Tina Turner

Tina Turner, born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, is a Swiss singer and actress of American origin. She rose to notoriety as the lead singer of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue before starting a successful solo career. She is widely regarded as the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll."

Turner began her career in 1957 with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm. In 1958, she released her first single, "Boxtop," under the moniker Little Ann. Tina Turner made her debut as Tina Turner in 1960 with the classic duet track "A Fool in Love." Ike and Tina Turner established themselves as "one of the most fearsome live acts in history." Before disbanding in 1976, they had songs like "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "River Deep - Mountain High," "Proud Mary," and "Nutbush City Limits."

Turner launched "one of the greatest comebacks in music history" in the 1980s. Her 1984 multi-platinum album Private Dancer featured the hit song "What's Love Got to Do With It," which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became her first and only Billboard Hot 100 number-one single. She was the oldest female solo artist to top the Hot 100 at 44 years old. "Better Be Good to Me," "Private Dancer," "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)," "Typical Male," "The Best," "I Don't Wanna Fight," and "GoldenEye" followed. During her Break Every Rule World Tour in 1988, she achieved a Guinness World Record for the largest paid audience for a single singer (180,000) at the time.

Turner also appeared in Tommy (1975), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Last Action Hero (1988). (1993). What's Love Got to Do With It?, a biopic based on her autobiography I, Tina: My Life Story, was released in 1993. Turner retired in 2009 after finishing her Tina! : 50th Anniversary Tour, which was the 15th highest-grossing tour of the 2000s. Tina, a jukebox musical, was inspired by her in 2018.

Turner is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide. She has eight competitive Grammy Awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award among her 12 Grammys. She is the first female and the first black musician to grace the cover of Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone named her one of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, as well as one of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Turner has a star on both the Hollywood and St. Louis Walks of Fame. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once with Ike Turner in 1991 and again in 2021 as a solo artist. She also received the Kennedy Center Honors and Women of the Year award in 2005.

Career

Turner gained money in 1976 and 1977 by appearing on television shows such as The Hollywood Squares, Donny & Marie, The Sonny & Cher Show, and The Brady Bunch Hour. As lawsuits for cancelled Ike & Tina Turner shows piled up, Turner started touring to pay off her obligations, using funds provided by United Artists CEO Mike Stewart. Turner re-emerged in 1977 with a sexier persona and clothes designed by Bob Mackie. She headlined a series of cabaret events at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and performed in smaller venues across the country. She went on her first solo concert tour in Australia later that year.

Turner released her third solo album, Rough, in 1978 on United Artists, with EMI distribution in North America and Europe. That album, along with its 1979 follow-up, Love Explosion, which included a brief foray into disco music, failed to chart, and Turner severed ties with United Artists Records. She continued to perform and headlined her second tour despite the lack of a hit record.

After witnessing Turner perform at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco in 1979, Australian manager Roger Davies decided to manage her. Turner worked as a regular performer on the Rete 1 TV series Luna Park, hosted by Pippo Baudo and Heather Parisi, in early 1979. Later that year, during the apartheid government, she embarked on a contentious five-week tour of South Africa. She later regretted her decision, claiming that she was "naive about South African politics" at the time.

Rod Stewart watched Turner's gig at the Ritz in New York City in October 1981 and invited her to sing "Hot Legs" with him on Saturday Night Live. Turner opened for the Rolling Stones on their 1981 American tour in November. Turner's recording for the UK production team BEF of the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" became a hit in European dance clubs in 1982. Turner sang "Ball of Confusion" on the album "Music of Quality and Distinction Volume 1" by B.E.F, a side project of Heaven 17, in 1982. She filmed a music video for "Ball of Confusion," which broadcast on the nascent music video channel MTV, making her one of the channel's first black American artists.

Turner released All the Best in November 2004, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums list in 2005, becoming her highest charting album in the United States. Three months after its release, the album became platinum in the United States and platinum in seven other countries, including the United Kingdom.

Turner was honoured at the Kennedy Center Honors in December 2005 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and was elected to an elite club of entertainers. Turner made a public comeback in February 2008, performing alongside Beyoncé at the Grammy Awards. She also received a Grammy nomination for her work on River: The Joni Letters.

Personal Life

Turner (then Ann Bullock) met Harry Taylor for the first time while still in Brownsville. They first met at a high school basketball game. Taylor originally attended a separate school, but he moved closer to her. Their relationship ended when she realised Taylor had married another woman who was pregnant with his child.

Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach in 1986, who had been sent by her European record label to see her at Düsseldorf Airport. Bach, who was born on January 24, 1956 in Cologne, Germany, is more than sixteen years her junior. They began dating later that year after initially being pals. After a 27-year loving engagement, they married in a civil ceremony on the shores of Lake Zurich in July 2013.

Turner had two biological sons, Craig Raymond Turner (with Raymond Hill) and Ronald Renelle Turner (Ronnie) (with Ike Turner). She also adopted and raised two of Ike Turner's children, Ike Turner Jr. (born October 3, 1958) and Michael Turner (born February 23, 1960).

Citizenship

Turner and her husband paid $76 million for a lakefront house overlooking Lake Zurich on Stäfa's eastern border in January 2022. Since 1994, she has resided in Château Algonquin in Küsnacht on the shores of Lake Zurich. Turner previously had properties in Cologne, London, and Los Angeles, as well as the Anna Fleur estate on the French Riviera.

Turner applied for Swiss citizenship on January 23, 2013, and stated that she would give up her US citizenship. She took a necessary citizenship test in April, which included advanced knowledge of German (the canton of Zürich's official language) and Swiss history. She became a Swiss citizen and received a Swiss passport on April 22, 2013. Turner signed the paperwork to renounce her American citizenship on October 24, 2013, at the US consulate in Bern.

Health

Turner disclosed that she had had life-threatening diseases in her 2018 memoir My Love Story. Three weeks after her wedding to Erwin Bach in 2013, she suffered a stroke and had to relearn how to walk. She was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016. Turner used homoeopathic treatments to treat her high blood pressure, which caused kidney damage and eventually renal failure. Her prospects of getting a kidney were slim, so she was advised to begin dialysis. She contemplated assisted suicide and joined Exit, but Bach offered to give a kidney for her transplant. On April 7, 2017, Turner underwent kidney transplant surgery.

Achievements

Turner previously held the Guinness World Record for the largest paid audience for a solo act (180,000 in 1988). Turner is the first artist in the UK to have a top 40 success in seven consecutive decades, with a total of 35 UK top 40 songs. She has sold over 100 million albums globally, including 10 million certified RIAA album sales.

Turner has received a total of 12 Grammy nominations. Among these honours are eight competitive Grammy Awards, four of which she received for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Three of her recordings are in the Grammy Hall of Fame: "River Deep - Mountain High" (1999), "Proud Mary" (2003), and "What's Love Got to Do with It" (2012). Turner is the first female performer to have won a Grammy in all three categories: pop, rock, and R&B. Turner was honoured with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Turner was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986, as well as one on the St. Louis Walk of Fame in 1991. In 1991, she and Ike Turner were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a pair. Turner earned the coveted Kennedy Center Honors in 2005. Angela Bassett inducted Turner as a solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. Keith Urban and H.E.R. sang "It's Only Love," Mickey Guyton sang "What's Love Got to Do With It," and Christina Aguilera sang "River Deep - Mountain High."