Bonnie Tyler has died at the age of 75.
News of the Welsh singer’s death was announced in a short statement posted on her official website, reading: “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.”
In May, Tyler was put in a medically induced coma in a hospital in Faro, Portugal, after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery. At the time, a spokesperson for the singer said, “Bonnie has been put into an induced coma by her doctors to aid her recovery. We know that you all wish her well and ask for privacy at this difficult time, please. We will issue a further statement when we are able to.”
Tyler had been set to perform at Sunshine Festival in Worcester this summer, and was also scheduled to play a number of European shows.
Born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, in Skewen, Wales, Tyler is best known for her iconic ’80s power ballads Total Eclipse of the Heart, which topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic and sold more than six million copies worldwide, Holding Out for a Hero and It’s a Heartache.
Across her career, the singer earned three Grammy nominations and three BRITs nominations (twice for Best British Female Solo Artist). In 2022, she was awarded an MBE for services to music.
In a statement released at the time, the singer said, “I am truly honoured to be awarded an MBE and especially so in Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year, which makes this even more special.
“This honour just goes to show that anyone from any background can become a success, and be recognised by our wonderful country, if they put their minds and efforts into what they do.”
“My mother always said, ‘Believe in yourself and go for it, because nobody’s going to do it for you’,” the singer said last year in an interview with The Telegraph. “To get to where I am now from where I was as a young teenager in a village in Wales, with nothing really, I never dreamed I would be a recording artist. I had self doubt, which is why I wanted to work with songwriter Jim Steinman because I knew I could do those powerful songs. He was bemused in the beginning but then he said, ‘Wow, I’ve got to meet this girl’.”
Speaking about Total Eclipse of the Heart in 2021, Tyler told Rock Cellar, “It is an incredible song. I never get tired of singing it. Every time I sing it is like the first time. I never would’ve dreamed when it was released that it would sell six million copies worldwide.”
