Bonnie Tyler, the Welsh singer whose rough-edged voice carried Total Eclipse of the Heart, Holding Out for a Hero and It’s a Heartache into pop history, has died aged 75.

A message posted on her Facebook page said: “Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for.”

Tyler had emergency intestinal surgery in May at a hospital near Faro, Portugal, where she lived.

She was later placed in an induced coma to help her recovery.

After being brought out of the coma, a representative said she remained “very unwell and in intensive care”.

Her best-known recording, 1983’s Total Eclipse of the Heart, reached No 1 in the US and UK. Other major hits included Holding Out for a Hero, used on the Footloose soundtrack and a No 2 single in the UK charts in 1984, and It’s a Heartache, the 1977 song that gave her a breakout success.

Keir Starmer was among those paying tribute.

His official spokesperson said: “The prime minister is saddened to hear about the death of Bonnie Tyler, one of Britain’s greatest recording artists, an iconic figure.

She leaves behind a catalogue of music, from Total Eclipse of the Heart to Holding Out for a Hero that continues to touch lives, flood dance floors, and fill karaoke booths.

The prime minister’s thoughts are very much with her friends and family.”

Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, near Swansea, and grew up in a council house with five older siblings.

“I class myself as a working-class girl and I’ve never stopped working,” she told the Guardian in 2013. “I do an awful lot [of performances] because I feel other people would love to be offered what I’m offered.”

Her career started modestly.

She sang cover versions in local clubs while working in a grocery shop.

A talent scout heard her perform Freda Payne’s Band of Gold, after which she recorded a demo for record labels.

RCA signed her two years later, and she adopted the stage name Bonnie Tyler.

Her debut single failed to chart, but Lost in France took her into the UK Top 10. More Than a Lover followed as a moderate hit.

Surgery on nodules on her vocal cords changed the texture of her voice.

“My voice was huskier than before, and had more of an edge,” she later said.

That tone suited It’s a Heartache, which reached No 3 in the US and No 4 in the UK.

Tyler moved between country-tinged ballads and disco-pop, including the 1979 hit (The World is Full of) Married Men, recorded for the film adaptation of Jackie Collins’s novel of the same name.

She then pursued a stronger rock direction and approached Jim Steinman, best known for his work with Meat Loaf on Bat Out of Hell and other projects.

Steinman gave Tyler Total Eclipse of the Heart, reportedly later prompting jealousy from Meat Loaf.

Tyler told a friend at the time: “I recorded an incredible song today.

The trouble is, it’s so long, I don’t think anybody will ever play it.” The seven-minute recording was cut to four minutes for radio and became a major hit.

With “turn around …” responses from uncredited singer Rory Dodd, the song became a transatlantic No 1 and topped charts in Australia, Canada, Ireland and numerous other territories.

“Some people think this song is about a vampire, but I’ve never understood that interpretation,” Tyler later said.

“Jim did once tell Playbill that he had been working on a musical interpretation of the silent film Nosferatu.

I’ve always thought of Total Eclipse as an impassioned love song.” Its parent album, Faster Than the Speed of Night, which included a cover of John Fogerty’s Have You Ever Seen the Rain?, reached No 1 on the UK album chart.

At her commercial peak, Tyler brought a theatrical intensity to Holding Out for a Hero, another Steinman song.

Her 1984 Giorgio Moroder collaboration Here She Comes gave her a third Grammy nomination in two years.

Steinman later executive-produced her 1986 album Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire, which included If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man) and a version of Band of Gold.

The following year, she appeared in George Martin’s audio adaptation of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, alongside Tom Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Alan Bennett and others, with music by Elton John.

Although her UK and US chart performance declined, Tyler remained successful in western Europe.

Bitterblue, her 1991 album produced by Dieter Bohlen, topped charts in numerous countries.

Further albums in the 1990s also found audiences across the continent.

In 2003, her bilingual re-recording of Total Eclipse of the Heart with Kareen Antonn spent 10 weeks at No 1 in France.

That European profile led to Tyler representing the UK at Eurovision in 2013 with Believe in Me. She finished 19th out of 26 countries.

“I’m sure a lot of people will be disappointed on my behalf but I have really enjoyed my Eurovision experience,” she said after the result.

“I did the best that I could do with a great song.

I don’t feel down and I’m ready to party.”

The Eurovision appearance helped support Rocks and Honey, her first album since 2005, which achieved moderate success.

Between the Earth and the Stars later returned her to the UK Top 40 album chart for the first time since 1986. Her final studio album was 2021’s The Best Is Yet to Come.

In 2025, she revisited Total Eclipse of the Heart on Together, a single with David Guetta and Hypaton.

From 1973, Tyler was married to Robert Sullivan, a property developer who represented Great Britain in judo at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

They had no children.

Tyler suffered a miscarriage when she was 39. “We just thought it wasn’t meant to be,” she later told the Guardian.

“I have a large family anyway. I have five godchildren, 16 nieces and nephews, and 12 great nieces and nephews, so there is no shortage of children in my life.”