Tina Turner (* November 26, 1939, as Anna Mae Bullock in Brownsville, Tennessee, United States) is a singer and actress. In 2013, she acquired Swiss citizenship; until then, she was a U.S. citizen. With over 180 million records sold, she is one of the most successful female singers in the world.
Childhood and Youth
Anna Mae Bullock is the younger of two daughters of the African American couple Floyd Richard Bullock and Zelma Bullock, née Currie, a worker of Indian descent. She was born in the basement of the Haywood Memorial Hospital in Brownsville; the basement was reserved for African Americans as part of the racial segregation. The first experience as a singer for little Anna Mae was in the choir of the Baptist church in Nutbush (Tennessee), where she grew up. After a difficult time, during which her parents separated and she lived with her grandmother Roxanne, she moved to St. Louis in 1955 to live with her mother Zelma Bullock and sister Alline.
Ike and Tina Turner
In 1958, she met Ike Turner in St. Louis with his band Kings of Rhythm and became their background singer. From a relationship with the saxophonist Raymond Hill, her first son Raymond Craig (1958–2018) was born. In 1960, she recorded the song “A Fool in Love.” She stepped in as a solo singer at short notice because the intended singer, Art Lassiter, was unavailable. The title reached number 27 on the US charts in August 1960. For promotional reasons, Ike then gave her the stage name Tina and renamed his band to Ike & Tina Turner. Tina and Ike, who were now also in a romantic relationship, subsequently went on tour with the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, initially in the USA and later thru Europe and Australia. In October 1960, their son Ronald Renelle was born. In 1962, the two married in Tijuana, Mexico. Ike Turner brought two sons born in 1958 and 1959 into the marriage.
The revue was very successful for many years, both financially and otherwise. The Turners toured as the opening act for the Rolling Stones, and Tina Turner recorded the hit single “River Deep, Mountain High” in 1966 with producer Phil Spector, which significantly increased Ike & Tina Turner’s popularity in Europe. In 1972, Ike and Tina Turner received a Grammy Award for “Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal” with the song “Proud Mary.” The song “Nutbush City Limits” from 1973, which Tina Turner composed and wrote the lyrics for herself, despite not having learned an instrument, reached number 2 on the German singles chart and stayed there for 26 weeks. In 1975, she played the role of the Acid Queen in the film adaptation of The Who’s rock opera Tommy.
Alongside her increasing musical success, problems in her private life with her husband Ike Turner (including domestic violence) began to accumulate, some of which were attributed to Ike’s drug use. In 1976, she finally left her husband and filed for divorce. This became legally binding in 1978. In this, she waived all rights to their joint musical pieces; but insisted only on being able to continue using her stage name. In 1991, Ike and Tina Turner were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Solo career Beginnings
Tina Turner was not able to directly build on the successes of the revue as a solo artist. She earned her money thru various tours, although the concerts mostly took place in small venues in front of often only a few hundred spectators. The album “Rough,” released in 1978, sold very poorly, as did the album “Love Explosion,” released a year later. In these albums, she musically ventured into disko music, among other things. With her stage performances, particularly the Nice-‘n’-Rough concerts of the early 1980s, Tina Turner gradually worked her way up. She was supported in this by her new manager, music producer Roger Davies, from 1979, who set out to bring Tina Turner out of the low point in her career. The shows were very well received by the audience, and even notable professional colleagues took notice of her. Tina Turner subsequently made guest appearances with, among others, Tom Jones, Rod Stewart, and later David Bowie, and played in the opening act at some Rolling Stones concerts in the USA. The major record companies, however, initially considered Tina Turner to be an old star who was hardly marketable.
1980s In 1982, she participated as one of several guest stars on the album Music of Quality and Distinction by the group British Electric Foundation (B.E.F.), which consisted of members of the band Heaven 17. Tina Turner’s version of the song “Ball of Confusion” on this album surprisingly became a hit in Norway. This success, and especially her vocal performance, convinced the producers. At Capitol Records in London, Tina Turner then recorded a cover version of Al Green’s song “Let’s Stay Together” with the help of B.E.F., which was released as a single in 1983. Let’s Stay Together became a hit in many European countries, reaching number six in England, for example. A little later, the song reached number 26 on the singles chart and number three on the R&B chart in the USA. As a result, Capitol Records decided to produce a whole album with Tina Turner.
