Wales’ First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth has paid tribute to Bonnie Tyler.

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Bonnie Tyler,” he wrote on X.

“Wales has lost a true icon, whose music brought joy to so many.

“I extend my heartfelt condolences to her family, friends and fans across the world.”

In 1984, Paramount Pictures asked Bonnie Tyler to record a song for the soundtrack to Footloose. The result was “Holding Out For a Hero”.

She was invited to the Paramount film studios in Los Angeles to watch the film rushes to see how the song would fit into the plot.

In the final decades of her career, Tyler spent significant time touring the world, re-performing her hits.

“People ask me if I get tired singing the old songs, but why wouldn’t I love singing something like ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart?’” shes aid.

“As soon as I start one of those numbers, the whole audience sings it back to me — it’s magic.”

She added that touring is what kept her going. “I consider myself a working-class girl and I’ve never stopped working.

After her first hit, “Lost in France”, in 1976, Tyler developed vocal cord nodules and underwent surgery. She didn’t know if she would sing again – but when she next performed, she realised her voice had changed.

“I sounded like a female Rod Stewart,” she said after discovering her new husky tones.

Tyler has spoken about being insecure about her voice in the past, telling The Times in 2025 that she was “very nervous” talking between songs because of her Welsh accent.

“I had some elocution lessons, but now I’m delighted that I’ve kept my accent and that Tom Jones did too,” she said.

The Welsh singer represented the UK in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Malmö, Sweden.

She performed the song “Believe In Me” and finished in 19th place.

Born Gaynor Hopkins, Tyler was entered into a local talent competition by her aunt as a teenager and became inspired to pursue a career in singing.

Tyler found work as a backing singer for various bands and she was scouted in 1975 and received a record deal with RCA, who recommended she change her name – she chose Bonnie Tyler, while searching through newspapers for name inspiration.

She had her first hit with “It’s a Heartache” in 1977 – and she was booked as Tom Jones’s support act.

After “Total Eclipse of the Heart” became one of her most popular singles of all time, Tyler’s fifth studio album, Faster Than The Speed of Light, debuted at No. 1 on the UK albums chart.

Tyler’s work earned her three Grammy Award nominations and three Brit Award nominations. She was awarded an MBE in 2023.

Her final studio album was The Best Is Yet to Come, which was released in 2021.

Bonnie Tyler will be remembered for her early Eighties hits “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Holding Out For a Hero” – but it was her ragged, expressive vocals that made her a star, writes Kevin E G Perry

Bonnie Tyler said she had no intention of slowing down in her last TV interview before her death, aged 75.

Appearing on Lorraine in February, in her final TV interview, the singer was praised by host Lorraine Kelly for “looking fantastic”. Kelly added: “No sign of you slowing down whatsoever, Bonnie.”

Tyler agreed and said that next year she thought she may take a step back, though “I keep being asked to do shows”.

Among Tyler’s best- known songs was the epic power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, released in 1983.

The song was the singer’s biggest hit and led to her receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Tyler herself believed the song – clocking in at longer than seven minutes – was too lengthy for radio, and backed an edited version, which lasted four minutes.

She once described the song as “a challenge” to sing, and took pride in her performance as she “doesn’t like songs that anybody can sing”.