Amy Thomas
BBC Wales

Image source, Amy Thomas

Meeting Bonnie Tyler is still one of the highlights of my career so far.

I was working as a reporter in Swansea when I was sent to interview her to mark the launch of her new book at her home in Mumbles.

I remember feeling surprisingly nervous. I'd grown up listening to her music, so the idea of sitting down with someone I’d listened to since I was a child was a little daunting.

I needn't have worried. The moment Bonnie opened the door, she made me feel completely at ease. She was warm, funny, and incredibly down to earth, welcoming us into her beautiful home as though we'd known each other for years.

There was no sense of rushing through the interview or carefully rehearsed answers. She was open, honest and happy to talk about anything we asked.

As we were wrapping things up, she even shared some career advice: always walk into a room feeling confident, even if you’re not.

It was a simple piece of advice, but hearing it from someone like Bonnie Tyler made it all the more meaningful.

Colin Paterson
Entertainment correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

As a child growing up in Wales, Bonnie Tyler sang Tina Turner songs into her mirror using a hairbrush as a microphone.

As an adult, Tyler sang the original version of one of Tina Turner’s signature songs.

In 1988, Bonnie Tyler's track The Best, with its chorus "You’re simply the best/better than all the rest", did not do the best in the UK, where it flopped, reaching a lowly 95.

The track did catch the attention of Tina Turner though, who approached the writers Mike Chapman and Holly Knight (the duo who penned Pat Benatar’s monster smash Love is a Battlefield) and asked for a few changes for a cover version she had planned - including the addition of a bridge, and crucially a key change.

The Best was the lead single from Turner’s 1989 album Foreign Affair, becoming a global hit and one of her signature songs.

Even Bonnie Tyler admitted that Turner’s version of The Best, was the best.

Image source, PA Media

If you're just joining us, tributes have been pouring in after the announcement that singer Bonnie Tyler - known for her hit Total Eclipse of the Heart - has died aged 75.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is among those honouring the Welsh pop star, calling her an "iconic figure" and "one of Britain’s greatest recording artists".

Broadcaster and media personality Carol Vorderman says she is "truly sad" to hear the news of Tyler's death.

Tyler represented something special to Wales, adds Vorderman, and will be "very very sorely missed".

Family friend Owen Money tells the BBC that Tyler "was one of those ladies who just loved life".

Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth says that Wales has lost a "true icon".

And fellow pop star Cliff Richard is mourning "another wonderful friend gone too soon", adding she had an "infectious zest for life".

Helen Bushby
Culture reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The Welsh singer spoke back in 2001 about being asked by Catherine Zeta-Jones if she would sing at her wedding to Michael Douglas. The film stars were marrying in New York, where Tyler was already going to be a guest.

The singer's husband of more than 50 years, Robert Sullivan, is related to Zeta-Jones; his father and hers are cousins.

"She asked me if I like to sing it at the wedding, and she said, 'look I'm not putting you under any pressure'," Tyler told Jenni Murray on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, the following year.

"I said, 'yeah, of course I'd love to'... but I didn't realise I wasn't going on stage till about 12 o'clock. And I like to have a drink, you know, but not before I sing," the singer recalled.

"So I drank one glass of vintage champagne from 7.30 until after I came off stage at 12-ish. And it was all underneath my nose and all this incredible vintage red wine and vintage champagne everywhere.

"And I couldn't drink any of it, you know, until I came on stage, I made up for it then though!" she added.

Image source, Getty Images

English record producer and songwriter Pete Waterman is paying his respects to Tyler, comparing her to one of the greats.

The Stock Aitken Waterman producer, famous for a string of hits during the 1980s with stars including Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, recalls Tyler having been "the new thing on the block" as he was arriving into the music business in the 70s.

She was "a sweet kid", he tells BBC News. "We could see her being made into a star".

Waterman describes Tyler as "one of the great British artists".

"She had an amazing voice, and was equal to Tina Turner in my opinion."

Fellow pop star Cliff Richard is mourning "another wonderful friend gone too soon".

"Bonnie’s infectious zest for life entertained so many around the world," he writes on social media, describing her as "a good friend to all, including me".

"It's shocking news to wake up to you this morning and I send my love to her family at this very sad time.

"RIP Bonnie…. Cliff xx"

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Reuters

Keir Starmer is among those paying tribute to the Welsh pop star following her death at 75.

