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Bonnie Tyler, the star who "eclipsed" everyone's hearts

2026-07-09 16:25:00, Lifestyle CNA

Bonnie Tyler is known to millions as the gritty-voiced singer behind the '80s hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

The star, who has died aged 75, was born Gaynor Hopkins in a council house in Neath, where she grew up with a love of music before being discovered by talent scout Roger Bell at a club in Swansea.

In May she was placed in an induced coma after emergency bowel surgery in Portugal, and last month, her spokesman said she had emerged from the coma but remained "very ill and in intensive care".

After gaining fame, she was dubbed the "female Rod Stewart" for her husky vocals and went on to have a career that spanned 50 years.

But it all started at a young age, where she would carry records in her bag to her aunt's house to play with her cousins.

Young Gaynor loved rock music and wanted to be in a band.

After seven years of rugby gigs and working in men's clubs, the opportunity to record finally came.

She said she had no "big ideas" about making albums until Roger Bell came knocking.

"He knew that Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolf were looking for a girl to record their songs, so he told them about me," she said.

"I went to London and one of the first demos I recorded was Lost in France and then I was on Top Of The Pops."

"Lost in France", released in 1976, was her first song to chart in the UK, peaking at number nine.

But her love of rock never left her and she wanted to do "more obscene things."

Bonnie went on to sign a contract with RCA, which had Elvis Presley on its records.

At the time she was working under the name Sherene Davies, but the record company suggested she change the name to Sherene because it "sounded like a belly dancer".

Bonnie said, "I took a broadsheet newspaper and tried to write down all the names I came across on one list and all the surnames on another, I looked through both and came up with Bonnie Tyler. And it was a great name."

She released Total Eclipse of the Heart five years after Lost in France. It changed her life.

"The first time I heard it was when composer Jim Steinman played it on the piano in New York," she said.

"He sang the song all the way through and I said to myself, 'Oh my God, this song is amazing. I can't believe Jim is giving it to me.'

"When I recorded the song, I thought no one would play this song because it's too long.

"The original version is eight minutes long."

But a four-minute radio version made waves around the world, with the ballad spending two weeks at number one in the UK and four weeks in the US.

Bonnie was the first - and only - Welsh artist to have a number one hit in the US.

She went on to have a number of other hits, including "Holding out for a Hero", "It's A Heartache", "Together" and "If You Were A Woman (And I Was A Man)".

The star was nominated three times for the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance - for the song "Total Eclipse of the Heart", the album "Faster Than The Speed ????Of Night" and the song "Here She Comes".

In 2013 she represented the United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest.

Bonnie was named in the Queen's latest Birthday Honours list in 2022 and was awarded an MBE for her services to music by Prince William the following year.

"I grew up in a council building. I never thought I would have an MBE," she said in 2023.

That year she published an autobiography, called "Straight from the Heart."