Bonnie Tyler

• 1. Introduction

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  Bonnie Tyler's trademark rasp began with a scream. In the spring of 1977, the Welsh singer had surgery to remove nodules from her vocal cords. Her doctor ordered six weeks of rest for her voice. One day she lost patience and screamed in frustration. The scream left her with a permanent raspy tone. That roughened sound would go on to carry some of the best-selling singles ever recorded. How did a girl from Wales build a career that reaches from the 1970s into the 2020s? Who wrote the songs that gave that voice its biggest showcase? And what persuaded her to enter the Eurovision Song Contest?

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• 2. A Welsh Beginning

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  Gaynor Hopkins was born on the 8th of June 1951 in Skewen, Neath, Wales. Her father, Glyndŵr Hopkins, was a coal miner who had also served in the Second World War. Her mother was Elsie Hopkins, formerly Elsie Lewis. The family lived in a four-bedroom council house, with three sisters and two brothers. Her siblings' varied tastes exposed her to Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and the Beatles. The household was deeply religious and Protestant, and her first public performance took place in a chapel. As a child she sang the Anglican hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful".

  At sixteen, Hopkins left Rhydhir Comprehensive School in Neath with no qualifications. She found work in a grocery shop. In April 1969 her aunt entered her in a local talent competition, and she finished second to an accordionist. The result inspired her to pursue singing. She became a backing singer for Bobby Wayne and the Dixies, then formed her own band, Imagination. Around this time she renamed herself Sherene Davis, so that nobody would confuse her with the Welsh folk singer Mary Hopkin.

  In 1975, a talent scout named Roger Bell saw Davis perform with her band at the Townsman Club in Swansea. He invited her to London to record a demo track. Many months passed before RCA Records telephoned with a recording contract. The label also recommended another change of name. Davis compiled a list of first names and surnames from a newspaper, and from it she chose Bonnie Tyler. Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe would soon manage her and write and produce her first records.

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• 3. The RCA Years

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  Tyler's debut single, "My! My! Honeycomb", appeared in April 1976 and failed to chart anywhere in the world. For the follow-up, "Lost in France", RCA Records set aside £4,000 in September 1976. The money sent a group of 30 music journalists and radio DJs to Le Touquet, France. There they met Tyler over a four-course meal. The song peaked at number 9 in the UK and brought her first appearance on Top of the Pops.

  "More Than a Lover" followed in January 1977. A new British children's television series, Get It Together, banned it because of the perceived sexual nature of the lyrics. Tyler was surprised, but she said she was grateful for the "extra publicity". The single peaked at number 27 in the UK.

  Her debut album, The World Starts Tonight, arrived in February 1977. She promoted it on her first UK tour, as a guest artist with Gene Pitney. The album missed the UK chart but reached number 2 in Sweden. Her fourth single, "Heaven", came out in July 1977 and peaked at number 24 in Germany. Tyler blamed its weaker showing elsewhere on the death of Elvis Presley in August 1977, which led RCA to focus on reissuing his extensive back catalogue.

  In November 1977, "It's a Heartache" became one of her most successful singles. It reached number 4 in the UK and number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Here Am I" followed in April 1978 and peaked at number 4 in Norway. Her second album, Natural Force, was released in May 1978. The Recording Industry Association of America certified it Gold for sales of over half a million copies. That year David Mackay parted ways with Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, and Gordon Mills briefly took over as her manager. Mills organised her first US tour in July 1978, with several nights at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, supporting Tom Jones.

  Diamond Cut, her third album, was released in February 1979. Scott and Wolfe produced it with Robin Geoffrey Cable. It made the Top 20 in Finland, Norway and Sweden but reached only number 145 in the US. Tyler felt that RCA was pushing her towards country-flavoured music, and this frustrated her. The album's one major hit, "My Guns Are Loaded", peaked at number 10 on the Canadian AC chart. In the summer of 1979 she scored another UK Top 40 hit with "(The World Is Full of) Married Men". She recorded it for a film adaptation of Jackie Collins' novel of the same name, and she sings it over the closing titles.

  In November 1979, Tyler represented the United Kingdom at the Yamaha World Popular Song Festival in Japan. She won the Grand Prix International award for "Sitting on the Edge of the Ocean", written by Scott and Wolfe. The pair then co-produced her fourth album, Goodbye to the Island, with Hugh Murphy. Released in 1981, it charted only in Norway. She expressed disillusionment with her artistic image, and she noted a scarcity of performance opportunities after several unsuccessful singles. She turned down RCA's offer of another five years on her contract.

