ina Turner, the trailblazing singer who was hailed as the queen of rock’n’roll, survived so many personal and professional challenges that some of her fans might have believed that she was going to live forever.
Born Anna Mae Bullock in 1939, the young Tina Turner did not have an easy childhood, but she had the capacity to imagine other possibilities and a willingness to work to achieve her dreams. Anna Mae loved singing. She sang in church and sang along with the rhythm and blues , pop, blues and country music that she heard on the radio when she was growing up in rural Tennessee.
Turner wasn’t afraid to be sexy and she wasn’t afraid to sweat. She was a bracing alternative to the controlled and composed style of performance that dominated among Black women during this period. Her disclosures about the abuse she suffered during her 16 years with Ike shocked fans, but by leaving him she provided a model for people who were contending with intimate partner abuse. She became an icon of survival, not simply because she left her tormenter but because of the tremendous professional success that she achieved after the split.