Crowds turn out for 'Total Eclipse' singer Bonnie Tyler's funeral

More than 1,000 people from around the world gathered outside the singer’s funeral in her hometown of Swansea, Wales, after she died aged 75 last month.

18 Aug 2026 12:33AM

SWANSEA: Hundreds of people joined mourners on Monday (Aug 17) for the funeral of Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, with fans singing along to the star's hit It's a Heartache as her white, flower-covered coffin was carried into church.

The husky-voiced singer, known for a string of hits including Total Eclipse of the Heart, died in Portugal last month aged 75.

More than 1,000 people gathered outside the church ahead of the funeral in south Wales, which was also live-streamed.

There was applause as a hearse carrying her coffin - adorned with white roses and lilies and etched with a small hand holding a microphone and a treble clef - arrived at Swansea Minster, packed with family and friends.

It's a Heartache and another of her hits, If I Sing You A Love Song, were played as pallbearers carried the casket into the minster.

"She is a Welsh icon," 75-year-old retiree Bette Richards told AFP. "She was a beautiful person. She never changed," she added.

The funeral also featured Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water performed by a male voice choir.

Another Swansea resident, John Edwards, 70, paid tribute to a star who was also very much "an ordinary person" and "one of us".

"I feel proud ... Everybody loves her. It is a big loss," he said.

A LIFE "WELL-LIVED"

Tyler, whose real name was Gaynor Hopkins, died in hospital in Faro in southern Portugal on Jul 8.

In a eulogy, her long-time tour manager Matt Davis remembered a star who could "command any stage" from tiny clubs to huge stadiums and led a "big and well-lived" life.

"She would have played in the Antarctic if it had been possible ... she loved to be on stage," he said. "She played in mountain tops and at beaches," as well as in the Vatican and the Kremlin, he added.

Roger Bell, the talent scout who discovered her and became a friend, added that despite her fame she never forgot her roots.

"She was loved by millions worldwide ... but in Swansea, she was loved by Robert (her husband) and the family as Gaynor and Auntie Gaynor.

"There was a warmth and sincerity about her that shone through, and she never said no to having a photo taken or giving an autograph to anyone who asked," he told mourners.

"I think everyone here today has a story about meeting Gaynor, or Bonnie Tyler, and will treasure it," he added.

US CHART TOPPER

Tyler's death came after she was placed in an induced coma to aid her recovery after emergency surgery in May.

The Grammy-nominated singer was born and raised in a traditional coal-mining village northwest of Swansea.

In recent years, she had split her time between Wales and Portugal, where she had a holiday home.

She shot to fame in the 1970s with hits including Lost in France and It's a Heartache.

Total Eclipse of the Heart later topped the charts in both Britain and the United States.

As the funeral drew to a close, the church swelled to the sound of the male voice choir's mournful, slow version of Total Eclipse.

Tyler also hit the charts with Holding Out for a Hero in 1984, which featured on the soundtrack to the huge US box office success Footloose.

At the time she was taken ill, she had been about to start a European tour in Malta to mark 50 years since the release of "Lost in France", which was her breakthrough hit in 1976.