Bonnie Tyler is known to millions as the gravel-voiced singer behind ’80s hit Total Eclipse of the Heart.
The star, who died aged 75 was born Gaynor Hopkins in a Neath council house where she grew up with a love for music before being discovered by talent scout Roger Bell in a Swansea club.
In May she was placed into an induced coma after having emergency intestinal surgery in Portugal, and last month, her spokesperson said she was out of the coma but remained “very unwell and in intensive care”.
After finding fame she was dubbed the “the female Rod Stewart” for her husky vocals, and went on to have a career that spanned 50 years.
But it all started from a young age where she would carry records in carrier bags 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 gigging at rugby and working men’s clubs, the chance to record finally came up.
She said she had “no big ideas” about making records 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 1977, was her first single.
But her love of rock never left her and she wanted to do “raunchier stuff”.
Bonnie went on to sign with RCA, which had Elvis Presley on its books.
At the time she was working under the name Sherene Davies but the label suggested she change Sherene as it “sounded like a belly dancer”.
Bonnie said: “I got a broadsheet newspaper and I made an effort to write all the first names I came across on one list and all the surnames on another and I went through them both and came up with Bonnie Tyler. And it’s been a brilliant 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 [songwriter] Jim Steinman just played it on the piano in New York,” she said.
“He sang the song all the way through and I was like, ‘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 is going to end up playing this because it’s so long.
“The original version is eight minutes long.”
But a four-minute radio version took the world by storm, with the ballad spending two weeks as UK number one, and four weeks in the US.
Bonnie went on to have a string 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 for a best female vocal Grammy three times – for the Total Eclipse of the Heart single, album Faster Than The Speed Of Night and the single Here She Comes.
In 2013 she represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Bonnie was named in the Queen’s last 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 house. I never thought I would have an MBE,” she said in 2023.
That year she published an autobiography, called Straight from the Heart.
“I was a very shy little girl so how on Earth I got to where I am now is a bit of a journey and I take you on that journey,” she said.
“I did not think this would happen to a Gaynor from Skewen, you know.”
This year, the song that made her a star notched up a billion streams on Spotify.
On YouTube the video has been watched more than 1.3 billion times.
After 43 years of singing it she insisted she never became bored of it.
“I love it,” she said.
“My mother brought me up to believe in myself,” she told the BBC last year.
“I was a very shy little girl growing up in school, wouldn’t say ‘boobah’ to a goose, and I was very, very shy.
“But I’ve overcome that, because I love singing.”
Bonnie’s love for the industry was still clear in that interview, and she had just released a new single Yes I Can, a song about finding inner strength and believing in yourself.
Reports suggest that Bonnie and her husband, Robert Sullivan, own 22 homes worldwide, though they mainly split their time between Portugal and their home in Mumbles, Swansea.
Despite coming from a big, musical family, Tyler and Sullivan never had children.
She previously told BBC Sounds: “I absolutely adore children.
“You know when most people get on a plane and they avoid children like the plague, don’t they? Not me. I’m like, ‘can I sit here’?
“I did have a miscarriage when I was 40, I left it too late, you know? I wish I had started earlier, but my career took over and it was always, ‘next year, next year’.
“And then next year didn’t come until I was 39.”
After Tyler miscarried, she threw herself into work.
“We did try for another couple of years, but… we’re fine, we’re happy.”
She conquered the music world, and loved Europe – but Bonnie Tyler will always be remembered as the Welsh star who wasn’t holding out for a hero, but became one to millions herself.
Related topics
- Music
- Skewen
- Wales
