Our live coverage has ended. Read more on Tina Turner’s life here, or read through the posts below.
Stars are reflecting on the legacy and impact of Tina Turner with CNN. The iconic singer died peacefully Wednesday at the age of 83, her family said.
Singer and actress Sheryl Lee Ralph called Turner “an icon, a queen, a dynamic, electrifying performer.”
Actress, dancer and choreographer Debbie Allen called Turner’s hit song “Proud Mary” “an anthem for young Black women.”
Allen added that Turner is “an inspiration to millions of people around the world and will always be.”
Ruth Pointer, the last surviving original member of the Pointer Sisters group, said she began to weep upon learning of Turner’s passing Wednesday.
Pointer, who worked with Turner and other music legends on “We are the World” in 1985, recalled seeing Turner perform several times — one of which being after Pointer had graduated from high school.
“I was never the same after that,” Pointer said about the performance.
Singer-turned-photographer Bryan Adams spoke to Turner’s character.
Adams, who recorded the 1985 duet “It’s Only Love” with Turner and who wrote her award-winning 1986 hit “Back Where You Started,” said that being on tour with Turner “was unbelievable.”
Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama released a joint statement Wednesday following the news of Tina Turner’s death.
Aside from her talent, Tina Turner also made history over the course of her decades-long career.
Here are some of the times the iconic singer made history:
Her comeback as a solo artist in her 40s: Although she didn’t like the song at first and had to be talked into recording it, “What’s Love Got to Do With It” made her, at 44, the oldest female artist to score a No. 1 hit.
Turner was the first Black artist and the first female artist to feature on the cover of Rolling Stone, according to the music publishing company BMG. Her solo works include 10 studio albums, two live albums, two soundtracks and five compilations, which in total have sold more than 100 million records.
Turner was also among only a handful of artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. Turner was first inducted into the organization, alongside her ex-husband and musical partner Ike Turner, in 1991. She was later inducted in 2021 as a solo artist.
Oprah Winfrey reflected on her friendship with Tina Turner in a tribute shared on her official Instagram account. Winfrey wrote in the post caption that she “started out as a fan of Tina Turner, then a full-on groupie, following her from show to show around the country” with the two of them eventually becoming friends.
See the full post here:
President Joe Biden offered condolences on the death of global music icon Tina Turner, calling the late musician “a once-in-a-generation talent that changed American music forever.”
A trailblazer, trendsetter and icon: Tina Turner will leave behind a rich legacy of culture for her contributions to the music industry.
The resilient singer said that professionally, some of her happiest moments were when she was performing her hit songs live.
Here’s a look back at Turner’s life and career over the years:
A floral wreath was placed on Tina Turner’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Wednesday afternoon.
Fans gathered near her star following the news of her passing.
According to the California landmark’s website, Turner received a star during an induction ceremony on August 28, 1986.
Actress Angela Bassett, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her portrayal of Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic — “What’s Love Got to Do with It” — paid tribute to Turner in a statement shared with CNN on Wednesday.
In 2021, HBO released a documentary titled “Tina” that shed new light on the iconic Tina Turner.
Below is an excerpt from the CNN review of the documentary:
“Tina” is that rare documentary that leaves you craving an encore, as if two hours weren’t quite enough to do Tina Turner’s life and career justice. Weaving in a new interview with the (at the time) 81-year-old icon, the footage then and now underlines the impression of Turner as a force of nature, rocking and rolling with and without Ike.
The documentary opens with Turner’s 1981 People magazine interview, in which she opened up about the abuse she received from her husband and musical partner, Ike Turner, before leaving him five years earlier. The film devotes roughly the first hour to that part of her story, which included the domineering Ike coming up with her stage name – born Anna Mae Bullock – without her permission.
At the time, as third-party voices note, such frank discussion of domestic abuse was unusual, and Turner’s efforts to put her marital split behind her by speaking out – and later writing a book – didn’t really work. Yet it did mark a turning point for her professionally, as she teamed up with manager Roger Davies and embarked on a path that saw her filling arenas and stadiums, going from Vegas cabaret act to international rock star.
Directors Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin unearth all kinds of fabulous video of the young Tina, dancing with a sense of joy and power that belied the tumult and pain she endured in private.
Like HBO’s recent Bee Gees documentary, “Tina” simultaneously takes the audience back in time while rekindling appreciation for the music, virtually ensuring anyone familiar with the songs will be humming a few of them (“Proud Mary” and “I Don’t Wanna Fight,” in this case) days later.
Read more here.
HBO, like CNN, is a unit of WarnerMedia.
Tina Turner’s family said the iconic singer died after a “long illness.”
CNN has reached out to representatives of Turner.
Tributes are pouring in on social media following the death of iconic singer Tina Turner:
NBA legend Magic Johnson called her “one of my favorite artists of all time.”
“She always gave you your moneys worth,” the athlete said alongside a picture with Turner.
Grammy-winning singer Ciara thanked Turner “for the inspiration you gave us all.”
“I Will Survive” singer Gloria Gaynor spoke to Turner’s trailblazing career in a tribute shared on Twitter.
Actor Forest Whitaker said Turner is “simply the best.”
Actress and singer Kelly Rowland expressed love for the singer on Instagram.
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger called Turner his “wonderful friend” and shared pictures on Twitter of the two performing together.
Grammy-winning neo-soul singer Erykah Badu shared the news of Turner’s passing on her Instagram account Wednesday.
Singer-songwriter Mariah Carey called Turner “an incredible performer, musician and trailblazer.”
The White House called the death of Tina Turner “a massive, massive loss” on Wednesday after learning of the rock singer’s passing.
Jean-Pierre added that Turner’s music “will continue to live on” and expressed condolences for her family and friends.
