This Wednesday Tina Turner has died at 83, a rock legend. The singer, who suffered a long illnesswas at home in Kusnacht, near Zurich, Switzerland.
“With her, the world loses a music legend and role model,” reads an initial statement released by her representative.
Subsequently, the artist’s official networks confirmed the news: “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she has mesmerized millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow.” Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us her greatest work: her music. Our sincere sympathy goes out to her family. Tina, you will be greatly missed.”
His last years were marked by Health problems. In 2016 he was diagnosed bowel cancer and in 2017 he had to undergo kidney transplant. She was away from the music business and she claimed to devote herself completely to Buddhism to find spiritual peace.
The artist who reinvented herself despite the worst pain
There are several iconic images of Tina. The main cities of your country or the endless tours of Europe. Memorable evenings at Wembley, Madison Square Garden, Staples Center and more, always surrounded by incredible dancers and singers. Singing and dancing, rocking the crowd.
It was the Tina who had reinvented herself after her initial triumphs, with songs like Mary Fair. Then came hits like What does love have to do with it AND The bestleaving behind the hardships of the stage of the duo Ike & Tina.
That new Tina rose to pop stardom and finally found her redemption. She had a tribute at the Kennedy Center surrounded by all the cultural, social and political “cream” of her country, when Beyoncé sang especially for her, in her own style.
Then would come the last wedding and the retreat to a bucolic Swiss landscape. She had married a German executive, Erwin Bach, and they had moved into a castle on Lake Zurich, which cost $70 million. Memories of her are disappeared.
“Here I feel at home, I feel serene. I no longer sing, dance or dress. I go shopping and enjoy my husband’s company, happy to be like this,” she told the New York Times.
With her, the world loses a music legend and role model.” It was one of the biggest.
“THE the list of obstacles is long: an unhappy childhood, abandonment, an abusive marriage, a stagnant career, financial ruin, the premature death of family members and multiple illnesses,” she defined herself in her memoirs.
But the most famous images –energy, sexual charge, voiceThey were always in effect. In recent times, among the different and corrected versions of his autobiographies My love story of 2018 and Happiness is born in youthree years ago), isolated interviews, a documentary that premiered at Berlinale 2021 and even a musical revealed to be suffering from a troubled woman, since childhood, a toxic marriage and finally, in 2018, the suicide of his son Craig Raymond.
The early years, from the windowless cellar to the abusive marriage
Tina was born as Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee, the daughter of a couple who worked on the cotton plantations. Subsequently transferred to Saint Louis, they experienced all the sufferings of those who suffered racial discrimination.
But it was in St. Louis, in one of the nightclubs, the Manhattan, that the teenager Anna-Mae – who was already singing in the church choir – met what remained one of the pioneers of world rock: Ike Turner, who in 1951 composed the its iconic theme Rocket 88considered by many specialists to be the first rock and roll song in history.
“I was born in a windowless basement, confined to the ‘colored’ women’s maternity ward of the county hospital. My mother, Zelma, was loving to my sister, but she was different from me. I knew it he never loved me. It’s a heavy load for a little girl,” she confessed My love story.
She also described how she was abandoned and she ended up living with her grandmother. This blow was added to the grief of losing him, when his cousin Margaret, his closest confidante within the family, died in a road accident.
When her grandmother also died, she began “a new life” in Saint Louis: “When I was 17 I went to the Manhattan Club, a noisy and smoky music venue, where I met two men who would play a very important role in my life” . One of them will be a saxophonist and the love story was short-lived. The other was called Ike Tina Turner, whose theme Rocket 88 it had given him his first glimmers of fame.
Ike and Tina Turner will form a successful artistic duo in the 60s, with her a symbol of soul and rhythm and blues, but also a volcanic marriage. “Violent, offensive, abusive, exploitative, macho and controlling” were just some of the terms Tina Turner used to describe her ex-husband.
That marriage ended on July 4, 1976 — “My Freedom Day,” the singer cried — and Ike’s drift was through drugs. Among his works was a record that became a cult work (Deep River. High Mountainproduced by Phil Spector and with photography by Dennis Hopper.
While Tina Turner described the abuse and mistreatment On the part of his former partner, he tried to justify himself in the strangest way in his own recollections: “Of course, I slapped Tina… We had a fight and there were times when I knocked her to the ground with a punch without think about it. But I’ve never hit them.”
Ike passed away in 2007, after multiple disputes and illnesses.
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Tina reinvented herself as an artist and became the star of her time with her rock, pop and ballad versions. Her European tours were frequent, albums like private dancer (1984) and Break every rule (two years later) are their greatest hits and stadiums vibrate with their music. A single show in Rio de Janeiro, in early 1988, attracted a crowd of 150,000 people.
He was also on that tour his unique vision of Argentinawhere he filled the River stadium when it was not customary to do so.
She met her future husband Bach in a chance meeting at Heathrow Airport, they have lived together in Switzerland since 1994 and adopted Swiss nationality a decade later. They lived in Kusnacht before moving to the castle where one of their neighbors is called Roger Federer.
Tina Turner sold more than 100 million copies of his records – some statistics even speak of double- but his fortune, estimated today at 250 million dollars, was cemented on tours. For the 50th anniversary tour of his performances in 2008 alone, and shortly before his farewell, he sold 84 million tickets.
To “complete” these overwhelming numbers, Tina Turner has also joined the list of superstars who have just negotiated the sale of their music catalogues. In her case it was with BMG, which already owns the rights to Jagger, Lennon, Richards, Bowie and Mick Fleetwood, among others.
While their numbers fall short of the $300 million Bob Dylan will receive from Universal Music for his 600-song catalog, Tina’s deal is estimated to top $50 million, now sharing all of her recordings, compositions, and compositions with BMG. and image rights. Warner Music remains her record company.
With ten studio albums and as many recorded in her tours or in compilations, Tina Turner has amassed numerous awards -including 12 Grammys- and has also had some (brief) appearances in the cinema in productions such as Tommy (1975), Mad Max Beyond Thunder Dome (1985) with Mel Gibson and Ultimate action hero (1993) with Schwarzenegger.
Last December, another pain: Ronnie’s death, the youngest of his children, a cancer patient in California. “Ronnie, you left the world too soon. It is with pain that I close my eyes and think of you, my dear son,” Tina said goodbye.
Now art and the whole world salute her.
Source: Clarin
