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Bonnie Tyler Dies Aged 75
July9
Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, best known for Total Eclipse of the Heart, Holding Out for a Hero and It’s a Heartache, has died at the age of 75.
Her family and team confirmed the news in a statement posted on her official website, saying Tyler had “unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal” following an illness for which she had been receiving treatment.
The singer, born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, South Wales, had been admitted to hospital in Portugal in May for emergency intestinal surgery. She was later placed in an induced coma to aid her recovery. A further update in June said she was no longer in a coma but remained seriously unwell in intensive care.
Tyler began her recording career in the 1970s after being discovered by talent scout Roger Bell while performing in Swansea. Her early breakthrough came with Lost in France in 1977, followed by It’s a Heartache, which became an international hit, reaching the top five in both the UK and the US.
Her biggest success came in 1983 with Total Eclipse of the Heart, written by Jim Steinman. The song topped the charts in the UK and US and became one of the defining power ballads of the decade. The track also earned Tyler a Grammy nomination, with further nominations following for her album Faster Than the Speed of Night and the single Here She Comes.
Steinman also wrote Holding Out for a Hero, another of Tyler’s best-known songs, originally recorded for the Footloose soundtrack and later introduced to new audiences through films and television.
Tyler represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 and was appointed MBE in 2023 for services to music. In 2025, she released Together, a club version of Total Eclipse of the Heart produced by David Guetta and Hypaton. The original version of the song passed one billion streams on Spotify earlier this year.
Known for her distinctive raspy voice and dramatic pop-rock ballads, Tyler remained active across a career spanning more than five decades.
She is survived by her husband, Robert Sullivan, to whom she had been married for more than 50 years.
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