{"id":2037313,"date":"2026-07-10T10:25:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2037313"},"modified":"2026-07-10T10:25:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:25:48","slug":"bonnie-tyler-1951-2026-raspy-voiced-welshwoman-who-captured-what-rocknroll-is-all-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2037313","title":{"rendered":"Bonnie Tyler, 1951\u20132026: raspy-voiced Welshwoman who captured \u201cwhat rock\u2019n\u2019roll is all about\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bonnie-Tyler-Getty.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article id=\"template-id-2947849\" class=\"post-2947849 tdb_templates type-tdb_templates status-publish post\">\n<div id=\"tdi_65\" class=\"tdc-zone\">\n<div class=\"tdc_zone tdi_66  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div id=\"tdi_67\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_68  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_70  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_breadcrumbs tdi_71 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-breadcrumbs \" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_71\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span>Features<\/span><span>Music Features<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_title tdi_72 tdb-single-title td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_72\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Bonnie Tyler, 1951\u20132026: raspy-voiced Welshwoman who captured \u201cwhat rock\u2019n\u2019roll is all about\u201d<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_subtitle tdi_73 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_73\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>NME remembers one of pop\u2019s great, grand voices \u2013 and a tireless performer who forged a long, larger-than-life career<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_author tdi_75 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_75\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-author-name-wrap\"><span class=\"tdb-author-by\">By<\/span> Nick Levine<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_date tdi_76 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 tdb-post-meta\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_76\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><time class=\"entry-date updated td-module-date\" datetime=\"2026-07-10T11:25:48+01:00\">10th July 2026<\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_77\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_1400 td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_78  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_80  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_featured_image tdi_81 tdb-content-horiz-left td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_81\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"696\" height=\"442\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bonnie-Tyler-Getty-696x442.jpg\" alt=\"Bonnie Tyler obit\" title=\"Bonnie Tyler\"><figcaption class=\"tdb-caption-text\">Bonnie Tyler in 1992. Credit: kpa\/United Archives via Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_82\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_83  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_85  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_86 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>There are hits, and then there are mega-hits like Bonnie Tyler\u2019s \u2018Total Eclipse Of The Heart\u2019. Written and produced by the king of kitchen-sink rock, the late Jim Steinman, who made the inspired decision to pair Tyler\u2019s high-drama rasp with a hauntingly pure counterpoint from backing singer Rory Dodd (\u201c<em>turn around, bright eyes<\/em>\u201c), this quintessential \u201980s power ballad has proved incredibly durable. Back in January, it surpassed a billion streams on Spotify, matching the billion views its surreal music video achieved on YouTube three years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Tyler, who has died aged 75 following a short illness, said she would \u201cnever get tired of singing it\u201d because \u201ceveryone can\u2019t wait to sing it\u201d. She was probably alluding to its pivotal place in her live set \u2013 she never stopped touring, and played her final headline shows earlier this year \u2013 but also, perhaps, to its status as a karaoke staple. Matching Tyler\u2019s melodramatic singing style is a tall order rarely attempted sober. Her voice \u201csounds ravaged, like it\u2019s been through a lot\u201d, Steinman said in 1983. \u201cIt\u2019s what rock\u2019n\u2019roll is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A proud Welshwoman, Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951 in Skewen, a village near Swansea, and raised Protestant by her coal miner father and homemaker mother. After leaving school at 16, she found work in a local grocery store, but supplemented her income by singing in local nightclubs. \u201cI was doing everybody else\u2019s hits then,\u201d she recalled in 2013. \u201cWe had different nights \u2013 one night we\u2019d do blues, one night we\u2019d do pop or country, and on a Sunday people used to do ballroom dancing.