The world is mourning the loss of Tina Turner, the incomparable “Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll,” who died on Wednesday, May 24, at 83.
Emotional tributes detailing how the iconic singer impacted countless lives through her music, dazzling performances, and indomitable spirit continue to pour in.
Many, including President Joe Biden, have expressed their pride at counting the generational talent among the ranks of those America produced.
Yet, Turner renounced her American citizenship over a decade ago and became a citizen of Switzerland in 2013. The Tennessee native has spoken very candidly about the contrast between the level of appreciation she received in the United States and the level of love she received overseas. The latter led her to escape to Lake Zurich, Switzerland, in 1994.
Turner’s Rise to Fame in Europe
Born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, in 1939, Turner began singing professionally when she was just 18. She spent decades performing and touring as an American citizen.
But her rise to fame in Europe began in the mid-to-late 1960s when she and her then-husband Ike Turner toured with the Rolling Stones. Turner received rave reviews for her performances in 1966, including for her song “River Deep, Mountain High.”
“They are certainly the best thing this country has ever seen,” the narrator says in “The Rolling Stones — 1966 Tour with Ike & Tina Turner and The Yardbirds,” a documentary about the tour. “There’s Tina Turner. Wow, what a woman. … She hits the stage like a hurricane and you find yourself spellbound by her voice.”
The American leg of the Rolling Stones tour in 1969 further cemented how enamored fans were by Turner’s presence on stage. The rock ’n’ roll style of Grammy-award-winning songs like “Proud Mary” resonated with the European audience.
“Tina Turner is an incredible chick. She comes in this very short miniskirt, way above her knees, with zillions of silver sequins and sparklers pasted on it. Her dancing is completely unrestrained,” Rolling Stone magazine wrote about her in 1967.
The early years of her career surrounded her tumultuously violent relationship and marriage to her musical partner Ike, who passed away in 2007. They toured as a unit until she filed for divorce in 1976, after a bloody physical altercation with Ike. The divorce was finalized in 1978 and the singer walked away with nothing but her stage name. Following their split, she had to pay off debts from the canceled Ike & Tina gigs after promoters sued.
Related: Tina Turner Recounts When She ‘Ran Across a Freeway’ to Leave Ike Turner for Good
Turner was one of a handful of artists to be inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame twice. She achieved the distinction first with Ike, then as a solo artist.
In the years following her divorce, the mother of two would take back her independence and strength. She lived a low-profile life taking care of her kids using food stamps, but music was still a big part of her life. Her debut album, “Tina Turns the Country On!” served as a re-introduction of her raspy voice with a mix of country, folk, and soft rock songs.
She went on to release “Acid Queen” in 1975, followed by “Rough,” and “Love Explosion,” in 1978 and 1979, respectively.
Turner’s ‘Private Dancer’ Album Was Recorded In London
Turner recorded her Grammy-nominated fifth studio album “Private Dancer” in London. The 1984 release marked one of the greatest comebacks in music history after Turner took a break from the music industry to rest and recover. Her manager, Roger Davies, also played a huge role in the album and her comeback.
At the age of 44, “Private Dancer” cemented Turner’s status as a universally loved global icon. The album was a departure from her earlier R&B and soul sound, including an array of genres that made it crossover gold.
One of the album’s most iconic songs shares its title with that of her 1993 movie biopic, “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” for which Angela Bassett received an Oscar nomination. Turner’s only ballad to peak at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 charts spent weeks on the U.K. charts.
“Did you know that when I first read the lyrics for ‘What’s love got to do with it’, I rejected the song?” Turner wrote on Instagram in March 2021. “Crazy to think about that now. Hearing the song in the documentary ‘TINA’ was one of the most touching moments for me in the movie. It reminded me how far I’ve come.”
“Private Dancer” won numerous accolades in the U.S. and abroad. The album was certified multi-platinum in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and more. It also won four of the six Grammy Award nominations in 1985 and remains as one of her best albums.
“A few years earlier, it was hard to imagine the veteran soul/rock belter reinventing herself and returning to the top of the pop charts, but she did exactly that with the outstanding ‘Private Dancer.’ And Turner did so without sacrificing her musical integrity,” wrote one critic on Allmusic.com.
America did show Turner love and appreciation for her gifts in her earlier career. She was the first Black person and woman to be featured on the cover of the second edition of Rolling Stone in 1967.
However, Turner said it wasn’t until she recorded “Private Dancer” in Europe and later moved there that her star rose to a level of unequivocal distinction. She detailed her reasoning in an interview with Larry King on CNN in 1997.
“I pay taxes here and my family is here [but] no, I have left America because my success was in another country and my boyfriend was in another country; and ‘Private Dancer’ was the beginning of my success in England and basically Europe has been very supportive of my music,” she stated.
“More than America?” asked King, to which Turner replied, “Yes, hugely.”
When King reminded her that she was a superstar in America, Turner responded that she wasn’t as big as Madonna. “I’m as big as Madonna in Europe, I was as big, in some places, as the Rolling Stones in Europe,” she added.
Turner’s Personal Life in Switzerland
Turner found personal happiness in Europe also. She moved to England for a couple of years before meeting her boyfriend-turned-husband, German music producer Erwin Bach. They lived in Germany before moving to Zurich, where he served as an executive for the European branch of Turner’s label.
“My boyfriend moved there to run the company and I always wanted to go to Switzerland, and I was very happy,” she told King about the relationship in the 1997 interview.
The music icon described it as “love at first sight” when she met Bach. He was sent by Turner’s manager Davies to pick her up at the airport.
“He was another kind of handsome. He was an unusual-looking man — great eyes,” she told Oprah Winfrey in 2013. “So I got in the car with Erwin and my heart was bu-bum, already. My hands were wet, and I thought, ‘Oh, my God. This is love at first sight.'”
The couple met in 1986, 10 years after Turner’s divorce from Ike was final. He was 16 years her junior but that didn’t stop the two from falling in love. They dated for 27 years before getting married in 2013. It was Bach’s third time proposing to her.
They settled into a life together in Switzerland, but Turner began experiencing what she described as “medical catastrophes” shortly after their wedding.
She suffered from high blood pressure, a stroke, and kidney disease. In 2016, Bach donated one of his kidneys to his wife.
The couple also owned several properties together, including the massive $76 million estate they were residing in when she died.
Turner honored Bach for how he loved her in her 2020 book “Happiness Becomes You: A Guide To Changing Your Life For Good.”
She said Bach taught her how “to love without giving up who I am,” and noted he was not “the least bit intimidated by my career, my talents, or my fame.”
