At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Welsh singing legend Bonnie Tyler found herself a long way from her Swansea home. For two years, she stayed in the Algarve, where she and husband Robert have a beautiful second property overlooking the sea. They soaked up the sunshine, swam in their pool and generally lived the good life.
Many people would have struggled to return to reality, but not Bonnie. She was itching to get back to recording music and touring again. In fact, the enforced downtime made her realise that retirement just wasn’t for her. “I started singing when I was 17 and I never thought I’d still be doing it at this age,” says Bonnie, now 73, whose biggest hits include Total Eclipse Of The Heart , Holding Out For A Hero and It’s A Heartache .
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Bonnie’s biggest hits include Total Eclipse Of The Heart , Holding Out For A Hero and It’s A Heartache
“I’ve slowed down a little bit, but I know now that I will never retire. Even though I was so lucky because I was in Portugal when the first lockdown was announced, by the end of it I’d had enough. I was going crazy. I needed to get back out there on the road.”
By her own admission, Bonnie is a bundle of energy. She’s never been the type to curl up with a good book, she says, and is on the go constantly – something she believes has been the key to helping her stay fit and healthy. “I’m not one for exercise, but I never stop,” she laughs, “And, my God, I walk miles in airports! That’s the worst part about travelling for gigs, the actual travel itself.”
Bonnie has many more miles to cover this year as she’s setting off for a tour across Europe in February and then heads to Australia and New Zealand to perform later in 2025. She’ll also be rewarding her UK fans with a special one-off performance at The O2 on 5 July, where she’s supporting Michael Bolton. But first, she’s kicking off 2025 with something extra special: a brand new single.
Yes I Can is her first new music since 2021 album The Best Is Yet To Come , and it’s very personal to her. Though you’d struggle to believe it, given all she’s accomplished, when she was growing up in Skewen, south Wales, Bonnie was a shy child who worried she’d never be able to fulfil her big dreams.
Bonnie was talent-spotted in a Swansea club in 1975
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“I never, ever tire of singing Total Eclipse , but I guess the song I have the softest spot for is Lost In France because it was my very first hit single,” she says.
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“The song is all about finding your strength and believing in yourself, and I’m hoping it’ll inspire anyone who needs that boost. When I was a girl, I loved singing and I knew it was what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have the confidence and didn’t feel I could. And since then, I’ve conquered the world. It’s been a journey, and I’m still on that journey now.”
As a child, she says it was her late mother who eventually instilled that confidence in her, and she feels she owes her a lot. “I was a fighter because of her. My mother brought me up to believe in myself.”
Born Gaynor Hopkins in 1951, Bonnie – a stage name she chose for herself – worked six nights a week for seven years in local bands before being talent-spotted in a Swansea club in 1975. The following year, the 25-year-old with the distinctive husky voice had her first hit with her second single, Lost In France .
After collaborating in the 1980s with Jim Steinman – the composer behind Meat Loaf’s 1977 Bat Out Of Hell album – Bonnie hit new levels of success. Steinman wrote her 1980s hits Holding Out For A Hero and Total Eclipse Of The Heart , the lead single from her 1983 UK chart-topping album Faster Than The Speed Of Night . The power ballad has now been streamed over 859 million times on Spotify and had more than one billion views on YouTube.
“I never, ever tire of singing Total Eclipse , but I guess the song I have the softest spot for is Lost In France because it was my very first hit single,” she says. “That launched my career and I wouldn’t be where I am now without it.” Her huge success on both sides of the pond could have made Bonnie a diva, but the singer is refreshingly warm and down-to-earth. She says simply of her career, “I worked very hard, but fate has dealt me a fantastic hand.”
Bonnie has been awarded an MBE for her services to music
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And she believes it’s her family who have kept her grounded over the years, saying, “I could never be a diva! I’m an ordinary person. Everybody who meets me is surprised by that. They always say so. But why would it be any other way? Maybe it’s because I’m from a big Welsh family, and they would soon tell me of if I got too big for my boots.”
Bonnie has three sisters, two brothers (her eldest brother passed away a few years ago), 16 nieces and nephews, and 14 great nieces and nephews to keep her busy, many of them living near her in Swansea. She met her husband Robert, a property developer and former Olympic judo athlete, when she was 17 and they have been married for 51 years. They never had children, but Bonnie says she doesn’t have any regrets.
“I did have a miscarriage when I was 39. At that point, it just felt like the right time to have a baby. For the first time, I felt maternal and we stopped all precautions, and it happened straight away,” she says. “But then I lost the baby, and it didn’t happen after that.
“It’s weird, but I count myself blessed to have known that I could be pregnant, that I have been pregnant. Robert and I were so sad when it happened, but I’m not the type to dwell on things. The following weekend I was in Paris for a TV show, then I just moved on.”
But family is very important to Bonnie. She’s taking January off to spend time with them before she hits the road, and says they enjoyed a wonderful Christmas at the local pub and watching the Gavin & Stacey Christmas special (Ruth Jones, who plays Nessa, is a friend of hers).
Bonnie met her husband, Robert, a property developer and former Olympic judo athlete, when she was 17 and they have been married for 51 years
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Her constant companion when travelling is her husband. He goes with her to every single gig and Bonnie says he’s her “number one fan”. “He’s marvellous. He’s at the side of the stage singing every word, and I introduce him to my fans and he often comes on and joins me. I’m very lucky that we still love each other. He’s not bad to look at either, I must say!”
The same can be said for Bonnie. Now in her seventies, she looks years younger – and she’s happy to reveal her secret. “I have Botox – just a little filler in my laughter lines. I didn’t have it for about two years because my skin was looking OK, but then I had it again a few months ago.
“I don’t really do anything else. I guess I’m pretty healthy, but only because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I prefer savoury stuff, and I don’t have a huge appetite. I have small portions because I can’t manage big meals. But of course, I ate a lot of mince pies with brandy sauce over Christmas, so that’s not ideal!”
With such a busy 2025 and retirement ruled out, we’re sure Bonnie won’t have any trouble staying in shape. But she still has one ambition: to work with Bruce Springsteen, and she says she never stops dreaming.
“I always have dreams, and right now the biggest one is that this new single is a success. But it’s not the be all and end all. The most important thing to me is that my fans like it, because it’s for them – the people who have followed me and supported me over the years. As long as they love my music, that’s all that matters.”
Yes I Can by Bonnie Tyler is out now. See BonnieTyler.com for upcoming live dates
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