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• 4. The Steinman Sound

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  When her RCA contract ran out, Tyler signed with CBS/Columbia, where A&R man Muff Winwood asked her to scout a new producer. She considered Phil Collins, Jeff Lynne and Alan Tarney, but Jim Steinman was her first choice. She explained her reasoning this way: "I'm a huge fan of his records, especially his solo album, and when my manager and I were discussing my comeback we both agreed that I had to sound the best or nobody would take me seriously." Steinman initially declined. He reconsidered after Tyler sent him demos of the rock material she hoped to record.

  A few weeks after their first meeting, Tyler returned to Steinman's apartment in New York. There she performed "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with Rory Dodd. Steinman described the song as "a Wagnerian-like onslaught of sound and emotion", and as a "showpiece" for her voice. The album was recorded at the Power Station in New York. Members of the E Street Band played on it, along with guitarist Rick Derringer and backing vocalists Rory Dodd and Eric Troyer. Steinman produced.

  On the 11th of February 1983, "Total Eclipse of the Heart" was released in the UK. It sold over six million units, which makes it one of the best-selling singles of all time. Its parent album, Faster Than the Speed of Night, debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. It reached number 3 on the US Cashbox chart and number 4 on the Billboard 200, selling over one million copies in the United States. Nominations followed for two Grammys, two AMAs and a BRIT Award. The Variety Club of Great Britain named her Best Recording Artist, and she received a Goldene Europa.

  In 1984, "Holding Out for a Hero" appeared on the soundtrack of Footloose. The following year, her recording of "Here She Comes" for Giorgio Moroder's restoration of the 1927 film Metropolis earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. She also declined an offer to record the theme for the James Bond spin-off Never Say Never Again.

  Her sixth album, Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire, arrived in 1986. It brought another collaboration with Steinman, songs by Desmond Child and Bryan Adams, and a cover of Freda Payne's "Band of Gold". The single "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)" sold over 250,000 units in France. Its video, directed by Steinman and Stuart Orme, received six nominations at the Billboard Video Music Conference.

  In 1987, Tyler sang the title track of Mike Oldfield's album Islands. She also duetted with the Brazilian singer Fábio Júnior on his bilingual album Sem Límites pra Sonhar. In 1988 she played Polly Garter in George Martin's album of Under Milk Wood, the radio drama by Dylan Thomas. Elton John composed the music, and the vocalists included Tom Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Mary Hopkin, the singer whose name she had once avoided.

  Hide Your Heart came out on the 9th of May 1988, with Desmond Child producing at Tyler's request. Michael Bolton, Albert Hammond and Diane Warren all collaborated on it. Three of its songs, "Hide Your Heart", "Save Up All Your Tears" and "The Best", became major hits for other artists.

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• 5. Mainland Europe Calling

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  In 1990, Tyler signed to Hansa/BMG Ariola and began her eighth album with a crowd of producers. They included Dieter Bohlen, Giorgio Moroder, Nik Kershaw and Roy Bittan. Hansa's A&R manager, David Brunner, explained the plan: "We used so many producers in efforts to capture many different moods for many different territories, because we believed in the international crossover potential of Tyler," he said.

  Bitterblue was released on the 11th of November 1991. Its title track had come out a month earlier and became a top 40 hit in several European countries. It was named Catchy Song of the Year at the RSH-Gold Awards. In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Tomas Mureika called the album a "much more mainstream and less bombastic" direction for her. Billboard was harsher when the title track reached the United States as a promotional single in 1992. It wrote that "bombastic production, with a rush of bagpipes and a choir of chirping children at the forefront, overpower Tyler's distinctive raspy voice."

  Angel Heart (1992) and Silhouette in Red (1993) also did well there, with more songs written and produced by Bohlen. Tyler won Best International Singer at the Goldene Europa Awards in 1993 and Best Pop/Rock Singer at the ECHO Awards in 1994. In 1995 she moved to EastWest Records for Free Spirit, whose producers included Humberto Gatica, David Foster and Jim Steinman. Its lead single, a cover of Air Supply's "Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)", reached number 45 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1996. A re-release that March added a cover of the Alan Parsons Project's "Limelight". The track became the theme for the German team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

  All in One Voice, her twelfth album, appeared in 1998. She recorded much of it in Dublin with Jimmy Smyth and in Hamburg with Harold Faltermeyer. That year she also sang "Is Anybody There?" on Rick Wakeman's orchestral album Return to the Centre of the Earth. Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart narrated it, and Ozzy Osbourne, Katrina Leskanich and Justin Hayward contributed vocals.

