Bonnie Tyler dies aged 75

Bonnie Tyler died in Portugal last night, two months after being admitted to hospital for emergency intestinal surgery.

The Welsh singer was best known for her global smash ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’, a transatlantic number one in 1983, written and produced by Jim Steinman. There’s some dispute over whether the song was originally earmarked for Meat Loaf; Tyler always insisted it was completed for her alone.

Faster Than The Speed of Night, home to ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’, was Bonnie’s fifth studio album. By this time she’d already enjoyed sizeable hits in the UK from both her 1977 debut The World Starts Tonight (‘Lost in France’) and 1978’s Natural Force (‘It’s A Heartache’ which was a top 10 single in the UK and reached No 3 in the US).

1985’s ‘Holding Out For A Hero’ (initially included on the Footloose sountrack) almost repeated the success of ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ in the UK, but spent three weeks at No 2, thwarted by David Bowie and Mick Jagger’s ‘Dancing In The Street’ for all three of those weeks).

Tyler continued to release albums and toured extensively in later life. Her final studio album was The Best Is Yet To Come, issued via EarMusic in early 2021.

Rest in Peace, Bonnie Tyler. Leave your thoughts and tributes in the comments.