"The prime minister is indeed saddened to hear about the death of Bonnie Tyler, one of Britain’s greatest recording artists," a Downing Street spokesman says.

"An iconic figure, she leaves behind a catalogue of music - from Total Eclipse of the Heart, to Holding Out for a Hero - which continues to touch lives, flood dance floors and fill karaoke booths."

He adds: "The prime minister’s thoughts are very much with her friends and family."

Christian Fraser
Presenter, BBC News

Image source, Reuters

In the pantheon of the great Welsh singers - Sir Tom Jones, Dame Shirley Bassey - Bonnie Tyler takes her rightful place.

She compared herself, in our interview five years ago, to Rod Stewart. The rasp was born of impatience: after a 1977 operation to remove nodules from her vocal cords, she was told to rest for six weeks.

Instead, she screamed in frustration, and that gravelly timbre was the result (read more on that strawberry-related incident here).

She never stopped: she was due on stage in Germany this week, before illness forced her summer shows to be cancelled.

Bonnie knew exactly how big she was, and embraced it, as her fans embraced her — even joining them online on occasion to sing her karaoke anthems.

I interviewed her twice. She was warm, a superstar — and at 75, utterly convinced "the best was yet to come". In fact it was the title of her 18th and last album.

Image source, Getty Images

Total Eclipse of the Heart was released in 1983, and in more than 40 years Bonnie Tyler never tired of singing it.

Speaking in 2023, she said the first time she heard the anthem, she couldn't believe its writer Jim Steinman gave her the song.

"I recorded it in New York and the way Jim works is you sing the song through nine times and you decide which take has got the best feel, which happened to be the second."

The only problem? "It was just too long!"

The radio edit, cut from eight minutes to 4:50, was "perfect" but "broke Jim's heart", Tyler added.

The hit spent two weeks at number one in the UK and four in the USA, and the music video surpassed a billion hits on YouTube.

Nicola Bryan
BBC Wales

It was Christmas Eve 2013 when me and my mates bumped into Bonnie Tyler at La Brasserie restaurant in Swansea.

Total Eclipse of the Heart has always been something of an anthem for us and so when we spotted her there was huge excitement.

Bonnie was so full of fun and seemed thrilled to be amongst fans, happily stopping by for a chat and a picture.

A while later one of my mates was speaking to a relative of Bonnie who said this picture was on Bonnie’s piano at home.

I know it sounds nuts but I recall seeing a photo of it, framed on top of her piano.

So for many years whenever Bonnie came up in conversation I’ve enjoyed saying – "well, there’s a picture of me on her piano".

What a legend.

Image source, Nicola Bryan

Mark Savage
Music correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Bonnie Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins and grew up on a council estate in Skewen, near Neath.

One of seven children, she lived in a four-bedroom house, with her grandparents across the road.

The family didn’t have much, but Tyler always had big dreams.

“When I was a kid, my best friend’s family had a car - my parents couldn’t afford one - and they’d take us out for a drive at the weekend,” she told the Times in 2019.

“We’d head to the Gower, singing songs at the top of our voices. On the way back, we’d always pass a lovely old house. I used to say, ‘I’d love to own that place'," she said.

“Then, in 1988, I was able to buy the one right behind it, overlooking the bay. It will always be special to me.”

Image source, Getty Images

Broadcaster and media personality Carol Vorderman, pictured, says she is "truly sad" to hear the news of Bonnie Tyler's death.

"I am a Welsh woman, and believe me in Wales Bonnie Tyler is regarded as a legend - particularly amongst women," Vorderman writes on Instagram.

"She was extraordinary. I met her a number of times. She was very real. She was always laughing, asking questions, always having a good time."

Tyler represented something special to Wales, adds Vorderman, and will be "very very sorely missed".

"My heart goes out to her family - she was very much a family woman, and all of her really good friends. A very sad day."

Image source, Getty Images

The singer's last show was at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire on 19 March earlier this year, describing it on her official Facebook page at the time as a "fantastic night", external.

She had been due to perform in Cardiff a few days later, on 21 March, but this concert was rescheduled to December.

After her hospitalisation, a spokesperson announced the cancellation or postponement of dates for the singer's planned summer tour - but hoped some could still take place later in the year.

Mark Savage
Music correspondent

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Decades after the release of her biggest hits, Bonnie Tyler was chosen to represent the UK at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest.

Her song, the mournful country ballad Believe In Me.

Strangely, it wasn’t written for the contest: she’d actually recorded it a year earlier in Nashville. But when the BBC heard it, they asked if she’d hold it back and enter the competition.

