The legendary singer known as the "Queen of Rock'n Roll" has died: Who is Tina Turner?

Her real name is Annie Mae Bullock, she was born on November 26, 1939, in Brownsville, Tennessee. She was born as the youngest daughter of her father Floyd Richard Bullock and mother Zelma Currie Priscilla. Bullock has two older sisters, Evelyn Juanita Currie and songwriter Ruby Alline Bullock. She is also the first cousin of blues player Eugene Bridges.

Bullock, who sang in the church choir at Nutbush's Spring Hill Baptist Church as a young girl, fled when she was 11 years old when her mother moved to St.Louis Two years after that, her father married another woman and moved to Detroit. Bullock and her sisters lived with their maternal grandmother, Georgeanna Currie, in Brownsville, Tennessee.

Working as a domestic worker for a family as a teenager, Bullock joined both the cheerleading team and the women's basketball team while attending Carver High School in Brownsville. After her grandmother died when she was 16, Bullock went to live with her mother in St.Louis. Bullock, who graduated from Sumner High School here in 1958, started working as a nurse's assistant at a hospital after graduating.

Bullock and her sister began frequenting nightclubs in St.Louis. She first saw it while performing at the Manhattan Club with Ike Turner's band "The Kings of Rhythm". Bullock was impressed with Turner's talent and asked her to let her sing in her band. Turner told Bullock he would call her, but he never responded. One night in 1957, she took the microphone from the band's drummer and sang B.B.King's song "You Know I Love You". When Turner heard her sing, he asked Bullock if he knew any more songs, and Bullock sang for the rest of the night. Thus, she became a prominent vocalist with her group. Bullock's first recording was the song "Boxtop" in 1958, under the name Little Ann.

In 1960, Turner wrote the song "A Fool in Love" for singer Art Lassiter and would sing in the background with Lassiter's backing vocalists. But Lassiter couldn't make it to the recording session, and Turner suggested that Bullock sing the lead. Later, disc jockey Dave Dixon sent Turner to Juggy Murray, president of Sue Records, so Murray was impressed by Bullock's vocals after hearing the song. Murray, who bought the piece, convinced Bullock to make it "the star of the show." Turner changed Bullock's name to "Tina" because it rhymed with 'Sheena' and added the last name 'Turner'. So she registered the name as a form of protection, and Bullock wouldn't be able to replace her with another "Tina Turner" if she left Turner.

Performing the song "A Fool in Love" in July 1960, Bullock was announced to the public as her new name "Tina Turner". The song peaked at #2 on the charts and described it as the blackest record to hit the white pop charts. The following year, another single from the duo, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," was released and hit the single charts very well, earning the duo a Grammy Award nomination for 'Best Rock and Roll Performance'.

Later, Turner formed the group "Ike & Tina Turner Revue" with her own group and a girl group, Ikettes. The band had a rigorous touring schedule and performed at venues around the country for 90 days straight. The group, which managed to make its name known, put on many profitable performances. In 1964, Turner's first track credited as a solo artist, "Too Many Ties That Bind"/"We Need an Could" was released by Ike's record label Sonja Records. In the same year, the duo signed with Loma Records, which is managed by Bob Krasnow. They released their first chart album under the label "Live! The Ike & Tina Turner Show" in February 1965 and peaked at #8 on the charts.

In 1965, the duo appeared in the concert film "The Big T.N.T. Show" and impressed Phil Spector with their performance. Then, they signed a deal with Spector's company called "Philles". Their first single, "River Deep – Mountain High", was released in May 1966. The song topped the charts in many countries and broke records. In November 1967, Turner made her debut as the first female artist and the first black artist to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

The duo signed with Blue Thumb Records in 1968. The following year, they released their album "Outta Season". In the same year, they released their studio album "The Hunter". The title track of the album earned Turner a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance. In the fall of 1969, Ike & Tina Turner's profile in their home country was on the rise. Then, they attracted even more attention thanks to their performances in TV shows. In 1970, they released two albums, "Come Together" and "Workin' Together". The singles included in the albums became the turning point in the career of the duo.

