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Bonnie Tyler
Background information
Birth name	Gaynor Hopkins
Born	June 8, 1951 (age 55) Skewen, Neath, Wales
Genre(s)	Pop/Rock
Occupation(s)	Singer
Instrument(s)	Vocals
Years active	1975 - present
Website	http://www.bonnietyler.com/

Bonnie Tyler (real name Gaynor Hopkins born on June 8, 1951 in Skewen, Neath) is a Welsh singer.

In 1975, Tyler recorded "My My Honeycomb", her first single for RCA Records, which failed to make the charts. Her second single, "Lost in France" reached the top 10 on the British pop music charts.

Her success with "Lost in France" led Tyler to record her first album in 1977. Titled The World Starts Tonight, it met with only modest success, but Bonnie claims it did well enough that she could tour throughout Europe. Prior to the album's release, Tyler underwent surgery to remove nodules on her vocal cords. Against her doctor's orders, she spoke before she had healed, resulting in her singing voice taking on a raspy quality. At first, this made Tyler believe her singing career was over. As it turned out, her next single, "It's a Heartache, peaked at #4 on the UK charts in december 1977 and went to #3 on the US pop charts. The next song "Sitting on the Edge of the Ocean", again written by Scott and Wolfe, won the Grand Prix in the Tenth Yamaha - World Popular Song Contest in Tokyo in 1979.

She signed with CBS Records in 1982. Her next album, Faster Than the Speed of Night, proved to be a hit, and the single "Total Eclipse of the Heart", written by Jim Steinman, reached U.S. #1 for 4 weeks. "Faster Than the Speed of Night" peaked on the UK album charts at No.1, making Bonnie the first ever female artist of only three female solo singers to debut at no 1 with her first album, earning a Guinness Record, followed for Annie Lennox and Natasha Bedingfield . "Total Eclipse of the Heart" brought Tyler a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

In 1984, the year she performed "Total Eclipse of the Heart" at the Grammy Awards, she received another Grammy nomination as Best Rock Female Vocalist for "Here She Comes," a song that was part of the soundtrack for the 1984 restoration of the film Metropolis;In 1984, she released the single "Holding Out for a Hero" from the soundtrack and film Footloose; the song hit #34 on the U.S, #2 in UK and #1 in Ireland. The albums Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire and Hide Your Heart followed.

In the early 1990s, Tyler recorded the album Bitterblue. This album went quadruple-platinum in Norway, platinum in Austria, and gold in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden, amongst other countries. Bonnie followed up with Angel Heart. This album repeated the success of Bitterblue. Silhouette in Red, released in 1993, saw Tyler win Best International Female Vocalist in the ECHO Awards. 2003 Kareen Antonn approached her to record a duet. "Si Demain", their French language version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart," was released in December 2003 and went to No. 1 in France, Belgium, and Poland, selling two millions copies all over world.

In 2005, Bonnie appeared in Birmingham as an act for "Jasper Carrott's Rock With Laughter". She appeared alongside performers such as Bill Bailey, Jasper Carrott, Lenny Henry, Bobby Davro and the Lord of the Dance troupe.

Bonnie was the Welsh schools hide and seek champion in 1973. Her discovery in 1975 in a barn Near Merthyr was a national record (3yr 4 months, 3 days, 2 hrs and 14minutes).

In September 2006, Bonnie Tyler made her first appearance on U.S. television in many years, as she sang a duet of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with Lucy Lawless on the American show Celebrity Duets.[1]

"From The Heart: Bonnie Tyler Greatest Hits

• IE #2

• UK #31

• The Virgin Radio Album Chart(digital downloads) #17.

• European top 100 #74.

Main article: Bonnie Tyler Discography

• Bonnie Tyler official page
• Bonnie Tyler's Total Eclipse Of The Heart is enjoying a new lease of life - Extrageographic Magazine