People News

Tina Turner applies for Swiss citizenship

Jan 26, 2013, 20:15 GMT

Tina Turner

Tina Turner has applied for Swiss citizenship.

The 73-year-old singer is set to renounce her US citizenship in order to make Switzerland - where she has lived since the mid 1990s - her permanent home.

Tina lives in the Zurich suburb of Kuesnacht and according to its local newspaper Zuerichsee-Zeitung, the local council has decided to grant her request but is awaiting formal approval from state and federal authorities.

A representative for Tina - who was born in Nutbush, Tennessee - told TMZ she was trying to get in touch with the legendary singer to clarify the situation.

Tina isn't the only celebrity to change their citizenship in recent times.

Gerard Depardieu - who moved to Belgium in December over his anger at French President Francois Hollande's proposed 75 per cent tax hike on the super-rich - officially became a Russian citizen earlier this month after President Vladimir Putin accepted his request to become a national.

Kremlin officials confirmed the news on Twitter, posting: 'Vladimir Putin signs order giving Gerard Depardieu Russian citizenship.'

'Asterix and Obelix' actor Gerard is well-known in Russia and a regular in TV ads for Sovietsky Bank.

Gerard moved to tax-friendly Belgium last month, declaring in an open letter that he planned to turn over his passport and French social security card because of Hollande's new tax on millionaires.

France's civil code states that a person must take up a new nationality in order to relinquish their French citizenship.

He ranted: 'We no longer have the same homeland, I am a true European, a citizen of the world, as my father always taught me to believe.'