Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler (real name Gaynor Hopkins born on June 8, 1951 in Skewen, Neath) is a Welsh singer.
Contents |
Career
Born into a large working-class family of six children, her father worked as a miner while her mother, an opera fan, shared her love of music with her children. Influenced by the music of Janis Joplin and Tina Turner, as a teen she sang with a group called "Bobby Wayne and the Dixies," following which she formed her own band, calling it Imagination. Adopting different stage names until settling on Bonnie Tyler, for nearly a decade she and her band performed at pubs and nightclubs all over South Wales.
In 1975, Bonnie Tyler recorded her first single for RCA Records called "My My Honeycomb" that failed to make the charts. Her second single "Lost in France", was a whimsical melody with lyrics that demonstrated how seemingly meaningless words on paper can be rich with meaning in song. The record showcased the potential of her powerful voice and reached the top 10 of the British pop music charts.
Her success with "Lost in France" led Tyler to record her first album in 1977. Titled The World Starts Tonight, it met with only very modest success, but Bonnie claims it did well enough so that she could tour throughout Europe. Prior to the album's release, Tyler underwent surgery to remove nodules on her vocal cords. Against her doctor's orders, she spoke before she had healed, with the result that her singing voice took on a raspy quality. At first, this made Tyler believe her singing career was over. As it turned out in 1978, her next single, "It's A Heartache", where she used all of her husky voice's power, made her a star. The song became a number 1 hit in 6 countries, peaked at #4 on the UK charts and went to #3 on the US pop charts,and went to #10 on the US country charts.
She signed with CBS Records in 1982 and her album, Faster Than the Speed of Night proved to be a hit and the single "Total Eclipse of the Heart", written by Jim Steinman, topped the charts, remaining at No. 1 for 4 weeks. "Faster Than the Speed of Night" shot straight into the UK album charts at No.1, making Bonnie the first ever female artist to have achieved this, earning a Guinness Record, the song TEOTH brought Tyler a 1983 nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and the album Faster Than the Speed of Night earned her another Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. In 1984, the year she performed "Eclipse" to great acclaim at the Grammy Awards, she received a Grammy nomination as best Rock Female Vocalist for the song "Here She Comes," a song that was part of the soundtrack for the 1984 restoration of the film Metropolis.
In 1984, she had a lackluster showing with the single "Holding Out for a Hero" from the soundtrack and film Footloose; the tune reached #34 on the U.S. Hot 100, making it Tyler's third and final top-40 U.S. hit. The albums Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire and Hide Your Heart followed, but lacked the success of her previous efforts. In the early 1990s, Tyler recorded the album Bitterblue. This album went quadruple-platinum in Norway, platinum in Austria and gold in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden, amongst other countries. Bonnie followed up with Angel Heart the album repeated the success of "Bitterblue" and showered Bonnie with more gold and platinum records. Silhouette in Red, released in 1993 saw Tyler win Best International Female Vocalist in the ECHO Awards. After that, her live performances continued to draw large followings, but her recordings met with limited market success until the young French singer Kareen Antonn approached her to record a duet. "Si Demain", their French language version of "Total Eclipse of the Heart," was released in January 2004 and went to No. 1 in France, Belgium, and Poland, selling two millions copies all over world.
In 2005, Bonnie appeared in Birmingham, as an act for "Jasper Carrott's Rock With Laughter". She appeared alongside performers such as, Bill Bailey, Jasper Carrott, Lenny Henry, Bobby Davro and the Lord of the Dance troupe.
In September 2006, Bonnie Tyler made her first appearance on US television for many years, as she sang a duetof 'Total Eclipse' with Lucy Lawless on the American show Celebrity Duets.
- New single Under One Sky December 18, 2006.[1]
- TEOTH Babypinkstar vs. Bonnie Tyler in December 18, 2006.[2]
Discography
Main article: Bonnie Tyler Discography
Books
#1 Hits
FR #1, SE #1, NO #1, AU #1, CA #1, BR #1.
UK #1, US #1[3], France #1, South Africa #1, Norway #1, Australia #1, Canada #1, Brazil #1, Ireland #1, Japan #1, Spain #1, Portugal #1, Argentina #1, Venezuela #1, Belgium #1, Mexico #1, Philippines #1, New Zealand #1.
- A Rocking Good Way 1984
IE #1
- Holding Out for a Hero 1985
IE #1
- If You Were A Woman 1986
VE #1
- Sem Limites Pra Sonhar 1987
BR#1, VE#1
- Against The Wind 1992
FI #1.
- The Desert Is In Your Heart 1992
GR #1.
- Sally Comes Around 1993
South Africa #1.
FR #1, BE #1, PL #
External links
Categories
Cleanup from November 2006 | Welsh female singers | Welsh rock singers | Natives of Neath Port Talbot | 1951 births | Welsh pop singers | Living people