Tina Turner

Anna Mae Bullock.

Professionally known as Tina Turner

Born November 26, 1939, Nutbush, Tennessee

Died May 24, 2023 – Kusnacht, Switzerland.

Tina Turner began performing with musician Ike Turner in the 1950s. They became known as the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, achieving popular acclaim for their live performances and recordings like the top 5 hit “Proud Mary,”

“Proud Mary” became a cornerstone of the couple’s shows, renowned for Tina’s vocal delivery along with the swirling, hand-rolling dance moves from accompanying vocalists, the Ikettes.

Despite their success as a musical duo, Tina and Ike’s marriage was in shambles. Tina would later reveal that Ike was often physically abusive, and she even attempted suicide because of his abuse.

In the years following her divorce, Tina’s solo career got off to a slow start. According to Tina, when she left Ike, she had “36 cents and a gas station credit card.” To make ends meet and to care for her children, she used food stamps and even cleaned houses. But she also continued to perform in lower-profile venues and made guest appearances on other artists’ records, though not achieving any notable success. She exploded back into the record industry when her much-anticipated solo album Private Dancer was released to overwhelming critical and popular success. It went on to win four Grammy Awards and eventually sold more than 20 million copies worldwide.

By this time, Tina was a woman in her mid-40s who was becoming even more renowned for her uniquely energetic performances and raspy singing technique along with her signature look—typically performing in short skirts that exposed her famous legs, with voluminous, punk-styled hair.

In 1985, Tina returned to the screen, starring opposite Mel Gibson in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, to which she contributed the No. 2 pop song “We Don’t Need Another Hero.

One year later, she published her autobiography, I, Tina, which would later be adapted as the 1993 film What’s Love Got to Do with It, starring Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike.

In 1991, Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ike was unable to attend the ceremony, however, as he was serving time for drug possession. (He eventually died of a drug overdose, December 2007.

Previously, in the 1970s, a friend had introduced Tina to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, from which she found peace in the rituals of chanting. She adhered to the teachings of The Soka Gakkai International, the largest Buddhist organization consisting of about 12 million Nichiren Buddhist practitioners.

In her 70s, Tina experienced several major health issues. Three months after her marriage to record executive Erwin Bach in 2013, Tina suffered a stroke. In 2016, she was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. The next year, she had a kidney transplant, and her husband, Bach was the donor.

Returning to the spotlight in 2018, Tina was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award alongside other industry legends like Neil Diamond and Emmy Lou Harris.

At age 83, Tina died on May 24, 2023, in her home Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich. A representative said she died peacefully after a long illness.

Excerpts and quotes: Biography.com/musicians/tina-turner