  On the 14th of September 2001, she released Greatest Hits, a compilation of seventeen tracks. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 18 and was certified silver by the British Phonographic Industry for sales of over 60,000 units. EMI then approached her about a cover album with an orchestra and her band. She chose thirteen songs by artists such as U2, the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen. Nick Ingman and Karl Jenkins arranged them, and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra performed them. Heart Strings was released on the 18th of March 2003 and followed by a tour in Germany.

  Later in 2003, the vocalist Kareen Antonn invited Tyler to re-record "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as a bilingual duet in French and English. Retitled "Si demain... (Turn Around)", it was released in December 2003 and went to number 1 in Belgium and France. In France it held the top position for ten weeks and sold over 500,000 units. It was regarded as her comeback in France and drew overwhelmingly positive reviews. The pair recorded a second duet, "Si tout s'arrête (It's a Heartache)", which peaked at number 12 in France.

  That second duet appeared on her fourteenth album, Simply Believe, released in April 2004. The album spent 23 weeks on the French Album Charts and peaked at number 18. She co-wrote its title track, and two more songs, with producer Jean Lahcene. Wings, her fifteenth album, followed in the spring of 2005. She recorded it in Paris, with twelve new songs and fresh versions of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "It's a Heartache". Footage from concerts at the Sopot International Song Festival in Poland, La Cigale in Paris and the Fiestas del Pilar in Zaragoza, Spain, appeared on her live DVD Bonnie on Tour in 2006.

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• 6. Eurovision and Encores

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  In 2006, Tyler sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with actress Lucy Lawless on Celebrity Duets, her first US television appearance in years. In January 2007 she recorded a new version with the punk band BabyPinkStar, and it peaked at number 40 on the UK Independent Singles chart. In April 2009 she joined the Welsh male voice choir Only Men Aloud! on their UK tour to perform it. In 2010 she sang a parody of it in a television advertisement for MasterCard.

  In early 2012, Tyler began her sixteenth album, Rocks and Honey, and travelled to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of material. It was recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville and produced by David Huff. She sent the album to the BBC for feedback. After hearing the third track, "Believe in Me", the BBC asked her to represent the United Kingdom with it at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. She was reluctant at first. She accepted, calling Eurovision "great publicity for my album".

  Tyler was announced as the UK entrant on the 7th of March 2013, and the reaction was mixed. "Believe in Me" was released on the 13th of March and peaked at number 93 in the UK. As a member of the "Big Five", the United Kingdom qualified automatically for the Grand Final on the 18th of May. Tyler finished in 19th place with 23 points. She responded: "I did the best that I could do with a great song". She added: "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." Afterwards she became the first UK representative to receive a Eurovision Song Contest Radio Award, winning Best Song and Best Female Singer.

  Rocks and Honey was released on the 6th of May 2013 and peaked at number 52 on the UK Albums Chart. Its title referred to the contrast between Tyler's voice and Vince Gill's on their duet "What You Need from Me", which was likened to "rocks and honey". The second and third singles, "This Is Gonna Hurt" and "Love Is the Knife", both failed to chart.

  On the 21st of August 2017, a solar eclipse gave her signature song a new moment. Tyler performed "Total Eclipse of the Heart" aboard the MS Oasis of the Seas with the dance-rock band DNCE. The song gained 31,000 online downloads and reached number 13 on the Billboard Digital Songs chart. In March 2018, she toured Germany and Austria for 22 dates to mark the 40th anniversary of "It's a Heartache".

  In February 2019, she released "Hold On", the lead single from her seventeenth album, Between the Earth and the Stars. The album followed in March 2019 and peaked at number 34 on the UK Albums Chart. She recorded it with David Mackay, who had produced her first two albums in the 1970s. It features duets with Rod Stewart, Francis Rossi and Cliff Richard. A 23-date European tour in April 2019 ended with an appearance at BBC Proms in the Park in Hyde Park, London. A headline concert at the London Palladium followed in September. Her show at L'Olympia in Paris was filmed and released through Canal+. On the 14th of December 2019, she performed at the Vatican's annual Concerto di Natale in the presence of Pope Francis.

  The Best Is Yet to Come, her latest studio album, arrived in February 2021. In November 2022, Tyler began her first ever tour of South America, with eight dates in Brazil and one in Uruguay. Her memoir, Straight from the Heart, was published by Coronet Books on the 28th of September 2023. In April 2024 she released In Berlin, her third live album, recorded at the Admiralspalast on the 8th of May 2019. On the 4th of July 2025 she released "Together", produced by David Guetta and Hypaton. It uses newly recorded vocals, with lyrics interpolated from the chorus of "Total Eclipse of the Heart". It reached number 4 on the French Airplay chart and was certified Gold for an equivalent of 15 million streams. In March 2026 she released "Only Love" and premiered it live at the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London.

