Bonnie Tyler

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• Genre: Adult Contemporary
• Bonnie Tyler Website

About

Most people remember Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for two things: her raspy voice that sounds like she falls asleep smoking unfiltered cigarettes every night, and her 1980s anthem "Total Eclipse of the Heart." The voice was a result of a 1976 operation to remove the nodules on her vocal chords that were preventing her from singing; the song topped the Billboard charts for a month and sold one million copies. Her 1983 release "Faster than the Speed of Night" earned Tyler radio play across the country and coveted performance spots on Solid Gold. Thanks to the film Footloose, she had one more hit in the U.S. with her power anthem "Holding Out for a Hero," which championed daredevil dance martyrs such as Ren with a thunderstorm of high production and crashing cymbals of emotion. Then Tyler had a total eclipse of career, releasing a number of records both in the U.S. and overseas that couldn't sell out -- even in gas station bargain bins.

- Jennifer Maerz