LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of fans lined the streets of a seaside Welsh village on Saturday to bid farewell to late singer Bonnie Tyler as her coffin was brought home.
The Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star, beloved worldwide for her 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” died last month in a hospital in Portugal. She was 75.
Tyler was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery.
Locals and fans from around the United Kingdom and beyond took to the streets of Mumbles, near the city of Swansea, to see the hearse, which carried her coffin, draped in a Welsh flag. Dozens waited outside the singer’s former home or left floral tributes there.
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“She was always coming home and making sure that she came back to her fans in Wales,” said Carys Edwards, 18. “Her songs really did touch a lot of people here in Wales; we loved her a lot.”
Tyler was born Gaynor Hopkins, a coal miner’s daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.
The singer earned three Grammy nods and in 2013 represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in 19th. She was honored as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2022 for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II, thanks mainly to “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
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The ballad shot to the top of the charts in Britain and the United States and has had more than 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017, 2024 — and most recently during this week’s solar eclipse.
She was also known for other hits including “It’s a Heartache” and “Holding Out For a Hero,” from the soundtrack of the film “Footloose.”
A celebration of Tyler’s life for family and friends will take place at a church in Swansea on Monday, before the singer makes a final journey through her hometown of Skewen.
