‘Total Eclipse’ singer Bonnie Tyler, queen of the 80s power ballad, dies at 75

Britain's Bonnie Tyler performs during the finals of the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmo, Sweden on May 18, 2013. Photo by JOHN MACDOUGALL /AFP via Getty Images

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Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, best known for her powerful, haunting love song “Total Eclipse of the Heart” has died aged 75 in hospital in Portugal, her family announced Thursday.

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With her distinctive husky voice, tousled mane of blonde hair and black eyeliner, Tyler was instantly recognisable as the queen of the 1980s power ballad.

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Her death came after her family raised hopes among fans after she came out of an induced coma in hospital in Faro in Portugal, where she had undergone emergency intestinal surgery in May.

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Bonnie Tyler, British singer, during a live concert performance at the Montreux Rock Festival, in Montreux, Switzerland, 1984. Photo by David Redfern /Redferns

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Tyler’s family announced Thursday on Facebook that they were “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”.

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Her illness had forced the cancellation of dates on a planned European tour to mark the 50th anniversary of the release of “Lost in France”, her 1976 breakthrough hit.

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Born Gaynor Hopkins in the Welsh town of Neath in 1951 where she grew up with five siblings, she little imagined the success she would have after leaving school at 16.

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“The best thing I did was ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. How can you ever possibly imagine it would still be so big today and people who weren’t even born then would be singing it at karaoke?” she told the Daily Telegraph in 2025.

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Bonnie Tyler is pictured on March 2, 1988 in the Buttes Chaumont in Paris during a French radio TF1 programme. Photo by GEORGES BENDRIHEM /AFP via Getty Images

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She came from a humble background. Her father worked in the coal mines, while her mother was a housewife.

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But Tyler said she inherited her talent from her mum.

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“My mother had a radiogram and loads of 78 records, and she’d do the housekeeping while singing her head off with the windows open. People used to stand outside to listen to her, she was so amazing,” she said in the Telegraph interview.

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Ballad queen 

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Initially, Tyler worked in a grocery shop and began singing in her spare time, changing her name to Sherene Davis to avoid any confusion with another Welsh singer Mary Hopkin.

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In 1975, she was spotted by talent scout Roger Bell singing in a Swansea nightclub, and was signed only a few months later by RCA records, changing her name again, this time to Bonnie Tyler.

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Bonnie Tyler sings at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris on December 17, 1984. Photo by PHILIPPE WOJAZER /AFP via Getty Images

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Shortly afterwards she had to have surgery to remove nodules on her vocal cords, and after not resting her voice enough following the operation developed her signature sultry sound.

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Tyler’s first major smash hit was “It’s a Heartache” in 1978, and entering the 1980s she turned more towards rock music.

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But it was “Total Eclipse”, written by American composer Jim Steinman, which rocketed her to international fame.

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It’s one of rock music’s most famous ballads and in 2026 — 43 years after it was first released — it hit more than a billion listens on streaming website Spotify.

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It has sold over six million records, and the stirring iconic video has been viewed more than a billion times on YouTube.

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Bonnie Tyler poses with her medal after being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle in Windsor, west of London, on February 1, 2023. Photo by ANDREW MATTHEWS /POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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At the peak of her fame in 1984, Tyler released “Holding Out for a Hero” from the original score for the box-office hit film “Footloose” starring Kevin Bacon.