The music world mourns the loss of an icon. Tina Turner, the queen of rock’n’roll, died at the age of 83 on Wednesday after a tumultuous life, marked by many hardships, both personal and professional. But the great African-American diva has always known how to bounce back, leading a career that has survived all eras, all fashions, enough to inspire a plethora of artists.
From Beyoncé to Mick Jagger via Jennifer Lopez or Janet Jackson, many of them claim to be Tina Turner, a formidable stage beast with a scratched voice, who will have sold more than 180 million albums in her career, making her one of the most popular singers of all time.
On stage, we praised her charisma, her bearing, her “sex appeal”, she who embodied a model of a liberated, combative, but never vulgar woman. Tina Turner was said to have the most beautiful legs in the world. A flattering qualifier, but almost reductive, compared to his undeniable talent.
Raised in a dysfunctional family, Anna Mae Bullock of her real name is still a minor when she is noticed by a certain Ike Turner, who will first make her his chorister. Perverse and violent man, notorious cocaine addict, Ike marries Tina when she is only 22 years old, a marriage that will quickly prove unhappy. The interpreter of I don’t wanna loseyou will later reveal in a shocking book, adapted for the cinema in 1993, having suffered repeated abuse from her boorish husband.
Highs and lows
But from the 60s to the beginning of the 70s, Tina Turner did not let anything show of the drama that devoured her behind the scenes. On the contrary, the duo Ike and Tina Turner have a string of successes with Proud Mary, Nutbush City Limits or River Deep-Mountain Hightaken over in 1996 by Celine Dion.
Tina Turner is already categorized as an icon of rhythm’n’blues and black music when she decides to leave Ike in 1976 after 15 years of nightmare. A long slump ensued. After her divorce, Tina Turner finds herself ruined. She obtains the right to keep her stage name, but must assume the costs resulting from the contracts that the duo must cancel following the divorce.
Until the early 80s, the music industry turned away from her. The public ends up forgetting it. Then will take place what will be described as the “greatest comeback in the history of music”. In 1984, in her late forties, she released the album Private Dancerhuge success which, in addition to the catchy title track, includes the hit What’s Love Got to Do with It. Tina Turner became one of the cult singers of the 80s, with titles like We don’t need another herotheme song of the movie Mad Max Beyond Thunderdomeor It’s Only Lovein duet with Bryan Adams.
Consecration
The 90s started strong for the diva, while her song The Best hit the top of the charts. A veritable earworm, this piece will become an anthem that can still be heard regularly during major sporting events in stadiums and arenas. Then in 1995, she performed Golden Eye, taken from the soundtrack of the eponymous James Bond. At the same time, she chained awards and sold-out tours around the world.
His last visit to Montreal was in November 2008 as part of his farewell tour. Despite her 69 years, the American singer had ignited the Bell Center stage for two evenings as only she knew how to do. Eventually recognized by the music industry, Tina Turner won eight Grammy Awards. She was inducted into the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
However, Tina Turner wanted to distance herself from Hollywood. In retirement, the singer had since retired to her land in Switzerland, a country whose nationality she had obtained in 2013 and where she had moved several years earlier with her husband, the German Erwin Bach. She also died on Wednesday at her home in Küsnacht, near Zurich, following a long illness, it was said, without specifying the exact cause.
The past few years have been difficult for the star, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016 before undergoing a kidney transplant the following year. Tina Turner especially had the pain of losing her two sons, born of her union with Ike Turner. Craig, his eldest, committed suicide in 2018. Then last December, his youngest Ronnie died of colon cancer.
The life of Tina Turner will have been punctuated by these great tragic moments. A resilience that commands respect and that can only feed the legend.
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2023-05-24 21:18:24
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