Singer Bonnie Tyler, known for hits including “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, “Holding Out for a Hero” and “It’s a Heartache”, has died at the age of 75.
A message posted on the official website for the hugely popular Welsh power ballad diva read: “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.”
In May, the performer, from Skewen in south Wales, was placed into an induced coma after having emergency intestinal surgery in Portugal.
Last month, her spokesperson said she was out of the coma but remained “very unwell and in intensive care”.
The official statement, released on Thursday morning, continued: “We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy.”
Tyler, born Gaynor Hopkins, grew up in a council house in Neath.
She was discovered by talent scout Roger Bell in a club in Swansea, and released her first single Lost in France in 1977.
“It’s a Heartache”, her country-pop ballad released the same year, reached number four on the UK singles chart and number three on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Her biggest hit, the rockier “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, arrived six years later in 1983 – this time topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
In doing so, she became the first Welsh person to score a number one hit in the US.
The dramatic track, penned by Meat Loaf’s lyricist Jim Steinman, was originally titled “Vampires in Love”, as it had been written for a musical version of Nosferatu.
“I never get tired of singing it,” she recently told BBC News. “I love it because everyone can’t wait to sing it.”
She received a Grammy nomination for the hit, and two further nominations for the album Faster Than the Speed of Night and the single Here She Comes.
Steinman also wrote her other major 1980s pop-rock anthem, the lustful and bombastic “Holding Out for a Hero”, which was recorded for the Footloose film soundtrack and later appeared in Shrek 2.
Tyler represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013, finishing 19th out of 26 acts, and was made an MBE for her services to music in 2023.
Last year, she released a club version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, produced by David Guetta and Hypaton, called “Together”.
And this year – 43 years after its release – the original song passed the billion streams mark on Spotify.
“I’m really happy, when you think about it, there’s only 8.3 billion people in the world,” she said.
The singer previously performed her aptly titled track on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean as the solar event swept the US in 2017.
She is survived by her husband of more than 50 years, Robert Sullivan.