She’d actually been approached about the possibility of entering Eurovision before, at the peak of her commercial success in 1983 - but declined the offer.

Speaking to the Telegraph, external, she explained what changed her mind.

"It’s a bit political but let’s be realistic, 120 million people watch the Eurovision, I’ve got a fantastic new album coming out, somebody at the BBC likes it… and I’m going to say no?"

Still, she flew over to Sweden with a bit of trepidation. “I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it,” she later told BBC Radio 2’s Ken Bruce. “But I had a lovely time. If you’re going for it, go for it.”

In the end, she couldn’t persuade anyone to believe in Believe In Me. It came 19th (out of 26), earning just 23 points. But Tyler put a brave face on her defeat.

"I'm sure a lot of people will be disappointed on my behalf but I have really enjoyed my Eurovision experience," she said. "I did the best that I could do with a great song. I don't feel down and I'm ready to party."

Family friend Owen Money tells the BBC that Bonnie "was one of those ladies who just loved life".

The musician and radio presenter says: "I've known her since before she was famous, in the late 60s when she was starting out in Swansea.

"She's like family really. I was up her house last summer and the first thing she did was open a bottle of champagne."

Speaking following her death, Money says: "I’ve been in disbelief, I can’t believe it. She was a massive fan of my show and I was a massive fan of hers.

"Not only were we friends but we were fans of each other. She was still huge in Europe, Germany, Holland, she was just so good. She's a Welsh icon."

Welsh First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth describes Bonnie Tyler as a "true icon" in a tribute on social media.

He says: “I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Bonnie Tyler.

“Wales has lost a true icon, whose music brought joy to so many.

“I extend my heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and fans across the world.”

Colin Paterson
Entertainment correspondent

Bonnie Tyler’s trademark raspy voice was caused by a very unrock ‘n’ roll reason – forgotten strawberries.

In the mid-1970s, around the time of her breakthrough hit Lost in France, she developed vocal nodules due to strain.

The medical advice was to have surgery, which she did.

Her recovery involved complete vocal rest. However, one day she was going to visit her brother in hospital and on the way, realised that she had forgotten her gift of some strawberries.

In her autobiography Straight from the Heart, she explained what happened next.

“I was so frustrated that I’d have to drive all the way back home, I let out an ‘Oh no!’ scream.”

Her consultant told her there had been permanent damage. But what could have ended her career, actually turned out to be a blessing.

Tyler was left with a new - more husky - voice, which she came to love. In particular the emotional depth it gave her vocal performances. She even joked that it made her sound like a female Rod Stewart.

Pop history - changed forever by one purchase of a punnet.

Anna Lewis
BBC Wales

Image source, Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Bonnie Tyler hasn’t always been Bonnie.

Born Gaynor Hopkins, the Neath singer admitted she "never really liked the name" and decided to change it to Sherene Davies at her first chance.

"When I was in my band Bobby Wayne and the Dixies, I was called Sherene - that was my sister's first little girl's name, and I loved that name,” she previously told BBC Radio Wales.

But when she signed her first record deal, RCA Records suggested another change, believing Sherene "sounded like a belly dancer".

Bonnie said: "I got a broadsheet newspaper and I made an effort to write all the first names I came across on one list and all the surnames on another and I went through them both and came up with Bonnie Tyler.

"And it's been a brilliant name.”

Wales Secretary Jo Stevens has paid tribute to the singer following her death.

"So sad to hear of the death of Bonnie Tyler," she writes in a post on X.

"A Welsh music icon, Grammy and Brit award winner and the sound of my teenage years."

Mark Savage
Music correspondent

Speaking of Total Eclipse of the Heart, the song passed a huge milestone earlier this year when it was streamed for the one billionth time on Spotify.

But the singer told BBC News she barely saw a penny from her biggest song.

“Oh it’s nothing, just about nothing,” she told BBC News.

But Spotify says it paid out $1.4m (£1m) in royalties for Tyler’s back catalogue last year. So what happened?

Part of the issue is that the song was solely written by Jim Steinman, so all of the publishing royalties will have gone to his estate.

The remaining money goes to the owner of the master recording – currently Sony Music – who would share a percentage with Tyler, based on the recording contract she’d signed in the 1980s.

Typically, however, contracts signed before the mainstream adoption of the internet pay very little for digital downloads and streams… ultimately leaving Tyler out of pocket.