Bonnie Tyler (born Gaynor Hopkins;[1] 8 June 1951) is a Welsh singer and songwriter. She was born in Skewen, Wales, and spent seven years performing in pubs and clubs around South Wales before being signed to RCA Records in 1975. Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album The World Starts Tonight and its singles Lost in France and More Than a Lover. Her 1978 single Its a Heartache was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, reaching number 4 in the UK and number 3 in the US. After winning the 10th World Popular Song Festival in 1979, Tyler converted from country music to rock music. Her career peaked in the 1980s when she collaborated with Jim Steinman, releasing international hits Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out for a Hero. Tylers success in this period culminated in two Brit Award and three Grammy Award nominations. Tylers shift from rock to pop and soft rock in the 1990s led to success in continental Europe with singles Bitterblue and Fools Lullaby. She released the single Making Love Out of Nothing at All in 1995. Making a comeback in 2003, she released Si demain... with Kareen Antonn, which was a number one in France for ten weeks. Her latest album Rocks and Honey has had moderate success in Europe, with her single Believe in Me being used as the UKs entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.[2] Following the contest, Tyler received two Eurovision Song Contest Radio Awards for Best Song and Best Singer, making her the first UK representative to win the award.[3] Her distinctive husky voice, which is a result of an operation to remove vocal nodules, has had her compared to artists such as Rod Stewart and Kim Carnes.[4][5] Tyler has been referred to as the International First Lady of Rock,[6] and two of her songs are among the best-selling singles of all time. Early life[edit] Gaynor Hopkins was born in Skewen, Wales on 8 June 1951.[7] Her father, Glyn Hopkins, was a coal miner and her mother, Elsie Hopkins, was a housewife and member of the local church choir.[8] Hopkins was brought up in a deeply religious family.[8] The Hopkins family were all music lovers; we used to have a very old radiogram, Tyler recalled, and there was always music on in the house.[9] Her mother listened to opera music, and her siblings listened to artists and groups such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and The Beatles, while Hopkins listened to Motown music and female artists such as Janis Joplin and Tina Turner (then working with Ike Turner).[10] She concluded her education in the 1960s, leaving school with no qualifications, and began working in the local grocery shop.[11] In April 1969, when she was aged 17, Hopkinss aunt entered her in a local talent contest. She sang the Mary Hopkin hit Those Were the Days and the Ray Charles song I Cant Stop Loving You, finishing in second place (losing to an accordionist), and won £1.[12] She later successfully auditioned to join Bobby Wayne & The Dixies as a backing singer after finding an advert in a local newspaper. Two years later, she formed her own band called Imagination (not related to the 1980s British dance band of the same name) and performed with them in pubs and clubs all over southern Wales.[11] It was then that she decided to adopt the stage name of Sherene Davis, taking the names from her nieces forename and favourite aunts surname. Despite the two name changes, her family and friends still know her as Gaynor.[1] On 14 July 1973, she married Robert Sullivan, an estate agent and Swansea night club manager who had represented the UK at the 1972 Munich Olympics as a judoka.[13] In the following year, Davis & Imagination performed Armed and Extremely Dangerous on the British television talent show New Faces, coming fourth out of seven contestants. She quoted Mickie Most as saying The girl has got something but the boys are just playing away.[11] Embarrassed to speak between songs when performing in South Wales, Davis began attending elocution lessons to neutralize her Welsh accent, but gave up after six weeks.[14] In 1975, Roger Bell, working for Chapel Music at the time, visited a music club in South Wales to see some record contract hopefuls, but came in on the wrong floor to find Hopkins singing Nutbush City Limits with Imagination.[15] She was invited to London to record a handful of demos, and months later she received a phone call from RCA Records asking to sign her up to a record contract. Before signing, another name change was recommended. She compiled a list of surnames and Christian names and settled on Bonnie Tyler.[1] Career[edit] 1976–81: Early Success[edit] In 1976, Tyler was spotted singing the Ike & Tina Turner song Nutbush City Limits in The Townsman Club in Swansea by the songwriting and producing team of Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, who became her managers, songwriters and producers.[11] Tyler began by recording a track entitled My! My! Honeycomb, which did not garner any chart success, but did gain local airplay in Swansea.[17] RCA Records increased the promotional backing of her second single, Lost in France, flying a party of journalists to meet Tyler at a château in France. The single did not find immediate chart success, but instead grew slowly. After six weeks, Lost in France finally entered the UK Top 50 and peaked at number 9, remaining in the top of the charts for ten weeks.[16][18] Amidst the promotional effort accompanying the new single, Tyler found her vocals adopting a raspy quality and was diagnosed with large vocal nodules that needed to be urgently treated. After failing to observe the six weeks of vocal rest advised by her doctor, her voice was left with a permanent husky sound which became her career trademark.[19] Tylers career continued regardless, and she was announced as the support act during Gene Pitneys tour in February 1977.