MADRID, SPAIN – JULY 30: Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler performs on stage at Push Play music festival at Hipodromo de Madrid on July 30, 2021 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Aldara Zarraoa/Redferns)
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Bonnie Tyler, whose hits included the pop classics as “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Holding Out for a Hero,” has died.
Tyler’s family announced the news on the singer’s Facebook page on Thursday, saying, “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 We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy.”
Tyler was 75.
Tyler was hospitalized in Portugal in early May after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery, according to her social media accounts. She emergerged from a medically induced coma in June.
“Bonnie is no longer in a coma but remains very unwell and in intensive care in hospital in Portugal,” Tyler’s family said in a statement on June 15. “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.”
The raspy-voiced singer was on her 2026 European Tour when she was hospitalized. In a March interview with Hello! Magazine, Tyler said, “”I’m fit enough at the moment, touch wood, and I’m really enjoying doing the shows. I’m still rocking on that stage with my wonderful band, and if you’ve got your health, you’ve got everything,” she says. “I do home Pilates, only 20 minutes a day – it’s something I can do in my hotel rooms.”
‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ Was A No. 1 Hit
Born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, in Skewen, Neath, Wales, Tyler’s first hit, “It’s a Heartache,” was in 1978. The country rock ballad spent 21 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and peaked at No. 3.
It was Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” however, that catapulted the Welsh singer to superstardom. A dynamic power ballad composed and produced by famed Meatloaf collaborator Jim Steinman, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” spent 29 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983, including four weeks at No. 1.
The song, which hailed from Tyler’s hit Faster Than the Speed of Night album, earned the singer a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
Tyler’s classic hit resurged in popularity in 2017, when, according to TIME Magazine, she performed “Total Eclipse of the Heart” during the solar eclipse aboard Royal Carribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cruise.
Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler with the gold readers’ poll award for 1978, presented to her by the German youth magazine, Das Freizeit-Magazin, 1978. She is at at RAK Studios in Charlbert Street, St John’s Wood, London. (Photo by Fin Costello/Redferns/Getty Images)
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In 1984, Tyler scored another Top 40 hit, “Holding Out For a Hero,” which was featured on the soundtrack of the Kevin Bacon hit dance movie Footloose. The song spent 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at No. 34.
Tyler’s other Billboard Hot 100 hits included “Take Me Back,” which peaked at No. 46 in 1983, and “Here She Comes,” which peaked at No. 76 in 1984.
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