Angela Bassett has released a statement following the death of Tina Turner, The Queen of Rock N’ Roll. Bassett’s career skyrocketed after portraying Turner in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do with It?, which led to an Oscar nomination.
Bassett’s statement on Turner’s death is available below via Variety:
“How do we say farewell to a woman who owned her pain and trauma and used it as a means to help change the world? Through her courage in telling her story, her commitment to stay the course in her life, no matter the sacrifice, and her determination to carve out a space in rock and roll for herself and for others who look like her, Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a beautiful future filled with love, compassion, and freedom should look like. Her final words to me – for me – were ‘You never mimicked me. Instead, you reached deep into your soul, found your inner Tina, and showed her to the world.’ I shall hold these words close to my heart for the rest of my days. I am honored to have known Tina Turner. I am humbled to have helped show her to the world. So on today, while we mourn the loss of this iconic voice and presence, she gave us more than we could have ever asked. She gave us her whole self. And Tina Turner is a gift that will always be “simply the best.” Angels, sing thee to thy rest…Queen.”
The music world is saddened and shocked by the passing of legendary singer Tina Turner. She was 83 years old.
According to one of Ms. Turner’s representatives, she died in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, after an acute illness.
Born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in the rural Tennessee community of Nutbush, Bullock met Ike Turner at 17, when she first began recording with the rock n roll guitarist in St Louis in 1957. The couple eventually got married in Tijuana, Mexico, shortly thereafter.
Turner’s career spanned seven decades, with her origins during the early years of rock and roll, while her evolution which spawned the classic “What’s Love Got To Do With It” in the early 1980s taking her into the era of music television. Dubbed “the Queen of Rock n’ Roll”, Turner won six of her eight Grammy Awards in the 1980s and even drew one of the largest crowds ever for a stage performance in Rio de Janeiro in 1988, attracting 180,000 people.
At that time, Turner had been free from her abusive marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for ten years.
In 1985 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 the 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 U.S. 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.
“Tina’s story is not one of victimhood but one of incredible triumph,” Janet Jackson wrote about Turner in a Rolling Stone issue that put Turner at No. 63 on a list of the top 100 artists of all time.
Her work, contributions to music, and feminine strength will always be remembered and celebrated for generations to come.
