The rock’n’roll legend is dead. Tina Turner died at 83, according to a statement posted on her official Instagram account on Tuesday evening. “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Tina Turner,” the statement said, adding that the American singer, naturalized Swiss, left “behind her greatest work: her music.” The opportunity to look back on the star’s career and discover five things we didn’t know about the diva.
A survivor of domestic violence
Born Anna Mae Bullock, she was discovered and renamed Tina by pianist and guitarist Ike Turner, leader of the blues group Kings of Rhythm who became her husband in the 1960s. The young woman quickly suffered violence from her husband. Pregnant, she is hit with a shoe tree when she asks him not to go on tour. “The torture started and never stopped. But yet I felt sorry for him, ”she explains in the documentary by Daniel Lindsay and TJ Martin. Thanks to Buddhism, she had the courage to free herself from this grip in 1976.
In the Guinness World Records
Performing hits like Proud Mary Or The Best, the pioneering artist knew how to ignite crowds around the world with her inimitable voice and explosive stage performance. She made her entry into the book of records in 1988. As an article in the Worldshe performed at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro in front of 180,000 people, the biggest paying concert ever given.
She loses her two sons
Raymond Craig Turner and Ronnie Turner died in 2018 and 2022 respectively. His eldest, Craig, committed suicide while the second, born Ronald, also a musician, died of cancer. “Ronnie, you left the world far too soon. Filled with pain, I close my eyes and think of you, my beloved son,” the singer wrote on Instagram at the time of her second son’s death.
Afida Turner was his stepdaughter
The former candidate of loft story was married for fifteen years to Ronnie Turner, the star’s youngest son. Afida Turner paid tribute to her “mother-in-law” on Instagram. “I was just talking about you five minutes ago, before arriving in Nice. How much she loved the south of France. Rest In Peace Stepmom: With Craig & Ronnie,” she wrote alongside a photo of the influencer posing with Tina Turner.
“Drunk in love” refers to Tina Turner
Beyoncé and Jay Z make direct reference to Tina Turner and the domestic violence she suffered in the title Drunk in love sung in duet by the couple in 2013. “I’m Ike, Turner, turn up/Baby no I don’t play/Now eat the cake, Anna Mae/I said eat the cake, Anna Mae”, they intone. [Je suis Ike, Turner, viens/Bébé, non je ne joue pas/Mange le gâteau, anna Mae/J’ai dit mange le gâteau, Anna Mae] They refer to a scene from the biopic about Tina Turner where we see Ike Turner ordering the singer, in full climax, to eat the cake he ordered before becoming violent.