President Joe Biden has expressed his love previously for Turner’s song “The Best,” and included it on a summer listening list in 2016.
In an interview in 2020, he said “Simply the Best” was his favorite backstage or walkout song and that it reminds him of his wife Jill.
As Tina Turner has stated in her autobiography and in interviews, physical abuse from her husband Ike Turner began almost from the start of their marriage in 1962.
Thin-skinned and mercurial, Ike Turner would fly into fits of rage at the slightest provocation, she said, adding that he would hit her with whatever was available – coat hangers, telephones, a wooden shoe stretcher, his fists.
Often, she said, he’d even beat her before they went onstage.
Tina sang lead on most of their songs with the help of female backup singers, while her husband remained in the background, usually on guitar. Their musical partnership yielded a string of R&B hits, including “A Fool In Love,” “Nutbush City Limits” and “Proud Mary,” their 1971 cover of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song, which reached No. 4 on the pop charts and won them a Grammy.
But offstage their marriage remained tumultuous, fueled in part by Ike Turner’s cocaine addiction.
She stuck with Ike Turner for more than a decade, terrified of his temper and determined not to abandon him like others had.
But things came to a head in July 1976 when they flew to Dallas for a show. Turner wrote in her book that after a flight on the airplane, her husband began hitting her in a car on the way to their hotel. While he slept, she slipped out of their room, carrying only a Mobil credit card and 36 cents – “a quarter, a dime and a penny.”
She fled across a busy highway to a motel, where a sympathetic clerk saw her bloodied face and gave her a room. She then called a lawyer she knew, who arranged for a friend to pick her up and put her on an airplane back to Los Angeles.
Tina Turner was a dynamic rock and soul singer who rose from humble beginnings and overcame a notoriously abusive marriage to become one of the most popular female artists of all time.
She was born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939 to poor sharecroppers near Nutbush, Tennessee, a rural community north of Memphis that she later made famous in her autobiographical song, “Nutbush City Limits.” She spent her early years living with her grandmother after her parents split.
“We weren’t in poverty. We had food on the table. We just didn’t have fancy things, like bicycles,” Turner said in a 2005 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“We were church people, so on Easter, we got all done up. I was very innocent and didn’t know much else. I knew the radio — B.B. King, country and western,” Turner said. “That’s about it. I didn’t know anything about being a star until the white people allowed us to come down and watch their television once a week.”
Following the death of their grandmother in the 1950s, Turner and her sister Ruby moved to St. Louis, Missouri, to live with their mother.
It was in St. Louis that she began to visit some of the local clubs and met musician Ike Turner, whose band, Kings of Rhythm, were popular in the area. He recruited her at age 17 to join his band as a singer.
“Ike had to come to the house and ask Ma if it was OK for me to sing with him. He knew I had the potential to be a star. We were close, like brother and sister,” Turner told Winfrey.
She began performing as Tina Turner and, in 1960, they formed the Ike & Tina Turner Revue.
Their relationship evolved and their son Ronnie was born that same year. They married in 1962 and raised four children, including two children from Ike’s previous relationships and Tina’s son, Craig, also from a previous relationship.
A riveting live performer, Turner had a string of R&B hits in the 1960s and early ’70s with her domineering and violent husband Ike Turner before she left him — fleeing their Dallas hotel room with 36 cents.
Her solo career floundered for years before she mounted a stunning comeback in 1984 with her multiplatinum album “Private Dancer” and its No. 1 hit, “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”
Before long Turner was a global superstar, commanding MTV with her spiky wigs, short skirts and famously long legs strutting across concert stages in three-inch heels.
Her talent earned her acclaim as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” while her resiliency made her a hero to battered women everywhere. When she sang of pain and heartache in her husky, full-throated voice, every word rang true.
“For a long time I felt like I was stuck, with no way out of the unhealthy situation I was in,” she told Harvard Business Review in 2021. “But then I had a series of encounters with different people who encouraged me … And once I could see myself clearly, I began to change, opening the way to confidence and courage. It took a few years, but finally I was able to stand up for my life and start anew.”
Read more about Turner’s extraordinary life.
Tina Turner, the dynamic rock and soul singer who rose from humble beginnings and overcame a notoriously abusive marriage to become one of the most popular female artists of all time, has died, according to a post on her verified Facebook account. She was 83.
CNN has reached out to representatives for Turner for further comment.
In 2022, Tina Turner was immortalized with a Barbie doll in her honor.
The doll was inspired by Turner’s Grammy-winning hit, “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” The Barbie depicts Turner’s outfit from the song’s music video, wearing a black mini dress, denim jacket and drop earrings, along with her famous hairstyle.
It was designed to celebrate the singer’s “unmatched career,” according to an Instagram post from the official Barbie account.
“What’s Love Got to Do With It” was released in 1984. The song, taken from Turner’s fifth solo album, received three awards at the 1985 Grammys and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012.
In 2021, Tina Turner sold the rights to her music catalog spanning six decades — including songs “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and “The Best” — to music publishing company BMG.
The legendary singer also sold the artist’s share of her recordings, her music publishing writer’s share, neighboring rights and name, image and likeness as part of the deal, according to BMG, which did not disclose financial terms.
Industry experts estimated the deal was worth more than $50 million, specialist publication Music Business Worldwide reported.
Turner was the first Black artist and the first female artist to feature on the cover of Rolling Stone, BMG said. Her solo works include 10 studio albums, two live albums, two soundtracks and five compilations, which in total have sold more than 100 million records.
“Like any artist, the protection of my life’s work, my musical inheritance, is something personal,” Turner had said in a statement. “I am confident that with BMG and Warner Music my work is in professional and reliable hands.”
