Tina Turner died yesterday at her home in Switzerland, after what her reps called a “long illness”. She was 83 years old. (Just a few months before her death, Tina had said that she was in “great danger” due to kidney disease.)
Tina rose to fame in the 1960s as part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, with her husband Ike Turner.
After escaping Ike’s abuse in 1976, she did what she had to do to survive, before her solo career took off with her 1984 album “Private Dancer”, featuring the hits “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, “Better Be Good to Me”, and the title track.
The following year, she played Aunty Entity in “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”, featuring her hit song “We Don’t Need Another Hero”. (Which was just remade by melodic metal superstars Ghost.)
Tina sold 200 million albums and won eight Grammys. At 56, she was hired as the face of a $20 million campaign for Hanes pantyhose because, you know, THOSE LEGS.
Tina’s 1986 memoir “I, Tina” detailed Ike’s abuse and her journey back to the top. It inspired the 1993 movie “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, starring Angela Bassett.
Tina credited her legendary stamina to exercise, eating well, and never smoking, drinking, or doing drugs.
Bassett issued a statement saying, quote, “Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion and freedom should look like.”
