Iconic singer Tina Turner, recognized as the Queen of rock ‘n’ roll, has died at age 83 after a glittering career that spanned five decades.
Tina, who rose to prominence during the 1960s as the lead singer of the St. Louis duo Ike & Tina Turner, died on Wednesday, a rep confirmed.
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Who Was Tina Tunner ?
Anna Mae Bullock, known by her stage name Tina Turner, was born November 26, 1939, in Tennessee, United States of America.
Turner was born into a very low-income household on rural farmland. Her father worked at the Poindexter Farm, which is where Turner would help pick cotton while still young. Tina had two older sisters, Ruby Bullock and Evelyn Currie.
Unfortunately, the sisters were temporarily separated during World War II when their parents decided to relocate to Knoxville. When their parents left for Knoxville, Tina was left to be looked after by her strict grandparents. The family finally reunited after the war and started a new life in Knoxville.
Tina attended Flagg Grove Elementary School once her family moved to Nutbush. Unfortunately, at the age of 11, Tina’s mother left the family to escape her abusive husband.
With Turner and her sisters still trying to process their mother’s abandonment, their father left two years later to start a new family with his wife in Detroit.
Turner and her sister lived with their grandmother after their father’s disappearance. To survive, Tina worked as a domestic worker during her teenage years.
To make matters worse, despite the numerous hardships that Tina already had to face, she was devastated when her sister Everly died in a car crash with her cousins.
Turner focused on high school to distract herself from the trauma and became a cheerleader as well as joined the school’s basketball team.
Her grandmother died when she turned 16, so Tina had to go live with her mother in St Louis, attending Summer High School and graduating in 1958, only to start work at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Turner started partying in her early adult years and one night sneaked on stage to perform at an Ike Turner concert, an event that marked the beginning of her musical .
Career
Tina and Ike created a duo and from there went on to make millions. Her career debut was in 1960 when the pair released “A Fool in Love”, which broke racial barriers at the time. The song became an instant hit and reached number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.
While working with Ike, Tina received vocal training, which opened new opportunities for her. Ike decided to rename her Tina, and copyrighted the name, so if she ever left the band, she couldn’t take the name with her.
The duo released another song called “It Gonna Work Out Fine”, which earned them a Grammy nomination and became famous worldwide.
Turner and Ike had many successes before word started getting out about the abuse that she was suffering. The abuse resulted from his addiction to cocaine and Tina escaped from him one day after getting into a physical altercation, hiding at one of her friend’s houses.
Shortly after that, Turner divorced Ike and started out on her own. To pay the bills, Tina appeared on television as she was facing major debt from lawsuits to do with cancellations of her previous duo gigs.
Despite the problems, this did not stop Turner as she bounced back in 1977 and started what was to be an impressively successful solo career.
She released six successful solo albums; Private Dancer, What’s Love Got to Do with it, Tina Live, Foreign Affair, Wildest Dreams and Break Every Rule.
From there, nothing could stop stopping her as she went on to win numerous awards and changed the music industry forever.
She’s appeared on stage with Mick Jagger and Sting and in films with Mel Gibson in his post-apocalyptic film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
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Tina Turner Illness
Tina Turner revealed in her 2018 memoir My Love Story that she had suffered multiple life-threatening illnesses. In 2013, three weeks after her wedding to Erwin Bach, she suffered a stroke and had to learn to walk again. In 2016, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer.
Turner opted for homeopathic remedies to treat her high blood pressure. Her hypertension resulted in damage to her kidneys and eventual kidney failure. Her chances of receiving a kidney were low, and she was urged to start dialysis.
She considered assisted suicide and signed up to be a member of Exit, but Bach offered to donate a kidney for her transplant. Turner had kidney transplant surgery on April 7, 2017.
Tina Turner death
Tina Turner died on May 24, 2023 at the age of 83 in her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland according to her spokesperson.
Tina Turner cause of death
At the time of this report, there was no cause of death attributed to her death. The news was shared on Turner’s Instagram account on Wednesday.
“Verified It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow,” the statement read. “Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family.
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