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80s UK phenomenon and ‘quiet Christian’, Bonnie Tyler (Gaynor Hopkins), passed away last week.

Heartbroken, Manager Matt Davis confirmed the 75-year-old singer’s death, telling TMZ it was unexpected.

Tyler was in Portugal, where she owns property, recovering from emergency surgery related to a pre-existing intestinal condition.

Adding further context, Davis told USA Today (UT) that the Welsh singer was admitted to hospital in May, adding that “she had spent a month in an induced coma before waking ‘very unwell’ in June.”

Tyler’s Family, Friends ‘Heartbroken’

In an exclusive comment for UT, Davis said the family are heartbroken and would be issuing “a further statement shortly, but for now asked for privacy.”

They’ve described Tyler’s passing as a “tragedy.”

Alongside tributes celebrating her music, Premier Christian News (PCN) described Tyler as a woman of faith.

Friends, the news outlet stated, saw Tyler as “a woman of deep Christian faith, extraordinary generosity and remarkable humility despite her global success.”

Testifying firsthand, PCN presenter Mal Pope said, “I’ve known Bonnie Tyler all of my life.”

“We started off in the record business at around the same time. Obviously, her career went in a slightly more stratospheric direction than mine, but she’s always been a part of my life.”

Despite the fame, “She still lived just around the corner,” Pope said.

“You’d see her on a weekly basis in the local supermarket. We’d have a chat. She did so many shows for me: TV, radio, concerts. She always turned up, even when she was a global superstar.”

Bonnie Tyler’s Christian Faith

For example, Pope recalled helping her prepare for a performance of “Abide with Me” at Wembley for a Rugby League final.

Remembering her faith, he said Christianity was “central to her life.”

Pope then shared a message attributed to Tyler’s sister, Avis, declaring that the singer “loved the Lord Jesus, [and was] brought up to love Him by our mum and dad.”

“Now she sees Jesus, face to face,” Avis affirmed, “as He welcomes her back into His loving arms and says, ‘Well done, my child.’”

“In many ways, Bonnie Tyler was the superstar on stage,” Pope concluded, “but Gaynor Sullivan (married name) was the woman everyone knew at home.”

“She never changed her accent. She never changed who she was.”

Confirming the Christ connection, Tyler told The Guardian in 2012, just before her Eurovision entry at age 61, that she was raised Protestant.

“I went to church three times a day on a Sunday,” she explained.

“My parents weren’t Bible-bashers, but we all have a strong belief in God and a strong faith.”

Married to Robert Sullivan for 53 years, Tyler described him as “her first serious boyfriend.”

They had dated for four years before tying the knot in 1973 at the age of 22.

Childless, Tyler recounted putting off having kids until later in life due to her massive career.

At age 39, when she did get pregnant, Tyler miscarried. Although they “tried again, after two years nothing had happened,” she said, “so we just thought it wasn’t meant to be.”

Although considered conservative, her songs have been adopted as LGBTQ+ anthems.

According to a Pink News piece headlined “I will not abandon total eclipse of the heart”, the singer backed “equality” (same-sex marriage) in 2006.

When talking about her niece and nephew’s partners, Tyler told the online magazine, “Love is love, a heart is a heart.”

Additionally, in a 2013 interview with MetroUK, she recalled performing at a gay club in New York, saying it was “an amazing place. The sights I’ve seen. A bit shocking but fun.”

More recently, she told How to Fail podcaster Elizabeth Day that despite not having kids, she’s never alone. There is a truckload of nieces and nephews. One of whom was living with her along with his partner.

As a consequence, while not an LGBTQ+ activist, Tyler is widely accepted as an ally.

Tyler’s Decorated Career

While shocked celebrities took to social media to comment on her death, most major news outlets like USA Today paid tribute to the neon-age icon.

Beginning in the early 1970s, Tyler eventually became a three-time Grammy nominee. Her body of work includes standouts “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and “Here She Comes”.

The female rock vocalist with a signature rasp that lifted songs and defined her own unique style also won a nomination for the 1983 album Faster than the Speed of Light.

Cementing her 1980s career triumph was “Holding Out for a Hero”, which featured on the Kenny Loggins-dominated soundtrack for Footloose (the 1984 Kevin Bacon version).

Billboard brought the numbers.

Tyler achieved “three top 40 Hot 100 hits among six overall entries and two top 40 titles on the Billboard 200 among five placements.”

“Total Eclipse of the Heart,” Billboard noted, also “made her the only Welsh-born artist ever to have topped the Hot 100.”

“To date,” they said, “the song has drawn 2.3 billion in radio airplay audience, 897 million official on-demand U.S. streams and 1.9 million in download sales.”

Capping off a decades-long career, at 71, Tyler was awarded an MBE by Prince William at Windsor Castle for her “service to music.”

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Image via Wikimedia Commons.