Tina Turner, superstar whose hits included ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’, has died at 83

NEW YORK — Tina Turner, the unstoppable singer and performer who teamed up with her husband Ike Turner for a dynamic string of hit records and live performances in the 1960s and 1970s and survived her horrific marriage to triumph at the middle age with the “What’s love got to do with it” chart, died at 83.

Turner died Tuesday after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, according to her manager. She became a Swiss citizen ten years ago.

Few stars have traveled this far – she was born Anna Mae Bullock in a separate hospital in Tennessee and spent her final years in a 260,000 square foot estate on Lake Zurich – and overcome so much. Physically battered, emotionally devastated and financially ruined by her 20-year relationship with Ike Turner, she became a single-handed superstar in her 40s, at a time when most of her peers were on the verge of falling out, and remained l one of the best gigs for years after.

With admirers ranging from Beyoncé to Mick Jagger, Turner was one of the world’s most successful artists, known for a core of pop, rock, and rhythm and blues favorites: ‘Proud Mary’, ‘Nutbush City Limits’, ‘River Deep, Mountain High”, and the hits she had in the 80s, including “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, “We Don’t Need Another Hero” and a cover of “Let’s Stay Together” from ‘Al Green.

Her trademarks were her growling contralto, her bold smile and strong cheekbones, her palette of wigs and the muscular, fast legs she was not shy about showing off. She has sold over 150 million records worldwide, won 11 Grammys, was inducted with Ike into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 (and alone in 2021) and was honored at the Kennedy Center in 2005, with Beyoncé and Oprah. Winfrey among those who praise her. Her life became the basis for a movie, a Broadway musical and an HBO documentary in 2021 that she called her public farewell.