Bonnie Tyler, 80s pop legend known for Total Eclipse of the Heart and more, dies aged 75

Bonnie Tyler performing at the 2013 Eurovision song contest in Malmö, Sweden. Photograph: Action Press/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Bonnie Tyler performing at the 2013 Eurovision song contest in Malmö, Sweden. Photograph: Action Press/Shutterstock Bonnie Tyler, 80s pop legend known for Total Eclipse of the Heart and more, dies aged 75 Welsh singer and Eurovision entrant’s other hits included Footloose soundtrack smash Holding Out for a Hero From Swansea clubs to worldwide fame: Bonnie Tyler – a life in pictures Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer whose husky yet commanding voice made songs such as Total Eclipse of the Heart into 1980s classics, has died aged 75. A message on her Facebook page 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.” In May , Tyler had undergone emergency intestinal surgery at a hospital near Faro, Portugal, where she lived. She was later put into an induced coma in an attempt to assist her recovery. She was then taken out of the coma, but a representative said she remained “very unwell and in intensive care”. As well as 1983’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, which reached No 1 in the US and UK and is arguably the power ballad by which all others should be judged, Tyler’s hits included Holding Out for a Hero, which brought explosive panache to the Footloose soundtrack and reached No 2 in the UK charts in 1984; and the dolorous It’s a Heartache, which provided her breakout success in 1977. Born Gaynor Hopkins in the village of Skewen near Swansea, Tyler grew up in a council house with five older siblings. “I class myself as a working-class girl and I’ve never stopped working,” she told the Guardian in 2013 . “I do an awful lot [of performances] because I feel other people would love to be offered what I’m offered.” View image in fullscreen Bonnie Tyler in 1976. Photograph: Nick Rogers/ANL/Shutterstock Her music career had a modest beginning: singing cover versions in local clubs while working in a grocery shop. But a talent scout heard her singing Freda Payne’s Band of Gold one evening, and she recorded a demo to pitch to record labels – after two years, RCA eventually signed her, and she took on her stage name Bonnie Tyler. Her first single was a flop, but the second, Lost in France – a swaying Francophile ballad complete with accordions and “ooh la las” – went into the UK Top 10, and the follow-up More Than a Lover was also a moderate hit. After successful surgery on nodules on her vocal cords – “my voice was huskier than before, and had more of an edge,” she later said of the procedure – then came the utterly dejected It’s a Heartache, a perfect match for her newly toughened-up vocal tone. It became her first US success with a No 3 placing there as well as No 4 in the UK. Tyler proved to be supremely versatile, hopping between country-tinged ballads and disco-pop tracks such as 1