distinct, incisive, and quite potent. After a protracted illness that had kept her off the stage for some years, Tina Turner passed away Sunday night at the age of 83 in her home in Switzerland. The rock’n’roll lioness, pop diva, and queen of black music, Anna Mae Bullock, was born in Tennessee on November 26, 1939. She describes her life as being “like a lotus flower born of mud,” when asked about it. But keep in mind that the blossom will be more stunning if the coating covering the roots is thicker. However, she has lived a number of lives, each one filled with difficulties, suffering, and triumph, but always with a combination of melancholy, ferocious vigor, and hunger. The first was Anna Mae, who went by the moniker “The Cotton Plantation Girl” and went on to become Tina Turner, who together with her musician husband Ike—whom she first met in 1956—conquered the stage and music scene of the era with classics like Proud Mary and Nutbush City Limits. She barely had 36 cents in her pocket as she started her second life. Ike was asleep when Tina departed her Dallas hotel room in 1976, leaving her to endure decades of unrelenting physical and mental abuse. That was all she had in her pocket. The third coincided with Private Dancer, the song of her rebirth that again guaranteed her worldwide fame. It was the 1980s and 1990s when her solo career exploded thanks to hits like (Simply) The Best, What’s Love Got to Do with It, We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome), Golden Eye. In six decades, she collected 11 Grammy Awards and more than 200 million tickets sold for her concerts.

No one will ever forget her raspy voice, the tenacity with which she controlled the stage, or her songs, but no one will ever forget her fashion sense. There are no laws dictating how you must behave or how you must dress. For women, these are exciting times, she stated in a 2009 interview. She has also never held back on fashion during her career. She donned clothes designed by Giorgio Armani, Versace, and Bob Mackie. Her beauty signature was fluffy, wild hair and red lipstick, while her wardrobe consisted of denim, leather clothing, fringe, glittery dresses and lots of miniskirts. Her legs were as legendary as her songs, although she downplayed this by saying, “I am the last person to ask about my legs!. Growing up, I always thought they were too long and skinny. I felt like an awkward fringe, so I never wanted to show them off. When I wore short skirts on stage, it was for a practical reason – they gave me the freedom to move, and I really like to move.”