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- Tina Turner, the growling songstress whose explosive stage presence electrified fans the world over, left an indelible mark on 20th-century rock with five decades of hits.
- Long before she snowballed into a global phenomenon, Turner's early career was a roller coaster for the singer, who admitted attempting suicide at the height of her ex-husband's physical and emotional abuse.
- After Ike, her concerts became glitzy spectacles - and she kept the high-octane rock flowing for decades.
Tina Turner, the growling songstress whose explosive stage presence electrified fans the world over, left an indelible mark on 20th-century rock with five decades of hits - first with husband Ike Turner, but most memorably as a wildly successful solo act.
The Black eight-time Grammy winner lit up the stage from the 1960s onwards - and won a new generation of fans in a stunning comeback after escaping her violent marriage, making her popular music's ultimate survivor.
The singer died in Switzerland, where she lived her final years with husband, Erwin Bach, after battling a long illness.
ALSO READ | Tributes pour in for Tina Turner as NASA declares her 'legacy will forever live among the stars'
Long before she snowballed into a global phenomenon, Turner's early career - originally as a soul and R&B siren - was a roller coaster for the singer, who admitted attempting suicide at the height of her ex-husband's physical and emotional abuse.
Tina fled Ike in 1976, dashing across a highway to escape during a concert tour. Her divorce was finalised in 1978, and she was left with nothing but her stage name.
But the rock star dream still gnawed at her.
Those dreams were fulfilled, and then some, when she struck crossover gold with her 1984 album Private Dancer, whose Grammy-winning smash single What's Love Got to Do With It propelled her to superstardom at age 44.
Four years later, she set the record for the largest paying attendance of a performance by a solo artist when her Rio concert crowd topped 180 000.
In life after Ike, her concerts became glitzy spectacles - and she kept the high-octane rock flowing for decades.
A Wembley Stadium concert in 2000 saw a 60-year-old Turner holding nothing back, grinding across the stage in stiletto heels and her trademark leather miniskirt.
In 2008, she embarked on her Tina! - 50th Anniversary Tour, which grossed some $130 million.
GALLERY | Tina Turner's life in pictures
Here are six of the music icon's most memorable hits:
Proud Mary (1971)
With her husband Ike Turner, Tina found fame with their version of the gospel-influenced Proud Mary, which had been released by Creedence Clearwater Revival two years earlier.
The duo's take on the song, with its famous chorus about a Mississippi steamboat "rolling, rolling on the river", was more rock and raunchier than the original, winning them a Grammy.
Tina continued to perform the piece when she went solo, and it would become one of her signature sounds.
What's Love Got To Do With It (1984)
Another of Turner's defining songs, this was her sole US number one and brought her four Grammys, also providing the title for the 1993 Oscar-nominated biopic of her life.
Its release marked her establishment as a successful solo artist following her professional and marital split from Ike in 1976.
A track on her fifth solo album, Private Dancer, the song had been turned down by Cliff Richards and Donna Summer before Turner picked it up.
Lyrics such as "Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken" took on deeper significance following revelations in the 1990s of abuse during her marriage.
We Don't Need Another Hero (1985)
The song is the title track to Mel Gibson's post-apocalyptic Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome film, in which Turner plays ruthless, blonde community leader Aunty Entity, dressed in chainmail.
She wears a similar Amazon-style get-up for the video of the choral-backed piece, which warns against false hope and oppression.
What You Get Is What You See (1986)
The song was written by the Terry Britten and Graham Lyle team - notably different from the three previous singles that they had written for Turner, namely What's Love Got to Do with It, We Don't Need Another Hero and Two People, as it was an up-tempo country-tinged rock track.
What You Get Is What You See was released from her 1986 album Break Every Rule but found fame after it was used in a risqué 1989 marketing campaign featuring montages of sometimes shirtless Australian rugby league players on the beach and the pitch as Turner belted out the song.
READ MORE | Tina Turner and Australian rugby league: An influential love affair that changed face of the game
The Best (1989)
Turner's cover of the Bonnie Tyler original released a year earlier was the major success of her album Foreign Affair.
Renamed Simply the Best, it was the second of Turner's songs to be used to promote Australian rugby league, with a commercial featuring players of the day with an unforgettably-styled Turner.
It went on to become a classic sports anthem, chanted at baseball matches and football games worldwide.
GoldenEye (1995)
As a mark of her pop megastar status, Turner was picked to perform the coveted title track to the James Bond film GoldenEye, written by U2's Bono and The Edge.
In the music video for the song, which became a top ten hit in many countries, Turner's signature white gown highlights her image as pop's all-glamour diva.
