Legendary American singer Tina Turner dies at 83

Legendary American singer Tina Turner dies at 83.

Legendary American singer Tina Turner has died.

A statement reportedly made by her family indicated that she passed at her home in Kusnacht, Switzerland after a long illness.

The Queen of Rock 'n' Roll was 83yrs old.

BBC reports that Turner had suffered a number of health issues in recent years including cancer, a stroke and kidney failure.

She rose to fame alongside husband Ike in the 1960s with songs including Proud Mary and River Deep, Mountain High. She divorced the allegedly abusive Ike in 1978 and went on to find even greater success as a solo artist in the 1980s.

Dubbed the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, Tina Turner was famed for her raunchy and energetic stage performances and husky, powerful vocals.

She won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 as a solo artist, having first been inducted alongside Ike Turner in 1991.

Upon her solo induction, the Hall of Fame noted how she had "expanded the once-limited idea of how a Black woman could conquer a stage and be both a powerhouse and a multidimensional being".

Younger stars who have felt her influence include Beyonce, Janet Jackson, Janelle Monae and Rihanna.

Born in Tennessee into a sharecropping family, she first found prominence as one of the backing singers for her husband's band The Kings of Rhythm.

She soon went to front the band, and the couple tasted commercial success with Fool in Love and It's Gonna Work Out Fine, which made the US charts in the early 60s.

Their other hits included 1973's Nutbush City Limits, about the small town where Tina was born. But Ike's physical and emotional abuse was taking its toll.

It was he who changed her name from her birth name, Anna Mae Bullock, to Tina Turner - a decision he took without her knowledge, one example of his controlling behaviour.

She found happiness with her second husband, German music executive Erwin Bac. They began dating in the mid-80s and got married in 2013.

The pair lived in Switzerland, with Turner taking Swiss citizenship. He donated one of his kidneys to her in 2017 after it was discovered she was suffering from kidney failure.

She also suffered a tragedy with the loss of her eldest son Craig to suicide in 2018. His father was Turner's former bandmate, Raymond Hill.

Another son, Ronnie, whose father was Ike Turner, died in 2022. She also had two adopted sons, Ike Jr and Michael, Ike's children from a previous relationship.