Bonnie Tyler, the singer best known for 1983’s chart-topping hit ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ died Wednesday at the age of 75 after a two-month long health battle.
Early in May 2026 Tyler‘s official Facebook page revealed she had been placed into a medically induced coma in a Portuguese hospital after emergency surgery for a perforated intestine. A mid-June update stated that she was no longer in the coma, but remained “very unwell” and in intensive care.
On Thursday morning Tyler‘s family announced that the singer had died. “Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for,” they wrote. “We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy.
Born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951 in Wales, Tyler‘s 1977 debut album ‘The World Starts Tonight’ yielded the successful singles ‘Lost in France’ and ‘More Than a Lover.’
Those successes turned out to be stage-setters for Tyler‘s first massive hit, ‘It’s a Heartache,’ which reached the Top 5 all over the world early the next year.
After a half-decade of lesser chart success, Tyler teamed up with Meat Loaf Bat Out Of Hell songwriter / producer Jim Steinman on ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart.’
Tyler scored several more worldwide hits over the next few years, most notably the Top 40 U.S. single ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ from 1984’s Footloose soundtrack. All told she released 18 studio albums, with the most recent being 2021’s The Best Is Yet to Come.