\u201d This eclectic apprenticeship proved formative, though Tyler would always call herself \u201ca rock girl at heart\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3956231\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3956231\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3956231\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bonnie-tyler-Montreux-Rock-Festival-1986-credit-david-redfern-redferns-getty-images@2000x3000.jpg\" alt=\"Bonnie Tyler performing at Montreux Rock Festival in Switzerland in 1986\" width=\"2323\" height=\"3000\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3956231\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bonnie Tyler performing at Montreux Rock Festival in Switzerland in 1986. Credit: David Redfern\/Redferns\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After seven years on the South Wales circuit, she was spotted singing in Swansea by a talent scout, Roger Bell, who invited her to London to cut demos. A major label deal with RCA followed, but only after she changed her stage name to something more marketable. She\u2019d spent her nightclub years performing as Shereen Davis, primarily to avoid confusion with fellow Welsh singer Mary Hopkins, but at this point she restyled herself Bonnie Tyler after sifting through a newspaper for name possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>Her lovely, country-flecked debut single \u2018My! My! Honeycomb\u2019 failed to chart in 1976, but she cracked the UK Top Ten with its evocative follow-up, \u2018Lost In France\u2019, an affecting vignette about a Brit whose holiday romance grows roots. \u201c<em>And I looked round for a telephone, to say, \u2018Baby I won\u2019t be home\u2019<\/em>,\u201d Tyler sang in a voice that was markedly less raspy than the one she later became known for.<\/p>\n<p>Following the release of her debut album, 1977\u2019s \u2018The World Starts Tonight\u2019, Tyler underwent surgery to remove nodules on her vocal cords. When she screamed in frustration during a particularly painful point in her recovery, it permanently altered her vocal tone. \u201cI now sounded like a female Rod Stewart,\u201d Tyler quipped, making a comparison that stuck and always served her well.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart (Turn Around) (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"522\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lcOxhH8N3Bo?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Tyler\u2019s new, gravelly voice added grit and drama to her 1977 single \u2018It\u2019s A Heartache\u2019, a country lament that became her first success in the US while topping the charts from Australia to Argentina. For several years, Tyler struggled to find an equally undeniable follow-up, though 1979\u2019s campy disco banger \u2018(The World Is Full Of) Married Men\u2019 cracked the UK Top 40. Then, after she rode out her RCA deal and signed with another major, CBS, she hit on the ingenious idea to contact Steinman, who had written and produced Meat Loaf\u2019s 1979 rock blockbuster \u2018Bat Out of Hell\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Steinman initially turned her down, but after being won over by Tyler\u2019s rock-oriented demos, he wrote \u2018Total Eclipse Of The Heart\u2019, a self-described \u201cWagnerian-like onslaught of sound and emotion\u201d, as a \u201cshowpiece\u201d for her voice. It stormed to Number One in the US and UK and helped Tyler\u2019s fifth album, \u2018Faster Than The Speed Of Night\u2019, which mixed Steinman originals with savvy cover versions, to become the most successful of her career. In 1984, she was nominated for a BRIT Award and two Grammys.<\/p>\n<p>That year, Steinman supplied Tyler with her second signature hit, the gloriously overwrought barnstormer \u2018Holding Out For A Hero\u2019, which she recorded for the movie Footloose. If Tyler\u2019s rasp was her trademark, this synthy hit highlighted her secret weapon: a winning sincerity that could sell lyrics like \u201c<em>it\u2019s gonna take a Superman to sweep me off my feet<\/em>\u201c. In reality, Tyler and Robert Sullivan, her husband of 53 years who survives her, were a tight-knit team who enjoyed a comfortable life in South Wales and the Algarve region of Portugal, where she died after a spell in hospital.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3956241\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3956241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3956241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bonnie-tyler-performs-madrid-spain-2024-credit-Aldara-Zarraoa-Redferns-getty-images@2000x1270.jpg\" alt=\"Bonnie Tyler performing in Madrid Spain in 2024\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3956241\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bonnie Tyler performing in Madrid. Spain in 2024. Credit: Aldara Zarraoa\/Redferns\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Thereafter, Tyler\u2019s albums tended to sell better in Europe than her native UK \u2013 1991\u2019s slick pop-rock collection \u2018Bitterblue\u2019 topped the Austrian charts \u2013 but she remained game and ready for the spotlight. In 2003, she reimagined \u2018Total Eclipse Of The Heart\u2019 as a vaguely bilingual duet with French singer Kareen Antonn: \u2018Si Demain\u2026 (Turn Around)\u2019 duly topped the charts in France, proving that it\u2019s always possible to make a ludicrous song slightly more ludicrous.<\/p>\n<p>Then in 2013, she agreed to represent the UK at Eurovision with the wistful toe-tapper \u2018Believe In Me\u2019, which finished in a disappointing though not disastrous 19th position. A lesser singer could have been eclipsed by her biggest hit, but Bonnie Tyler was too distinctive, both in her gravelly vocal style and glamorous yet grounded persona, to let this happen. Her 18th and final album, released in 2021, was pointedly titled \u2018The Best Is Yet To Come\u2019; as she liked to mention in interviews, she was a \u201cworking-class girl who never stopped working\u201d. Sleep well, bright eyes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_tags tdi_87 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_87\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<ul class=\"tdb-tags\">\n<li><span>Related Topics<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Bonnie