Zurich, Switzerland–Tina Turner, the Queen of Rock ‘n Roll and the legendary singing star known for hits like “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” died on yesterday at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich, The Black Chronicle has learned.
She was 83.
Her publicist, Bernard Doherty, announced the death in a statement but did not provide the cause.
She had a stroke in recent years and was known to be struggling with a kidney disease and other illnesses.
Mrs. Turner embarked on her half-century career in the late 1950’s, while still attending high school, when she began singing with Ike Turner and his band, the Kings of Rhythm.
At first she was only an occasional performer, but she soon became the group’s star attraction — and Mr. Turner’s wife.
With her potent, bluesy voice and her frenetic dancing style, she made an instant impression.
Their ensemble, soon renamed the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, became one of the premier touring soul acts in Black venues on the so-called “Chitlin’ Circuit.”
After the Rolling Stones invited the group to open for them, first on a British tour in 1966 and then on an American tour in 1969, white listeners in both countries began paying attention.
Mrs. Turner, who insisted on adding rock songs by the Beatles and the Stones to her repertoire, reached an enormous new audience, giving the Ike and Tina Turner Revuewu its first Top 10 hit with her version of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song, “Proud Mary,” in 1971 and a Grammy Award for best R&B vocal performance by a group.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner,” a statement said on Facebook.
“With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world, and inspired the stars of tomorrow.
“Today, we say goodbye to a dear friend, who leaves us all her greatest work: her music.
“All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family.
“Tina, we will miss you dearly.”
Rolling Stone once named her “one of the greatest singers of all time.”
Alongside her ex-husband, Ike Turner, she released hits such as “River Deep – Mountain High” and “Proud Marry.”
In the context of today’s show business, Tina Turner must be the most sensational professional onstage,” Ralph J. Gleason, the influential jazz and pop critic for The San Francisco Chronicle, wrote in a review of a Rolling Stones concert in Oakland in November 1969. “She comes on like a hurricane. She dances and twists and shakes and sings and the impact is instant and total.
Referring to its “innovative fusion of old-fashioned soul singing and new wave synth-pop,” Stephen Holden, in a review for The New York Times, called the album “a landmark not only in the career of the 45-year-old singer, who has been recording since the late 1950s, but in the evolution of pop-soul music itself.”
The album went on to sell five million copies and ignite a touring career that established Ms. Turner as a worldwide phenomenon.
In 1988 she appeared before about 180,000 people at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, breaking a record for the largest paying audience for a solo artist. After her “Twenty Four Seven” tour in 2000 sold more than $100 million in tickets, Guinness World Records announced that she had sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history.
