Tina Turner (born November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and author. Turner rose to international prominence as a featured singer with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm before recording hit singles both with Ike Turner and as a solo performer. One of the world's best-selling artists of all time, she has been referred to as The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll. has sold more than 200 million albums and singles worldwide to date. She is noted for her energetic stage presence, powerful vocals, well-proportioned legs, and career longevity. According to Guinness World Records, Turner has sold more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history.
Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock to a small Tennessee family. Growing up throughout the Southeastern United States she began singing in local church choirs. She began her career in 1958 as a featured singer with Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, first recording under the name "Little Ann". Her introduction to the public as Tina Turner began in 1960 as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of notable hits credited to the duo, including "A Fool in Love", "River Deep - Mountain High" (1966), "Proud Mary" (1971), and "Nutbush City Limits" (1973), a song that she wrote. In her autobiography, I, Tina (1986), she revealed several instances of severe domestic abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. Raised a Baptist, she encountered faith with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in 1971, crediting the spiritual chant of Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, which Turner says helped her to endure during difficult times.
After her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career through live performances. In the 1980s, Turner launched a major comeback with another string of hits, starting in late 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" followed by the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer which became a worldwide success. The album contained the song "What's Love Got to Do with It", which became Turner's biggest hit and won four Grammy Awards including Record of the Year. Her solo success continued throughout the 1980s and 90s with multi-platinum albums including Break Every Rule and Foreign Affair, and with singles such as "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)", "Typical Male", "The Best", "I Don't Wanna Fight", and "GoldenEye", for the 1995 James Bond film of the same name.
In 1993, What's Love Got to Do with It, a biographical film adapted from her autobiography, was released along with an accompanying soundtrack album. In addition to her musical career, Turner has also garnered success acting in films, including the role of the Acid Queen in the 1975 rock musical Tommy, a starring role alongside Mel Gibson in the 1985 action film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and a cameo role in the 1993 film Last Action Hero. In 2008, Turner returned from semi-retirement to embark on her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. Turner's tour became one of the highest selling ticketed shows of 2008-09. Although an American citizen by birth, Turner renounced her American citizenship in 2013 after becoming a citizen of Switzerland.
Throughout her career, Turner has won twelve Grammy Awards, including eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Turner is the only female artist to garner concurrent Grammy nominations for pop, rock, and R&B. In 1993, the World Music Awards recognized her years in the music business by awarding her the Legend Award. In the UK, she is the first female artist to have a top 40 hit in six consecutive decades. She has had a total of 34 top 40 hits. Rolling Stone ranked Turner 63rd on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time and 17th on their list of the 100 greatest singers of all time. In 1991, Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Turner has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Video Tina Turner
Early life
Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in Nutbush, an unincorporated area in Haywood County, Tennessee. Her parents were Zelma Priscilla (née Currie) and Floyd Richard Bullock. Anna Mae was born at Poindexter Farm on Highway 180, where her father worked as an overseer of the sharecroppers. She is of African-American descent, with approximately 33% European and 1% Native American ancestry. (The latter was revealed when she appeared on the PBS documentary African American Lives 2, and the host Henry Louis Gates shared the results of Turner's ancestral tests.)
Anna Mae had an older sister, Ruby Aillene. As young children, Anna Mae and Aillene were separated when their parents relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, to work at a defense facility during World War II. Anna went to stay with her strict, religious paternal grandparents, Alex and Roxanna Bullock, who were deacon and deaconess at the Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church, which was located on Woodlawn Road off Highway 19. After the war, the sisters reunited with their parents and moved with them to Knoxville. Two years later, the family returned to Nutbush to live in the Flagg Grove community, where Anna attended Flagg Grove Elementary School from first through eighth grade. In 1889, her great-great uncle had sold the land on which the school was built to the school trustees.
As a young girl, Anna Mae sang in the church choir at Nutbush's Spring Hill Baptist Church. When she was 11, her mother ran off without warning, seeking freedom from her abusive relationship with Floyd Bullock. Zelma relocated to St. Louis to live with Anna Mae's great-aunt. As a preteen, Anna Mae worked as a domestic worker for the Henderson family. When Anna Mae was 13, her father married another woman and moved to Detroit. Anna Mae and her sister were sent to live with their grandmother Georgeanna in Brownsville, Tennessee. Anna Mae later stated in her memoir, I, Tina, that she felt her mother had not loved her, and that she "wasn't wanted", stating further that her mother had planned to leave her father when pregnant with Anna Mae. "She was a very young woman who didn't want another kid", Anna Mae wrote. Her relationship with her mother remained estranged until Bullock's death in 1999.
