Tina Turner, Legendary American Singer Dubbed The 'Queen of Rock'n'Roll', Dies Aged 83 - ABC News

25/05/2023, 12:54 Tina Turner, legendary American singer dubbed the 'Queen of Rock'n'Roll', dies aged 83 - ABC News
Tina Turner, legendary American singer dubbed the 'Queen

of Rock'n'Roll', dies aged 83
Posted Thu 25 May 2023 at 4:43am , updated Thu 25 May 2023 at 9:27am
Tina Turner, dubbed the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, has died aged 83.
Tina Turner, the American-born singer dubbed the "Queen of Rock'n'Roll", has died aged 83.
Turner was one of the biggest recording artists of Key points:

all time, known for hits such as What's Love Got to
Do with It, and (Simply) The Best. Tina Turner was born Anna Mae
Bullock in 1939 in the rural
She died peacefully after a long illness in her home Tennessee community of Nutbush
in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, her publicist
She sold more than 200 million
Bernard Doherty said in a statement.
records during her career
Her publicist says the world has lost

"With her, the world loses a music "a musical legend and a role model"
legend and a role model," he said.
The American-born singer left a hard-scrabble farming community and abusive relationship to

become one of the top recording artists of all time.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-25/singer-tina-turner-has-died-aged-83/102389716 1/9
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones said he was saddened 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."
Turner and Mick Jagger performed together at the 1985 Live-Aid concert in
Philadelphia. (AP: Rusty Kennedy)
Actor Angela Bassett, who played Turner in a 1993 movie, asked: "How do we say farewell to a woman
who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world?
"Through her courage in telling her story, her commitment to stay the
course in her life, no matter the sacrifice, and her determination to
carve out a space in rock'n'roll for herself and for others who look like
her, Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful
future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like.
"While we mourn the loss of this iconic voice and presence, she gave us more than we could have ever
asked. She gave us her whole self. And Tina Turner is a gift that will always be 'simply the best'."
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.
Mariah Carey called Turner an "inspiration to women everywhere" who would "continue to inspire
generations to come".
Singer and actor Bette Midler called Turner "an absolutely brilliant performer and inspiration to us all".
"May flights of angels sing her to her rest, but if I know Tina, she is
singing lead," Midler said.
John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, who wrote Proud Mary, said he was "so deeply sad" at
the news.
"I loved her version of Proud Mary! It was different and fantastic. I was also so happy because she
chose my song and it was her breakthrough record."
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."
An icon of the 80s

Turner began her career in the 1950s during the early years of rock'n'roll and evolved into an MTV
phenomenon.
Tina Turner, performing in New York in 1985, epitomised the 1980s with her spiky blonde
hair. (AP: Ray Stubblebine/File)
In the video for her chart-topping song What's Love Got to Do with It, in which she called love a
"second-hand emotion," Turner epitomised 1980s style as she strutted through New York City streets
with her spiky blond hair, wearing a cropped jean jacket, mini skirt and stiletto heels.
With her taste for musical experimentation and bluntly-worded ballads, Turner gelled perfectly with a
1980s pop landscape in which music fans valued electronically-produced sounds and scorned hippie-
era idealism.
Sometimes nicknamed the "Queen of Rock'n'Roll," 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 Turner performed for decades. (Reuters: Stefan Wermuth)
The superstar was forthcoming about the abuse she suffered from her former husband during their
marital and musical partnership in the 1960s and 1970s.
She described bruised eyes, busted lips, a broken jaw and other injuries that repeatedly sent her to
the emergency room.
"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 number 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.
In 1985, Turner gave a fictional turn to her reputation as a survivor. She played the ruthless leader of
an outpost in a nuclear wasteland, acting opposite Mel Gibson in the third instalment in the Mad Max
franchise, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
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.
From Nutbush to stardom

Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in the rural Tennessee community of
Nutbush, which she described in her 1973 song Nutbush City Limits as a "quiet little old community, a
one-horse town".
Her father worked as an overseer on a farm and her mother left the family when the singer was 11
years old, according to the singer's 2018 memoir My Love Story.
As a teenager, Turner moved to St Louis to rejoin her mother.
Tina Turner left an abusive relationship. (Reuters: Rose Prouser)
Ike Turner, whose 1951 song Rocket 88 has often been called the first rock'n'roll record, discovered her
at age 17 when she grabbed the microphone to sing at his club show in St Louis in 1957.
The band leader later recorded a hit song, A Fool In Love, with his protege and gave her the stage
name Tina Turner, before the two married in Tijuana, Mexico.
Turner employed her strong voice and strenuously rehearsed dance routines as lead vocalist in an
ensemble called the Ike and Tina Turner Revue.
She collaborated with members of rock royalty, including The Who and Phil Spector, in the 1960s and
1970s and appeared on the cover of issue two of Rolling Stone magazine in 1967.
A man lights a candle outside Turner's house in Küsnacht, Switzerland. (AP: Michael
Buholzer/Keystone)
Ike and Tina Turner bounced between record labels, owing much of their commercial success to a
relentless touring schedule. Their biggest hit was a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's Proud
Mary.
Turner left her husband one night in 1976 on a tour stop in Dallas, after he attacked her during a car
ride and she struck back, according to her memoir. Their divorce was finalised in 1978.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Ike and Tina Turner in 1991, calling them "one of the most
formidable live acts in history". Ike Turner died in 2007.
Becoming a solo superstar

After leaving her husband, Turner spent years struggling to regain the limelight, releasing solo
albums and singles that flopped and gigging at corporate conferences.
Tina Turner was best known for her songs What's Love Got to Do with It, and (Simply) The
Best. (Reuters: Stefano Rellandini, file)
In 1980, she met new manager Roger Davies, an Australian music executive who went on to manage
her for three decades.
That led to a solo number one — What's Love Got to Do With It — and then in 1984 her album Private
Dancer landed her at the top of the charts.
Private Dancer went on to become Turner's biggest

album, the capstone of a career that saw her sell
more than 200 million records.
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.
Why is dancing to the Nutbush uniquely
She released two studio albums in the 1990s that
Australian?
sold well, especially in Europe, recorded the theme
song for 1995 Bond movie GoldenEye, and staged a
successful world tour in 2008 and 2009.
After that, she retired from show business. She married Bach, relinquishing her US citizenship and
becoming a citizen of Switzerland.
She battled a number of health problems after retiring and in 2018 she faced a family tragedy, when
her oldest son, Craig, took his life at age 59 in Los Angeles. Her younger son Ronnie died in December
2022.
Her name continues to draw audiences years after her retirement. 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. The musical is currently
showing in Sydney.
In 2021 HBO released a documentary about her life.
She is survived by Bach and two sons of Ike's that she adopted.
YOUTUBE: Tina Turner performing The Best at the NSWRL grand final in 1993.
Reuters

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25/05/2023, 12:54 Tina Turner, legendary American singer dubbed the 'Queen of Rock'n'Roll', dies aged 83 - ABC News

Tina Turner, legendary American singer dubbed the 'Queen

Turner was one of the biggest recording artists of Key points:

Her publicist says the world has lost

The American-born singer left a hard-scrabble farming community and abusive relationship to

An icon of the 80s

Tina Turner performed for decades. (Reuters: Stefan Wermuth)

From Nutbush to stardom

As a teenager, Turner moved to St Louis to rejoin her mother.

Tina Turner left an abusive relationship. (Reuters: Rose Prouser)

Becoming a solo superstar

Private Dancer went on to become Turner's biggest

In 1985 Turner met German music executive Erwin

In 2021 HBO released a documentary about her life.

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