Bonnie Tyler might be best known for the hit Total Eclipse of the Heart – but she barely made any money from it.
The singer’s death at the age of 75 was reported today, weeks after she underwent emergency surgery and was put in an induced coma.
A message on the Welsh star’s website read: “Bonnie’s family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for.”
The Welsh star had been due to embark on a European tour later this year but was hospitalised in May after falling ill.
Bonnie Tyler has a catalogue of great hits(Image: AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Who wrote Total Eclipse of the Heart?
Acclaimed songwriter Jim Steinman penned the iconic track, which became the lead single from Bonnie’s fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night.
Steinman worked with a number of artists, including Celine Dion and Meat Loaf, and wrote the song I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That), one of Meat Loaf’s most successful tracks to date.
He was behind other hits including It’s All Coming Back To Me Now, a cover made famous by Celine Dion, and during his illustrious career, he also worked on Never Forget by Take That, and Boyzone’s No Matter What.
“The first time I heard it was when Jim Steinman just played it on the piano in New Yor,” said Bonnie. “He sang the song all the way through and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this song is amazing. I can’t believe Jim is giving it to me.
“When I recorded the song, I thought no one is going to end up playing this because it’s so long. The original version is eight minutes long.”
After being cut in half for radio play, the single soared to number one on both sides of the Atlantic, became a selling single of 1983 and remains a karaoke classic.
43 years after its release, the song has reached over a billion streams online.
Meat Loaf (R) and Jim Steinman (L) in 1978(Image: Getty Images)
Bonnie Tyler’s biggest hit earns her no money(Image: Getty Images)
How did the song come about?
It has been reported that Bonnie took on the track after Meat Loaf – who Steinman collaborated with on many occasions – lost his voice and was unable to record it.
“Every time I saw Meat Loaf, he said, ‘Bonnie, that song should have been mine.’ I said, ‘Well, Jim gave it to me,'” she recalled of her meetings with the singer over the years.
What is Total Eclipse of the Heart about?
Bonnie had originally thought that the song was “someone who wants to love so badly she’s lying there in complete darkness” but later, she realised the track was about vampires in love.
Steinman had originally started writing the song for a Nosferatu musical, but he shaped the song to “show off” Tyler’s voice
Speaking about the track, Steinman said: “With ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, I was trying to come up with a love song and I remembered I actually wrote that to be a vampire love song. Its original title was ‘Vampires in Love’ because I was working on a musical of Nosferatu, the other great vampire story. If anyone listens to the lyrics, they’re really like vampire lines. It’s all about the darkness, the power of darkness and love’s place in the dark.”
How much did Bonnie get from the song?
Bonnie makes no money from her song – despite it having well over a billion streams on Spotify.
The song rakes in an impressive amount of money each year, but Bonnie sees pretty much none of that. With the song being penned by Jim Steinman, all the publishing royalties go to him as Bonnie does not have a songwriting credit on the track.