A self-professed tomboy, Anna Mae joined both the cheerleading squad and the female basketball team at Carver High School in Brownsville, and "socialized every chance she got". Her first boyfriend, while she was living in Brownsville, was Harry Taylor, who originally attended a rival school to hers. Taylor relocated to Anna's school to be near her. The relationship ended after Anna Mae learned Harry had married another woman.
When Anna Mae was 16, her grandmother died suddenly. After the funeral, Anna Mae went to live with her mother in St. Louis, where she was reunited with her sister. There, Anna Mae graduated from Sumner High School in 1958. After her graduation, she worked as a nurse's aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and dreamed of becoming a nurse.
Maps Tina Turner
Ike & Tina Turner
Origins
Anna and her sister began to frequent nightclubs in the St. Louis and East St. Louis areas around this time. At Club Manhattan, a nightclub in the East St. Louis area, she first saw Ike Turner and his band, the Kings of Rhythm, perform. Anna was impressed by the band's music and Ike's talent, claiming the bandleader's music put her "into a trance." Anna felt the urge to sing on stage with Ike's band despite the fact that few women had ever sung with him. One night in 1957, 17-year-old Anna was given a microphone by Kings of Rhythm drummer Eugene Washington during an intermission. Upon hearing her sing, Ike asked her if she knew more songs; she was allowed to sing that night, becoming a guest vocalist from then on. Through this period, Ike taught her the points of voice control and performance. Her first studio recording was in 1958, singing background, under the name "Little Ann", on the Ike Turner song, "Box Top", alongside singer Carlson Oliver.
In 1960, Ike wrote an R&B song, "A Fool in Love", originally for Kings of Rhythm vocalist Art Lassiter. Lassiter failed to show up to the recording studio and Anna eventually was allowed to sing the song after much pleading to Ike. Ike agreed to use her voice as a "dummy vocal", with the intention of erasing her vocals and adding Lassiter's at a later date. Although some felt that the demo with Anna's voice was "high pitched" and "screechy", the song received decent airtime in St. Louis. Local St. Louis deejay Dave Dixon convinced Ike to send the tape to Juggy Murray, president of R&B label, Sue Records. Upon hearing the song, Murray was impressed with Anna's vocals, later stating that her vocals "sounded like screaming dirt... it was a funky sound." Murray bought the track and paid Ike a $25,000 (around $208,620 as of 2017) advance for recording and publishing rights. Murray also convinced Turner to make Anna "the star of the show". It was at this point that Ike Turner renamed Anna Mae Bullock "Tina" because the name rhymed with the television character Sheena. He was inspired by Sheena, Queen of the Jungle to create her stage persona. Ike trademarked the name "Tina Turner" as a form of protection so that if Anna left him like his previous lead singers, he could replace her with another singer and have her perform as Tina.
Early success
"A Fool in Love" was released in July 1960 and became an immediate hit, peaking at number 2 on the Hot R&B Sides chart and number 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 that October. Kurt Loder described the track as "the blackest record to ever creep into the white pop charts since Ray Charles' gospel-styled 'What'd I Say' that previous summer." A second pop hit, "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" (1961), reached the top 20 and earned the group a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock and Roll Performance. Notable singles released during the duo's Sue Records period included the R&B hits, "I Idolize You", "Poor Fool", and "Tra-La-La-La". In 1964, Ike & Tina left Sue and signed with Kent Records, releasing the modest single, "I Can't Believe What You Say". The following year, they signed with Loma Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records and run by Bob Krasnow, who had become their manager shortly after they left Sue Records. Between 1964 and 1969, Ike & Tina signed with more than ten labels.
While touring to support the record, Ike created his own musical revue, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, which included the Kings of Rhythm and a girl group that Ike named The Ikettes backing Tina, while he remained in the background, often playing his guitar to the back of Tina. Wanting to maintain their base and increase finances, Ike Turner put Tina and the entire Revue through a rigorous touring schedule across the United States, gigging 90 days straight in dates around the country. During the days of the chitlin' circuit, the Ike and Tina Turner Revue built a reputation that a writer for the History of Rock site cited as "one of the most hottest, most durable, and potentially most explosive of all R&B ensembles" with its show rivaling that of the James Brown Show in terms of musical spectacle. The shows, organized by Ike Turner, provided them financial success. Due to their successful performances, the couple was able to perform in front of diverse crowds in the American South due to the money they made from performing in Southern clubs. Between 1963 and 1966, the band toured constantly without the presence of a hit single. Tina's own profile was raised after several solo appearances on shows, such as American Bandstand and Shindig!, while the entire Revue appeared on shows, such as Hollywood A Go-Go, The Andy Williams Show, and, in late 1965, in the concert film The Big T.N.T. Show.
