Bonnie Tyler

In 1951, Gaynor Hopkins saw the light of day in Skewen, Neath, Wales, which was characterized by rather rough coal mining. The later successful singer came into contact with music early on through her five siblings and through the church, which played a major role in her religious home. It was in a chapel that the young Bonnie Tylor had her first performances. It was not until late in life that the young Tylor developed the desire to devote herself to music as a singer. The initial spark was a local talent contest in 1969 in which she won second place. 

Several years followed, during which Tylor toured bars and smaller clubs in her native Wales. In 1975, talent scout Roger Bell became aware of the rock singer with the powerful voice. Together with Tylor, Bell recorded a demo tape in a London studio. But it took another year before the first offer for a platinum contract: RCA Records offered her the first contract and also suggested a name change. And while the first Tylor single "My! My! Honeycomb" still flopped, the second advanced to a first success in Great Britain (Top 10) as well as on the European mainland. In the German charts, the singer, now appearing as Bonnie Tyler, climbed to No. 3 in the singles charts with "Lost In France".

Tylor fared similarly with her first two studio albums: while her debut "The World Starts Tonight" was hardly noticed, the follow-up "Natural Force" worked all the better for the up-and-coming artist. The lead single "It's A Heartache" was a hit not only in Europe, but also in the USA, and later went down in history as one of the most successful singles of all time, selling more than six million copies. At first, her success was not under a good star, because an injury to her vocal cords forced the British singer to undergo an operation. However, Tylor disregarded her doctor's advice to take it easy on her voice after the operation. The result was that her voice sounded much raspier and hotter than before, but this gave her that unmistakable sound with which Tylor became famous.

Her initial successes were followed in the early 1980s by a move to CBS Records and a collaboration with producer and songwriter Jim Steinman, who also ushered in Tylor's most successful period. This phase saw Tylor's first worldwide hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and her fifth studio album "Faster Than The Speed Of Night", which was later certified platinum. Just one year later, the song "Holding Out For A Hero "m released on the soundtrack of the movie "Footloose" caused a sensation.