In early 1971, their biggest hit was their cover of "Proud Mary" by the rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival. The song reached #4 on the charts and earned the duo a Grammy Award for Outstanding R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. They released their live album "What You Hear Is What You Get" in July 1971, making it their first certified Gold album. The following year, they opened the recording studio "Bolic Sound". Around this time, Turner began writing more songs and recorded nine out of ten tracks on their 1972 album "Feel Good". The hit song "Nutbush City Limits", written by Turner, was released in 1972. The single reached #1 in Austria, #4 in the UK, and the top 5 in many other countries. As a result of their success, they received their first Golden European Record Award.

In 1974 the duo released their album "The Gospel By Ike & Tina" and earned a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Soul Gospel Performance". Turner's debut solo album "Tina Turns the Country On!" I took it out. With her album, she was nominated for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. That same year, Turner appeared in the fantasy drama movie "Tommy," written and directed by Ken Russell, as the Acid Queen, a drug-addicted prostitute, to critical acclaim for her performance. In 1975, Turner's another solo album, "Acid Queen," was released.

In the mid-1970s, Ike had a troubled relationship with Turner due to his addiction to cocaine. On July 1, 1976, Turner performed at the Statler Hilton in downtown Dallas. Then, the two had a physical argument on the way to the hotel, and Turner hid from Ike in the hotel across the highway. Turner filed for divorce from Ike and they divorced on March 29, 1978. After their breakup, in 1977, Turner reappeared with a sexier image and costumes created by Bob Mackie. The following year, she released her third solo album, "Rough", but the album did not achieve the desired success. In 1982, Turner's recording of the Temptations' song "Ball of Confusion" for UK production team BEF became a hit with European dance clubs.

By 1983, Turner was signed to Capitol Records. Later, she did a cover of singer Al Green's single "Let's Stay Together". The song reached the top of the charts of many European countries. After the surprise success of the song, they released their album "Private Dancer" with the company in May 1984. The album peaked at #2 on the charts of various countries and was certified 5x Platinum in the United States. Turner's most successful album.

On September 1, 1984, Turner became the first and only number one hit with the song "What's Love Got to Do with It". It also culminated in success with the single, winning three Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards. Turner's success continued with her co-starring with Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in the 1985 action movie "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome." Thanks to the movie, she got her first acting role and reactions to her performance were generally positive. She won the NAACP Image Award for Best Actress for her performance. She also sang two songs for the movie, "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" and "One of the Living". Turner, who had two hits, won the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance with the latter. Turner produced a duet with Bryan Adams called "It's Only Love", and the song was nominated for a Grammy Award. In addition, the music video won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance.

In 1986, Turner released her sixth solo album, "Break Every Rule". The album reached number 1 in four countries in its first year. Prior to the album, Turner released her best-selling autobiography "I,Tina: My Life Story". That same year, Turner earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Later, she started her tour called "Break Every Rule World Tour" in March 1987. It was the third highest-grossing tour by a female artist in North America that year. In January 1988, Turner performed in front of nearly 180,000 people at Maracanã Stadium in Brazil, breaking the Guinness World Record for being the highest paid concert attendance for a solo artist. She also released her album "Tina Live in Europe", for which she won a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

After the tour ended, she made her name again in 1989 with the album "Foreign Affair". The album reached #1 in eight countries and became her first number-one album. The following year, she embarked on her "Foreign Affair European Tour". The tour became the center of attention, attracting nearly four million spectators and breaking a European tour record. In October 1991, Turner released her first major hit compilation, "Simply the Best". The album managed to become the best-selling album in the UK, as well as being certified 8x Platinum. That same year, Turner was inducted into the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" with Ike, and neither came to receive the award.

In 1993, her semi-autobiographical film "What Got to Do with It" was released. The film starred Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne, and received Oscar Award nominations for Best Actress and Best Actor for their performances. In 1995, Turner returned to the studio and released the song "GoldenEye" written for the James Bond movie "GoldenEye". In 1996, Turner released her album "Wildest Dreams". Before celebrating her 60th birthday, Turner released the dance-infused "When the Heartache Is Over" as the title track of her tenth and final solo album, "Twenty Four Seven." The success of the song and the tour that followed helped the album go Gold certified by the RIAA. The "Twenty Four Seven Tour" became the highest-grossing tour of 2000 with its tenth concert tour. In July 2000, at a concert in Zurich, Switzerland, Turner announced that she would retire at the end of the tour.