Mainstream success
In 1965, Phil Spector caught an Ike & Tina performance in Los Angeles and sought to work with Tina. Working out a deal, Spector gave Ike a $20,000 advance to keep out of the studio to which Ike agreed. With Spector, Tina produced the song "River Deep - Mountain High", which was released in 1966 on Spector's Philles label. Spector considered that record, with Tina's maximum energy over a symphonic sound, to be his best work. It was successful overseas, particularly in the United Kingdom, where it eventually reached number 3 on the singles chart, but it failed to go any higher than #88 in the United States. Crushed, Spector never signed another act to Philles. But the impact of the record gave Ike and Tina an opening spot for The Rolling Stones' UK tour later that fall, which the Revue later extended by performing all over Europe and Australia. Signing with Blue Thumb Records in 1968, the Revue issued the blues-heavy albums, Outta Season and The Hunter. Outta Season produced the Revue's charted cover of Otis Redding's "I've Been Loving You Too Long" while the latter earned Tina a Grammy nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her rendition of the title track, originally recorded by Albert King. The success of the albums led to the Revue headlining at Las Vegas where their shows were attended by a variety of celebrities including David Bowie, Sly Stone, Janis Joplin, Cher, James Brown, Ray Charles, Elton John, and Elvis Presley.
In 1969, the Revue's profile in their home country was raised after opening for the Rolling Stones on their US tour. In 1970, they performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. The tour's success resulted in the Revue signing with Liberty Records, where they released two albums, Come Together and Workin' Together, released in 1970 and 1971 respectively. Come Together produced the duo's first top 40 single with their cover of Sly and the Family Stone's "I Want to Take You Higher". Come Together marked a turning point in their careers in which they switched from their usual R&B repertoire to incorporate more rock tunes. In early 1971, their cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" became their biggest hit, reaching number 4 on the Hot 100 and selling over a million copies, winning them a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. Later in 1971, their live album, What You Hear Is What You Get, taken from a performance at Carnegie Hall, was their first to be certified gold. In 1972, Ike Turner created the studio, Bolic Sounds, near their home in Inglewood. After Liberty was bought by United Artists Records, the duo was assigned to that label, releasing ten albums in a three-year period. The duo's final major hit single, "Nutbush City Limits", was released in 1973, reaching number 22 on the Hot 100, and peaking at number 4 in the UK. In 1974, Tina released her first solo album, Tina Turns the Country On!, winning a Grammy nomination.
That year, Tina traveled to London to participate in the filming of the rock musical, Tommy, in which she played The Acid Queen, a drug addicted prostitute who tries to coax Tommy into sex and illegal drug addiction and sang the song of the same name. Turner's performance was critically acclaimed. Shortly after filming wrapped, Turner appeared with Ann-Margret on her TV special in London. Returning to the United States, Turner continued her career with the Revue. Following the release of Tommy, another Turner solo album, Acid Queen, was released in 1975.
Decline of the duo
By the mid-1970s, Ike Turner's excessive cocaine habit had gotten out of hand. During this period, Tina adopted the Nichiren Buddhism faith and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo to help her deal with a stressful marriage and career. Due to Ike Turner's drug abuse, some shows were either canceled or postponed. In July 1976, Ike Turner had plans to leave United Artists Records for a five-year, $150,000 deal with Cream Records. The deal was to be signed on July 6. On July 2, 1976, Ike and Tina were en route from Los Angeles to Dallas where the Revue had a gig at the Dallas Statler Hilton. Ike and Tina got into a fight during their ride to the hotel. Shortly after arriving to the hotel, Tina fled from the hotel and later hid at a friend's house. On July 27, Tina sued for divorce on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. Ike claims in his book that Tina initiated the fight by purposely irritating him so that she'd have a reason to break up with him before they were scheduled to sign a new 5-year contract upon their return from Dallas.
Tina later credited the Nichiren Buddhist faith and chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo with giving her the courage to strike out on her own. However, by walking out on Ike in the middle of a tour, she learned she was legally responsible to tour promoters for the canceled shows. After a year in court, their divorce was made final on March 29, 1978. In the divorce, she completely parted ways with him, retaining only her stage name and assuming responsibility for the debts incurred by the canceled tour as well as a significant Internal Revenue Service lien.
