American singer-songwriter, performer, author, and cultural icon Tina Turner has become one of the most celebrated pop stars of all time. She’s received Grammy Awards in multiple categories and has also been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Grammy Hall of Fame.
Alas, her life was not always easy, and she has been venerated almost as much for her ability to endure as she has been for her musical talent. Born in 1939 in rural Tennessee as Anna Mae Bullock, she experienced a chaotic childhood. She once explained: “When my parents went off to Knoxville to work, I lived with my father's mother. She was strict - the kind who starched and ironed dresses. I had to sit more than I played. Oh, I was miserable. I liked being out with the animals. I'd come in the house with my hair pulled out, sash off the dress, dirty as heck. I was always getting spanked.”
She started singing as a teenager and immersed herself in the rhythm-and-blues scene. She met her future husband, Ike Turner at a performance given by his band in the 1950s, and soon began performing with him.
After years of domestic abuse and misery, their troubled marriage came to an end in the mid-70s.
Turner then started from scratch, working odd jobs while attempting a new solo music career. Following a slow and humiliating start, she achieved commercial and critical success with her 1984 album “Private Dancer,” which sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, earning her three Grammy Awards including record of the year and best female vocal performance for the now-classic anthem, “What's Love Got to Do with It.”
Throughout her career, she’s delivered chart-topping albums and hit singles, selling over 200 million records. When she gave a concert in Brazil in 1988, her originality and talent as an artist secured her a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for selling more concert tickets than any other solo performer in history. She collaborated with artists like David Bowie and Mick Jagger over the years, further securing her place as music royalty; she was actually dubbed the Queen of Rock & Roll and is often referred to as such to this day.
After eight Grammys and a decades-long career turning her into one of the most influential singers in the world, she officially retired from performing in 2009. Since then, she has shared her career and personal life through documentaries and memoirs, which she has explained is her way of bidding farewell to her fans.
“In the past years I reflected on my life from different angles. First came the books (My Love Story, Happiness Becomes You and That’s My Life) then the musical “Tina,” and now, the documentary. I’m 81 and I started working when I was a teenager. I think I’ve earned a rest,” she recently stated. A rest she clearly deserves. Tina Turner will always be revered for her amazing musical talent as well as her transcendent spirit.