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Legendary singer, performer Tina Turner has died at age 83

Tina Turner is seen in a 1970 promotional image (WikiMedia)

CASPER, Wyo. — One of the most resilient, influential and beloved performers of her generation has died.

Tina Turner, age 83, died after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich, her publicist said in a statement.

Turner’s career started in the early days of rock and roll in the 1950s, and eventually took off in the late 1960s and early 1970s with her explosive singing and dancing performances that combined blues, soul and rock with then-husband Ike Turner. She made a remarkable comeback during the MTV era in the 1980s, with her chart-topping hit “What’s Love Got to Do With It.” It was the start of a string of massive hits, helping her once again to become one of the most popular concert draws of any artist.

It would be a few years after leaving Ike Turner that she revealed the brutal abuse she suffered in their relationship. According to Reuters, she described bruised eyes, broken lips, a broken jaw and other serious injuries caused by his abuse. She made repeated trips to emergency rooms during her marriage — which, according to her autobiography, ended in 1978, some two years after she left under the cover of darkness while the couple were on tour.

According to a 2021 Vanity Fair story, she was left financially broke and emotionally devastated. She spent years rebuilding her career from scratch, playing cabaret acts, small Vegas joints and sometimes appearing on celebrity game shows.

After her 1980s comeback, she won multiple Grammy awards, and after her 2000 world tour, she earned a Guinness World Record for most concert tickets sold by any solo performer, according to the New York Times.

According to Reuters, Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach in 1985, eventually moving to London with him while continuing her meteoric career. After a world tour in 2009, she essentially retired from show business, married Bach, and became a citizen of Switzerland.

Reuters said she is survived by her husband and two sons of Ike Turner’s that she adopted. Her oldest son, Craig, died by suicide at age 59, while her younger son, Ronnie, died in late 2022.

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