Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023) was a singer, songwriter, actress and author. Dubbed the "Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she broke both racial and gender barriers in rock music with her vocal prowess and stage presence. She is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 100 million records worldwide.
Turner rose to prominence in the 1960s as the lead vocalist of the R&B husband-wife duo Ike & Tina Turner, known for their explosive live performances with the Ikettes and Kings of Rhythm. The duo achieved chart success with songs including "A Fool In Love", "River Deep – Mountain High", "Proud Mary", and "Nutbush City Limits". After separating from Ike Turner in 1976, she launched a solo career. Following the 1983 hit "Let's Stay Together", she made a comeback with her multi-platinum fifth solo album, Private Dancer (1984). The single "What's Love Got to Do with It" won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1985 and became her only number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. She continued her success with the top-ten singles "Better Be Good to Me", "Private Dancer", "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)", "Typical Male", and "I Don't Wanna Fight". Later in her career, she sang the theme song for the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
Turner's Break Every Rule World Tour became the highest-grossing tour by a female artist in the 1980s, and her 1988 concert in Rio de Janeiro set a Guinness World Record for the then-largest paying audience in a concert by a solo artist. She continued touring successfully in the 1990s and her Twenty Four Seven Tour was the highest-grossing tour of 2000. In 2009, she retired from performing after completing the Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour. As an actress, Turner appeared in the films Tommy (1975), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Last Action Hero (1993). Her life was portrayed in the biopic What's Love Got to Do with It (1993), based on her autobiography I, Tina (1986), and later in the musical Tina (2018) and documentary Tina (2021).
Turner received 12 Grammy Awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and three Grammy Hall of Fame inductions. In 1967, she became the first black artist and the first woman to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone, which later ranked her among the greatest artists and greatest singers of all time. She was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice—first with Ike Turner in 1991 and again as a solo artist in 2021. Turner received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2005. In 2013, Turner relinquished her US citizenship and became a Swiss citizen, residing in Switzerland until her death in Küsnacht in 2023.
Tina Turner was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939 in Brownsville, Tennessee. Her parents were Floyd Bullock and Zelma Currie. Bullock was African American. Bullock's family lived in the rural unincorporated community of Nutbush, Tennessee, where her father worked as an overseer of the sharecroppers at Poindexter Farm on Highway 180. She later recalled picking cotton with her family at an early age.
Bullock had an older half-sister, Evelyn Juanita Currie, and an older sister, Alline Bullock. She was the first cousin once removed of bluesman Eugene Bridges. As young children, the three sisters were separated when their parents relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee, to work at a defense facility during World War II. Bullock went to stay with her strict, religious paternal grandparents, Alex and Roxanna Bullock, who were deacon and deaconess at the Woodlawn Missionary Baptist Church.
After the war, the sisters reunited with their parents and moved with them to Knoxville. Two years later, the family returned to Nutbush to live in the Flagg Grove community, where Bullock attended Flagg Grove School from first through eighth grade. As a young girl, Bullock enjoyed singing and acting. She often performed in the streets for change so she could go to the movies. She sang in the church choir at Nutbush's Spring Hill Baptist Church.
In 1950, when Bullock was 11, her mother Zelma left the family without warning, seeking freedom from her abusive relationship with Floyd by relocating to St. Louis. Two years after her mother left the family, her father married another woman and moved to Detroit. Bullock and her sisters were sent to live with their maternal grandmother, Georgeanna Currie, in Brownsville, Tennessee. She stated in her autobiography I, Tina that she felt her parents did not love her and that she was not wanted. Zelma had planned to leave Floyd, but stayed with him once she became pregnant with Bullock. Bullock recalled, "She was a very young woman who didn't want another kid."
As a teenager, Bullock worked as a domestic worker for the Henderson family in Ripley, Tennessee. She was at the Henderson house when she was notified that her half-sister Evelyn had died in a car crash alongside her cousin Margaret Currie; another cousin, Vela Evans, survived the car crash with injuries. A self-professed tomboy, Bullock joined both the cheerleading squad and the female basketball team at Carver High School in Brownsville, and "socialized every chance she got".
In 1956, following the death of her grandmother, Bullock moved to St. Louis to live with her mother. She graduated from Sumner High School in 1958. After completing her studies, Bullock worked as a nurse's aide at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
Bullock's older sister, Alline, frequently attended performances by Ike Turner and his band the Kings of Rhythm in St. Louis and East St. Louis. One Saturday night, Bullock's mother allowed her to accompany Alline to see the group perform at the Club Manhattan in East St. Louis. Bullock was deeply impressed by Turner's talent, later recalling that she "almost went into a trance" watching him play. By the age of 17, she was regularly attending performances by the Kings of Rhythm at Club D'Lisa and Club Manhattan, and her sister Alline began dating drummer Eugene "Gene" Washington. Determined to join the band, Bullock asked Alline to tell Washington to speak to Turner about letting her sing; Turner agreed but never followed through. She later recalled feeling overlooked due to her skinny frame, as Turner was generally attracted to curvier women.
One night, Bullock took the initiative during an intermission, grabbed a microphone, and sang the B.B. King blues ballad "You Know I Love You." Her performance impressed Turner, who invited her to continue singing that night and soon made her a featured vocalist with the group. He also began mentoring her in vocal control and stage performance. In 1958, she made her recording debut under the name Little Ann on the single "Boxtop," alongside Ike Turner and vocalist Carlson Oliver.
In 1960, Ike Turner wrote "A Fool in Love" for singer Art Lassiter. Bullock was to sing background with Lassiter's backing vocalists, the Artettes. Lassiter failed to show up for the recording session at Technisonic Studios. Since Turner had already paid for the studio time, Bullock suggested that she sing the lead. He decided to use Bullock to record a demo with the intention of erasing her vocals and adding Lassiter's at a later date. Local St. Louis disc jockey Dave Dixon convinced Turner to send the tape to Juggy Murray, president of R&B label Sue Records. Upon hearing the song, Murray was impressed with Bullock's vocals, later stating that "Tina sounded like screaming dirt. It was a funky sound". Murray bought the track and paid Turner a $25,000 advance for the recording and publishing rights.
Murray also convinced Turner to make Bullock "the star of the show". Turner responded by renaming Bullock "Tina" because it rhymed with Sheena. He was inspired by Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and Nyoka the Jungle Girl to create her stage persona. Turner added his last name and trademarked the name "Tina Turner" as a form of protection; his idea was that if Bullock left him as his previous singers had, he could replace her with another "Tina Turner". However, family and friends still called her Ann.