Music icon Tina Turner dies aged 83
Music icon Tina Turner has died at the age of 83 after a long illness, her publicist has confirmed.
One of rock’s most famous voices, the star was known for hits including “Proud Mary”, “The Best”, “Private Dancer” and “What’s Love Got to Do With It”.
Her publicist said: “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. With her, the world loses a music legend and a role model.”
Roger Davies, Tina Turner’s manager of 30 years, paid tribute to the star, saying: “Tina was a unique and remarkable force of nature with her strength, incredible energy and immense talent.
“From the first day I met her in 1980, she believed in herself completely when few others did at that time.
“It was a privilege and an honour to have been a close friend as well as her manager for more than 30 years.
“I will miss her deeply.”
In a career spanning over 60 years, the American-Swiss singer, who was born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, won 12 Grammy Awards and has a star on both the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St Louis Walk of Fame.
She first became a household name in the 60s alongside her abusive then-husband Ike Turner in music act the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Away from the cameras, however, their marriage and professional relationship grew abusive and violent. “I was living a life of death,” Tina later recalled – with the abuse leading her to attempt suicide.
She eventually separated from Ike in 1976 and went on to global success as a solo artist, selling more than 180 million albums and touring the world for three decades of sold-out stadium shows.
Her autobiography, I, Tina, was turned into the 1993 film What’s Love Got To Do With It, dramatising the mother-of-two’s turbulent relationship with Ike Turner, netting Angela Bassett an Oscar nomination.
A musical based on her life, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, opened in the West End in 2018, with seven productions spanning the globe.
Turner, widely referred to as the Queen of Rock and Roll, wed her second husband, the music executive Erwin Bach, in a Swiss civil ceremony in 2013, and has lived in Switzerland with him since 1994.
In her 1986 book, the singer narrated a harrowing tale of abuse, including suffering a broken nose during the course of her marriage to Ike.
Ike died in December 2007 and Tina’s spokeswoman at the time was quoted as saying: “Tina is aware that Ike passed away earlier today. She has not had any contact with him in 35 years. No further comment will be made.”
She had suffered ill health in recent years, being diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016 and having a kidney transplant in 2017.
This story is being updated.
