Life put many obstacles in her way, but she cleared them all. There was only one thing Tina Turner couldn’t cope with: death. The music legend left us at the age of 83. An obituary for a great artist.
It is a jolt that went through the smartphones and hearts of many people worldwide on Wednesday evening. The message appeared on countless displays: Tina Turner died at the age of 83. A singer like only a few. A woman who took girl power to a new level.
Tina Turner grew up in modest circumstances in Nutbush, Tennessee. Her real name is Anna Mae Bullock. She was the child of a farming couple whose marriage was already ailing and would later break up. Her mother left the family when she was 11 years old. “My mother and father never loved me,” wrote Tina Turner in her 1986 autobiography. The choir, in which she sang as a child, gave her support.
In 1958, when she was 19, she met Ike Turner with his band Kings of Rhythm, who made her first his backing vocalist and later his wife and partner in the band Ike & Tina Turner. The marriage was the epitome of a toxic relationship. Characterized by violence, abuse and emotional psychological terror. On the night of their wedding, Ike forced her into a strip club. Instead of a romantic wedding night, she was treated to a live sex show in Tijuana, Mexico. Marriage to Ike Turner made the amateur singer famous in the ’60s and ’70s, but at the same time she lived through every woman’s nightmare in private. Her husband beat her and cheated on her.
Tina Turner had to bury her sons
The couple had one son together, Ronnie, and another, Raymond Craig, brought Tina Turner into the marriage from a previous relationship. The singer also adopted two of Ike’s sons from a previous marriage, Michael and Ike Jr. However, both of her biological sons would predecease her in her lifetime. Raymond Craig committed suicide in 2018 and her son Ronnie was found dead in December 2022. The cause of death was believed to be cancer.
Tina Turner is a role model. Not only for many musicians with her legendary voice, but especially for women, she was a pioneer of women’s power. In a cloak-and-dagger operation, she fled from Ike Turner with barely a cent in her pocket and fought her way through. Her freedom was more important to her than material well-being. In 1976, Turner filed for divorce from Ike.
Queen of Rock’n’Roll
She met the Queen and sang with Sir Elton John: The Multifaceted Life of Tina Turner
And something else was unusual about this strong woman: in the future she was supposed to talk about the hell she had experienced in marriage. She didn’t keep quiet about her experiences, as is common especially in older generations – this gave women courage to do the same and break out of abusive relationships.
At the time of the split, she was 37 years old. Success was a long time coming. The solo career didn’t get off the ground, she had to face a lot of rejection – but she stayed on the ball. It was this perseverance, this stamina that made her later comeback possible.
It wasn’t until 1984 that the singer made her breakthrough with her fourth album “Private Dancer”. Today it is one of the top 100 best-selling albums worldwide and has received a total of four Grammy Awards. In the decades that followed, her concerts were sold out and she filled stadiums until her farewell tour at the age of 70.
She found the love of her life at 47
And Tina Turner never gave up on love either, despite a disastrous marriage and a terrible family home. One of their biggest hits was “What’s Love Got To Do With It”. And at the age of almost 47, a man should show her exactly that: Erwin Bach. The love of her life. Bach was 16 years younger than Turner – also unusual for the time. A year after they met, she moved to Cologne with him and in 1994 they both went to Switzerland, where Turner lived until the end of her life.
In the documentary “Tina” from 2021, the singer summarized the first half of her life: “It wasn’t a good life”. But the second half was to get better with her solo career, her newfound love for Buddhism and Erwin Bach. Tina Turner has died in Switzerland at the age of 83.
With her life, her strength, her perseverance, she was a role model for all women. She donated the belief and strength that life always has nice surprises in store.
We don’t need another hero, Tina Turner. Because we had you.
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
