Tina Turner, The Famous Queen Of Rock 'N' Roll, Has Died At The Age Of 83

Tina Turner, the revolutionary Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll who surmounted significant personal and professional obstacles to carve out a legendary six-decade career as a singer and actor, died on Wednesday. She was 83 years old.

The “Best” singer’s rep confirmed to the Telegraph that she died after a protracted illness at her home in Küsnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland.

“It is with great sadness that we announce Tina Turner’s passing,” the team behind her official Instagram account said.

“With her music and boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans worldwide and inspired tomorrow’s stars.”

“Today we say farewell to a dear friend who has left us her greatest work: her music.” Our deepest sympathies go out to her family. Tina, we will miss you very much.”

The iconic performer rose to prominence in the 1960s as a member of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, which produced chart-topping hits until she left him after years of domestic abuse.

After surviving the heinous relationship, Turner went on to make one of the most dramatic comebacks in music history, becoming an international sensation as a solo singer in the 1980s with classics like “What is Love Got to Do With It?”

Turner, who was also known for her classic 1971 version of “Proud Mary” and her portrayal as Aunty Entity in 1985’s “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” was tormented by illness in her later years, including a stroke, intestinal cancer, and kidney failure that necessitated a transplant.

In the 2021 documentary “Tina,” she said her final goodbyes to her admirers.

“Some people say that the life I lived and the performances I gave, the recognition… I should be proud of that.” “I am,” Tuner stated in the HBO documentary.

“How do you know when you have had enough of being proud?” I mean, when do you, how do you slowly bow out? Just leave?”

Turner had already established herself as one of the world’s most legendary vocalists and influenced a generation of musicians when she retired to live her final act away from the spotlight.

She received 12 Grammy Awards, sold over 200 million albums, appeared in several films, and wrote three best-selling memoirs, one of which was transformed into the 1993 biopic “What is Love Got to Do With It,” starring Angela Bassett as Turner.

Turner began her career as a blues singer in nightclubs at the age of 16 after being born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in rural Tennessee.

When Turner was 11, her mother, Zelma, fled away from an abusive relationship with Turner’s father, Floyd, a sharecropper.

Turner revealed in her 1986 autobiography “I, Tina” that she felt “unwanted” by her mother, whose funeral she ignored in 1999, according to Page Six.

She first watched Ike Turner play with his band Kings of Rhythm in the late 1950s and quickly became a member.

Tina Turner, a sultry vocalist with a gritty voice whose stage appearance was underlined by short skirts and stilettos, was refashioned by Ike. She made her debut in 1960 with the song “A Fool In Love,” which became a popular single.

The Ike and Tina Turner Revue grew out of their success. Tina adopted two of Ike’s children, Ike Jr. and Michael, after the couple married in 1962 and had a son, Ronnie. She also has a son from a prior relationship, Craig.

Ike and Tina created a string of chart-topping singles, including “I Idolize You” and “It is Going to Work Out Fine,” and toured extensively across the country. Tina became the first black woman to cover Rolling Stone magazine in 1967.

Ike, on the other hand, had strict control over Tina, hitting and insulting her. “I have to do what Ike says,” she told Rolling Stone magazine in 1971.

Following two stints opening for the Rolling Stones, including a US tour, the pair’s popularity had soared by 1969.

They rose to prominence after performing a spirited song of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” in 1971, which earned them a Grammy for outstanding R&B vocal performance by a group.

Tina made her cinematic debut as The Acid Queen in 1975 in “Tommy,” a British film based on The Who is 1969 rock opera.

Tina, on the other hand, would subsequently relate how she was subjected to a cycle of abuse at the hands of cocaine-addicted Ike.

“He did not enjoy the fact that he had to rely on me. “I did not want to start a fight because it was always a black eye, a broken nose, a busted lip, a rib,” she explained to CBS News in 2019.

Tina later claimed that the pair split up following an encounter in Dallas during which she fought back.

Tina filed for divorce in 1978, citing Ike’s abuse, as well as his numerous infidelities and escalating drug and alcohol usage.

Ike and Tina both faded into oblivion after their divorce. Tina later stated that she had “36 cents and a gas station credit card” when she fled Ike.

Tina, on the other hand, made a stunning comeback in 1982 with the multiplatinum album “Private Dancer,” which featured the classics “Let us Stay Together” and “What is Love Got To Do With It.”

The album went on to receive four Grammy nominations and sell more than 20 million copies worldwide.

The leggy vocalist, who was in her mid-40s at the time, became even more famous for her aggressive performances, raspy voice, and trademark punk-inspired appearance.

She returned to the big screen in 1985, co-starring in the post-apocalyptic action film “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” with Mel Gibson.

A year later, she released her memoir, which was later adapted into the film “What is Love Got to Do With It,” with Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett receiving Academy Award nods for their roles as Ike and Tina, respectively.

In 1991, she and Ike were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He died of an accidental drug overdose in 2007, and she said they had not communicated in 30 years.

“I have to admit that I hated Ike for a long time. But it was not until dad died that I knew he was a sick person,” Turner stated in the video.

“It hurts to remember those times, but at some point forgiveness takes over, and forgiveness means not having to hold on.”

Turner finally found love and happiness with Erwin Bach, a German music producer she met in 1986.

Turner began to wind down her music career as their relationship progressed, producing her final album in 1999, at the age of 59.

After completing her “Tina! : 50th Anniversary Tour,” one of the highest-grossing tours of all time, she announced her retirement from the stage in 2009.

In 2019, she told the New York Times, “I was just tired of singing and making everyone happy.” “I would never done anything else in my life.”

Turner suffered from loneliness while attempting to make the world happy, and in 1968, while Ike was abusing her, she attempted to escape with a sleeping pill overdose.

In 2018, she also lost her son Craig to suicide, which she described as her “saddest moment as a mother.”

Turner remarked in the documentary, “He was 59 when he died so tragically, but he will always be my baby.”

After a 27-year romance, Turner and Bach married in 2013, and Turner surrendered her US citizenship and relocated to Switzerland to live in a castle with him. Turner once stated that their wedding was “the first time that I got married, as far as I was concerned.”

Tina Turner said in her 2018 autobiography “Tina Turner: My Love Story” that Bach, who was 16 years her junior, saved her life by giving her a kidney when she needed one two years earlier.

“I could not believe it back then, and I still can not believe it now,” she wrote. “When he considered his future, he considered me.” “He told me, ‘My future is our future.'”

Aside from being the subject of a hit film, Turner’s groundbreaking career and stormy life were also adapted into the popular Broadway production “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” which premiered in 2019.

Turner told CBS’ Gayle King in 2018 that she was “glad” her time on stage was finished, to which the anchor replied, “People miss you, Tina.”

“That is fine,” Turner said, laughing. “They can go watch the videos… have fun with those.” But I am done with it.”

Tina Turner, The Famous Queen Of Rock ‘N’ Roll, Has Died At The Age Of 83

Tina Turner, the revolutionary Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll who surmounted significant personal and professional obstacles to carve out a legendary six-decade career as a singer and actor, died on Wednesday. She was 83 years old.

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