Tina Turner is dead. The unmistakable torn voice, the transcendental soul of his lyrics, the unbridled passion on stage, the frenzy and melancholy of his concerts, the sexual magnetism and the personal drama that he dragged and hid at the same time, a symbol of survival and improvement. All this and much more was Tina Turner, American music legend and one of the most brilliant artists of her time, a mass idol in the 80s. She had been ill for a long time and on Wednesday her body couldn't take it anymore . She was 83 years old.
Her family confirmed in a statement that the singer from Brownsville, Tennessee (November 26, 1939) "has passed away peacefully today at the age of 83 after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland. With her , the world loses a music legend and role model." There are great successes like Private Dancer, The Best or What's Love Got to Do with it, the 12 Grammys, the more than 100 million records sold, the first woman to be the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. A myth that goes out.
Turner, Annie Mae Bullock, entered the confines of rock like no other black singer had achieved before, with a display of energy before her audience that ended up emulating Mick Jagger with the Stones and later a long list of admirers: Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige. No one moved like her on the stage, unbound, generous, with her lush hair blowing in the wind and her everlasting white smile, a force of nature that influenced later generations of women with her particular mantra: on stage no man was more than she.
It is not the only legacy that he leaves behind, beyond memorable albums such as Foreign Affaire, Private Dancer or Break Every Rule. Her husband, Ike Turner, with whom she began her career in the mid-1950s, was physically and psychologically abusive. The humiliations were constant. But the young artist, who became a sensation in that band at the first opportunity, The Kings of Rhythm, managed to shake off that burden and become one of the great stars of the 80s worldwide. Her resurrection cut deep into those years of furious machismo.
The daughter of Tennessee farmers, Turner grew up in a rural area of Haywood County, in Nutbush, a town that she later immortalized in the powerful Nutbush City Limits of 1973, one of the last songs -recorded in Inglewood, Los Angeles- that she published together with to her ex-husband, when they were performing as a duo, Ike
"I wrote songs with Little Richard in mind, but I didn't have Little Richard to sing them, so Tina became my Little Richard," her ex-husband acknowledged in her biography. She was still a teenager when she gave up everything for music. In 1966, the Rolling Stones included them as opening act for a concert tour first in the United Kingdom and then in the United States three years later. They began to attract the attention of the masses. It was she who suggested that they include songs by the Beatles and Creedence Clearwater Revival in their repertoire, a strategy that gave them the visibility they were looking for.
Ralph Gleason, the critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, remembered her then as "the most sensational professional of the moment on stage", a "hurricane" who danced with turns and movements that made the impact of seeing her "total and immediate". Her success would have continued with them if it hadn't been for the beatings her husband inflicted on him, addicted to cocaine that ended up killing him. Despite having her own recording studio in Inglewood, millions of records sold and Grammy nominations, the situation became untenable.
In the summer of 1976, on the way to a hotel in Dallas where they had a concert, there was a monumental row between them and the singer couldn't take it anymore. She took refuge in a roadside hotel and a few days later she asked her husband for a divorce. "When I left, I was living a life of death," she told People magazine in 1981. "I didn't exist. I wasn't afraid she'd kill me when I left, because I was already dead. When I left, I didn't look back. ".
The transition was hard, drowned by multiple debts. The one from Brownsville had a hard time getting off the ground alone. His 1978 album, Rough, did not work out as he had hoped. His career seemed close to going off the rails. He performed in clubs and hotel lounges, drawing on nostalgia for the past. Until Capitol Records gave the green light to the next album, Private Dancer, and from there access to the stratosphere of the music industry. It sold 10 million copies, becoming the biggest hit of his career.
Surprising duets are included at this stage, for example, with Eros Ramazzotti or Antonio Banderas, and the main song from the movie "Goldeneye" (1995) from the James Bond saga. After a long period of relative silence, he participated in the album " River: The Joni Letters by Herbie Hancock" and in 2008 he reappeared at the Grammys, offering an energetic live duet with Beyoncé, and appeared on television with his friend Cher.
Taking advantage of the occasion, he published another of his greatest hits compilations with two new songs "It would be a crime" and "I'm ready". At the same time, he developed his film skills in films such as: "Gimme Shelter" (1970), Taking Off (1971) "Soul to Soul" (1971), "Tommy" (1975) Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) (and "Mad Max III" (1985); What's Love Got to Do with It? (1993 ) or Last Action Hero (1993).
In 1998, he performed in front of 180,000 people at Maracana, Rio de Janeiro's stadium, breaking a record for a paid concert, and two years later he surpassed $100 million in tickets, more than any other solo artist in the industry. of music until then.
Coming from a home marked by turmoil, she reached her pinnacle, like many other African-American singers of her generation. Turner recalls that her parents didn't like each other, "so they fought all the time." Her mother moved to St. Louis when Tina - her real name is Anna Mae Bullock - was just 10 years old, and her father followed suit three years later. Turner ended up living with her grandmother in Brownsville.
After moving back in with her mother in Missouri, she began hanging out at the Manhattan club in East St. Louis, where she met Ike Turner. He debuted with a B.B. King, You Know I Love You. "When Ike heard me, he said: My God! I couldn't believe that voice came out of that fragile little body", an incombustible silhouette that later became a legend.
Tina Turner retired from the world of music in 2009, at the age of 70, leaving behind 50 years of career, more than 200 million records sold and a whole legacy gathered in 22 albums, 12 studio, 3 live and 7 compilations. . She also earned 21 Grammy Award nominations, of which she won eight statuettes.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