Tyler<\/li>\n<li>Pop<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_88\" class=\"tdc-row stretch_row_content td-stretch-content\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_89  wpb_row td-pb-row tdc-element-style\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_91  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"td-block td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-custom-spot tdi_92 td_block_template_2\"><span class=\"td-adspot-title\">Advertisement<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_93\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_94  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_96  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"vc_row_inner tdi_98  vc_row vc_inner wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column_inner tdi_100  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-inner-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"vc_column-inner\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_raw_html tdi_102 \">\n<div class=\"td-fix-index\">\n<h3>More Stories<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap td_flex_block_1 tdi_103 td-pb-border-top td_module_flex_1--card td_module_flex_1--card--highlight td_block_template_2 tdc-no-posts td_flex_block\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_103\">\n<div id=\"tdi_103\" class=\"td_block_inner td-mc1-wrap\">\n<div class=\"td_module_flex td_module_flex_1 td_module_wrap td-animation-stack\">\n<div class=\"td-module-container td-category-pos-above\">\n<div class=\"td-module-meta-info\">\n                    Music News<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title td-module-title\">Watch JENNIE perform epic remix of Tame Impala\u2019s 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quarter-final: \u201cAnything could happen\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tdi_104\" class=\"tdc-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_row tdi_105  wpb_row td-pb-row\">\n<div class=\"vc_column tdi_107  wpb_column vc_column_container tdc-column td-pb-span12\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"wpb_wrapper td_block_wrap vc_raw_html tdi_109 \">\n<div class=\"td-fix-index\">\n<h3>You May Also Like<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><\/span><span class=\"td-page-meta\"><\/span><\/article>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"td_block_wrap tdb_single_content tdi_86 td-pb-border-top td_block_template_2 td-post-content tagdiv-type\" data-td-block-uid=\"tdi_86\">\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<p>There are hits, and then there are mega-hits like Bonnie Tyler\u2019s \u2018Total Eclipse Of The Heart\u2019. Written and produced by the king of kitchen-sink rock, the late Jim Steinman, who made the inspired decision to pair Tyler\u2019s high-drama rasp with a hauntingly pure counterpoint from backing singer Rory Dodd (\u201c<em>turn around, bright eyes<\/em>\u201c), this quintessential \u201980s power ballad has proved incredibly durable. Back in January, it surpassed a billion streams on Spotify, matching the billion views its surreal music video achieved on YouTube three years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>Tyler, who has died aged 75 following a short illness, said she would \u201cnever get tired of singing it\u201d because \u201ceveryone can\u2019t wait to sing it\u201d. She was probably alluding to its pivotal place in her live set \u2013 she never stopped touring, and played her final headline shows earlier this year \u2013 but also, perhaps, to its status as a karaoke staple. Matching Tyler\u2019s melodramatic singing style is a tall order rarely attempted sober. Her voice \u201csounds ravaged, like it\u2019s been through a lot\u201d, Steinman said in 1983. \u201cIt\u2019s what rock\u2019n\u2019roll is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A proud Welshwoman, Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951 in Skewen, a village near Swansea, and raised Protestant by her coal miner father and homemaker mother. After leaving school at 16, she found work in a local grocery store, but supplemented her income by singing in local nightclubs. \u201cI was doing everybody else\u2019s hits then,\u201d she recalled in 2013. \u201cWe had different nights \u2013 one night we\u2019d do blues, one night we\u2019d do pop or country, and on a Sunday people used to do ballroom dancing.\u201d This eclectic apprenticeship proved formative, though Tyler would always call herself \u201ca rock girl at heart\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3956231\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3956231\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3956231\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bonnie-tyler-Montreux-Rock-Festival-1986-credit-david-redfern-redferns-getty-images@2000x3000.jpg\" alt=\"Bonnie Tyler performing at Montreux Rock Festival in Switzerland in 1986\" width=\"2323\" height=\"3000\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3956231\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bonnie Tyler performing at Montreux Rock Festival in Switzerland in 1986. Credit: David Redfern\/Redferns\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After seven years on the South Wales circuit, she was spotted singing in Swansea by a talent scout, Roger Bell, who invited her to London to cut demos. A major label deal with RCA followed, but only after she changed her stage name to something more marketable. She\u2019d spent her nightclub years performing as Shereen Davis, primarily to avoid confusion with fellow Welsh singer Mary Hopkins, but at this point she restyled herself Bonnie Tyler after sifting through a newspaper for name possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>Her lovely, country-flecked debut single \u2018My! My! Honeycomb\u2019 failed to chart in 1976, but she cracked the UK Top Ten with its evocative follow-up, \u2018Lost In France\u2019, an affecting vignette about a Brit whose holiday romance grows roots. \u201c<em>And I looked round for a telephone, to say, \u2018Baby I won\u2019t be home\u2019<\/em>,\u201d Tyler sang in a voice that was markedly less raspy than the one she later became known for.