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LAST UPDATE | 24 May 2023
WITH HER SOULFUL hits and a commanding stage presence, Tina Turner secured her status as the queen of rock ‘n’ roll with a catalogue of powerful hits that showcased her boundless energy and gravelly vocals.
The music icon died today aged 83.
Across her career, which began in the 1950s, the American-born singer won over hearts with classic songs including River Deep – Mountain High, Proud Mary and Nutbush City Limits.
She was a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and won a total of 12 Grammy Awards.
Turner also turned her hand to the silver screen, and inspired an award-winning musical based on her captivating life before her death.
Her stratospheric success was also set against a dark backdrop of several relationships with men alleged to be abusive including with her former husband Ike Turner and her father.
The singer was born Anna Mae Bullock on 26 November 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, to parents Zelma Priscilla and Floyd Richard Bullock.
Aged 11, she moved to live with her grandmother after her mother left her abusive relationship with Bullock and moved to St Louis, Missouri.
She later joined her mother and sister Alline at the age of 16 in the city where she first encountered her future husband, Ike Turner and soon joined his band The Kings Of Rhythm as its first female member.
In 1960, she reimagined herself as Tina Turner and the group reformed to become the Ike And Tina Turner Revue.
That same year, Turner gave birth to their first child Ronnie with Ike and the pair wed in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1962. Previously, she had another son, Craig Raymond Turner with saxophonist for the Kings Of Rhythm, Raymond Hill.
She rose to prominence as the group’s lead singer as they produced a string of R&B hits, including A Fool In Love and It’s Gonna Work Out Fine.
The release of River Deep – Mountain High in 1966 increased their popularity globally and was followed by a tour in the UK with The Rolling Stones as the band’s support act.
The success of Come Together, Honky Tonk Woman and Proud Mary helped cement their status, with the latter winning them a Grammy Award in 1972.
However, after enduring years of abuse in the relationship at the hands of Ike, Turner attempted to take her own life in 1968.
In 1976, she finally left the marriage, and during the divorce she reportedly asked for nothing but the right to keep the use of her stage name.
The pair were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a duo in 1991, though neither attended the ceremony. Turner went on to be inducted again as a solo artist 30 years later in 2021.
She was inducted by Angela Bassett, who received an Oscar nod for playing her in the 1993 film What’s Love Got To Do With It alongside Laurence Fishburne who had an Academy Award nomination for taking on the role of Ike.
“Imagine, a black girl from Nutbush, Tennessee, who embodied more talent than her small town could have ever dreamed,” Bassett said at the ceremony.
“Imagine that same girl breaking through every barrier to one day make history.
“People still tell me how much Tina has meant to them. I know exactly what they mean, because she has meant that much and more to me.
“I too am one of those people blessed by Tina’s remarkable gift to inspire.”
Despite a slow start, with her debut album Tina Turns The Country On! in 1974 and Acid Queen in 1975, the singer went on have a glittering solo career, securing multiple other accolades in both the US and UK.
Throughout the 1980s, Turner rebuilt her career, with a string of hits beginning in 1983 with Al Green cover Let’s Stay Together and the 1984 release of her album Private Dancer.
She also previously held a Guinness World Record for the largest paying audience for a solo performer – attracting an audience of 180,000 for her show at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1988.
Turner, who was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986 in the category of recording, also leant her powerful voice to James Bond theme tune GoldenEye.
In the 1990s, she re-recorded music for her semi-autobiographical film and had a North American and European tour.
After a brief break from showbusiness, she returned to the limelight in 2008 at the Grammy Awards, where she performed alongside Beyonce to Proud Mary and embarked on her 50th anniversary tour and in 2016 she announced Tina – The Tina Turner Musical.
In 2021, she sold the rights to her back catalogue after reaching an agreement with BMG for an undisclosed sum.
Turner never had a number one song in the UK and the last of her 34 UK Top 40 hits was released in 2020 when she re-recorded What’s Love Got To Do With It with Norwegian DJ Kygo.
She has sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including certified Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) album sales of 10 million.
Turner earned a total of 12 Grammys, including eight competitive awards as well as being honoured with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 and three Grammy Hall of Fame awards for her hit songs.
She met music producer Erwin Bach in the 1980s and they tied the knot in a ceremony years later on the banks of Lake Zurich in Switzerland in 2013.
The pair lived in Switzerland together, and a small portion of their love and life was chronicled in her 2018 memoir, Tina Turner: My Love Story, as well as in the 2021 Tina documentary.
“I don’t necessarily want to be a ‘strong’ person. I had a terrible life. I just kept going,” Turner told the New York Times in 2019.
“You just keep going, and you hope that something will come.”
Outside of her musical work, she has appeared in the 1975 film Tommy, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and the 1993 film Last Action Hero.
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And no doubt the tiger will be destroyed through no fault of his own. Zoos are awful places
I don’t think it would be standard practice to put the animal down in such a case.
I don’t understand why they can’t fire a dart and put the animal to sleep each time they’re going in to clean its enclosure. Perhaps the darts are expensive but how much does a human life cost?
Perth Zoo in Australia is the only zoo in the world that has a program for breeding and introducing Orang-utans back into the wild. Mates there are some terrible zoos with poor conditions but the good zoos are vital for conservation and the survival of endangered species.
I think that might take a toll on the animals health. It’s the equivalent of a general anaesthetic.
But I would have thought they’d at least shut the animal up in a separate part of its enclosure from the area being cleaned.
Tigers are endangered and, despite being caged, it’s still a wild animal. They’re not going to kill it ffs.
They won’t kill it – it was doing what wild animals do. There was clearly a failure of usual health & safety procedures. It’s eerily similar to what happened in South Lakes Zoo in the UK a couple of years back.
That’s amazing, the second one in a week or so. You’d think people would be more careful in such a dangerous job.
I had a dream last night that I was being stalked by a pride of lions and now this.
I’m going to be real nice to the cat.
The lions represent the FG and labour party stalking you and hunting you down. you need to confront them
OMG
These big animals should be roaming the wilds with their families and not locked up in zoos.
We used to bring the kids to the zoo to see the animals as a matter of education and a good day out.
No need anymore as you can see them up close and personal now in the wonderful nature documentaries!
If they were in the wild they’d be dead. Sad but true.
They would all be grand if humans had left them alone!
Was “#mauled” really necessary for the article?
What else are you going to call it. It’s the right word.
It’s certainly an appropriate word for what happened the ‘boks yesterday.
Smiley, they’re referring to the use of the hashtag #mauled, not the word itself.
People go on about dublin zoo.how great it is etc. Went last week with young daughter for first time in 20 years. Was appalling the size of their enclosure especially the Tigers. Will never set foot in another zoo
Another gruesome case of tiger gang violence in southern hemisphere zoos. It’s a similar scenario to human prisons where gang members, eager to earn their stripes and zoo cred callously attack zoo screws often resulting in death and back slashing.
The Tigers have rights. A dirty protest and hunger strike usually works.
This tiger was a dissident tiger and was in way connected with republicanism.
Another one.
Sure most zoo animals suffer from depression.fact. dublin zoo or any other zoo are no better than them in SeaWorld. Low life’s making millions out of suffering of animals
WHere is the outrage and the mass protests?
They will have to demolish the enclosure because the place will become haunted.
have your say