The album Private Dancer was released in 1984. The first single, “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” climbed to number one on the Billboard charts. In February 1985, Tina Turner received three Grammy Awards for Best Female Vocal Performance, Record of the Year (both for “What’s Love Got to Do with It”), and Best Female Rock Vocal Performance (for “Better Be Good to Me”).
In 1985, Tina Turner played the role of Aunty Entity in the film Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome (Mad Max – Beyond Thunderdome, with Mel Gibson). Years earlier, she had described herself as a big fan of the Mad Max series and named the film Mad Max II – The Road Warrior as her favorite in her biography I, Tina. With the title song We Don’t Need Another Hero, she had a number-one hit in Germany in 1985. In the same year, she sang on the charity single We Are the World and started her first European tour.
In 1986, the album Break Every Rule followed, which was commercially very successful. The first part was exclusively written and produced by Terry Britten (What’s Love Got to Do with It). It features the hit singles “Typical Male,” “Two People,” and “What You Get Is What You See,” while the other songs have largely been forgotten. The second part of the album contains, among other things, songs by Bryan Adams (Back Where You Started) and by Rupert Hine (Break Every Rule). These songs are also rarely found on best-of albums.
Shortly after the release of the Break Every Rule album, the book I, Tina – My Life, written by Tina Turner and Kurt Loder, was published.
In 1988, Tina Turner performed at the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro in front of 188,000 people, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the solo artist with the largest concert attendance. After announcing that she would tour less and retire from the music business with the release of the live double album Live in Europe, she released her next album in 1989, followed by a “farewell” tour: Foreign Affair. Earthy bluesy tracks (Steamy Windows, Undercover Agent for the Blues) with Tony Joe White alternate with mainstream pop productions. The tour took her thru Europe and was a huge success. Tina Turner briefly held the record for the highest-grossing tour in the world at that time – until the Rolling Stones took over this record with their “Steel Wheels” tour in 1989.
1990s to the present
In 1992, the biographical film Tina – What’s Love Got to Do with It? was released, along with the corresponding soundtrack album. In addition to new songs, including “I Don’t Wanna Fight,” she also re-recorded the old hits from the Ike & Tina Turner era for this. For promotional purposes, she toured mainly in the USA in 1993, but there were also six performances in Europe: four times at Rock over Germany and one performance each in Basel and Vienna. In 1995, Tina Turner sang the title song for the James Bond film GoldenEye. This is also included on the 1996 album Wildest Dreams. In 1999, Tina Turner released her last regular album to date, Twenty Four Seven. In 2000, she went on tour with the “24/7 Tour” – according to her statements at the time, for the last time. It was the most elaborate tour of North America and Europe to date.
In the fall of 2004, a new single titled “Open Arms” was released, which, along with two other previously unreleased songs, can be found on Turner’s second greatest hits collection, “All the Best.” In 2005, Tina Turner was supposed to play the role of an Indian goddess (Kali) in the film The Goddess; however, whether the film will ever be completed and released is uncertain after the death of the producer and director Ismail Merchant. In April 2006, the single “Teach Me Again,” which Turner recorded with the Italian singer Elisa Toffoli, was released. In 2007, Turner sang the song Edith and the Kingpin on Herbie Hancock’s CD River: The Joni Letters.
At the 2008 Grammy Awards gala on February 10, 2008, Tina Turner performed with Beyoncé Knowles and thrilled the audience. One day after the 2008 Grammy Awards, Tina Turner performed at the Russian energy company Gazprom’s 15th anniversary celebration in Russia. As the finale of the five-hour concert, she sang her hits Private Dancer and The Best, among others. During the recording of the Oprah Winfrey Show, Turner announced on April 28, 2008, that she would be going on tour again. The Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour began in October 2008 in North America, with ticket sales starting on May 12. The opening concert on October 1st in Kansas was sold out within two minutes. Due to good advance ticket sales, the number of concerts in Germany for the 2009 tour was increased from the originally planned seven to sixteen. The first performance took place on January 14 at the Cologne Arena. Here, too, Tina Turner was supported by John Miles. With the 90th performance of the ongoing tour (a rescheduled date in Sheffield), Tina Turner ended her stage career on May 5, 2009, at the age of 69.