<\/p>\n<p>Following the release of her debut album, 1977\u2019s \u2018The World Starts Tonight\u2019, Tyler underwent surgery to remove nodules on her vocal cords. When she screamed in frustration during a particularly painful point in her recovery, it permanently altered her vocal tone. \u201cI now sounded like a female Rod Stewart,\u201d Tyler quipped, making a comparison that stuck and always served her well.<\/p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bonnie Tyler - Total Eclipse of the Heart (Turn Around) (Official Video)\" width=\"696\" height=\"522\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lcOxhH8N3Bo?feature=oembed&amp;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>Tyler\u2019s new, gravelly voice added grit and drama to her 1977 single \u2018It\u2019s A Heartache\u2019, a country lament that became her first success in the US while topping the charts from Australia to Argentina. For several years, Tyler struggled to find an equally undeniable follow-up, though 1979\u2019s campy disco banger \u2018(The World Is Full Of) Married Men\u2019 cracked the UK Top 40. Then, after she rode out her RCA deal and signed with another major, CBS, she hit on the ingenious idea to contact Steinman, who had written and produced Meat Loaf\u2019s 1979 rock blockbuster \u2018Bat Out of Hell\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Steinman initially turned her down, but after being won over by Tyler\u2019s rock-oriented demos, he wrote \u2018Total Eclipse Of The Heart\u2019, a self-described \u201cWagnerian-like onslaught of sound and emotion\u201d, as a \u201cshowpiece\u201d for her voice. It stormed to Number One in the US and UK and helped Tyler\u2019s fifth album, \u2018Faster Than The Speed Of Night\u2019, which mixed Steinman originals with savvy cover versions, to become the most successful of her career. In 1984, she was nominated for a BRIT Award and two Grammys.<\/p>\n<p>That year, Steinman supplied Tyler with her second signature hit, the gloriously overwrought barnstormer \u2018Holding Out For A Hero\u2019, which she recorded for the movie Footloose. If Tyler\u2019s rasp was her trademark, this synthy hit highlighted her secret weapon: a winning sincerity that could sell lyrics like \u201c<em>it\u2019s gonna take a Superman to sweep me off my feet<\/em>\u201c. In reality, Tyler and Robert Sullivan, her husband of 53 years who survives her, were a tight-knit team who enjoyed a comfortable life in South Wales and the Algarve region of Portugal, where she died after a spell in hospital.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3956241\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3956241\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3956241\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/bonnie-tyler-performs-madrid-spain-2024-credit-Aldara-Zarraoa-Redferns-getty-images@2000x1270.jpg\" alt=\"Bonnie Tyler performing in Madrid Spain in 2024\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1270\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3956241\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bonnie Tyler performing in Madrid. Spain in 2024. Credit: Aldara Zarraoa\/Redferns\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Thereafter, Tyler\u2019s albums tended to sell better in Europe than her native UK \u2013 1991\u2019s slick pop-rock collection \u2018Bitterblue\u2019 topped the Austrian charts \u2013 but she remained game and ready for the spotlight. In 2003, she reimagined \u2018Total Eclipse Of The Heart\u2019 as a vaguely bilingual duet with French singer Kareen Antonn: \u2018Si Demain\u2026 (Turn Around)\u2019 duly topped the charts in France, proving that it\u2019s always possible to make a ludicrous song slightly more ludicrous.<\/p>\n<p>Then in 2013, she agreed to represent the UK at Eurovision with the wistful toe-tapper \u2018Believe In Me\u2019, which finished in a disappointing though not disastrous 19th position. A lesser singer could have been eclipsed by her biggest hit, but Bonnie Tyler was too distinctive, both in her gravelly vocal style and glamorous yet grounded persona, to let this happen. Her 18th and final album, released in 2021, was pointedly titled \u2018The Best Is Yet To Come\u2019; as she liked to mention in interviews, she was a \u201cworking-class girl who never stopped working\u201d. Sleep well, bright eyes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/features\/music-features\/obituary-bonnie-tyler-1951-2026-3956221&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bonnie-Tyler-Getty.jpg&#8221;] FeaturesMusic Features Bonnie Tyler, 1951\u20132026: raspy-voiced Welshwoman who captured \u201cwhat rock\u2019n\u2019roll is all about\u201d NME remembers one of pop\u2019s great, grand voices \u2013 and a tireless performer who forged a long, larger-than-life career By Nick Levine 10th July 2026 Bonnie Tyler in 1992. Credit: kpa\/United Archives via Getty Images There are hits, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,78],"class_list":["post-2037313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nme-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2037313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2037313\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2037313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2037313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2037313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}