First solo performances
In 1977, with finances given to her by United Artists executive Richard Stewart, Tina returned onstage, giving a round of shows in Las Vegas in a cabaret setting, influenced by the cabaret shows she witnessed while a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. She took her cabaret act to smaller venues in the United States. Turner earned further income by appearing on shows such as The Hollywood Squares, Donny and Marie, The Sonny & Cher Show and The Brady Bunch Hour. Later in 1977, Turner headlined her first solo concert tour, throughout Australia. In 1978, United Artists released Turner's third solo album, Rough, with distribution both in North America and Europe with EMI. That album, along with its follow-up, Love Explosion, which included a brief diversion to disco rhythms, failed to chart.
The albums completed her United Artists/EMI contracts and Turner left the labels. Continuing her performing career with her second headlining tour, Wild Lady of Rock 'n' Roll, she continued to be a successful live act even without the premise of a hit record. Following an appearance on Olivia Newton-John's US TV special, Hollywood Nights, in 1979, Turner sought a contract with Newton-John's manager Roger Davies. Davies agreed to work with Turner as her manager after seeing her perform at the Venetian Ballroom in the Fairmont San Francisco hotel in February 1980.
Davies advised Turner to drop her band and remodel her show into a grittier rock'n'roll showcase. In 1981, Davies booked Tina at The Ritz in New York City. Following the performance, Rod Stewart hired Turner to perform a duet version of his hit, "Hot Legs", on Saturday Night Live, and later hired Turner to open for him on his U.S. tour. One show with Rod Stewart and Kim Carnes, on 19 December 1981, at the L. A. Forum, Inglewood, was filmed. Afterwards, Turner opened three shows for The Rolling Stones. A recorded cover of The Temptations' "Ball of Confusion" for the UK production team B.E.F. featuring Robert Cray, became a hit in European dance clubs in 1982. Following performances with Chuck Berry and several short tours in the U.S. and Europe, Turner again performed at the Ritz in December of the year, which resulted in a singles deal with Capitol Records under the insistence of David Bowie.
Private Dancer and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
In November 1983, Tina released her cover of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" with Capitol. The record became a hit, reaching several European charts, including a top 10 placement in the United Kingdom. The song peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Turner's first solo entry into the U.S. charts. It also peaked at the top 10 of the Hot Dance Club Songs and Hot Black Singles charts. The success of the song forced Capitol to rethink its contract with Turner, offering the singer a three album deal, demanding an album on short notice, which had Turner staging what Ebony magazine later called an "amazing comeback". Recorded in two months in London, the album, Private Dancer, was released in June 1984. That same month, Capitol issued the album's second single, "What's Love Got to Do with It", earlier recorded by the rock group Bucks Fizz in 1984. It reached the top 10 within a month and in September had reached number 1 on the Hot 100 in the U.S. Featuring hit singles, such as "Better Be Good to Me" and "Private Dancer", the album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, selling five million copies alone in the states and selling over twenty million copies worldwide, making it her most successful album. Turner's comeback culminated in early 1985 when she won four Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year for "What's Love Got to Do with It". In February of that year, she embarked on her second world tour supporting the Private Dancer album, where she toured to huge crowds. One show, filmed at Birmingham, England's NEC Arena, was later released on home video. During this time, she also contributed on vocals to the USA for Africa benefit song "We Are the World".
Turner's success continued when she travelled to Australia to star opposite Mel Gibson in the 1985 post-apocalyptic film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The movie provided her with her first acting role in ten years--she portrayed the glamorous Aunty Entity, the ruler of Bartertown. Upon release, critical response to her performance was generally positive, and the film became a global success, making more than $36 million in the United States alone. Turner later received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress for her role in the film. She also recorded two songs for the film, "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" and "One of the Living"; both became hits, with the latter winning Turner a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. In July, Turner performed at Live Aid alongside Mick Jagger. Encouraged by a performance together during Tina's filmed solo concert in England, singer Bryan Adams released their duet single together, "It's Only Love", later resulting in a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
Subsequent releases
Turner followed up Private Dancer with Break Every Rule in 1986. Featuring "Typical Male", "Two People" and "What You Get Is What You See", the albums that sold more than four million units in the U.S., Prior to the album's release, Turner published her memoirs, I, Tina, which later became a bestseller, and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Turner's European Break Every Rule Tour, which culminated in March 1988 in Munich, Germany, contributed to record-breaking sales and concert attendances. In January 1988, Turner made history alongside Paul McCartney when she performed in front of the largest paying audience (approximately 180,000) to see a solo performer in Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, earning her a Guinness World Record. The success of Turner's two live tours led to the recording of Tina Live in Europe which was released that April. Turner lay low following the end of her Break Every Rule Tour, emerging once again with Foreign Affair which included one of Turner's signature songs, "The Best." She later embarked on a European tour to promote the album. While Foreign Affair went gold in the United States, with its singles "The Best" and "Steamy Windows" becoming Top 40 hits there. It was hugely successful in Europe, where Turner had personally relocated.
In 1991, Ike & Tina Turner were inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Phil Spector later accepted on their behalf. That same year, the ex-couple signed away their rights to have their lives dramatized in the semi-autobiographical film What's Love Got to Do with It, later released in 1993 and starring Angela Bassett as Tina and Laurence Fishburne as Ike, with the actors receiving Best Actress and Best Actor Academy Award nominations for their portrayals of the former husband-and-wife team. Turner contributed to the soundtrack for What's Love Got to Do with It, re-recording songs from her Revue days and recording several newer songs, including what turned out to be her last Top 10 U.S. hit, "I Don't Wanna Fight". Other than helping Bassett with her wardrobe and teaching her dance steps as well as providing songs for the soundtrack, and appearing as herself at the end of the film, she refused to be involved fully in the film, telling an interviewer, "Why would I want to see Ike Turner beat me up again? I haven't dwelled on it; it's all in the past where it belongs." Following the film's and soundtrack's release, Turner embarked on her first US tour in seven years. Following the tour's end, Turner moved to Switzerland and took a year off from the road at the end of the tour.
Turner returned in 1995 with the U2 composition, "GoldenEye" for the James Bond film of the same name. Its huge success in Europe and modest success in her native United States led Turner to record a new album, releasing the Wildest Dreams album in 1996. Though the album itself was not as hugely successful in the United States, thanks to a world tour and a much played Hanes hosiery commercial, the album went gold in the United States. The album reached platinum success in Europe where Turner had hits with "Whatever You Want", "Missing You", which briefly charted in the U.S., "Something Beautiful Remains", and the sensual Barry White duet, "In Your Wildest Dreams". Following the tour's end in 1997, Turner took another break before re-emerging again in 1999 appearing on the VH-1 special Divas Live '99.
In 1998, the duet with Italian musician Eros Ramazzotti in "Cose della vita" became a European hit. Before celebrating her 60th birthday, Turner released the dance-infused song, "When the Heartache Is Over" and its parent album, Twenty Four Seven the following month in Europe, releasing both the song and the album in North America in early 2000. The success of "When the Heartache Is Over" and Turner's tour supporting the album once again helped in the album going gold in the U.S. The Twenty Four Seven Tour became her most successful concert tour to date and became the highest-grossing tour of 2000 according to Pollstar grossing over $100 million. Later, Guinness World Records announced that Turner had sold more concert tickets than any other solo concert performer in music history. Afterwards, Turner announced a semi-retirement.
Recent years
In 2002, Tennessee State Route 19 between Brownsville and Nutbush was named "Tina Turner Highway". The following year, she recorded the duet "Great Spirits" with Phil Collins for the Disney film, Brother Bear. In 2004, Tina made her first professional appearances following her semi-retirement, releasing the compilation album, All the Best, which produced the single "Open Arms", and sold more than a million copies in the US.
In December of the following year, Turner was recognized by the Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and was elected to join an elite group of entertainers. President George W. Bush commented on Turner's "natural skill, the energy, and sensuality", and referred to her legs as "the most famous in show business". Several artists paid tribute to her that night including Oprah Winfrey, Melissa Etheridge (performing "River Deep - Mountain High"), Queen Latifah (performing "What's Love Got to Do with It"), Beyoncé (performing "Proud Mary"), and Al Green (performing "Let's Stay Together"). Winfrey stated, "We don't need another hero. We need more heroines like you, Tina. You make me proud to spell my name w-o-m-a-n," In November, Turner released All the Best - Live Collection and it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Turner participated in the soundtrack to All the Invisible Children, providing duet vocals to the song "Teach Me Again", with singer Elisa, finding success in Italy where it peaked at the top spot.
