Welsh pop and rock singer-songwriter Bonnie Tyler has passed away at the age of 76.
In May this year, Bonnie Tyler was admitted to a hospital in the Portuguese city of Faro. She needed emergency intestinal surgery, and afterward she was kept alive in an induced coma, with her life hanging by a thread following the operation.
Tyler was supposed to play the Sunshine festival in Worcester this summer, and she was also planning a series of concerts across Europe.
Bonnie Tyler, born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, in Skewen, Wales, is best known for her iconic ballads from the eighties, with the evergreen hit Total Eclipse of the Heart standing out above all. It topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and sold millions of copies worldwide. There are also the unforgettable hits Holding Out for a Hero and It’s a Heartache.
Over her career, the singer received three Grammy nominations and three BRIT Award nominations (twice in the “Best British Female Solo Artist” category). In 2022, she was made an MBE for services to music.
Bonnie Tyler, known for her trademark raspy voice, broke through with the 1977 album “The World Starts Tonight”. It gave her the singles Lost in France and More Than a Lover, while the third one, It’s a Heartache from 1977, reached number four on the UK singles chart and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. It’s a Heartache then appeared on the follow-up album “Natural Force” in 1978.
In the eighties, Tyler headed into rock territory alongside songwriter and producer Jim Steinman. He wrote her biggest hit, Total Eclipse of the Heart, which sold more than 13 million copies worldwide and came out as the lead single from her 1983 album “Faster Than the Speed of Night”, which topped the UK chart. Steinman also wrote the other big Bonnie Tyler hit of the 80s, Holding Out for a Hero. Other hits from that period include Here She Comes, taken from the soundtrack to the 1984 film »Metropolis«, and If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man), written by Desmond Child and produced by Steinman. In the 90s she was also successful on the old continent. She worked with Dieter Bohlen (Modern Talking), who wrote and produced her hit Bitterblue. In 2003, Tyler re-recorded Total Eclipse of the Heart as a duet with singer Kareen Antonn. The bilingual version of that classic, titled »Si demain… (Turn Around)«, topped the French charts.
In 2013, Tyler released the album »Rocks and Honey«, which features the single Believe in Me, performed as the United Kingdom’s entry at Eurovision 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. After teaming up with producer David Mackay again, she put out the albums »Between the Earth and the Stars« (2019) and »The Best Is Yet to Come« (2021).
In the photo: Bonnie Tyler performing on July 25, 2025 (venue: Moosburg / Schlosswiese / Austria) – RockLine photo archive 2006-2026, all rights reserved). You can read the full RockLine review of this one-day festival, where Bonnie Tyler played alongside Uriah Heep and Nazareth, HERE.
