Welsh pop superstar Bonnie Tyler has died at the age of 75. The glamorous singer who topped the charts with bigger-than-life pop songs in the 1980s died unexpectedly while being treated at a hospital in Portugal, according to a statement from her family on social media early Thursday.
Life and Career
Tyler had been recovering from emergency intestinal surgery, which left her temporarily in a coma. Her health had reportedly been improving before her death was announced. The Welsh singer was known for her husky voice and American-sounding pop songs featuring elaborate production. Her biggest hits, ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ from the classic 1984 movie ‘Footloose,’ and in particular 1983’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ took on lives of their own, lasting far beyond their initial chart success.
According to the Associated Press, ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ has seen more than 1 billion digital streams, enjoying renewed attention during actual eclipse events in 2017 and 2024. The iconic song was produced by Meat Loaf collaborator Jim Steinman, who was known for infusing Broadway-inspired spectacle into pop and rock songs.
Tyler came from humble means, born to a coal miner in Skewen, Wales, and growing up in public housing with three sisters and two brothers, according to the AP. As a child, she idolized The Beatles, and dreamed of being a singing superstar like her heroes Janis Joplin and Tina Turner.
Her given name was Gaynor Hopkins, but she took on different stage names through her career until the record label RCA suggested the more marketable Bonnie Tyler in the late 1970s. She had some success in Europe with songs like ‘Lost in France’ and ‘It’s a Heartache’ before stalling on the charts.
After seeing Meat Loaf perform the sprawling ‘Bat Out of Hell’ on the BBC, she requested to meet songwriter and producer Steinman. According to an article in Time, Steinman offered her the song while producing her album ‘Faster Than the Speed of Night,’ which he wrote for a school musical while in college.
Tyler continued to make records and attract crowds to shows long after her initial chart success. In 2013 she released a country-inspired album recorded in Nashville, which featured a duet with Vince Gill. According to the New York Times, Tyler married former Olympian turned property developer Robert Sullivan in 1973. They moved to southern Portugal in the late 1980s.
Original reporting: Oil City News (Casper WY) — read the source article.