As Tina Turner had already announced in her autobiography I, Tina (1985), she wanted to pass on the spiritual knowledge that had helped her in life to others after her career as a singer. In June 2009, Tina Turner released the album Beyond together with yoga teacher and music therapist Regula Curti and mantra singer Dechen Shak-Dagsay. It contains spiritual, Buddhist and Christian chants. The artists want to channel all the proceeds into projects that promote peace between different cultures and spirituality in education, training, and research for children and young people. On October 7, 2011, the album “Children Beyond” was released. It contains spiritual songs and mantras sung by children from different religions. The album again featured Christian Regula Curti and native Tibetan Buddhist Dechen Shak-Dagsay with vocals, as well as Tina Turner – who is also a practicing Buddhist – with vocals and narration. In June 2014, Love Within – Beyond, the third album in the Beyond series, was released. For this album, the team was expanded to include a young Indian woman named Shende-Sathaye, who is credited as a performer on all the tracks of the album.
In the spring of 2018, the musical Tina – The Tina Turner Musical premiered at the Aldwych Theater in London. It was authorized and co-created by Tina Turner. In March 2019, it celebrated its German premiere at the Operettenhaus on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn.
Private life
Tina Turner was born a U.S. citizen in the United States. There she spent a large part of her life. For several years, Tina Turner and her German partner, former music manager Erwin Bach, lived in Cologne. Since 1994, the couple has been living permanently in Switzerland.
Turner has four children: Son Craig (born 1958, died by suicide in 2018) was from an affair with saxophonist Raymond Hill. Son Ronald “Ronnie” Renelle (born 1960) is the only biological child with Ike Turner. Ike Jr. (born 1958) and his brother Michael (born 1959) are from Ike Turner’s first marriage to Lorraine Taylor and were adopted by Tina Turner.
On January 9, 2010, Tina Turner won the SwissAward in the Show category at a gala event of Swiss television in Zurich. The visibly moved singer said in an interview that she was proud to have received the award as a non-Swiss. She feels connected to Switzerland. In 2012, she applied for Swiss citizenship. Subsequently, Tina Turner-Bullock, her official name, received the citizenship of her municipality of residence, Küsnacht, in the 4th quarter of 2012. In January 2013, she was granted cantonal citizenship and federal naturalization approval, making her a Swiss citizen. In October 2013, Turner renounced her US citizenship. In an interview with an English-language Swiss online newspaper, her press officer confirmed that the renunciation was connected with the stricter rules of the US authorities on the taxation of Americans living abroad.
In 2013, Tina Turner married her 16 years younger German partner Erwin Bach, first in a civil ceremony in their municipality of residence in Küsnacht. On 21 July 2013, a Buddhist wedding ceremony was held at their estate on Lake Zurich. The couple also has a residence in Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte d’Azur.
The one-room schoolhouse she attended, the “Flagg Grove School” in Nutbush, was to be demolished due to its dilapidated condition. To prevent this, fans raised money and transported the building with a low-loader to the site of the West Tennessee Delta Heritage Center in Brownsville. After a complete renovation, a Tina Turner Museum opened there on September 26, 2014.
Her fortune was estimated at 225 million Swiss francs by the Swiss business magazine Bilanz in 2017.
With the release of her second autobiography (My Love Story) in October 2018, it was revealed that Turner had suffered a stroke in 2013 and had been diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016. In 2017, she survived severe kidney damage thanks to her husband’s organ donation after a homeopathic treatment led to a massive deterioration.
Turner was long considered a follower of the new religious movement Sōka Gakkai International.
Awards
- 1972: Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal with the song Proud Mary
- 1985: Grammy Award 4 times in the categories: Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance with the song What’s Love Got to Do with It
Best Female Rock Vocal Performance with the song Better Be Good to Me
Best Female R&B Vocal Performance with the song Let’s Stay Together
Best Female Rock Vocal Performance with the song One Of the Living - 1985: MTV Video Music Awards 3 times in the categories Best Female Video with the song What’s Love Got to Do with It
Best Stage Performance with the song Better Be Good to Me
Best Choreography with the song Private Dancer - 1986: Best Stage Performance in a Video with the song It’s Only Love (duet with Bryan Adams)
- 1986: Award on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- 1987: Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance with the song Back Where You Started
- 1989: Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance with the live album Tina Live in Europe
- 1991: Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame together with her ex-husband Ike, who had not yet been released from prison.
- 1991: World Music Awards: Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music
- 1995: World Music Awards: Awarded The Legend Award
- 2005: Awarded the Kennedy Center Honors
- 2008: Grammy Award for Album of the Year with the album River: The Joni Letters by Herbie Hancock, on which Tina Turner sang the song Edith and Kingpin
- 2010: Awarded the SwissAward in the “Show” category
Rolling Stone ranked Turner 63rd among the 100 greatest musicians and 17th among the 100 greatest singers of all time.
