Music legend Tina Turner dies
Geneva, May 24 (EFE).- Singer Tina Turner, who sold more than 100 million records worldwide during a career that spanned seven decades, died Wednesday at her home in Switzerland, her publicist said. She was 83.
“Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock’n Roll,’ has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland,” Bernard Doherty said in a news release. “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model.”
While Doherty did not mention a cause of death, the 12-time Grammy winner had suffered from ill health in recent years and her 2021 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took place via videolink from her residence.
Born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939, in Nutbush, Tennessee, she started performing professionally in 1957 with future husband Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm at a club in East St. Louis, Illinois.
“A Fool in Love,” recorded in 1960, marked her debut as a recording artist under the name Tina Turner and the launch of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue with Tina as the star.
In 1966, producer Phil Spector signed the couple to his Philles label and recorded Tina’s soaring version of “River Deep-Mountain High,” which reached No. 3 on the singles chart in the United Kingdom and led to the Turner Revue’s being hired as the opening act for The Rolling Stones’ 1966 UK tour.
The Stones included the Turner Revue in their 1969 tour of the United States and Ike and Tina began to include more rock songs in their repertoire.
Their 1971 cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” would be Ike and Tina Turner’s biggest hit.
She was cast as the Acid Queen in the 1975 film of The Who’s “Tommy” and put out two solo albums before leaving Ike in 1976 after what she later revealed were years of physical abuse.
Tina continued to record and tour, but spent time on the margins of the music business before making a spectacular comeback in 1984 with the album “Private Dancer,” which included hits such as “What’s Love Got to Do with It” – also the name of the 1983 Hollywood film about Tina’s life with Ike – and sold 10 million copies.
Turner went on to record more best-selling albums and perform to packed houses, setting a Guinness World Record in 1988 when she drew a crowd of 180,000 to Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana stadium.
She co-starred with Mel Gibson in the 1985 film “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” and recorded the theme for the James Bond flick “GoldenEye.”
Tina Turner, who became a Swiss citizen in 2013, is survived by her second husband, German music executive Erwin Bach, and by two grandchildren.
She was predeceased by her two children.
Craig Raymond Turner died in July 2018 in an apparent suicide, while Ronnie Turner passed away last year after a battle with colon cancer. EFE
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