Eight time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Tina Turner died May 22, 2023 in her Kusnacht, Switzerland home after a long illness at the age of 83.
Sir Mick Jagger spoke on Turner saying, “ She was truly an enormously talented performer and singer. She was inspiring, warm, honey and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.”
Whether it be “Proud Mary” with Ike Turner or “what’s Love Got to Do with It”, Tina Turner was a powerhouse performer who could cross genres and generations with her music.
She is one of a handful of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members who has been inducted more than one – first as a part of Ike and Tina Turner and again as a solo artist. In 2005 she became a Kennedy Center Honour.
Along with her big voice and big hair, Turner never shied away from wearing high heels even when she was in her 70s.
After finally leaving Ike in 1976, their tumultuous relationship became the source of a new song – “What’s Love Got to Do with It” – which later became a movie and an anthem for domestic abuse. Later her life and music became a hit Broadway musical.
Now 40, Turner found herself on the outside looking in, but after appearing on stage with Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger, her career began to turn around. David Bowie called her his favourite female singer.
More popular in England than the U.S., she got a record deal; but thought a song they offered her was “wimpy”. But she recorded the song on her “Private Dancer” album. The album went on to sell over eight million copies and win four Grammys. The song she thought of as “wimpy”? – “ What’s Love Got to Do with It”.
Along with numerous music videos, Turner has appeared in an episode of “Ally McBeal”, a cameo in “What’s Love Got to Do with It?”, “last Action Hero”, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, an episode of “Laugh-In”, and as the Acid Queen in “Tommy”.
She was born Anna Mae Bullock in a segregated hospital on November 26, 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee; but grew up all over Tennessee and Missouri, living with relatives.
It was while she was in Missouri, still in her teens, that she first saw Ike Turner on stage. It was during a set break that a young Anna Mae saw Ike alone playing on the stage and jumped up and began singing. And the rest as they say is history. She joined the band, changed her name from Anna Mae to Tina…and never looked back.
Predeceased by her first husband Ike and son Craig, Turner is survived by her second husband Erwin Bach and son Ronald.
Tina Turner discography:
“Tuna Turns the Country On”
“Acid Queen”
“Love Explosion”
“Rough”
“Private Dancer”
“Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” original motion picture soundtrack
“Break Every Rule”
“Tina Live in Europe”
“Foreign Affair”
“Look Me in the Heart”
“Goldeneye” original motion picture soundtrack
“Wildest Dreams”
“Good Hearted Woman”
“Twenty Four Seven”
“Evergreens”
“Beyond: Buddhist and Christian Prayers”
“Children Beyond: With Children United in Prayer”
“Love Within: Beyond”
“Awakening: Beyond”
“Tina : The Tina Turner Musical” original London cast recording
“I Don’t Wanna Love You” (the singles)
feature photo credit: courtesy of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame