R.I.P. Tina Turner, Queen of Rock and Roll
Tina Turner, the legendary Grammy-award winning singer, died on Wednesday at age 83
Aux News Tina Turner
Tina Turner, the legendary rock and soul singer with hits like “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” “River Deep—Mountain High,” and “The Best,” has died, according to Rolling Stone. She was 83 years old.
“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 Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland,” her family said in a statement Wednesday (via RS). “With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model.”
Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock, began her career performing with her husband Ike Turner in the late 1950s. Their partnership was commercially and critically successful, with several Grammy nominations including a win for their cover of “Proud Mary” in 1972. However, their marriage was characterized by abuse, as chronicled in her 1986 memoir I, Tina: My Life Story. (That book was later adapted into the film What’s Love Got To Do With It starring Angela Bassett.)
Turner extricated herself from the marriage in 1978, and after a period of solo touring and musical experimentation had a definitive comeback with her album Private Dancer in 1984. That album included the single “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” which became her only Billboard #1 and garnered multiple Grammys (for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance). She would go on to have a highly successful solo career—highlights of which include duetting with David Bowie, participating in “We Are The World,” and recording the James Bond theme “GoldenEye,” among others—before retiring from touring in 2009.
Turner appeared as an actor in films like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Last Action Hero in addition to being the author of multiple autobiographical works. Her life was depicted onstage in the Broadway jukebox musical Tina, and participated in a documentary film with the same name for HBO in 2021.
Turner’s personal life was at times characterized by tragedy—beyond her first marriage, she also outlived her two sons Craig and Ronnie (via Reuters). But her powerhouse vocals not only immortalized her as the “Queen of Rock and Roll,” she also inspired generations of artists to come. Janet Jackson, Beyoncé, and Janelle Monáe are just some of the stars who have spoken on the influence Turner had on them as artists, to say nothing of her legions of fans.
Over her lifetime, Turner was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, with Ike in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021. She is survived by husband Erwin Bach and two sons of Ike’s that she adopted, per Reuters.
R.I.P.
61 Comments
She’s finally gone beyond Thunderdome 🙁
a force of nature, womankind is lesser today.
On the same day Ron DeSantis makes his presidential run official. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
[/insert/spongebob-immaheadout_meme]
In a perfect world, Tina is president and I’m reading about Ron’s death.
I reckon he waited until now to announce for fear that she would have taken him out by the ear.
I like Ike!
Dang.She really was a singular, irrepressible talent and personality.
And, I don’t feel it is wildly inappropriate to note, probably the nicest legs in the entertainment industry for about 40 years.
She didn’t take out a policy from Lloyd’s of London on them for nothing.
Part of the brand, after all.
She did an interview once where she said her legs weren’t that good, that she just dressed on stage to accentuate them.In other words, Tina Turner was a damn liar.
Weird fact:Tina is absolutely huge in Australia. Kinda hard to understate just how much she was loved down here (for like the first half of the 90s I thought she was Australian).Australian Rugby League, on a whim, commissioned her to do an ad for them in 1989, which became part of some of the most legendary promos that are seared into my generations’ memory, unless you’re one of those people from the freak states that don’t play League. Everyone was weirded out getting an American to promote the NRL, didn’t think she’d even bother to do it. Turns out her manager, an expat Aussie, was a homesick NRL fan and convinced her. Before the ads had even air it was gathering buzz for the sheer oddity of the situation. But once it started, it took off, they never looked back. It started off with “What Get Is What You See” in 1989, a full two-minute promo, which took some creative licence by showing Wayne Bennett speaking.In 1992, she recorded a duet with working-class hero Jimmy Barnes, off the back her performing it at the 1990 NRL grand final. Barnesy’s one of the few blokes who could hang vocally with Tina, and their voices pair so incredibly well with each other. (I’ve got the single of this somewhere, which I believe I got in a box of Nutri-Grain):The one I remember her for was 1995’s “Simply The Best”, which is just fantastic 90s Australiana. You’ve got Tina dancing on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in front of the Opera House (thankfully, they didn’t make her perform inside of it – she deserved better):(Half those hits and tackles shown in that ad are illegal now.)It’s a weird, niche, but beautiful situation: an American singer, who’d never seen a game of NRL before, had precisely zero connection to the sport and only a tenuous connection to Australia, ended up becoming probably the most important woman in the hyper-masculine sport and ended up transforming it. It could’ve been one of those weird, Lost In Translation situations: you know, go do an ad for this weird country but it doesn’t matter because nobody back in your home market will see it and thus your branding won’t be damaged, easy money…but no. Turn became a footy legend, and transformed the game. It could’ve been a novelty, but Turner became an icon of NRL. She transformed the perception of the game, from a sport of blue-collar men to one of universal appeal across a ton of cultural divides and into family entertainment – she got more women into the game than anyone else. Turner’s role was widely regarded as one of the most successful sporting promotional and transformational campaigns ever. Turner was the female face of the sport. You know, that and the Nutbush dance, which every Aussie knows. Trust me, there’ll be millions of Aussie performing it in her honour tonight.
When I heard this I got a quick tear in my eye. One of the few singers left who would bring me to that. Now I have private dancer playing in my head. Damn.
Best Bond theme ever. RIP
JOE DON BAKER
MITCHELL!
Love Tina but tis is not even a top 5 Bond theme song.
It is though. After all the love ballads and synth pop of the Moore and Dalton era, it was a return to Bassey-like form.
Ehem…Gladys Knight would like a word…..
That’s fair. I file that under love ballads, though it does have an edge (no pun intended). And I’m just biased against it. Too slow, too long, and musically too derivative of Goldfinger. It has the bridge that slows it almost to a stop, where GoldenEye’s grows in power, crescendoing to Tina’s stunning howl. GoldenEye is sort of an all-around improvement and that song.
That’s fair. I file that under love ballads, though it does have an edge (no pun intended). And I’m just biased against it. Too slow, too long, and musically too derivative of Goldfinger. GoldenEye is sort of an all-around improvement and that song.
Fuck off.
Written specifically for her by Bono and The Edge, and all about getting revenge on a former lover. That’s something she could really throw herself into.
It wasn’t written for her- Tina lived next door to Bono and/or The Edge and they kinda thought Tina could sing it. It may have been tailored to her after they all agreed to it.
That would have to mean she lived in between Bono and the Edge. Who do you think borrowed sugar the most and from whom? My guess is Bono always ran out and the Edge always had extra. The Edge was probably the one constantly calling the police when Tina had her music up too loud. Bono’s dogs were always getting loose digging up Tina’s plants.
The Edge. But there will be some delay.Bono will give you the sugar, but it will come with like a 15 minute lecture of how the sugar he buys comes from a collective plantation run by the cane farmers in Madagascar that are all women and did you know that that most Africans can’t even afford sugar…
I won’t go that far, but it’s a good song. Very Bondian and she owned it.
Ken oath. One of the many reasons why Goldeneye is one of the best Bond films (and arguably the most important). Tina’s one of the few who could reach Bassey’s height, bring that brassy edge, but with a dark undertone that was so needed for Goldeneye.
Paul McCartney and Carly Simon would like to battle you. Possibly while you’re tied above a tank full of killer sharks, where they explain in great detail how they’re going to prove you wrong.Obviously speaking long enough to give you time to escape.
“Nobody does it better” sounds like it’s from an insurance ad.
Fuck….My mom loved Tina Turner. She always listened to Tina’s stuff and it got her through hard times and they both got out of a bad marriage so when she sang, she sang for her. When Tina did her farewell tour back in the 90’s, I surprised her with 3rd row seats and she leapt up and danced in happiness….it was the best gift she had ever received at the time and she was beaming when she came back, and said Tina waved to her. She had seen her hero in the flesh.Tina touched so many through her life and her songs. She was awesome in every respect. What a legend.
I hope she finally has peace and rest. She earned it the hard way. Legend.
My parents tell of seeing them in the early 70 (Ike and Tina). Mick Jagger borrowed liberally from her performance style. She deserved all of her later success. She worked for it.
Turner was a MASSIVE figure in my childhood, between Private Dancer being all over the radio and Thunderdome constantly playing on HBO preview weekends. Finding out about her amazing earlier work later in life was just icing on the cake.
RIP to a legend. There aren’t a lot of artists who were equally enjoyed by four generations of my family, but she is one of them.
This is incredibly sad. A rock star who’s second act started in her 40s! I feel like almost everyone I knew growing up had Private Dancer.
This video might merit a flashing lights warning, but it’s gotta be one of the most intense, joyful live performances I’ve seen.
C’mon, no obit for Kenneth Anger?
I’m glad that over the last couple of decades she was deservedly feted for her career when she was still around and healthy to understand how much she was admired and loved. Wish we still had her, but being pretty much universally acknowledged after all she went through to get there had to be a really good feeling even if we lost her a little too soon.Rest in peace.
Vale, Tina Turner.This is the—what? Twentieth end of an era we’ve had in the past four-five years? It just seems like all the legends I grew up with are dying lately….
I hope she never lost a minute of sleep worrying about the way things might have been.
We may not need another hero, but sometimes we get one anyway. RIP
I certainly expected to see more in the comment section than this. People lost their damn minds when Bowie passed. Turner was greater than any Bowie.
Different strokes I guess. I took Bowies death harder for several reasons. More of a fan of his work and the fact that it was very sudden because he kept his cancer battle private. Turner has been sick for a while and she 14 years older. Regardless of that it’s a huge loss. She was one of the greats.
I guess 2016 started off with double whammy of David Bowie and Alan Rickman, which shocked people more. While this is equally sad, Tina had a longer life making this seem less of a shock.Anyway RIP to the legend Tina Turner.
i didn’t really care too much about bowie, but lemmy also died around that time, and that hit me hard.
More obscurely but still significantly, avant-garde filmmaker and author of the HOLLYWOOD BABYLON books Kenneth Anger also died recently:https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/kenneth-anger-dead-1234682825/
An absolute legend and one of the best live performers ever. RIP.
Probably the most iconic and recognizable singing voice in all of showbiz….Not to mention, rockin as hell too.Thank you for the music, Tina. 🙁
Thank you for a lifetime of great music. And also for burying Ron DeSantis’s campaign announcement.
She was simply the best. Better than all the rest. Better than anyone I’ve ever met.
Such an icon.She gained a whole new group of fans in Australia in the late 80s and 90s when she became the face of the national rugby league competition for many years, including her famous performance at the grand final where the Brisbane Broncos won.
Goodnight Aunty 🧡
Who dis bitch?
Who run Bartertown?
Who will lead Bartertown now???
There are some problems with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, making Max a post-apocalyptic baby-sitter for the second half of the film being the worst, but casting Tina Turner as Aunty Entity still isn’t one of them.