Singer, dancer, actress and author Tina Turner, often referred to as the "Queen Of Rock 'N' Roll", passed away on May 24th after a long illness. She was 83.
Tina Turner's social media team shared the sad news via her Facebook page, writing: "It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow. Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly."
The Quireboys frontman Spike has paid tribute to Turner with the following message:
"When I do interviews people often ask me at what point did you realise you were successful? Well, I remember that day, and it was the day Tina Turner came up to me and said 'Oh my God Spike, how are you?' It was one of the few times I seen Guy Bailey speechless, that blew our minds. What a gracious, funny, wonderful woman she was.
Me, Guy Bailey, and Willie Dowling wrote a song for her and recorded the demo in my flat in London the night we before we left to go to Los Angeles in 1989. I remember it well, as my dad Frank was there, and he said to Willie Dowling, 'I can hear Tina Turner singing this song.' Willie said, 'Frank, we just wrote this for Tina Turner, ha!'
Unfortunately, the powers that be said we should put it on our album and not give it to Tina Turner, but that's the music business! And how wrong they were, so please close your eyes and listen to 'Whipping Boy' by the Quireboys.
Tina you were the greatest ever.
God bless, I love you, Spike."
Reuters is reporting that Turner died peacefully after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, according to her representative.
Tina Turner began her career in the 1950s during the early years of rock and roll and evolved into an MTV phenomenon.
In the video for her chart-topping song, "What's Love Got To Do With It," in which she called love a "second-hand emotion," Turner epitomized 1980s style as she strutted through New York City streets with her spiky blond hair, wearing a cropped jean jacket, mini skirt, and stiletto heels.
With her taste for musical experimentation and bluntly-worded ballads, Turner gelled perfectly with a 1980s pop landscape in which music fans valued electronically-produced sounds and scorned hippie-era idealism.
Sometimes nicknamed the "Queen Of Rock 'N' Roll," Turner won six of her eight Grammy Awards in the 1980s. The decade saw her land a dozen songs on the Top 40, including "Typical Male," "The Best," "Private Dancer" and "Better Be Good To Me." Her 1988 show in Rio de Janeiro drew 180,000 people, which remains one of the largest concert audiences for any single performer.
By then, Turner had been free from her marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for a decade.
The superstar was forthcoming about the abuse she suffered from her former husband during their marital and musical partnership in the 1960s and 1970s. She described bruised eyes, busted lips, a broken jaw and other injuries that repeatedly sent her to the emergency room.
Read the full report at Reuters.com.
