Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 - May 24, 2023) was an American-born singer, songwriter, actress and author whose commanding voice and kinetic stage presence made her one of the defining performers of rock and popular music. Often called the "Queen of Rock and Roll," she built a career that crossed rhythm and blues, soul, rock, pop and adult contemporary music, first as part of Ike and Tina Turner and later as a solo artist of exceptional international reach.
Born in Brownsville, Tennessee, and raised in the nearby rural community of Nutbush, Turner began singing publicly as a teenager. In the late 1950s, she joined Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm, initially performing under the name Little Ann. Her partnership with Ike developed into the Ike and Tina Turner Revue, one of the most energetic live acts of the 1960s and 1970s. Backed by the Ikettes, the group combined gospel-inflected vocals, hard-driving rhythm and blues, soul and rock into a powerful stage spectacle.
The revue's early successes included "A Fool in Love," "It's Gonna Work Out Fine" and "River Deep - Mountain High." Although the latter was produced by Phil Spector and later became widely regarded as a landmark recording, the duo's strongest public impact came through their live interpretations of rock songs. Their performance of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" became a signature number, earning a Grammy Award in 1972, while "Nutbush City Limits," written by Turner about her Tennessee hometown, became one of their most enduring recordings.
Turner left the revue in 1976 and pursued a solo career under difficult circumstances. Her early solo albums, including Tina Turns the Country On! (1974), Acid Queen (1975) and Rough (1978), showed her range but did not immediately establish a new commercial direction. A turning point came with her recording of Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" in 1983. Its success helped lead to Private Dancer (1984), a polished but forceful album that transformed Turner into a global pop-rock star.
"What's Love Got to Do with It" became Turner's defining solo hit and won three major Grammy Awards in 1985, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year. The album also produced "Better Be Good to Me" and "Private Dancer." She followed it with Break Every Rule (1986), Foreign Affair (1989), Wildest Dreams (1996) and Twenty Four Seven (1999). Her concert tours were major international events, and her 1988 performance in Rio de Janeiro drew one of the largest paying audiences ever recorded for a solo artist at that time.
Turner also established a screen career. She played the Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy and portrayed the formidable Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Her songs appeared in several films, including the James Bond theme "GoldenEye" in 1995. Her autobiography, I, Tina (1986), inspired the biographical film What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), while her life and music later formed the basis of the stage musical Tina and the 2021 documentary Tina.
Turner was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021. She received 12 Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005. After retiring from touring in 2009, she lived in Switzerland until her death in Kusnacht at the age of 83. Her influence remains evident in the work of generations of rock, pop and R&B singers.