Soul and rock powerhouse Tina Turner, known for her octave-beyond voice and mesmerizing stage moves, has died at the age of 83.
He died on Wednesday at his home in Switzerland after a long battle with the disease, according to a statement from his publicist. In her 2018 memoir, Tina Turner: My Love Story, Turner detailed the health problems she had suffered since 2013, including a stroke, bowel cancer, and kidney failure. Her second husband Erwin Bach saved her life in 2017 by donating a kidney to her.
In a recording career that spanned 60 years, Turner rose to fame both as a solo artist and in a duo with her first husband, Ike Turner. With the latter, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and became a major figure on the US pop and R&B charts of the 1960s and ’70s. The duo’s energetic soul and rock were influenced by Tina’s varying vocals. She grew up listening to country music, but she had many idols like 50’s R&B singers Laverne Baker and Faye Adams. gospel great Mahalia Jackson and rock pioneer Sister Rosetta Tarp; Blues Legend B.B. King; Soul Masters Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. As such, she had a flexible, versatile voice and could emit warm rock growls or drop into a lower register to sing smoky blues or velvety R&B tunes. One of Ike and Tina’s best-known songs, “River Deep, Mountain High,” was also an orchestral-gospel triumph produced by Phil Spector.
An agile vocal interpreter, Turner has also adapted other people’s iconic songs as her own. He added a tone of longing and despair to The Beatles’ “Come Together” and a country sensibility to The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk”. A woman.” His signature tune, a soulful twist on Creedence Clearwater Revival’s laid-back “Proud Mary,” became a showcase for his sensual soul-stirring and gritty rock ‘n’ roll yelps. The performance earned Turner his first Grammy. She won a total of eight Grammys during the 80s, including Best Female Rock Vocal Performance three years in a row.
In addition to her singing prowess, Turner had a forceful stage presence that was often referred to as “thrilling”. This explanation somehow always made sense. Turner vibrated with energy like a boiling pot on the mic, and she had a natural athleticism that translated into a lively yet powerful stage dance. “Someone called Tina the ‘female Mick Jagger’.” Ben Fong-Torres of Rolling Stone wrote in 1971. “Actually, to be more accurate, Mick should be called ‘the male Tina Turner.'” Exaggeration: In the same Rolling Stone op-ed, Turner indicated that Jagger studied his moves more closely in 1969 when he and Ike toured with the Rolling Stones. The combination was inflammatory when Live Aid called it a “shock” in 1985.
Jagger said in a statement on Instagram: “I am so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner. She was an incredibly talented artist and singer. She was inspirational, warm, funny and generous. When I was little she Helped me a lot and I will never forget him.”
Born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, Turner grew up in rural Nutbush, Tennessee, but also spent time in Knoxville as her parents moved to Knoxville for work. Growing up, she had a distant relationship with her father and mother, who left the family when she was 13. But acting came naturally and she found comfort. In Tina Turner: My Love Story, she goes on a music-filled shopping trip (getting paid by a saleswoman to remember the radio hits she remembered when she was 4 or 5) and the enthusiasm that her cousin, half-sister Evelyn And inspires the younger one. Elder sister. describes. Eileen in Chuck’s stage show. Later, she calls Mr. His performance presence was further honed by singing at a picnic with a locally famous trombonist named Bootsy Whitelaw.
Turner moved to St. Louis at age 16 to live with Eileen and her mother. In 1957 B.B. After surprising the bandleader with an impromptu rendition of King’s “You Know I Love You”, she is accepted into the group. The troupe was eventually renamed the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, with an emphasis on their elevated roles.
By all accounts, Ike was brutal to Tina, both personally and professionally. Turner wrote in My Love Story, “Looking back, I realize that my relationship with Ike was ruined the day I thought it would be his meal ticket, his money maker.” He then described his last-minute replacement for the duo’s first hit, “A Fool in Love”, which reached #2 on the R&B chart in 1960, and told Ike to head the label. was influential enough to: make Tina the center of the group
What must have been going through Ike’s mind when he heard that advice?” He continued, “He had to find a way to protect his interests, and that’s where the problem began.”
Over the years, Turner has been open about some aspects of their time together, though she told The New York Times in 2019 that she never divulged everything.
However, Ike was under mental control. For example, he renamed her “Tina Turner”, then trademarked the name without her consent, and physically abused her. She was nearly penniless when he left her in 1976 when she was on tour in Dallas. “I walked out for nothing and I had to work on myself for my family and everyone, so I went back to work,” she said while appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show in 2017.
Turner 1974 Tina Turns the Country On! While performing with Ike, he released two solo albums. —an LP on which she recorded songs by Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, and Kris Kristofferson, as well as the 1975 rock-oriented cover album Acid Queen. Their first entertainment was mainstream fare (the game show Hollywood Squares and Cher’s variety TV series), followed by cabaret-style live concerts, and post-split the goal was two albums that didn’t chart. They also recorded a polished electro-pop take on the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion” on Music of Quality and Distinction, Volume One, an album released under the moniker BEF by Heaven 17 members Martin Ware and Ian Craig Marsh.
1984 would be an important year for Turner. She dueted with David Bowie on the reggae-influenced title track of his Tonight LP, and eventually achieved widespread mainstream success thanks to the blockbuster Private Dancer. Like “Ball of Confusion”, the album embraced the sleek, cutting-edge production values of the decade. In fact, both songs were co-produced by Ware and still highlight Turner’s muscular voice and eclectic influences.
The album’s track listing includes the title track, written by Mark Knopfler, and covers of songs by David Bowie (“1984”), The Beatles (“Help!”), and Ann Peebles (“I Can’t Stand the Rain”). , Private Dancer also featured her first and only solo number one hit, the vulnerable and classy “What’s Love Got to Do With It”. Winner of Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, the single boasted a cathartic and raw vocal performance that launched her refined second act and cemented her reputation as a survivor. ,
Turner’s commercial renaissance continued as the decade progressed. She co-starred in the 1985 film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, which spawned the dramatic power ballad “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” and the Grammy Award-winning “One of the Living”, a duet with Bryan Adams. Is. “It’s Only Love”, the playful seduction of “Typical Male”, and the empowerment anthem “The Best”. With an edgy wig and power miniskirt that showed off her famous legs, Turner also became an early MTV icon. She performed at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 and won Best Female Video for “What’s Love Got To Do” the following year. do with it.”
Turner remained a commercial force into the ’90s, especially thanks to the 1993 biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It. Based on her 1986 autobiography I, Tina, the film starred Laurence Fishburne as Ike and Angela Bassett as Tina. Both actors were nominated for Oscars, and Bassett won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Turner herself also received a career boost when the soundtrack song “I Don’t Wanna Fight” became a worldwide hit and reached the top 10 in the US. “GoldenEye” for the title film.
After moving to Switzerland in 1995, Turner began to cut back on his workload in the late 90s and 2000s, eventually retiring in 2009 after the 50th anniversary tour. However, he still actively managed his legacy. In fact, she was also closely involved in the development of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, which opened on Broadway in the fall of 2019. And at the 2008 Grammy Awards, she performed a showtop version of “Proud Mary” with Beyoncé. In retrospect, it’s easy to interpret the moment as Turner reaching out to the young musician. However, this performance once again confirmed that she is in full control of her rich musical legacy.