Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star whose 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart” enchanted succeeding generations with its bombastic charms during solar and lunar eclipses, has died. She was 75.
Tyler died unexpectedly in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness.
Born Gaynor Hopkins in South Wales, the coal miner’s daughter earned three Grammy nods and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honoured as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which spent four weeks at No. 1 and has has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017 and 2024.
In 1976, Tyler had surgery to remove nodules on her throat, leaving her with her trademark vocal sound. Changing her name to Sherene Davis, she was fronting a soul band when she was discovered by talent scout Roger Bell, who brought her to London for demo sessions. Then she waited for a label until RCA said it was interested.
Under her new RCA-sanctioned name Bonnie Tyler, her debut album “The World Starts Tonight” in 1977 contained her first chart hit, “Lost in France,” and she was nominated for a breakthrough artists award at the Brit Awards. She then had a No. 3 hit in 1978 with “It’s a Heartache.”
She then signed with Sony and saw Meat Loaf perform “Bat Out of Hell” on the BBC. Impressed, she requested to work with Meat Loaf songwriter and producer Jim Steinman.
Steinman introduced her to his song “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” which would become the debut single for her fifth studio album, “Faster Than the Speed of Night.” He borrowed one of the song’s lyrics – “Turn around, bright eyes” – from his musical “The Dream Engine,” telling her the song was from a prospective musical version of “Nosferatu.”
“Faster Than the Speed of Night” earned a Grammy nomination for best rock vocal performance – losing to Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” — and Tyler got another nod for “Total Eclipse of the Heart” in the best pop vocal performance category, losing to Irene Cara’s “Flashdance – What a Feeling.”
Tyler never reached such dizzying heights again but stayed current with such movie soundtrack singles as “Holding Out For a Hero” – from 1984’s “Footloose” – and “Here She Comes” from “Metropolis” also in 1984.
Her 2019 disc “Between the Earth and the Stars” featured duets with Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard and Status Quo’s Francis Rossi, and she ended that year performing a Vatican Christmas concert before Pope Francis.
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