Tina Turner is no more. The singer passed away on Wednesday after a long illness, her family confirmed in a statement. She was 83 years old.
Tina Turner died “in a peaceful way” at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland. “With his departure, the world loses a role model and legend in the music industry,” his family said.
Tina Turner, real name Anna Mae Bullock, began her career in 1957 with Ike Turner. Together they recorded several hits like River Deep, Mountain High and Proud Mary. The American artist then embarked on a solo career during which she often found herself at the top with songs like What’s Love Got To Do With It, Private Dancer, We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) and The Best.
The tributes were quick to rain on Twitter. Bryan Adams, with whom Tina Turner sang It’s Only Love in the heart of the 1980s, said he would be “eternally grateful” to have known the singer on tour, in the studio and as friends. “Thank you for being an inspiration to millions, for freely telling your story, and for giving your amazing voice as a gift to the world. »
For his part, Mick Jagger praised his immense talent as a singer. “She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous,” noted the Rolling Stones frontman. She helped me a lot when I was young. I will never forget it. »
“I’m in shock, and sad,” noted Diana Ross.
Actress Angela Bassett, who played Tina Turner at the cinema in 1993 in What’s Love Got To Do With It, a biographical drama that depicted the domestic violence she suffered, said she was bereaved. “By telling her story with courage, with the sacrifices she made, and above all, the determination with which she carved out a place for herself in the realm of rock and roll, Tina Turner gave hope to all who live in fear. She showed them that the future can be filled with freedom, compassion and love,” the actress noted on Instagram.
Tina Turner was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2021. She entered it in 1991 as a member of the duo Ike
Here are five of the greatest songs from eight-time Grammy-winning rock queen Tina Turner.
It was with Ike, her husband, that Tina Turner became a celebrity when she covered Proud Mary, a bayou ballad also known as Rolling on a River and composed two years earlier by the group Creedence Clearwater Revival (1969).
On the original clip from 1971, we see Ike in the background with his guitar, afro ball and golden torque around his neck, and Tina, slicked back hair and short dress of white pearls, behind the microphone. The duo starts “nicely and gently” then builds muscle, over the seconds, in a funk-rock rhythm tinged with Tina’s gospel accents.
The song, set to the tones of Southern rhythms, tells how a servant leaves her job as a dishwasher in Memphis and New Orleans and embarks on a large steamboat down the Mississippi.
Repeated many times by different formations, this classic of the American repertoire has been a red thread in the career of Tina Turner. His flamboyant duet with Beyoncé in 2008 for the fiftieth anniversary of the Grammys has become legendary.
Tina separated from her abusive husband in 1976 after suffering 20 years of beatings. Without a producer, it is almost forgotten in the United States.
“Given my age, 39, my gender and the color of my skin, let’s say I was facing headwinds,” she says in her autobiography. In the United States, she skims TV sets and small rooms while in Europe, she makes beautiful posters.
With Private Dancer, an album offered to her in 1984, Tina Turner returned to grace in her country. What’s Love got to do with it would become the simple king of his entire career. It won him the Grammy for best recording of the year in 1985.
The song written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle should have originally been sung by Cliff Richard, but due to a misunderstanding it passed through several hands before falling to Tina Turner. The hit joined the pantheon of world music by obtaining a Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.
Tina Turner, who had already distinguished herself as the delirious “Acid Queen” in Tommy – the rock opera of The Who in 1975 – was chosen to play in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome alongside Mel Gibson.
In this new adventure of anticipation, she also performs the soundtrack with We don’t need another hero, a new song by Graham Lyle and Terry Britten which becomes another planetary hit. In the summer of 1985, the title was number 1 in Australia, number 2 in the United States and number 3 in the United Kingdom.
For this futuristic role, Tina Turner did not hesitate to shave her head to screw on an impressive synthetic blonde crest enhanced with two oversized hoops. She wears a 55 kg dress cut from chain mail with giant shoulder pads.
The queen of rock excels in covers. Originally performed by Bonnie Tyler in 1988, the title taken up the following year by Tina on her album Foreign Affair was a huge success. Some six million copies were sold in 1988.
In 1992, The Best, renamed Simply the Best, was chosen to promote the Australian Rugby Championship. Thanks to its advertising clip animated by the flamboyant Tina in the middle of sweaty and sexy rugby players, the National Rugby League will never be like before. Soon, the anthem was taken up in the United States before certain baseball or football games. Tina becomes the stadium goddess.
After the box of Mad Max, she is chosen for the credits of the eponymous James Bond, with Pierce Brosnan in the title role. In her silver dress slit over her nervously curved legs, the singer, now in her fifties, brings all her vocal power to the score of Bono and The Edge, of the group U2, in the pure tradition of the 007 theme.
