Tina Turner died peacefully in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, after a protracted battle with illness in her home.
Turner won six of her eight Grammy Awards in the 1980s. The decade saw her land a dozen songs on the Top 40, including “Typical Male,” “The Best,” “Private Dancer” and “Better Be Good to Me.” Her 1988 show in Rio de Janeiro drew 180,000 people, which remains one of the largest concert audiences for any single performer.
By then, Turner had been free from her marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for a decade.
“Tina’s story is not one of victimhood but one of incredible triumph,” singer Janet Jackson wrote about Turner, in a Rolling Stone issue that placed Turner at No. 63 on a list of the top 100 artists of all time.
“She’s transformed herself into an international sensation – an elegant powerhouse,” Jackson said.
Most of Turner’s hit songs were written by others, but she enlivened them with a voice that New York Times music critic Jon Pareles called “one of the more peculiar instruments in pop.”
“It’s three-tiered, with a nasal low register, a yowling, cutting middle range, and a high register so startlingly clear it sounds like a falsetto,” Pareles wrote in a 1987 concert review.
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones stated that he was broken by Turner’s death, calling her “enormously talented.”
“She was inspiring, warm, funny, and generous,” Jagger wrote on Twitter. “She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.”
Canadian singer Bryan Adams, who paired with Turner on the 1985 single “It’s Only Love,” said, “The world just lost one hell of a powerhouse of a woman.”
“Thank you for being the inspiration to millions of people around the world, for speaking your truth and giving us the gift of your voice,” Adams said on Twitter.
At the White House, spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre called Turner’s death “a massive loss to the communities that loved her and certainly the music industry. Her music will continue to live on.”
Turner left her husband one night in 1976 on a tour stop in Dallas, after he pummeled her during a car ride and she struck back, according to her memoir. Their divorce was finalized in 1978.
Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, calling them “one of the most formidable live acts in history.” Ike Turner sadly passed away in 2007.
She divorced her husband and years struggling to recapture the limelight.
“Private Dancer” was Turner’s biggest album, selling more than 200 million records in total.
In 1985 Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach, who became her long-term partner, and in 1988 she moved to London, beginning a decades-long residency in Europe. She released two studio albums in the 1990s that sold well, especially in Europe, recorded the theme song for 1995 Bond movie “GoldenEye,” and staged a successful world tour in 2008 and 2009.
She relinquished her U.S citizenship after she married Bach, and became a citizen of Switzerland.
After her retirement in 2018, she suffered a myriad of health problems. She also lost her oldest son, Craig, who committed suicide. Craig’s younger brother, Ronnie, died in December 2022.
The musical stage show “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical,” with Adrienne Warren initially acting and singing the star’s life story, was a hit first in London’s West End in 2018, and later on Broadway, and is still running. And in 2021 HBO released a documentary about her life, “Tina.”
She is survived by 2 adopted sons.
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