Consistently one of Great Britain’s most popular artists,
Bonnie Tyler has also met with international acclaim, powered by her unique, gravelly voice and commanding stage presence. Born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951 in the small town of Skewen, South Wales, Tyler loved music from an early age and was singing in the local pubs and cubs by the time she was in her teens. In 1976, she was spotted by a talent scout and a record deal with RCA followed. Before she could even record, however, tragedy struck in the form of an operation to remove nodules on her vocal chords
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. But the procedure wound up enhancing her already distinctively husky voice and she went on to record her debut single Lost In France, which became an international hit, going top 10 in Britain and becoming a million-seller in America..Tyler recorded a follow-up single in 1977 called “It’s A Heartache,” which went onto become a worldwide sensation, and remains her biggest selling single. It established Tyler as a crossover talent who could be played pop, country and soul radio stations.
In 1983, Tyler teamed with Meatloaf producer Jim Steinman, whose overblown, grandiose style, matched Tyler’s operatic vocals and resulted in her first and only number one single, the power ballad
Total Eclipse Of The Heart. The tune brought Tyler a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. In 1984, she performed the track at the Grammy Awards, and received another Grammy nomination as Best Rock Female Vocalist for "Here She Comes” Other hit Bonnie Tyler songs during this period included “A Rockin Good Way” and “Holding Out For A Hero,” from the film soundtrack Footloose which made #34 in the U.S., #1 in Ireland and #2 in UK. From the 1990s onward, Tyler’s recordings mainly made a splash in
Europe, Japan and Australia, but didn’t chart very high in the United States. She performed Total Eclipse Of The Heart at the opening of the Welsh Assembly in 1999. That same year that she recorded a special version of the song, titled Total Eclipse Of The
Sun, to commemorate the solar eclipse, and performed the theme tune to Welsh drama Jack Of Hearts. In A January 2007 collaboration with British band BabyPinkStar brought Total Eclipse Of The Heart into the 21st century and proving that her music is timeless.
