‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ Editorial: Tina Turner also dies a piece of old Switzerland

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Anyone currently driving down Seestraße 180 in Küsnacht, Zurich thinks they have been transported to the monarchy. Mourners stand in front of the iron gates of Algonquin Villa, laying flowers, wreaths and letters. Did the queen die here, dignitary?

Without a doubt, with Tina Turner, Switzerland has lost a world star, an outstanding figure in recent history. She was born in 1939 in the US state of Tennessee during a dark era of wars and racial segregation, and later became the “Queen of Rock and Roll”, an icon of globalized pop culture. Her biography marks the path from social slavery to a postmodern, liberal society. The energetic singer was a living monument of self-determination that took her from her southern dacha to one of the most expensive places in one of the richest countries in the world.

But what do the people who pay their respects on Lake Zurich mourn? Only music, which, as you know, is a matter of taste? your charisma? Or what?

Writer Christian Kracht noticed that people come to Switzerland to die. There have been enough examples since the days of Hermann Hesse, Charlie Chaplin and Audrey Hepburn. Turner is different: she came here to live. More precisely: to live the way she was previously denied. On public radio this week, it was said that Turner values ​​”prudence” most in his foster home.

It makes you passionate. Discretion was once considered a positive quality for Confederates. In the Asterix comic, two Gauls were hidden in a stone safe in the Vreneli bank. Meanwhile, prudence has become the battle cry of the country’s critics. “Discrete Switzerland” is seen as an elusive country that does too little to track down Russian oligarch funds and is increasingly marginalized diplomatically when it comes to protecting Ukraine.

Tina Turner, on the other hand, advocates a networked, cosmopolitan Switzerland, a popular Switzerland, a Switzerland where famous contemporaries would like to live and die. Switzerland, which is home not only to capital, but also to culture, not only to money, but also to glamour.

Perhaps this Switzerland will also be mourned a little in front of the villa at Seestraße 180.

Source: Blick