Tina Turner
Born November 26, 1939 — Died May 24, 2023
Tina Turner — born Anna Mae Bullock — was an American singer and actress whose career produced two distinct chapters, each extraordinary on its own terms: her years as the electrifying frontwoman of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue in the 1960s and early 1970s, and her solo comeback in the 1980s that produced "What's Love Got to Do with It" and the best-selling album Private Dancer, making her one of the most accomplished solo artists in rock history after she had already been famous for two decades. Between the two chapters was an abusive marriage, a dramatic escape, and years of rebuilding that became one of the most inspiring redemption narratives in popular culture.
Nutbush and the Ike & Tina Years
Born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, Tennessee — a small rural community she immortalized in her autobiographical song "Nutbush City Limits" (1973) — she grew up in difficult circumstances, with parents who separated and a childhood marked by instability. She moved to St. Louis in her teens and encountered Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm in a club. Turner recognized her voice immediately, and Anna Mae Bullock became Tina Turner — the name Ike chose for her without consultation.
The Ike & Tina Turner Revue became one of the most physically electrifying live acts in rhythm and blues throughout the 1960s and into the early 1970s, with Tina's stage presence — raw, athletic, radiating enormous sexual energy and pure vocal power — making her one of the most riveting performers of the era. Their version of "Proud Mary" (1971) won a Grammy Award and reached new mainstream audiences. But behind the extraordinary performances was a marriage characterized by physical and psychological abuse that Tina would later describe in full detail in her memoir and biography.
The Solo Comeback and Private Dancer
In 1976, after a final violent incident on a tour flight, Tina Turner left Ike with nothing — she later said she had thirty-six cents and a Mobil credit card — and began rebuilding her life and career from scratch. Years of work on the club circuit and in smaller venues, developing a solo identity and rebuilding financial stability, preceded the mainstream breakthrough. The album Private Dancer (1984) — recorded with an array of prominent rock producers and featuring "What's Love Got to Do with It," "Better Be Good to Me," and the title track — made her a global star on a scale that eclipsed even her Ike & Tina years. It sold 12 million copies and won four Grammy Awards.
Her world tours in the 1980s and 1990s are among the highest-grossing in history. She appeared in the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and delivered one of cinema's great rock-star performances. Her autobiography I, Tina (1986), written with Kurt Loder, was adapted into the biopic What's Love Got to Do with It (1993) starring Angela Bassett — whose performance earned an Academy Award nomination and introduced Turner's story to a new generation.
Did You Know?
Tina Turner renounced her American citizenship in 2013 and became a Swiss citizen, having lived in Küsnacht near Zürich since the late 1990s with her second husband, German music executive Erwin Bach. She described Switzerland as the home where she finally found peace after a turbulent life. When she died in 2023, she was buried near her Swiss home.
Legacy and Death
Tina Turner's final years in Switzerland were marked by serious health challenges — a stroke in 2013, intestinal cancer in 2016, and kidney disease that led to a transplant — and by the 2018 death of her son Craig, which she described as devastating. She died on May 24, 2023, in Küsnacht, Switzerland, aged eighty-three. Global tributes reflected the universal admiration for both her artistry and her survival. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once as part of Ike & Tina Turner (1991) and once as a solo artist (2021). Her autobiography, I, Tina , remains the essential account of one of the most remarkable lives in popular music history.