Tina Turner’s touching final photo before death revealed: ‘I simply had to sing’
Floral tributes are amassing outside the Swiss mansion of rock icon Tina Turner following her death, aged 83, where locals are hailing her a “hero”. See photos.
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Neighbours in the Swiss community Tina Turner called home have hailed the iconic singer a “local hero”.
Turner, who passed away on Wednesday aged 83, lived in the tight community of Kusnacht on the banks of Lake Zurich with her husband, German music executive Erwin Bach.
She even paid for the community’s Christmas lights and a rescue boat – named Tina – on the lake.
Locals, fans and colleagues have been leaving floral tributes at the gates of her mansion since news of her death broke.
Leo Scherer, 65, who lives nearby said Turner was very humble.
“She was really happy here and she would always say hi if you saw her on the street,” he told The Mirror.
“She had a quiet life. When you met her out and about, she was humble. She never acted like a big star.”
Alexandra Kruse, 44, a former stylist that made an ad with Turner in 2015, said she was “simply the best”.
“She knew everyone’s names on the set and had such grace and wisdom,” Kruse told the UK publication.
“She may have been a big star – as Hollywood as you get here in Switzerland – but she was so open and brave about what she had been through in life.”
Elizabeth Walter, 62, said she’d been a fan of Turner’s for 50 years.
“It was not just about the music, it was about Tina Turner as a person,” she said.
“She has been living here since 1994, and found happiness after real tough times.”
TINA’S FINAL PHOTO
Tina Turner’s final photo that she shared with fans shows the legendary singer dancing in her living room at home as she reminisced about “some of the proudest moments” of her life.
The picture was posted to her Twitter account in March 2021, over two years before her death on Wednesday at the age of 83.
In the post, Turner — born Anna Mae Bullock in Nutbush, Tennessee, in 1939 — teased her then-upcoming documentary “TINA” on HBO.
“Only 5 days left! This Saturday, the documentary ‘TINA’ will be released. I am so excited to share this movie with you – seeing the concert scenes made me relive some of the proudest moments of my life. I simply had to sing along and dance around my living room!” she wrote.
Wearing black pants and a top, the music icon appeared to be dancing along with the fans on-screen during the concert portions of her documentary, which was nominated for three prime time Emmy Awards.
Only 5 days left! This Saturday, the documentary "TINA" will be released. I am so excited to share this movie with you – seeing the concert scenes made me relive some of the proudest moments of my life. I simply had to sing along and dance around my living room! #TinaFilmpic.twitter.com/sIGXgdzyb1
— TinaTurner (@tinaturner) March 22, 2021
CAUSE OF DEATH REVEALED
The legendary singer reportedly died of natural causes after a long illness.
It followed a long, unspecified illness, according to The Daily Mail citing a representative.
Turner died at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, on Wednesday.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner,” read a statement on the official Instagram page of the eight-time Grammy winner,” a rep for the singer said.
“With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow.
“Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly.”
Publicist Bernard Doherty confirmed the news, which he said had robbed the world of “a music legend and a role model.”
HUSBAND DONATED KIDNEY
Turner had suffered ill health in recent years after being diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 2016.
Kidney failure followed and she considered assisted suicide until her husband offered to donate one of his kidneys, she said in her memoir Tina Turner: My Love Story. She successfully underwent a transplant in 2017.
“There will be a private funeral ceremony attended by close friends and family,” Turner’s publicist said, according to the Telegraph.
“Please respect the privacy of her family at this difficult time.”
Turner, one of rock’s most famous voices, sold 200 million records worldwide with timeless hits including Proud Mary, What’s Love Got to Do With It and The Best.
She was one of the best-selling artists of all time. Turner had 12 Grammy Awards under her belt, as well as a Grammy lifetime achievement award and multiple other accolades.
Just two months before her death, Turner spoke openly about her battle with kidney disease and revealed she was in “great danger”.
“My kidneys are victims of my not realising [sic] that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine,” she told her Instagram followers on March 9 for International Kidney Day.
“I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion.”
TINA ESCAPED ABUSIVE EX
Turner began her career in the 1950s during the early years of rock and roll and evolved into an MTV phenomenon.
In the video for her chart-topping song What’s Love Got to Do with It, in which she called love a “second-hand emotion,” Turner epitomised 1980s style as she strutted through New York City streets with her spiky blond hair, wearing a cropped jean jacket, mini skirt, and stiletto heels.
Her 1988 show in Rio de Janeiro drew 180,000 people, which remains one of the largest concert audiences for any single performer.
By then, Turner had been free from her marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for a decade.
Turner left her husband one night in 1976 on a tour stop in Dallas, after he pummelled her during a car ride and she struck back, according to her memoir.
Their divorce was finalised in 1978.
The superstar was forthcoming about the abuse she suffered from her former husband during their marital and musical partnership in the 1960s and 1970s.
She described bruised eyes, busted lips, a broken jaw and other injuries that repeatedly sent her to the emergency room.
“Tina’s story is not one of victimhood but one of incredible triumph,” singer Janet Jackson wrote about Turner, in a Rolling Stone issue that placed Turner at No. 63 on a list of the top 100 artists of all time.
“She’s transformed herself into an international sensation – an elegant powerhouse,” Jackson said.
AUSSIE MAN BEHIND TINA’S COMEBACK
After leaving her husband, Turner spent years struggling to regain the limelight, releasing solo albums and singles that flopped and gigging at corporate conferences.
In 1980, she met new manager Roger Davies, an Australian music executive who went on to manage her for three decades. That led to a solo no. 1 – “What’s Love Got to Do With It” – and then in 1984 her album “Private Dancer” landed her at the top of the charts.
“Private Dancer” went on to become Turner’s biggest album, the capstone of a career that saw her sell more than 200 million records in total.
Most of Turner’s hit songs were written by others, but she enlivened them with a voice that New York Times music critic Jon Pareles called “one of the more peculiar instruments in pop.”
“It’s three-tiered, with a nasal low register, a yowling, cutting middle range and a high register so startlingly clear it sounds like a falsetto,” Pareles wrote in a 1987 concert review.
In 1985, Turner gave a fictional turn to her reputation as a survivor. She played the ruthless leader of an outpost in a nuclear wasteland, acting opposite Mel Gibson in the third instalment in the Mad Max franchise, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
That same year, Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach who became her long-term partner and in 1988 she moved to London, beginning a decades-long residency in Europe.
She released two studio albums in the 1990s that sold well, especially in Europe, recorded the theme song for 1995 Bond movie GoldenEye, and staged a successful world tour in 2008 and 2009.
After that, she retired from show business. She married Bach, relinquishing her US citizenship and becoming a citizen of Switzerland.
She battled a number of health problems after retiring and in 2018 she faced a family tragedy, when her oldest son, Craig, took his life at age 59 in Los Angeles. Her younger son Ronnie died in December 2022.
The superstar bid a final farewell to her fans in the 2021 documentary Tina.
“Some people say the life that I lived and the performances that I gave, the appreciation … I should be proud of that. I am,” Turner said in the HBO film.
“But when do you stop being proud? I mean, when do you, how do you bow out slowly? Just go away?”.
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Originally published as Tina Turner’s touching final photo before death revealed: ‘I simply had to sing’
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