Death of Tina Turner: what did the singer die of? A long illness evoked

DEATH OF TINA TURNER. The rock icon died at the age of 83, following a long battle with illness, known for a few years.

The “Best” (named after its iconic title) is gone. Tina Turner passed away and a whole piece of music history left with her. The legendary American singer died on Wednesday May 24, 2023, near Zurich, Switzerland, following a long illness, her entourage announced. The rock icon had been facing health problems for several years (read below) and died “peacefully”, at 83, in his home. Originally from Tennessee, the one who had been naturalized Swiss in 2013 has been honored around the world since the announcement of her death.

Unanimous tributes from all over the world

The White House notably hailed an “icon”, also lamenting “an immense loss”. On her Instagram account, Afida Turner, who was married to Ronnie Turner, also paid tribute to the international star. “Rest in Peace Stepmother: With Ronnie and Craig,” she said, referring to Tina Turner’s two deceased sons. “I am so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner. She was truly an extremely talented performer and singer. She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. ‘never forget,” tweeted Mick Jagger.

“Simply the best. Music legend Tina Turner shone on stage and in millions of hearts as the queen of rock ‘n’ roll. Her legacy will forever live on among the stars,” NASA said. , while singer Gloria Gaynor hailed “the iconic legend who paved the way for so many women in rock music, in black and white”. And to underline: “She did with great dignity and success what very few would have even dared to do in her time and in this kind of music.”

Singer, dancer, actress, author, composer… Tina Turner was one of the most famous artists in the world and of all time. Anna Mae Bullock, her real name, has sold nearly 200 million albums. “With her, the world loses a music legend and an icon,” said her spokesperson in the statement.

From Anna Mae to Tina Turner

In the late 1950s, Tina Turner had met musician Ike Turner. Thanks to her perseverance, she had managed to get a place as a backing vocalist in her group. Little by little, Anna Mae, renamed Tina by Ike Turner, had imposed herself on stage thanks to her energy. In 1962, she had finally become Mrs. Turner by marrying Ike Turner.

In the 1960s, the duo recorded many hits like It’s Gonna Work Out Fine, I Idolize You, River Deep Mountain High or Proud Mary. But then the couple began to falter. In 1974, Tina Turner had finally released her first solo album. Two years later, she left her husband. The divorce was finalized in 1978. In her autobiography, Me, Tina, released in 1986, she revealed that she had suffered violence from her ex-husband.

tina turner biography

The biography of Tina Turner is made like this: ups and downs. His career took off again in the early 1980s with the resumption of a Temptations title, Ball of Confusion then with Let’s Stay Togetherand especially in 1984 with his fifth solo album, Private Dancer. This success allows him to land one of the main roles of Mad Max: Beyond Thunder Domenext to Mel Gibson. His next albums, Foreign Affair, Wildest Dreams And Twenty Four Seven are new successes. In the early 2010s, she then continued to release a few singles, to collaborate on the albums of different artists or to perform for charity concerts. In 2013, Tina Turner now has Swiss nationality. She later married Erwin Bach, a 57-year-old German recording industry executive, in Switzerland. Tina Turner begins the process of giving up her American citizenship. A look back at the highlights of the famous singer’s career.

Anna Mae Bullock was born on November 26, 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, United States. She is the daughter of Zelma Currie and Floyd Richard Bullock, respectively worker and foreman, and grew up in a modest environment. Quickly attracted by music, it was in 1957 that she met a life-changing encounter: that of a musician, Ike Turner, who took her on stage and became her mentor, her manager, then her husband. . It was he who transformed the young Anna into “Tina”, in reference to the character Sheena, queen of the jungle who appeared in a British magazine at the end of the 1930s. Tina Turner was born.

Originally, Proud Maryalso called Rolling on a River, is a title of Creedence Clearwater Revival, released on the album Bayou Country in 1969. But it is the version of Tina and Ike Turner which will make this song a worldwide success in March 1971. Their recovery ranks at the top of the charts, particularly in the United States, where Proud Mary rose to 4th place on the famous Billboard Hot 100. The single was also certified gold with 500,000 copies sold across the Atlantic. And it is this version of Proud Mary which has crossed the ages, remaining, still today, a cult title.

