Tina Turner, the powerhouse singer, incendiary live performer and honorary “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” died Wednesday at age 83.
The singer’s family confirmed the news in a statement. “Tina Turner, the ‘Queen of Rock ‘n Roll,’ has died peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness in her home in Kusnacht near Zurich, Switzerland,” they said. “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model.”
Born Anna Mae Bullock on Nov. 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tennessee, Turner launched her illustrious, six-plus-decade career in 1957 when she started performing with Ike Turner’s Kings of Rhythm. She appeared on the song “Boxtop” the following year under the name “Little Ann.” Ike & Tina Turner made their recording debut in 1960 with “A Fool in Love,” which became one of the first R&B songs to enjoy crossover pop success and went platinum. The couple married in 1962.
Ike & Tina Turner scored numerous hits throughout the ’60s and ’70s (most famously a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s “Proud Mary”) and developed a reputation as a must-see live act. Turner filed for divorce from Ike in 1976, and their turbulent marriage officially came to an end in March 1978.
Turner’s career declined for several years following the divorce, but she launched a massive comeback with her 1984 solo album Private Dancer, which went five-times platinum and spawned the No. 1 hit “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” Its successor, 1986’s Break Every Rule, also went platinum and yielded the No. 2 hit “Typical Male.” Turner continued making music over the next decade, releasing her final studio album, Twenty Four Seven, in 1999.
Turner holds the distinction of being one of three women (along with Carole King and Stevie Nicks) inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice — first in 1991 as one-half of Ike & Tina Turner, and in 2021 as a solo artist. In the 2021 HBO documentary Tina, the singer reflected on her remarkable career and her dream “to be the first Black rock ‘n’ roll singer to pack places like the [Rolling] Stones.”
“Look what I have done in this lifetime with this body,” she said. “I’m a girl from a cotton field. I pulled myself above what was not taught to me.”
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