[16] The success of the single saw Tyler nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Newcomer in 1977.[20] She was voted sixth in Record Mirrors Brightest Hope for 77 category, leading to the release of her debut album, The World Starts Tonight, in 1977.[16] With the lead single also achieving chart success in Europe,[21] a second single was released in the UK. More Than a Lover was banned from being shown on TV by the BBC due to unsuitable lyrical content, hampering chart success, though the single did make the UK Top 30.[22] The World Starts Tonight was viewed as being filled with promise and indications of great things to come,[23] though during press interviews in 1976, Tyler admitted that the lead single of the album wasnt her preferred style, and that her interest lay in funkier music.[16] In the summer of 1977, a new single entitled Heaven was released, met with mixed reviews from music critics, and failed to chart well in the UK, though it did reach the Top 30 in Germany.[21] Promotion for the single was hindered by the death of Elvis Presley, which diverted RCAs capabilities.[24] The next single was Its a Heartache, which made Bonnie Tyler an international star. Her vocals were instantly compared to Rod Stewarts due to the distinct raspy quality that she had developed. The song reached No. 4 in the UK, No. 3 in the US, No. 2 in Germany, and also achieved chart success in France and Australia.[18][21] The single went on to be certified Gold in the US, Canada and the UK, and Platinum in France,[25] had Tyler coming tenth place in Record Mirrors Best Female Singer of 1977, and she was also given a Bravo Otto award in Germany for her success in Europe. The third single, Here Am I, followed in spring 1978, failing to follow the success of Its a Heartache but did make the German Top 20.[21] With those two singles Tyler held the third and fourth spot in the Norwegian singles chart for a week in 1978. Natural Force included a cover of the Carole King song (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. Tyler performed the song live in Los Angeles in front of King, who approached her afterwards to compliment her on the interpretation.[26] The success of Natural Force led to RCA Records releasing Tylers first compilation album. The Hits of Bonnie Tyler, which contained a handful of A-Sides and B-Sides fleshed out with several tracks from The World Starts Tonight, made the top ten in several European countries and reached number one in the Norwegian Albums Chart.[27] Tylers next album, Diamond Cut, was released in 1979. Again unable to penetrate the UK Album Charts, and with no success in the US, the album only saw mediocre success in Europe.[28] It charted within the Top 20 in the Swedish Album Charts, and number 42 in the US Country charts. British promotion was limited; Tyler performed at the 1979 Longleat Country Music Festival in June, alongside Johnny Cash, Rita Coolidge and Kris Kristofferson. Tyler followed this with her first tour of Japan.[28] The single My Guns Are Loaded peaked at number 3 in France and 10 in Canada. In the same year, she recorded (The World Is Full of) Married Men, the theme to the film of the same name. It became a minor UK Top 40 hit in the summer.[22] Contemporary reviews of the single were negative; Record Mirrors reviewer said Bonnie stops chewing gravel for a minute or two... and continued with she ends up sandpapering my eardrums again. Ouch.[28] Tyler appeared on the film credits performing the song.[28] Of all four of Tylers albums with Scott and Wolfes involvement, this album received the most positive review. Tomas Mureika (of Allmusic) reviewed all four of Tylers 1977–80 albums, often stating that they simply paved the way for her teaming with Jim Steinman,[23][29] though declared Diamond Cut to be the high point of her early career, and a dynamite showcase for Tylers inimitable voice.[29] Record Mirrors Kelly Pike gave the album three stars out of five, stating that only a minority of the material [was] holding her back, and that the album is essential listening for Country music fans.[28] Tylers final album with RCA was Goodbye to the Island in 1981; a more upbeat collection of songs compared to her previous album.[30] The album was mainly recorded in the Algarve, Portugal, using the RAK Mobile recording facility.[30] The track Sitting on the Edge of the Ocean was the Grand Prix winner of the 1979 Yamaha World Song Festival held in Tokyo. The track was also recorded in Spanish and entitled Sola A La Orilla Del Mar, released in Argentina and Spain in the same year. The single I Believe in Your Sweet Love was listed as a single of the week in 1979 by Daniela Soava from Record Mirror.[30] The album received the lowest rating of Tylers four Scott & Wolfe albums, receiving 3 out of 5 stars from Allmusic.[31] By this time, other music critics saw Tyler as doomed to be a one-hit wonder,[32] but she continued to have success in the next decade, and Phil Hendricks from Cherry Records said that Tyler prove[d] time and time again that she was one of those rare artists who was able to take the odd chart flop on the chin and bounce back having suffered little collateral damage.[28] Before travelling to New York to begin the peak of her career with Jim Steinman, Tyler recorded one more single called Sayonara Tokyo, which was released in Japan.[30 1982–86: The Jim Steinman collaboration and Hide Your Heart[edit] Tyler released four albums for RCA Records from 1977 to 1981, but she became increasingly dissatisfied with Scott and Wolfes management because they were trying to market her as a pop-country music artist.