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• 7. Voice and Influences

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  One of Tyler's earliest musical memories is her mother singing opera in the family home. The first live act she ever saw was Frankie Miller, with whom she later recorded duets. Her two biggest influences from a young age were Janis Joplin and Tina Turner. She names "River Deep - Mountain High" as her all-time favourite song. Other early inspirations included Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Meat Loaf, Joe Cocker, Dusty Springfield and Tommy Steele. Among modern artists she admires Guns N' Roses, Anastacia, Toni Braxton, Duffy and Eminem. She has also said she would like to work with Adele, whom she calls "a great song writer, singer and performer."

  Her music blends country, rock, pop, blues and Celtic elements. The rasp invited comparisons with Rod Stewart and Kim Carnes, and she was sometimes called "the female Rod Stewart". After her work with Jim Steinman, some began calling her "the female Meat Loaf". During the recording of Natural Force, the studio band complimented her changed voice.

  Critics have often reached for strong words. AllMusic described her voice as "inimitable" and "wonderfully gritty", and said it produced a "desperate lovelorn" effect that suited romantic lyrics. In a review of Rocks and Honey, OMH Media said her vocals were "good for only one thing and that's belting out gravelly vocals". It added that she sounds like Johnny Cash in his later years when she tries to restrain her voice. The Yorkshire Times wrote that her voice had "still got what it takes to make you tingle."

  Songwriting has never been a major part of Tyler's career, but she has co-written a handful of B-sides. "Gonna Get Better", the B-side of the 1980 Japanese single "Sayonara Tokyo", was written with her brother Paul Hopkins. In 2001 she co-wrote four songs on Gary Pickford-Hopkins's GPH album and duetted with him on "Loving You Means Leaving You". She also helped write several tracks on Wings, including its singles "Louise" and "Celebrate".

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• 8. Causes, Home and Honours

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  In 1986, Tyler joined the Anti-Heroin Project to record "It's a Live-In World". The proceeds went to Phoenix House Charities, which funded heroin recovery centres in the UK. The following year she sang in the chorus of Ferry Aid, a British-American charity group, on a cover of the Beatles' "Let It Be". The proceeds supported victims of the Zeebrugge Disaster. The single sold over 500,000 copies and topped the UK charts for three weeks. In 1990 she joined Rock Against Repatriation to record "Sailing", a protest song about the repatriation of Vietnamese boat people who had fled to Hong Kong. It peaked at number 89 on the UK Singles Chart.

  Since the 1990s, Tyler has been a patron of the Bobath Children's Therapy Centre in Cardiff, which cares for children with cerebral palsy. In 2013 she campaigned for Bobath to be recognised at the Pride of Britain Awards. In 2007 she recorded "I Don't Know How to Love Him" for Over the Rainbow, a charity album conceived by Anneka Rice on the television show Challenge Anneka. It reached number 1 on the UK Compilation Chart, with proceeds going to the Association of Children's Hospices.

  In July 1973, Tyler married Robert Sullivan, a property developer who competed in judo at the 1972 Olympics. They have no children. Tyler miscarried when she was 39. Since 1988 the couple have owned a five-bedroom home in Albufeira, in the Algarve in southern Portugal, where Tyler had recorded one of her albums in the late 1970s. In a 1999 interview she said they owned farmland in Portugal and New Zealand, 22 houses in Berkshire and London, and 65 stables offering horse boarding. In 2013 she added that the New Zealand farm had become a dairy farm twelve years after they bought it, and that they also own a quarry.

  Her 1976 breakthrough with "Lost in France" earned a nomination for Best British Female Newcomer at the 1977 Brit Awards. In 2011, the BMI London Awards honoured "It's a Heartache" for gaining over three million airplays on US television and radio since 1977. That year she was also named freeman of Neath Port Talbot. In 2013 the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors gave her its Gold Badge award, and Swansea University awarded her an honorary degree and doctorate. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and she was one of the first western artists to tour the Soviet Union. In 2016 the Lord Mayor of Swansea honoured her for services to music. In 2022 she was appointed MBE in the Birthday Honours.

  On the 6th of May 2026, Tyler underwent emergency surgery in Faro, Portugal, to treat a perforated intestine, and she was placed in an induced coma. When doctors tried to bring her out of the coma, she suffered a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated. On the 12th of May her spokesman said she remained seriously ill but stable. He added that her doctors were optimistic about a full recovery.

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