In 2007, Turner gave her first live performance in seven years, headlining a benefit concert for the Cauldwell's Children Charity at London's Natural History Museum. That year, Turner performed a rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Edith and The Kingpin" on Herbie Hancock's Mitchell tribute album, River: The Joni Letters. Turner's original vocals for Carlos Santana's "The Game of Love" were included in a Santana greatest hits compilation. Label demands led to Turner's vocals being replaced at the last minute by Michelle Branch.
On December 12, 2007, Turner's former husband Ike Turner died from a cocaine overdose. He had also been suffering from emphysema and cardiovascular disease. Reached for comment, Turner issued a brief statement through her spokesperson stating: "Tina hasn't had any contact with Ike in more than 30 years. No further comment will be made." Turner made her public comeback in February 2008 at the Grammy Awards where she performed alongside Beyoncé. In addition, she picked up a Grammy as a featured artist on River: The Joni Letters. In October 2008, Turner embarked on her first tour in nearly ten years with the Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. In support of the tour, Turner released another hits compilation. The tour became a huge success and culminated in the release of the live album/DVD, Tina Live. In 2009, Turner participated in the singing project Beyond with fellow musicians Regula Curti, Selda Bagcan, and Dechen Shak Dagsay. Their first album Buddhist And Christian Prayers combined Buddhist chants and Christian choral music along with a spiritual message read by Turner. The album was released only in Germany and a handful of other countries. It peaked at number 7 in Switzerland.
In April 2010, mainly due to an online campaign by fans of Rangers Football Club, Turner's 1989 hit, "The Best", returned to the UK singles chart, peaking at number 9 on the chart. This made Turner the first recording artist in UK chart history to score top 40 hits in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. In 2011, Beyond's second album Children - With Children United In Prayer followed and charted again in Switzerland. Turner promoted the album by performing on TV shows in Germany and Switzerland in December that year. In May 2012, Turner was spotted attending a fashion show in Beijing to support Giorgio Armani. Turner appeared on the cover of the German issue of Vogue magazine in April 2013, becoming at the age of 73 the oldest person worldwide to feature on the cover of Vogue. On February 3, 2014, Parlophone Records released a new compilation titled Love Songs. Later in the year, Beyond's third album Love Within was released with Turner contributing some gospel tracks.
Turner announced in December 2016 that she has been working on Tina, a new musical based on her life story, in collaboration with Phyllida Lloyd and Stage Entertainment. Her second autobiography, Tina Turner: My Love Story, is due for release in October 2018. In January 2018, it was announced that Turner will be one of the recipients of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Personal life
Relationships and marriages
Early relationships
Tina (then called Anna Mae Bullock) fell in love for the first time with Harry Taylor, to whom she lost her virginity. They met at a school basketball game. She spoke about this relationship in her 1986 interview with Rolling Stone. "Harry was real popular and had tons of girlfriends, but eventually I got him, and we went steady for a year." Their relationship ended when she discovered that Taylor had impregnated and married another girl he was dating.
After moving to St. Louis, Anna Mae and her sister became acquainted with members of the Kings of Rhythm, and Anna Mae dated the band's saxophonist, Raymond Hill. At 18 she became pregnant. After her mother found out, she went to stay with Hill who lived with Ike Turner. Speaking on Hill she said, "I didn't love him as much as I'd loved Harry. But he was good-looking. I thought, 'My baby's going to be beautiful.
After she gave birth to their son Craig in 1958, the couple's relationship became strained. Allegedly, after a fight between the two broke out, Ike Turner and other Kings of Rhythm members confronted Hill and beat him up, with one member tackling him to the ground and instantly breaking his leg. The injury was so severe that Hill had to return to his hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi. Ike Turner later adopted Anna Mae and Hill's son, adding his own last name legally.
Ike Turner
After first performing in his band, the Kings of Rhythm, young Anna Mae was given the name Little Ann by Ike and the two became friends. In 1958 after Tina's mom put her and her infant son Craig out of the house, she moved into Ike's home in East St. Louis. During that period, Ike began musically training Tina. The two felt no mutual attraction in the beginning; Tina felt Ike was not the "ideal-looking man" and felt he was like a brother. Tina preferred light-skinned guys better than dark-skinned guys. Ike viewed her as a sister and favored "curvaceous women". Ike was still married to his common-law wife, Lorraine Taylor, during this period.
