R.I.P. Bonnie Tyler: “Total Eclipse of the Heart” singer dead at 75

Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer known for her hit songs “Holding Out For a Hero” and “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” has passed away. She was 75. “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,” read a statement posted to the singer’s official website. “We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy.”

The news comes after Tyler was placed into a medically-induced coma in May after emergency surgery in Portugal. Last month, her family shared in an official statement that she was out of the coma but remained “very unwell and in intensive care… although her condition is improving it is a slow process. Her doctors remain confident that she will make a good recovery but it is going to take time.”

Tyler had previously been set to embark on a European tour throughout 2026, and was booked to perform a homecoming gig in Cardiff’s Utilita Arena on December 17. All of those live dates were canceled or postponed until next year after her health issues; her final full live concert was at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on March 19.

Born Gaynor Hopkins, Tyler grew up in a council house in Neath, south-west Wales. She changed her name to Sherene Davies—only to be told by RCA Records to change it again after signing her first record deal. “I got a broadsheet newspaper and I made an effort to write all the first names I came across on one list and all the surnames on another and I went through them both and came up with Bonnie Tyler. And it’s been a brilliant name,” she recalled to BBC News.

She was first discovered by talent scout Roger Bell in a club in Swansea, and released her first single, “Lost in France”, in 1977. In the same year, she released “It’s a Heartache,” a country-pop ballad that reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. But her biggest hit arrived six years later, in 1983, with “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” 

Written by Jim Steinman (originally for a musical version of Nosferatu), it topped the charts in both the UK and the US. With it, Tyler became the first Welsh person to have a #1 hit in the States. She went on to receive a Grammy nomination for the song, and for its parent album, 1983’s Faster Than the Speed of Night, before a third nomination for the single “Here She Comes.” The following year she had her other major hit, “Holding Out For a Hero,” also penned by Steinman and originally recorded for the Footloose soundtrack.

This year, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” surpassed one billion streams on Spotify. “I never get tired of singing it,” Tyler said to BBC News at the time. “I love it because everyone can’t wait to sing it…People just love it.” Tyler is survived by her husband of 53 years, Robert Sullivan. 

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