Bonnie
Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins in Skewen, near Swansea, South Wales, on 8 June
1951 into a large family of three sisters, two brothers and her mother and
father.
Influenced by the music of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner, she sang as a teen with a group called "Bobby Wayne and the
Dixies." Bonnie then formed her own band, calling it
"Imagination." Adopting different stage names until settling on Bonnie Tyler, she and her band performed for nearly a decade at pubs and nightclubs throughout South Wales.
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,
"The World Starts Tonight." It met with only modest success, but
enabled Bonnie to 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.
Bonnie worried that her singing career was over, but as fate would have it, her next
single in 1978, "It's a Heartache," made her a star. Bonnie's record (which was previously a hit for Juice
Newton) shot to No. 1 in 6 European countries, peaked at #4 on the UK charts, and went to #3 on the US pop charts, and to #10 on the US country charts.
Signing with CBS Records in 1982, Bonnie's next album, "Faster Than the Speed of
Night", proved to be a hit. Her single "Total Eclipse of the Heart", written by Jim Steinman, topped the charts, remaining at No. 1 for 4 weeks. "Faster Than the Speed of Night" shot straight into the UK album charts at No.1, making Bonnie the first ever female artist to have achieved this, earning a Guinness Record.
This feat was followed by a 1983 nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance
while the album earned her another Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
In 1984, the year she performed "Total Eclipse of the Heart" at the Grammy Awards,
Bonnie received a 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 tune reached #34 on the U.S. Hot 100, making it Tyler's third and final top-40 U.S. hit. The albums Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire and Hide Your Heart followed, but lacked the success of her previous efforts.
In the early 1990s, Tyler recorded the album "Bitterblue", which went quadruple-platinum in Norway, platinum in Austria, and gold in Germany, Switzerland, and
Sweden. Bonnie followed up with "Angel Heart," another success. "Silhouette in
Red" was released in 1993. Bonnie won Best International Female Vocalist in the ECHO Awards.
While her live performances continued to draw large followings, her recording
success began to slow down until the young French singer Kareen Antonn approached
Bonnie to record a duet. "Si Demain." Their French language version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart," was released in January 2004 and went to No. 1 in France, Belgium, and Poland, selling two millions copies all over world.
Now two-time Grammy award winner, Bonnie Tyler, is coming to the USA for September 2010 only. She is traveling with her hot 4-pc band and is a not to be missed booking
BONNIE TYLER