It is undoubtedly THE tube of Tina Turner: The Best. However, the song was not intended for the singer with the mane, but for Bonnie Tyler, who is the first to interpret it in 1988 on the album Hide Your Heart. The following year, Tina Turner seizes it on her opus Foreign Affair and like Proud Mary, making it a worldwide success. The song squats the top of the charts in the United States and as far as Germany or the United Kingdom. Since the 1990s, The Best also became a sports anthem when it became the campaign song for the Australian Rugby League Championship: a version recorded in 1992 with Australian rocker Jimmy Barnes, as Please the Best. A title with such a sporting scope is a first. Especially since the piece will become over the years the anthem of all Australian rugby (still remaining a song that speaks of love…).

This is another turning point in Tina Turner’s career. In the summer of 1985, the singer took her first steps in the cinema, in the film by George Miller and George Ogilvie, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. She plays the ruthless Aunt Entity. It is this film which will launch the career of Tina Turner in the cinema, after having become known as a singer. A boon for the artist, very imbued with her role as a powerful woman, who ultimately was not as much as she would have liked…
“She wasn’t as fierce as I wanted…I wouldn’t want you to fall asleep watching my movies,” the singer said at the time. “We needed someone whose vitality and intelligence would make her control over Bartertown believable. She needed to be a positive character rather than a conventional villain,” said director George Miller.

Tina Turner has 4 children: Craig, born in 1958 from a relationship with a saxophonist, then Ronnie, Ike Jr. and Michael, from her marriage to Ike Turner. Ronnie, is “also a musician who had problems with drugs and the police at a young age, but managed to get out of it to avoid ending up like his father”, explains the singer in her book, My Love Storyreleased in 2019. It was he who married French singer Afida Turner in 2007. If Tina Turner moved away from Ike Jr. and Michael, she has always remained close to Craig, her first son.

After her traumatic relationship with Ike Turner, which ended in divorce in 1978, Tina Turner met the man with whom she lived until her death: Erwin Bach. This German producer, then an executive at EMI, the artist’s record company, was born in 1956 and met the singer in 1985, in Zurich. He is 30, she is 46. Between them, it’s “instant love at first sight”, says Tina Turner in her memoirs published in 2019. The couple married on July 21, 2013 in their castle in Switzerland, near of Zurich, almost thirty years after their first meeting.

Very close to Craig therefore, his first son, Tina Turner had to overcome a tragedy in 2018. On July 3, his destiny changed: “My son had committed suicide. He had shot himself in the head”, writes she in her memoirs My Love Story releases in 2019, before concluding: “I know that I will still get through this. I am a strong person. I would have liked to transmit a little of this force to Craig. Or that he finds it in him. But what I really want is to hear my son call me honey again.” A terrible ordeal which came at the time to add to the health problems of Tina Turner.

Recently, the star had buried another of his children. Indeed, in December 2022, his son Ronnie Turner died suddenly at the age of 62. In question ? Complications from colon cancer, but the 60-year-old also suffered from atherosclerosis, a cardiovascular disease, revealed Page Six. “Ronnie, you left the world far too soon. In sadness, I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son,” the star said on Instagram, exceptionally stepping out of her reserve as she was already officially retired from public life.

In 2013, three months after her remarriage, Tina Turner suffered a stroke. She, who already suffers from bowel cancer diagnosed in 2016, is also treating her hypertension with alternative medicine and homeopathy. The result: kidney failure that cost him a kidney. She explained at the time that she relied on “confidence, optimism and joie de vivre” from Erwin Bach, who saved her life in 2017 by giving her one of his kidneys. “The consequences of my ignorance almost killed me (…) I then discovered something extraordinary about Erwin: he never blamed me for my mistakes. Instead, he was loyal, kind and understanding. He was determined to help me stay alive,” said Tina Turner at the time of her operation.

And to conclude: “I know that my medical adventure is far from over. But I am here, we are still here, closer than we imagined. I look behind me and think about my karma. The good was born out of hurt. Joy out of pain. And I’ve never been happier than I am today.” Simply the best.