Bonnie Tyler, the south Wales-born singer whose voice defined some of the biggest rock anthems of the 1980s, died on Wednesday night in hospital in Portugal. She was 75.
A statement published on her website confirmed the news. “Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for,” it read. “We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy.”
Tyler had been seriously ill since May, when she was rushed to a hospital in Faro for emergency intestinal surgery and placed in an induced coma. A spokesperson said last month that she had come out of the coma but remained very unwell in intensive care. At the time, doctors were described as “confident” she would recover, though progress was said to be slow. Her summer tour dates had been cancelled or postponed.
Born Gaynor Hopkins in Neath, Tyler built a career spanning decades, with hits including It’s a Heartache, Holding Out for a Hero and Total Eclipse of the Heart, the 1983 power ballad that became her signature song. It topped the charts in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia and Zimbabwe and earlier this year passed one billion streams on Spotify.
The song’s origins were unlikely. By 1983, Tyler had endured a run of failed singles and her label was pushing her back toward country rock. But after watching Meat Loaf perform on BBC television, she was set on working with his songwriter, Jim Steinman.
Her new manager sent Steinman a cassette of her rock demos; Steinman agreed to meet her in New York and, on the same night, played her Total Eclipse of the Heart at his piano and offered her the song.
“I thought she was one of the most passionate voices I’d ever heard in rock & roll since Janis Joplin,” Steinman said at the time.
Despite the song’s longevity, Tyler said she saw little financial reward from it. Because Steinman wrote it alone, all publishing royalties went to his estate. The remaining money flows to Sony Music, the master recording owner, which shares a percentage with Tyler under her original 1980s contract.
