"Bonnie's family and team are devastated to announce that Bonnie passed away unexpectedly last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness she was being treated for," a statement on the Welsh artist's website said.
Bonnie Tyler was the queen of bombastic rock opera songs and was known for her raspy voice. She came from Wales and had an international breakthrough with "It's a Heartache". The song topped the Swedish singles chart in 1977.
One of the first countries she became a big name in was actually Sweden, where she quickly gained a large audience before breaking through in her home country. "Holding Out for a Hero" from 1984 also became a hit and had a lasting cultural impact.
Bombastic hit song
But Bonnie Tyler became iconic with the powerful love ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983, written by Jim Steinman, who also worked with another artist with a penchant for bombastic songs - Meat Loaf.
The song topped charts worldwide and has since become a timeless karaoke classic and has been featured in many films and television series.
The song is iconic, that's just how it is. Jim Steinman, who wrote it, had incredible music under his belt, like Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell", and that's why I wanted to work with him. It turned out to be a very successful collaboration, said Bonnie Tyler in a TT interview in 2024, adding:
Can you believe it has over a billion views on YouTube?!
In Eurovision
The video was shot in a spooky gothic former mental hospital in Surrey, southwest of London, and in a letter to a friend, reproduced in The Guardian, Tyler looks back on the time the song was written: "I recorded an incredible song today. The problem is that it's so long I don't think anyone will ever play it," she wrote.
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" was also shortened from seven to four minutes, but the song became so popular that radio stations still played the album version in its entirety.
During a career spanning five decades, Bonnie Tyler released a large number of albums and toured well into her later years. In 2013, many Swedes were able to see her perform in Malmö when she represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Believe in Me".
Bonnie Tyler was supposed to embark on a 30-date European tour that was supposed to start on May 22. But at the beginning of that month, news broke that the artist had been hospitalized in Portugal and underwent emergency surgery for intestinal problems.
Born Gaynor Sullivan in 1951 in Skewen, South Wales. Lived in Portugal with her husband Robert Sullivan.
They really broke through in the late 1970s and early 1980s with international hits like "Total Eclipse of the Heart", "It's a Heartache" and "Holding Out for a Hero".
Came in 19th place in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 with the song "Believe in Me" for the United Kingdom.
