LONDON: The dynamic rock and soul singer Tina Turner, who climbed from modest origins and endured a notoriously violent marriage to become one of the most well-known female performers of all time, has passed away, according to a statement from her family.
She was 83 years old, according to CNN.
Her family said that Turner passed away on Wednesday at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland.
“With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” her family said.
“She captivated millions of admirers worldwide with her songs and her zest for life, and she also inspired future’s artists. We say goodbye to a close friend farewell today, who leaves behind her greatest creation—her music—for all of us. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly, a message on her verified Facebook profile stated.
Turner, a captivating live singer, recorded a number of R&B singles with her abusive and demanding husband Ike Turner in the 1960s and early 1970s before she fled their Dallas hotel room with 36 cents.
Years passed as her solo career sputtered before she launched a dramatic return in 1984 with her multi-platinum album “Private Dancer” and its No 1 song, “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”
With her short skirts, spiky hair, and infamously long legs, Turner quickly became a global phenomenon who commanded MTV while walking across concert platforms in three-inch heels.
She was hailed as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” for her musical prowess, and battered women throughout the world looked up to her for strength and inspiration. Every syllable resonated genuine as she sang about suffering and heartbreak in her husky, full-throated voice.
She was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 to working-class sharecroppers near Nutbush, Tennessee, a little town that became well-known because to her autobiographical song “Nutbush City Limits.” After her parents divorced, she spent her early years living with her grandmother.
“We did not live in poverty. There was food set out for us. We just didn’t have nice items, like bicycles, Turner told Oprah Winfrey in an interview in 2005.
“Since we attended church, we dressed up for Easter. I didn’t know much else and was a really naïve person. I was familiar with B.B. King, country and western music,” said Turner at that time.
“Before the white folks permitted us to come down and watch their television once a week, I had no idea what it was like to be a celebrity.”
Turner and her sister Ruby relocated to St. Louis, Missouri, to live with their mother when their grandmother passed away in the 1950s.
She started going to some of the neighbourhood clubs in St. Louis, where she also met singer Ike Turner, whose band, Kings of Rhythm, was well-known there. At the age of 17, he asked her to sing for his band.
She started out as Tina Turner, and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue was established in 1960. Their bond grew in the same year their son Ronnie was born. Craig, Tina’s son from a former relationship, and two children from Ike’s past marriages were among the four children they raised after getting married in 1962.
According to Turner’s memoirs and interviews, the physical assault started almost immediately.
Ike Turner, who was thin-skinned and temperamental, would reportedly snap at the slightest provocation and attack her with anything in his possession, including coat hangers, telephones, a wooden shoe stretcher, and his fists.
She said that he would frequently beat her before they took the stage.
He would strike me in the ribs before consistently attempting to give me a black eye. He desired that his cruelty be seen. Turner said, “That was the humiliating part.
With the assistance of female backing vocalists, Tina sang the lead vocals on the majority of their tracks, with her husband singing or playing guitar in the background. Their collaborative efforts produced a number of R&B singles, such as “A Fool In Love,” “Nutbush City Limits,” and “Proud Mary,” a Creedence Clearwater Revival song they covered in 1971 that peaked at No. 4 on the mainstream charts and earned them a Grammy.
Off-stage, however, their marriage remained rocky, in part due to Ike Turner’s cocaine addiction.
She stayed with Ike Turner for more than ten years because she was afraid of his rage and swore she wouldn’t leave him like other people did.
But things reached a breaking point when they travelled to Dallas for a gig in July 1976. After an aeroplane travel, Turner said in her book that her husband started striking her while driving to their hotel. She snuck out of their room when he was sleeping with just a Mobil credit card and 36 cents, or “a quarter, a dime, and a penny.”
She ran across a busy highway and into a motel, where a compassionate clerk granted her a room after seeing her injured face. She then made a call to a lawyer she knew, who set up a pickup and flight back to Los Angeles for her with a buddy.
“My heart was in my ears as soon as my jet touched down in California. Ike had previously followed me down on a bus after I’d gone, so I was worried he’d be there, she said Oprah. “So I ran like crazy as I got off the plane. If he’s here, I’m going to yell for the cops, I told myself. I kept repeating in my brain, “I’ll die before I go back,”
By then a friend had introduced Turner to Buddhism and its practice of intonation, which she credited with giving her the strength to quit her husband. Raised Baptist, Turner embraced Buddhism wholeheartedly in middle age and said its teachings changed her life.
