her debts by touring, opening for the Rolling Stones and earning income in other ways, like guest appearances on TV shows such as “The Hollywood Squares.”
Turner was viewed as a “nostalgia” act, a talented but culturally irrelevant relic of 1960s pop. In 1984, however, Turner’s debut solo album “Private Dancer” became a critical and commercial success.
The album was sold in excess of 20 million copies worldwide and won three Grammy Awards including best female vocal performance and record of the year. Turner’s new look, with big hair and high heels, emphasized her sexual appeal.
Turner was a star in the 1980s. Her theatricality, powerful vocals, and commanding stage performance lit up concert halls. She was a powerful symbol of Black empowerment and female empowerment, reaching new heights in creativity even when racist record executives tried their best to stop her.
Pain and Survival
In the HBO documentary Tina (2021), she said that many journalists were only interested in her abuse history, ignoring or forgetting her second act of being a megawatt solo singer and an inspiration to women around the world.
She also talked about her journey of acceptance and forgiveness in the film: “By not forgiving you suffer,” she said to the documentary filmmakers. “I lived an abusive life. You have to accept that.
The painful experience of Turner with Ike was dramatized by the 1993 biopic, “What’s love got to do with it”. Angela Bassett portrayed Tina and Laurence Fishburne portrayed Ike. Both actors were nominated for Oscars during the 66th Academy Awards.
After a 27-year romance, the real Turner found love in Erwin Bach. They began dating in 1986, and in 2013 they were married in Switzerland. Bach was an executive producer of the HBO documentary.
Turner’s success as a musician was accompanied by starring roles in films, such as “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” which was released in 1985. She released a number of popular albums in the late ’80s to the early ’90s. These included “Break Every Rule,” Foreign Affair,” and “Wildest Dreams.”
Tina Turner in Chicago in 2000.
Paul Natkin / Getty Images file
In 2004, “All the Best,” an album of greatest hits, was released. Turner retired from the music industry five years later.
She was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for 2018. She sold her music rights in 2021 to BMG Rights Management, for $50 million. Later that month, she received the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame award as a solo artist, and accepted the prize by satellite from her Zurich home.
Turner smiled as she delivered her acceptance speech.
