“Tina Turner’s Death: Reactions from Beyoncé, Oprah, and World Leaders”

Beyonce. Oprah Winfrey. Barack Obama. Mike Jagger. Elton John. Reactions are pouring in on the death of Tina Turner, who passed away in Switzerland yesterday at the age of 83. Her music is praised, of course, but also her survivability and vitality.

“I’m so grateful for your inspiration and all the ways you’ve carved a path,” Beyoncé writes on her website with a photo of a joint performance in 2008. “Your strength and your resilience. You are the epitome of power and passion. “

Singer Gloria Gaynor says Tuner “paved a path for so many women in rock music, black and white”. Debbie Harry calls her “an inspiration when I started and still is”. Colleague Diana Ross kept her response simple with “shocked and sad” and condolences to her family.

Mick Jagger calls her inspiring, warm, funny and generous in addition to being a talented artist. “She helped me so much when I was young,” he says of the woman who taught him how to dance when she performed as his opening act in 1966. Elton John calls her an absolute legend, live and in the studio. “One of the most exciting and vibrant artists.”

“Words like legendary, icon, diva and superstar are often exaggerated, but Tina Turner embodies them all and so much more,” said Mariah Carey. “An incredible artist, singer and pioneer. To me she remains that survivor and an inspiration to women worldwide,” she says of the singer, who managed to reinvent herself after an abusive marriage to Ike Turner.

The actress Angela Bassett, who reenacted that process in the biopic What’s love got to do with it says in a lengthy response that Turner “used her pain and suffering as a force to help change the world.” “Tina Turner showed others who lived in fear what a wonderful future full of love, compassion and freedom should look like.”

Oprah Winfrey writes that Turner’s “inner strength only increased throughout her life”. She calls her a “rock and roll goddess” who “approached parts of me I didn’t even know I had.”

Not only the music world and Hollywood react to the death. The White House also quickly issued an official response from President Biden. He praises her versatility as the only woman to win Grammys in the pop, rock and R&B categories, “a talent that you only see once in a generation”.

“By overcoming adversity and even abuse, she created a unique career, life and legacy that were all her own.” He wishes strength to everyone who mourns the woman who “simply the best” was.

Biden’s predecessor Obama calls her raw, powerful, unstoppable and unashamedly herself. “She spoke and sang about her story, in happiness and pain, triumph and tragedy”. He calls her a star that will never die.