However, by 1959, Ike and Anna's relationship became sexual, much to Anna's chagrin. Ike also felt guilt over the relationship, stating later that having sex with Tina felt as if he were having sex with his sister. Tina later discussed to Rolling Stone that the first night they had sex, she was escaping another musician who wanted to have sex with her and ran to Ike's bedroom, thinking Ike would "protect her". She said the first time it happened, she agreed to do it once. Shortly after the group found musical success as Ike & Tina Turner, they relocated to Los Angeles and began performing to promote their hit single "A Fool in Love", all while Tina was pregnant with their son, Ronnie, who was eventually born on October 27, 1960. The first account of physical abuse committed by Ike happened after Tina complained of financial issues and ask to end their confusing relationship; Ike responded by hitting her in the head with a wooden shoe stretcher. Afterwards, Ike asked her to have sex with him. Tina wrote in her memoirs, I, Tina, that the incident was the first time Ike had "instilled fear" in her. Ike Turner would later admit in an interview with Spin, "yeah, I hit her, but I didn't hit her more than the average guy beats his wife... if she says I abused her, maybe I did." He worded this slightly differently in his memoirs, Taking Back My Name (1999), writing: "Sure, I've slapped Tina.... There have been times when I punched her to the ground without thinking. But I have never beat her."
Ike also claimed to interviewer Terry Gross on NPR that Tina's real legal name was Martha Nell Bullock, before family started calling her Anna Mae. In 1962, Ike and Tina married in Tijuana. According to Tina, they got married because Taylor was looking for alimony payments for their children Ike Jr. and Michael. Shortly after marrying, Taylor brought Ike Jr. and Michael to live with Ike, Tina, Craig and Ronnie. Ike would claim they weren't legally married and that Tina took his name to discourage her ex-boyfriend, Raymond Hill, from returning to her. Tina herself later admits that she "never felt like [she] was married" to Ike. Before a show in Los Angeles, in 1968, Tina tried to commit suicide by swallowing 50 Valiums after being assaulted by Ike. After a final fight with Ike in Dallas in early July 1976, Tina filed for divorce on July 27. In the final divorce decree, Tina took responsibility for missed concert dates as well as an IRS lien and requested to be allowed to retain use of her stage name as a means to find work as a performer. In the settlement, Tina gave Ike her share of their studio, publishing companies, four cars, and real estate -- a gift worth close to $500,000. "My peace of mind was more important," she said. After she left Ike, several promoters lost money and sued to recoup their losses. For almost two years she received food stamps, lived with friends, and played small clubs to pay off debts.
Friends and family members claimed Ike struggled to get over Tina and her son Ronnie once mentioned that Ike used to go to his house and snoop through his phone book to locate Tina. After divorcing Ike in 1978, Tina abstained from serious relationships for a long time, as she set on bringing her career back on track. In 1986 she said, "People have to realize that I just got out of a very difficult marriage. I'm not the type of woman who needs to jump back into another. I liked my freedom when I got out of that one. I've had a few love affairs, but nothing important." In 2018, while promoting a musical based on her life, Tina told The Sunday Times she has forgiven Ike. "As an old person, I have forgiven him, but it would not work with him. He asked for one more tour with me, and I said, 'No, absolutely not.' Ike wasn't someone you could forgive and allow him back in. It's all gone, all forgotten."
Erwin Bach
While at a record label party in London in 1985, Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach. Initially friends, Turner and Bach began dating the following year, and have remained together ever since. In July 2013, after a 27-year romantic partnership, the couple married in a civil ceremony on the banks of Lake Zürich, in Küsnacht, northern Switzerland.
Children
Tina has two biological sons, Craig, by Raymond Hill, and Ronnie, by Ike Turner. She also adopted two of Ike's children whom she raised as her own, Michael and Ike Jr.
Her first son, Raymond Craig was born on August 20, 1958 when she was 18. He is the child of Kings of Rhythm saxophonist Raymond Hill. Her second and only child with Ike, Ronald Renelle Turner was born on October 27, 1960. He is married to French-American singer Afida Turner. Ronnie is a musician and has performed with both of his parents as an adult. He used to play bass in the band, The Prophets, before they became Black Angel in 2000. Ronnie has two children and two grandchildren.
In her book Turner reveals she became pregnant again in 1968 but she had an abortion when she discovered one of the Ikettes, Ann Thomas, was also pregnant with Ike's baby.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1960, Ike Turner's estranged wife, Lorraine Turner, left her and Ike's sons, Ike Jr. (born October 3, 1958) and Michael (born 1960), to be raised by Ike and Tina. During Ike and Tina's divorce trial, Ike sent the four boys to live with Tina at her home. In 1985, Ike accused Tina of bad parenting, even alleging she had sent Michael to a mental hospital. Tina denied his claims, telling Australian magazine TV Week, "he gave me those children and not a penny to look after them with."
