Tina Turner, the trailblazing singer whose strong voice and commanding stage presence wowed audiences around the world for decades, died on Wednesday at the age of 83.
Tributes flooded in from all around the world, with some of music’s biggest names mourning the death of a unique and instantly identifiable singer whose appeal transcended generations.
Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, who allegedly learnt his dance techniques from the diva, said the world has lost “an enormously talented performer and singer.”
“She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her.”
Ronnie Wood called Turner “the Queen Of Rock And Soul and a dear friend.”
Fans flocked to the wrought-iron gates of her sprawling estate in Kusnacht, on Switzerland’s Lake Zurich, many carrying candles and flowers.
Turner had lived in Chateau Algonquin with her German spouse Erwin Bach for nearly three decades, even when she took Swiss citizenship and gave up her US passport in 2013.
“The world has lost an icon,” Swiss President Alain Berset said.
US President Joe Biden paid a pointed tribute to a “once-in-a-generation talent that changed American music forever.”
“Tina’s personal strength was remarkable,” Biden wrote. “Overcoming adversity, and even abuse, she built a career for the ages and a life and legacy that were entirely hers,” he added, calling Turner “simply the best.”
Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, called her “a star whose light will never fade.”
“Tina Turner was raw. She was powerful. She was unstoppable. And she was unapologetically herself — speaking and singing her truth through joy and pain; triumph and tragedy,” America’s first Black president wrote of the star held up as a Black icon.
Turner’s publicist in the United Kingdom, Bernard Doherty, said her death happened after a protracted illness, adding that the world had lost “a music legend and a role model.”
He provided no information about the disease.
In the 1960s, she began a career that would earn her eight Grammy Awards in collaboration with husband Ike Turner.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the two had a number of hits together, and while he was acknowledged as the brains behind the business, she was always plainly the more gifted.
Tina Turner built a tremendously successful solo career after her turbulent and violent marriage ended in 1976, when she escaped in the middle of a tour.
The following decades gifted the world instantly recognizable hits like “What’s Love Got to Do With It?”, “Private Dancer” and the anthemic “The Best”.
Her “We Don’t Need Another Hero” featured on the soundtrack to “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” the 1985 post-apocalyptic thriller starring Mel Gibson.
A decade later, she oozed her way through “Goldeneye,” becoming one of just a few musicians to have sang on the James Bond franchise.
Turner’s death elicited reactions from the realms of music, entertainment, and sports.
Gloria Gaynor, another singer, rushed to Instagram to praise Turner’s groundbreaking career and how she “paved the way for so many women in rock music, black and white.”
“She did with great dignity and success what very few would even have dared to do in her time and in that genre of music.
“She will be sorely missed.”
Mariah Carey called Turner the embodiment of a legendary superstar. She was “an incredible performer, musician and trailblazer.
“To me, she will always be a survivor and an inspiration to women everywhere,” she wrote.
Angela Bassett, who played the singer in the 1993 biopic “What’s Love Got to Do With It” opposite Laurence Fishburne as Ike, paid emotional tribute to “a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world.”
“Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion and freedom should look like,” Bassett said.
Basketball legend Magic Johnson posted a picture with the songstress — “one of my favorite artists of all time.”
“I’ve seen her many many times and hands down, she gave one of the best live shows I’ve ever seen,” he tweeted.
Actor Forest Whitaker praised Turner’s “voice, her dancing, and her spirit.”
But, as a tribute to the difficulty of exiting her terrible marriage to Ike, he praised her capacity to bounce back.
“As we honor her, let’s also reflect on her resilience, and think about all the greatness that can follow our darkest days.”
English crooner Rick Astley tweeted “What a woman, what a life, what a voice! One of the GREATS!” while NASA declared that Turner’s “legacy will forever live among the stars.”
