Tina Turner died today after an extended illness. She was 83.
- Tina was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26th, 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee.
- She met Ike Turner in 1960. He made her the centerpiece of the The Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Their hits included "A Fool In Love," "Proud Mary" and "Nutbush City Limits."
- Ike physically and mentally abused Tina, which she chronicled in her 1986 autobiography, I, Tina. It was made into the 1993 movie What's Love Got to Do With It, starring Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne.
- Tina went solo in the late 1970s after divorcing Ike.
- Charted five Top 10 solo hits -- "What's Love Got to Do With It," "Better Be Good to Me," "Private Dancer," "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" and "Typical Male" -- between 1984 and '86. Her sixth, "I Don't Wanna Fight," came off the What's Love Got to Do With It movie soundtrack in 1993.
- She won 12 Grammy awards, eight of them competitive, including eight as a solo artist.
- She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (with Ike) in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021.
- She became the subject of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, a successful jukebox musical that opened in London in 2018 and New York in 2019.
- Tina leaves behind her two biological sons Raymond Hill and Ronald Turner, as well as two of Ike’s eldest sons, Ike Jr. and Michael.
- She'd spent the last part of her life as a tax exile in Switzerland.
Turner was one of music’s most beloved figures, with a career spanning more than five decades. Known for her vibrant performances and age-defying appearance, she was the Queen of Rock and Roll.
Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee. She got her professional start when she met Ike Turner in 1960 and became the riveting centerpiece of the The Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Their hits together include “A Fool in Love," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "I Idolize You,” “Proud Mary” and the groundbreaking "River Deep, Mountain High.” They would eventually marry, but the union was notoriously volatile. Ike physically and mentally abused Tina for many of their years together, as documented in the 1993 bio-pic What’s Love Got to Do With It.
In the late 1970s, Tina divorced Ike, left the act and went solo. It was a complete re-invention -- she ditched the bluesy, R&B numbers she’d become famous for and entered the pop-rock genre. 1984’s Private Dancer completed one of music’s most remarkable comebacks. The album sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and spun off the hits "What's Love Got to Do With It," “Better Be Good to Me” and a cover of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” in addition to its title track.
Tina would go on to win three of her 12 total Grammys in 1985 and also appear in the Mel Gibson film in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, for which she also recorded the hit “We Don’t Need Another Hero.”
In 1986 she released a memoir called I, Tina. It was later turned into the 1993 bio-pic What's Love Got to Do With It, which scored an Oscar nomination for Angela Bassett for her potrayal of Tina. The film also gave Turner her last U.S. Top 10 hit, "I Don't Wanna Fight."
Things slowed down for Tina in the U.S.in the early ‘90s, so she again re-invented herself, this time in Europe. She recorded more hit albums and embarked on sellout international tours, becoming one of the continent’s biggest selling and most revered artists. That success spawned the platinum-selling compilations Simply the Best and 24/7.
In 2008, she embarked on the Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour, which was accompanied by the release of Tina! Her Greatest Hits. Her final show took place in Sheffield, England on May 5th, 2009.
In 2018, the jukebox musical Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, with Adrienne Warren playing Tina, successfully opened in London's West End. The jukebox musical came to Broadway in 2019, and Warren won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical the next year.
In 2018, she won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2021 she entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist.
Tina leaves behind her two biological sons Raymond Hill and Ronald Turner, as well as two of Ike’s eldest sons, Ike Jr. and Michael.
The world is reacting to the death of Tina Turner at age 83. Here are a select few.