Bonnie Tyler dies aged 75 after health struggles

Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer behind such iconic hits as Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero, has died aged 75.

The legendary singer died after previously being in an induced coma following emergency bowel surgery and the removal of her appendix.

Her death was confirmed on her website in a statement which read: ‘Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal.

They confirmed her death was ‘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,’ her family added.

Tyler was previously admitted to a hospital in Faro, Portugal, where she has a home, and had emergency intestinal surgery after feeling unwell around a month ago.

Earlier this month, her representative confirmed to Metro that she was ‘no longer in a coma’ but still in intensive care and ‘very unwell’.

After her hospital admission, her friend Liberto Mealha stated: ‘She decided to travel to the Algarve, where she began to feel severe abdominal pain.

‘Two days later, she went to a private hospital, which urgently transferred her to the hospital in Faro because her appendix had burst and she needed emergency surgery.’

She suffered a cardiac arrest following the life-saving surgery and ‘had to be resuscitated,’  Portuguese publication Correio da Manha reported.

Who has paid tribute to Bonnie Tyler?

The Welsh First Minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth, said Wales had ‘lost a true icon’ in a tribute shared on X.

He wrote: ‘I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Bonnie Tyler. Wales has lost a true icon, whose music brought joy to so many.

‘I extend my heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and fans across the world.’

Secretary of State for Wales Jo Neath also paid an emotional tribute to the singer and said she was ‘so sad’ to hear about the death of a ‘Welsh music icon’ – who she described as ‘the sound of my teenage years’.

Breakout hit and vocal surgery

Tyler,born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, Neath, Wales, on June 8 1951,began her career at a young age when finishing second in a talent contest inspired her to pursue a career in music just before she turned 18.

After working as a backup singer, she was spotted singing with her band Imagination in a club in Swansea in 1975, signing with RCA Records and changing her name to Bonnie Tyler.

She had her first hit record in 1976 with Lost in France, but thought her career may already be over before it had begun after having to have a vocal cord nodule operation.

As Tyler recalled to The Observer in 2009: ‘You’re not supposed to talk for six weeks after the operation, but I found it very difficult because I’m a bit of a chatterbox. I tried not speaking, but when you can’t speak, you can’t go out.

‘After you’ve had a hit record, if you go out and don’t talk to anyone, people are going to be like, “Oh my God, who does she think she is?” They would have thought I had a big head. One day I just screamed out of frustration, then went back to the specialist and he said I had done damage to my voice and it would take six months for me to recover.’

Despite fears that her most important instrument may be damaged beyond repair, Tyler’s voice did, in fact, return, and it had become huskier and had more of an edge.

‘It turned out losing my voice was not too treacherous for me – I had my first hit in America with my new husky voice on It’s a Heartache’ Tyler said.

‘Three other girls had recorded the song before me, and it didn’t go anywhere in America, so maybe my husky voice was what that song, and my career, needed.’

It’s A Heartache – released in November 1977 – became Tyler’s first runaway hit and stands as one of her most successful singles. peaking at number four in the UK singles chart and at number three in the Billboard Hot 100.

Total Eclipse Of The Heart and further career hits

Her new vocal stylings led to many labelling her the ‘female Rod Stewart’ with that distinctive edge proving to be the making of her, particularly once in the 1980s she signed with CBS and collaborated with songwriter and producer Jim Steinman, famous for his partnership with Meat Loaf.

Together, Steinman and Tyler produced one of her most enduring hits, Total Eclipse of the Heart, released in February 1983, with the song going on to become one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Steinman would also write one of her other major hits of the 1980s, Holding Out for a Hero, before going on to collaborate with the likes of Dieter Bohlen, Giorgio Moroder, Nik Kershaw and Harold Faltermeyer in the 1990s with the likes of Bitterblue, Angel Heart, and All In One Voice.

Tyler continued to produce music and release albums right up until 2021 with the relase of her final work, The Best Is Yet To Come.

She was also the UK’s entry for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song ‘Believe in Me.’ Tyler finished 19th on the night, with 23 points, stating at the time, ‘I did the best that I could do with a great song’, adding, ‘I’m so glad and so happy that I did it because it was an incredible experience. It was like the Grammy awards all over again.’

Discussing her career with The Mirror in 2025, Tyler revealed she ‘never, ever tires’ of singing Total Eclipse, the song she has the softest spot for is Lost In France.

‘It was my very first hit single. That launched my career and I wouldn’t be where I am now without it.’

Marriage and charity work

Tyler is survived by her husband, Robert Sullivan, 76, a property developer and former Olympian, having competed in Judo at the 1972 Olympics.

Sullivan was working as a club manager when he met Tyler in 1970, when she started singing in nightclubs in Swansea. They married on July 4, 1973.

The couple had no children, with Tyler having suffered a miscarriage when she was 39.

Talking about her experience, Tyler told The Mirror in 2025: ‘It’s weird, but I count myself blessed to have known that I could be pregnant, that I have been pregnant. Robert and I were so sad when it happened, but I’m not the type to dwell on things. The following weekend I was in Paris for a TV show, then I just moved on.’

Tyler also has three sisters, two brothers (her eldest brother passed away a few years ago), 16 nieces and nephews, and 14 great nieces and nephews.

Together, Tyler and Sullivan have owned properties in the UK and farmland in Portugal and New Zealand.

Alongside her storied career, Tyler also participated in a number of charity ventures, including the Anti-Heroin Project in 1986 and Ferry Aid in 1987, releasing a cover of The Beatles’ Let It Be to raise money for victims of the Zeebrugge Disaster.

She had been a patron of Bobath Children’s Therapy in Wales since the 1990s and was an ambassador for the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice for Wales.

She also participated in events and releases to raise money for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the Covid-19 pandemic.