"I will never give in to old age until I become old. And I'm not old yet!" That's exactly right. Guitarist Ike Turner discovered the 17-year-old singer Anna Mae Bullock during a performance at the St. Louis nightclub in 1956. Anna, born on 26 November 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee, joined Ike Turner And The Kings of Rhythm as a backing vocalist.
Writing
'Little Ann' soon steps out of the shadows when she becomes the lead singer in 1958 and marries Ike. As the duo Ike & Tina, they were very successful in the R&B circuit in the late 1960s. Although Tina preferred to leave songwriting to others, she wrote several songs herself in the late 1960s, such as 'I Am A Motherless Child', 'Sexy Ida', 'Baby Get On', 'Sweet Rhode Island Red' and the hit 'Nutbush City Limits'. Other hits from this period include 'A Fool In Love' and 'Proud Mary'.
Solo
In 1975, Tina broke all ties with Ike because his behaviour had become unbearable. The new path to the top was tough. After several solo albums (including Acid Queen from 1975), Tina was finally recognised by the general public in 1983, with the help of her manager Roger Davies. Her version of Al Green’s 'Let’s Stay Together' charted highly, and the release of the album Private Dancer produced a number 1 hit with 'What’s Love Got To Do With It'. Mark Knopfler, frontman of Dire Straits, wrote the title track 'Private Dancer' especially for this album.
Strong woman
Grammys followed, including three more in the Best Female Vocal Performance category. Having pulled herself out of a deep valley, she emerged as a mentally and physically strong woman (those legs, that voice!) and became a role model for many female fans. The following year, Turner played a role in the film Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome, whose theme song 'We Don’t Need Another Hero', sung by her, became a hit.
Film
A duet with Mick Jagger followed in 1985, and she sang on the charity song 'We Are The World'. That same year, her autobiography I Tina was published. The book was filmed in 1993 under the title What's Love Got To Do With It. In 1998, Tina sang a duet with Eros Ramazzotti; his Cose Della Vita was already a hit in Italy, and with Tina, the song became a hit throughout Europe.
Last performance
After many concert tours, awards, songs and albums (including Foreign Affair from 1989, Wildest Dreams from 1996 and Twenty Four Seven from 2000), the sixty-year-old and still vibrant Tina Turner performed for the last time on 6 December 2000 at the Arrowhead Pond near LA. Afterwards, she retired with her beloved to her villa in France and indulged in her hobby: painting.
Disney
In 2002, Tina sang the song 'Great Spirits' for the Disney film Brother Bear. Compilation albums regularly appeared, including Tina Turner Sings Country (2005).
Benefit concert
In May 2007, Tina Turner took to the stage again for the first time in seven years. The singer performed at a benefit concert in London.
At the end of 2007, her ex-husband Ike Turner died at the age of 76 from an overdose.
Comeback
Tina Turner got the taste for performing again and in February 2008 she appeared on the Grammy stage. First solo, then joined by Beyoncé during ‘Proud Mary’.
On 6 January 2016, she was on stage for the first time in 7 years to present a lifetime achievement award to musical producer Joop van den Ende. In November 2017, the fourth Beyond album titled "Awakening Beyond" was released, featuring two contributions from Turner (Rain Song and Awakening Beyond). The double album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios together with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2017, Turner also worked on the musical "Tina" in collaboration with Joop van den Ende. The musical premiered on 17 April 2018.
In January 2018, it was announced that Tina Turner would receive a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
On 3 July 2018, Tina was present in Paris at a Giorgio Armani fashion show. At that time, it was also announced that her eldest son Craig (59) was found dead in his studio just outside Los Angeles. He committed suicide.
Spiritual
Not long after the tour, Tina released a spiritual album called Beyond in collaboration with Dechen Shak Dagsay and Regula Curti. Following this success, the spiritual albums Children Beyond (2011) and Love Within (2014) were also released.
Goodbye Tina
On 24 May 2023, Turner passed away after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich at the age of 83.
“With her passing, the world loses a music legend and a role model,” said her spokesperson. We wholeheartedly agree.
Sunday Morning Classic
On 22 August 2021, Tina Turner was our Sunday Morning Classic with her album Private Dancer.
In 1984, the 45-year-old Tina Turner made one of the most astonishing comebacks in the history of American popular music. A few years earlier, it was hard to imagine that the experienced soul/rock singer would reinvent herself and return to the top of the pop charts, but that is exactly what she did with the excellent Private Dancer.
The story of Tina Turner and her remarkable comeback with Private Dancer is the stuff of Hollywood films. Turner's fifth overall solo album since leaving her ex-husband Ike's band in 1976 was her debut for Capitol Records after having been absurdly without a record contract for years. When the album, which many record executives hesitated to make, was finally released to the public, it was a huge worldwide hit.
Turner throws herself into the material here, her voice raspy but strong, physical and impossibly sensual. There is not a single filler among the tracks, and they receive modern rock settings that are neither distant nor overly fussy. She got some help: Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits wrote the slow, beautiful title track; Jeff Beck played a heart-wrenching solo on the great rocker “Steel Claw”; Martyn Ware and Greg Walsh of Heaven 17 produced her hit cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together"; and Rupert Hine produced much of the album and wrote one of the cheeky songs, "What's Love Got to Do with It."
Turner covers a lot of musical ground, but despite its soulful heart, this is a solid rock & roll record. There's everything from a pumping dance track, "Show Some Respect", to a slow tempo Ann Peebles song called "I Can't Stand the Rain", the tinkling notes that seem to fall on Tina's head and torment her with some memory. "I Might Have Been Queen" has the earthiness of a "Proud Mary". Turner seems to fully understand the touch each of these songs needed. When she sings about being a "private dancer, a dancer for money, and all the old music is enough", she comes across with the resignation of an old stripper or prostitute with an appropriate minimum of self-pity.
source NPO, Jan Liebregts and Wikipedia photo: Philip Spittle and Helge Overas
