Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler passes away at 75

Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer whose gravelly voice powered Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero into global hits, has died at 75.

Bonnie Tyler dies at 75: Voice behind Total Eclipse is gone

Her relatives stated that after receiving treatment for an illness, she unexpectedly died overnight on Wednesday in a hospital in Portugal, where she had lived for decades. Her team requested privacy in a statement that was uploaded on her website and Facebook page, stating that a more detailed statement would be released later.

The death follows a rough stretch of health problems. Early in May, Tyler was admitted to the Faro hospital for emergency surgery due to an intestinal perforation. Later, she was put into a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator; an attempt to wake her apparently caused cardiac arrest.

Although she was still in critical care, her team reported that she had emerged from the coma by the middle of June. Before being admitted to the hospital, she was scheduled to perform at European festival dates this summer.

Born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, Wales, in 1951, Tyler first broke through with It's a Heartache in 1977, which reached the top five in the UK and the top three in the US. Her defining moment occurred in 1983, when musician Jim Steinman — who would later write for Meat Loaf — handed her Total Eclipse of the Heart. It sold millions of copies, and she became the first Welsh artist to top the US charts. Steinman and Tyler collaborated again in 1984 for Holding Out for a Hero, which was revived on the Footloose soundtrack and has been popular in film and television ever since.

She continued to work long after the 1980s, releasing 18 studio albums, representing the UK at Eurovision in 2013, writing an autobiography in 2023, and releasing her most recent album, The Best Is Yet to Come, in 2021.

Robert Sullivan, whom she wed in 1973, is her surviving spouse. As word of her passing spread on Thursday, tributes from musicians and fans started to circulate.

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