"I wanted to be a singer, not a star. There's a difference between wanting to be famous and wanting to sing well. I have never gone out of fashion. And do you know why? Because I never sought it. When you don't seek it, it's always with you."
We here at Dolores Delargo Towers are distraught at the sad news that Swansea's finest export Miss Bonnie Tyler has donned her last pair of leather trousers and departed for the great pyrotechnics-dry-ice-and-wind-machine-equipped stadium in Fabulon.
We adored her for her down-to-earth, no-nonsense personality, her bounce-backs and - of course - her vocal talents. She's gone far too soon...
Facts about Our Bonnie:
- Her uniquely husky singing voice was apparently the result of an operation to remove vocal nodules in the mid-1970s.
- From working in a local shop, the then Gaynor Hopkins won a local talent contest in 1969 and launched herself as a singer under the name "Sherene Davis".
- Finally, her big break came in 1975 when a talent scout spotted her, brought her to London to secure a record deal, and suggested she ditch "Sherene"; so Bonnie Tyler was born.
- Through her husband, property developer Robert Sullivan, she was related to actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and attended her wedding to Michael Douglas.
- In the 1970s and 80s, she became one of the best-selling artists in the world, with a string of million-selling singles.
Speaking of hits, here are two of her early ones, before she ever met Jim Steinman:
Regarding the "Steinman years", I posted their collaboration Holding Out for a Hero back in May [when the news first hit that Bonnie was in a coma], so how about this, that rarely gets an outing, despite its outrageously camp video:
No tribute on this sad day would be complete, of course, without this song. No, not the original, but the hilarious "literal interpretation" video of her campest ever single - Total Eclipse of the Heart!
RIP, Bonnie Tyler (born Gaynor Hopkins, 8th June 1951 - 8th July 2026).