[33] When her contract with RCA expired, she signed with David Aspden Management. After seeing Meat Loafs performance of Bat Out of Hell on The Old Grey Whistle Test, she approached Jim Steinman to be her new producer. She signed with Columbia Records in 1982. Tyler visited Steinman in his apartment in New York in April 1982 with her manager, where she was presented with two tracks – Have You Ever Seen the Rain? and Goin Through the Motions. In a newspaper interview in 1983, Tyler recalled: He [Steinman] didnt tell me until later that if I hadnt liked those songs, he wouldnt have entertained producing me because hed have realized we werent thinking on the same terms.[33] She returned to his studio apartment weeks later, where Steinman and Rory Dodd presented Total Eclipse of the Heart to her. Dodd would later sing the turn arounds on the single. Meat Loaf later claimed the song was originally written for him, but that Epic Records refused to pay Steinmans copyright fee.[34] Tyler denied this claim.[35] The single became the most successful in Tylers career, reaching No. 1 in the UK, Ireland, France, Australia and the United States, with its sales ultimately exceeding 9 million.[36] Reviews of the single were overwhelmingly positive, describing it as a carefully crafted pop song.[5] An entire album was put together for a spring release in the following year. That album, Faster Than the Speed of Night, was released in Europe in spring and in America in autumn 1983. It has been considered Tylers finest and most consistent achievement on record,[32] reaching No. 1 in the UK and Norway. Her comeback on the US chart was at a time when almost one third of the Billboard Hot 100 was filled by songs from UK based acts – a situation not seen since the 1960s British Invasion and Beatlemania.[37] Reviews for the album were also positive, with the singles Total Eclipse of the Heart and Have You Ever Seen the Rain? being listed as the highlights.[5] A recent review by F Newsmagazine described a number of the tracks as filler material, but drew out similarities between many of the tracks and other 1970s and 1980s hit singles.[38] Both Total Eclipse of the Heart and the album were nominated at the 1984 Grammy Awards; the single for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and the album for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. She performed the single live at the Grammy Awards. The success of the album led to her being offered to sing the title song for the James Bond film, Never Say Never Again. However, she disliked the song and so it was passed on to American singer Lani Hall.[35] In addition, the BBC requested that Tyler represent the United Kingdom at the 1983 Eurovision Song Contest, though she turned this down also.[39][dubious – discuss] The following year, Tyler recorded Here She Comes, written by Giorgio Moroder, for the 1984 restoration version of the science fiction film Metropolis. The song was nominated at the 1985 Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Tyler continued to work with Steinman after the success of Faster Than the Speed of Night, and in 1986 she released her second album with him, entitled Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire. The most successful single from this album was Holding Out for a Hero, used for the soundtrack of Footloose and as the main theme for the 1984 US television series Cover Up, though the version heard on the TV series was not Tylers original but performed by the singer E.G. Daily. The album was successful in Europe, but only reached No. 24 in the UK charts and did not make any impact in the American charts. The second single from the album, If You Were a Woman and I Was a Man, became another Top 10 hit in France in 1986 and was certified Silver. The song also reached number one in Venezuela. Loving Yous a Dirty Job but Somebodys Gotta Do It, a duet with Todd Rundgren, became the third single from the album, reaching number 6 in Spain.[21] The fourth and final single from the album was a cover of the Freda Payne song, Band of Gold, which reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Breakouts Singles Sales and number 81 in the UK singles chart. Despite its success, the album was not received positively by music critics. Doug Stone (of Allmusic) gave the album two stars. Beginning with [the album is] not totally unique, he went on to say that it was substandard compared with Faster Than the Speed of Night.[40] Tyler released one more album with Columbia Records in 1988. It was released under the name Hide Your Heart in Europe, and Notes From America in the United States. Prolific songwriters for the album included Michael Bolton, Albert Hammond and Desmond Child, who also produced the album. The album was a success in Europe, but failed to chart in the United States. The singles from Hide Your Heart were minor hits for Tyler, but went on to be major hits for other artists, including Kiss (with Hide Your Heart), Robin Beck, Cher and Freda Payne (with Save Up All Your Tears) and Tina Turner with The Best. When looking back over this era, Desmond Child said: Bonnie Tyler is one of the greatest singers on Earth. Why? Because she comes to the studio prepared. Ive never even seen her use a lyric sheet to sing. She comes with the song memorized, so when she stands there and sings, she closes her eyes. Shes in a sacred space and you feel that. You can say a lot of things about Bonnie Tyler, but you cannot say she does not feel her music.[41] As part of the UK Hide Your Heart Tour in 1988, Tyler performed at the Reading Festival, accompanying performers such as Meat Loaf and Jefferson Starship. She was victim to abuse from an aggressive crowd hurling fart bombs at her on stage after the organisers failed attempt to introduce pop music to the event. She completed her set despite the ruckus.[42] She even managed to get the audience to join in with Its a Heartache at the end of her set performance.[43 https://youtube/watch?v=lcOxhH8N3Bo
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