Turner, who moved to the country in the mid-1990s and took Swiss citizenship in 2013 – dispensing with her US passport – was arguably its most famous resident in recent years.
Swiss President Alain Berset tweeted a tribute to Turner, calling her an icon and saying his “thoughts are with the relatives of this impressive woman, who found a second homeland in Switzerland.”
The superstar performing during her Twenty For Seven Millennium Tour at the Letzigrund Stadium in Zurich, Switzerland in 2000. By this time, she was calling nearby Kuesnacht home.Credit: AP
Markus Ernst, the mayor of Kuesnacht, a bucolic town on the shores of Lake Zurich, said Turner was engaged in the community, regularly lighting the annual Christmas tree and once inaugurating a municipal rescue boat that has been christened Tina.
However, he said locals went out of their way to help an overwhelmingly public figure enjoy a private life.
“One of the reasons she came to Switzerland was to have a completely normal life,” he said. “She could go to restaurants without being photographed all the time … in the street, people didn’t stare at her or ask for her autograph.”
An aerial view of the singer’s villa.Credit: AP
Dropping by the villa to pay her respects, art dealer Renate Fetscherin, who has lived in the town for decades, said people in Switzerland “would never bother anybody” and that the couple could always rest easy: “They don’t worry about paparazzi because we don’t have them.”
“Kuesnacht was very proud of having such a famous person here,” Fetscherin said.
At his upscale eatery just a couple of hundred metres from the villa, restaurateur Rico Zandonella recalled Turner as a “very dear friend” and a frequent guest who once celebrated a birthday there with colleagues “who sang for her: It was a really great celebration.”
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“Tina Turner is a very big personality when she enters a room. She has a really great aura – a personality that explodes like a bomb, like she is on stage,” he said.
Years ago, Turner narrated milestones of her life and her affection and affinity for Switzerland in a glitzy TV ad for communications company Swisscom, featuring young actors who portrayed her in both early life and in highlight moments of her career.
It alluded to stereotypes about Switzerland such as the home of William Tell or a hub of ice-skating prowess; she sat in a rocking rowboat in a lake ringed by majestic mountains, mobile phone in hand. Turner recounted how her friends had to adapt to her Swiss tastes, as one actor portraying her carried out a pot of cheese fondue to quizzical looks from fictionalised guests.
Another actor waved off fans as flash bulbs popped while she clambered into the back seat of a limousine next to the real Turner, and the superstar.
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“As time went by, I learned more and more about Switzerland, like that security and discretion are people’s top priority – just like they are for me,” Turner said.
“And when I finally moved to Switzerland, it felt like home right away. People respect each other’s privacy here, [they] take care of each other.”
AP
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