Religion
Turner has sometimes referred to herself a "Buddhist-Baptist", alluding to her upbringing in the Baptist church and her later conversion to Buddhism. Throughout her childhood and early adulthood, Turner was Baptist. In a 2016 interview, Turner stated that "I consider myself a Buddhist."
Turner was introduced to Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in 1973 by a friend of Ike's named Valerie Bishop. Turner wrote in her autobiography I, Tina that after Valerie taught her to recite the Buddhist chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, Tina observed that Ike, instead of hitting her for singing supposed wrong notes during recording sessions, would give her money to go shopping, something she regarded as a benefit of her newfound spiritual practice.
In an August 2011 interview with Shambhala Sun Buddhist magazine, Turner stated she adheres to the teachings and values of the Buddhist association Soka Gakkai International.
Turner has collaborated with Tibetan Buddhists and met with the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso in Einsiedeln, Switzerland in 2005, citing this as an inspiration for a spiritual music project she later co-founded called Beyond. In a 2011 public interview with Shambala Sun, Turner indicated that she no longer follows the morning and evening Gongyo practice in a regimented schedule and hosts various types of Buddhist statues in her home altar located in the upper attic of one of her guesthouses in Switzerland.
In a March 2016 interview with Lion's Roar magazine, Turner says she prays and chants each day, stating the following:
"Nam Myoho Renge Kyo is like a song. In the Soka Gakkai tradition we are taught how to sing it. It is a sound and a rhythm and it touches a place inside you. That place we try to reach is the subconscious mind. I believe that is the highest place."
Residences and citizenship
Turner has been living in a lake house, Château Algonquin in Küsnacht, next to Zürich since moving there in 1994. She owned property in Cologne, London, and Los Angeles, and a villa on the French Riviera named Anna Fleur.
On January 25, 2013, it was announced that Turner had applied for Swiss citizenship, and that she would relinquish her U.S. citizenship. In April, she undertook a mandatory citizenship test which included advanced knowledge of the German language and of Swiss history. On April 22, 2013, she became a citizen of Switzerland and was issued a Swiss passport. Turner signed the paperwork to give up her American citizenship at the U.S. embassy in Bern on October 24, 2013.
Discography
- Tina Turns the Country On! (1974)
- Acid Queen (1975)
- Rough (1978)
- Love Explosion (1979)
- Private Dancer (1984)
- Break Every Rule (1986)
- Foreign Affair (1989)
- What's Love Got to Do With It (1993)
- Wildest Dreams (1996)
- Twenty Four Seven (1999)
Tours
- 1977: Australian Tour
- 1978-79: The Wild Lady of Rock Tour
- 1982: Nice 'n' Rough Tour
- 1984: 1984 World Tour
- 1985: Private Dancer Tour
- 1987-88: Break Every Rule World Tour
- 1990: Foreign Affair: The Farewell Tour
- 1993: What's Love? Tour
- 1996-97: Wildest Dreams Tour
- 2000: Twenty Four Seven Tour
- 2008-09: Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour
Filmography
Awards and nominations
- In 2008, Turner was listed at the 17th place on Rolling Stone's list "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time".
- Turner is often referred in the media as "The Queen of Rock and Roll" (eight competitive Grammy Awards, highest grossing female concert performer in history)
- Turner is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.
- Three of her recordings, "River Deep - Mountain High" (1999), "Proud Mary" (2003), and "What's Love Got to Do with It" (2012), are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
- Turner has won eight competitive and three honorary achievement Grammy Awards.
- Bryan Adams, who performed with her on the Private Dancer Tour, praised Turner's live performances, saying: "I never saw Tina walk through a performance, she always put on a great show, and was gracious and grateful to her audience.
- When Turner became a recipient of the 2005 Kennedy Center Honors, her legs were noted specifically by President George W. Bush.
- At age 73, Turner became the oldest person to be featured on the front cover of Vogue, surpassing Meryl Streep, who covered American Vogue in 2012, aged 62.
- In 1996, Turner received the accolade of Légion d'Honneur from the French education minister
- Turner has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
References
Bibliography
External links
- Tina Turner at Encyclopædia Britannica
- Tina Turner at AllMovie
- Tina Turner Official
- Tina Turner Online
- Tina Turner Online Blog
- Tina Turner at AllMusic
- Tina Turner at Discogs
- Tina Turner on IMDb
- Tina Turner's Entry on the St. Louis Walk of Fame
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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