Tina Turner has shaken the world with her immense talent for decades, both on the stage and screen. Turner’s powerful voice has touched millions and triumphant life she led will continue to inspire, even in her transition. The icon’s passing was announced on May 24, and has left us to take a look at her incredible contributions for nearly 50 years.
We knew that she commanded audiences, but she also handled business behind the scenes as well.
Turner announced her retirement ten years ago and in 2021 she sold her entire music catalog for a reported $225 million to publishing company BMG in what was called its single-largest acquisition of an artist’s music.
“Like any artist, the protection of my life’s work, my musical inheritance, is something personal,” Turner said in a statement after the sale as reported by Fox Business. “I am confident that with BMG and Warner Music, my work is in professional and reliable hands.”
The outlet also reported that the deal included the relinquishing of the rights to her name, image and likeness as well as royalties for her entire catalog. She was a part of an elite ilk of music artists that sold their portfolios for big bucks, including The Beatles, Dr. Dre and Justin Bieber.
During the tenure as an artist, her beauty and dynamic personality led Turner to ink lucrative deals with several brands including L’Oreal, Pepsi and Hanes among many others.
She amassed her reported $250 million fortune through smart partnerships, including a panty hose line with Hanes that was in perfect alignment with the reputation she’d received as having the best gams in the industry.
Her fortune is a far cry from her humble beginnings in Nut Bush, Tennessee.
“My family life had been very tough, you know, I was without my mother and father,” Turner said in an interview, explaining her childhood. “So, it was an old pattern of always being frustrated and I became very strong from it and I just had an inside instinct of staying jolly about the whole thing. I laughed a lot.”
She continued: “I had so many dreams.”
And she fulfilled many of them. Rest well, Tina.