Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh rock singer behind ’80s hits like “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Holding Out for a Hero,” died on Wednesday. She was 75.
According to the BBC, a statement was shared on Tyler’s official website that reads: “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.”
Born Gaynor Sullivan in Skewen, Wales, Tyler broke onto the music scene with her hit “Lost in France” on her debut album “The World Starts Tonight,” released in 1977. After an operation to remove vocal cord nodules, her voice retained a distinctively raspy quality.
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In the early 1980s, Tyler began working with producer Jim Steinman, who wrote “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Selling some six million copies, it became the fifth-highest selling single of 1983 in the U.K. and spent four weeks on top of the charts in the U.S. Her popular 1984 song “Holding Out for a Hero,” co-written by Steinman, was featured on the “Footloose” movie soundtrack that same year, while her recording of “Here She Comes” was included on the soundtrack of Giorgio Moroder’s restoration of “Metropolis” in 1985, and earned her a Grammy nomination.
In 2013, she competed for the U.K. in the Eurovision song contest with the song “Believe in Me” from “Rocks and Honey.” In 2021, she released “The Best is Yet to Come,” her 18th album.
Tyler also released an autobiography detailing her 50-year career in the industry in 2023, titled “Straight from the Heart.”
On May 7, a statement was shared on the singer’s Facebook and website, breaking news to fans that Tyler had been hospitalized in Portugal.
“We are very sorry to announce that Bonnie has been admitted to a hospital in Faro, Portugal, where she has a home, for emergency intestinal surgery,” the statement read. “The surgery went well and she is now recuperating. We know that all of her family, friends, and fans will be concerned about this news and will be wishing her well for a full and swift recovery.”
Shortly after the statement was posted, a spokesperson told The Guardian that she had been placed in a medically-induced coma to “aid her recovery.”
The singer was set to embark on a tour in May 2026. The first concert was scheduled for May 22 at SummerLUST Music Festival in Malta, followed by shows in Germany, Czechia, Hungary, Turkey, Austria, Scotland, England, Romania, Switzerland, Denmark and Wales.
In June, several outlets reported that Tyler woke up from her month-long coma, but was still seriously ill.
She is survived by her husband, Robert Sullivan, with whom she has been married since 1973.