In November 2004, Turner released the hit album "All the Best". The album debuted at number 2 on the Billboard 200 album chart in 2005 and became the highest charting album in the United States. After the album's release, it went platinum in the US and reached platinum status in seven other countries.

Turner made a comeback at the Grammy Awards in February 2008, where she performed with Beyoncé. Turner decided to embark on her first tour in nearly ten years with "Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour" in October 2008. Her tour was a huge success and became one of the best-selling her tours of all time. In 2009, Turner announced her retirement from acting. In the same year, she founded a global music foundation called "Beyond Foundation" with musicians Regula Curti and Dechen Shak-Dagsay. Through her projects with the Beyond foundation, Turner has co-released four albums of spiritual or uplifting music. As of 2023, the institution, which has changed its name to the "Swiss Beyond Foundation", remains active and allows the collaboration of music artists from different parts of the world.

In April 2010, due to a fan campaign by Rangers Football Club, Turner's 1989 hit album "The Best" debuted on the UK singles chart and peaked at number 9 and this made Turner the first female recording artist in the UK chart. Turner appeared on the German cover of Vogue in April 2013, at the age of 73. Thus, she became the oldest person to appear on the cover of Vogue magazine. In February 2014, Parlophone Records released a new compilation album of Turner called "Love Songs".

In December 2016, Turner began work on "Tina," a musical directed by Phyllida Lloyd and based on her own life story. The show opened in April 2018 at London's Aldwych Theatre, with Adrienne Warren in the lead role. That same year, Turner was honored with the 2018 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. At the same time, her second memoir "My Love Story" was released in October 2018. In 2020 she collaborated with Norwegian producer Kygo on a remix of "What's Love Got to Do with It". With this release, she became the first artist to break into the top 40 in the UK for seven consecutive years.

In 2020, Turner released her third book, "Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Change Your Life for Good," and was named the Best Nonfiction book of 2020 by Amazon's editors. Turner starred in the 2021 documentary film "Tina," directed by Dan Lindsay and T.J.

In 2021, Turner was inducted as a solo artist in the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" and accepted the award from her home via satellite.

Personal life

Turner first fell in love with Harry Taylor while in Brownsville. However, their relationship ended when they heard that Taylor had married another girl. Later, Turner met Ike Turner's band, Kings of Rhythm. She started dating the band's saxophonist, Raymond Hill. Their relationship ended after Turner became pregnant in her final year of high school, when Hill broke her ankle during a wrestling match. Thus, Turner became a single parent before their son Craig was born.

From the time Turner met Ike Turner in 1957 until 1960, they continued platonically. After the couple had a son named Ronnie in October 1960, they moved to Los Angeles in 1962 and got married. On July 1, 1976, the couple broke up abruptly after fighting. In 1986, Turner met music executive Erwin Bach. The couple, who were originally friends, later started dating. The couple got married in an official ceremony in Küsnacht, Switzerland in July 2013 after 27 years of romantic relationship.

Turner, who considers herself a Buddhist, said in 2013 that she would renounce her US citizenship and apply for Swiss citizenship. On April 22, 2013, she became a Swiss citizen and received a Swiss passport. Often referred to as the "Queen of Rock and Roll", Turner is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers of all time.

In his 2018 memoir "My Love Story", Turner explained that she has more than one illness. Turner, who has had high blood pressure since 1978, often went untreated, resulting in kidney damage. Eventually, it resulted in kidney failure. In 2013, three weeks after her wedding to Bach, she suffered a stroke and had to learn to walk again. Turner said she was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016, adding that the treatment made things worse.

Turner's husband Bach, who had a low chance of getting a kidney, offered to donate a kidney. Turner accepted her husband's donation and they underwent kidney transplant surgery on April 7, 2017. Thus, Turner lived for another six years. On May 24, 2023, Turner died at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, at the age of 83.