Pop icon Bonnie Tyler, beloved by generations of fans for her hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” has died after several weeks in the hospital.
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“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,” a statement explained on her Facebook early this morning (July 9).
Tyler was 75.
The Welsh singer was hospitalized in Faro, Portugal, around April 30 for emergency surgery to treat a perforated intestine. Tyler woke from a month-long medically induced coma in June. However, her family said she remained in intensive care and was “very unwell.”
Tyler, born Gaynor Hopkins, first gained fame in the ’70s with hits like “Lost in France” and “It’s a Heartache,” followed by her successful 1983 album, Faster Than the Speed of Night.
Tyler made history as the first British female artist to debut an album at No. 1 on the U.K. Albums Chart, and she remains the only Welsh artist to achieve a No. 1 single on the U.K. Singles Chart. Over the course of her celebrated career, she won the hearts of multiple generations with earworms like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Holding Out for a Hero.”
Bonnie Tyler Was Touring Right Up to Her Illness in April
Meanwhile, Tyler remained popular in Europe throughout the 1990s. In 2013, she also represented the U.K. in the Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Believe In Me.” She continued performing into the 2020s. She was recently on her Jubilee Tour, which celebrated 50 years in the music industry.
“Touring keeps me going. I consider myself a working-class girl, and I’ve never stopped working,” Tyler told The Times last year. “Moving my parents from the council house where I was brought up to a cottage in Mumbles is the thing I’m most proud of, but it does feel like an achievement to still be wanted by audiences at my age. I’m pretty energetic.”
Tyler earned three Grammy nominations. She was also awarded a medal of honor for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II. Throughout her career, she released 18 studio albums, her most recent being 2021’s The Best Is Yet to Come.
Tyler was married to Robert Sullivan, a property developer and former Olympic judo competitor.