Biography
In 1977 she sang about heartaches. In 1983 it was time for eclipses
of hearts. We´re talking about maybe one of the worlds most special
voices. We´re talking about Bonnie Tyler. The working girl who grew up
to be one of UK's greatest names - known for her husky voice. Known
as the female Rod Steward. And by her fans known as a down-to-earth,
beautiful and thoughtful girl...
In the 8th of June, 1951, Gaynor Hopkins was born outside Swansea, Wales.
Her mother was a keen opera fan and during Gaynor's childhood
people was gathering outside their house to listen to her beautiful voice.
When Gaynor grew up, she and her siblings used to listen to music
on her father's gramophone and she were soon attached to
motown singers like Janis Joplin and her great idol Tina Turner.
When Gaynor was in her teen ages she had been standing in front of
the mirror practising her voice and she felt that it was time to get on
stage.
She performed in a talent contest in a local pub in Wales and won the
second price. Already a few weeks from then, she participated in an
audition, when they searched for female singers to the band Bobby Wayne
& The Dixies. When she got accepted to the band she chose to get a stage
name. She felt that her present sounded alike the female singer Mary
Hopkins'. The result became... ...Sherene Davies! (After her niece).
The band performed regularly on a club in Wales, owned by the
businessman Robert Sullivan. Gaynor immediately got feelings for Robert
and obviously he liked her too! On the 4th of July, 1973, the wedding
bells rang for a marriage that hasn't ended and is known as one of the most
durable relationships in show business!
During a usual night, on a usual performance at a small club, Gaynor met
the starspotter Roger Bell. He had listened to her and thought she could
have a good opportunity to record a single. That's why they contacted the
songwriters/producers Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe. Even they fell for
Gaynor's voice and got to record the single "My, My Honeycomb", that flopped.
Now it was time for a change of stage name again, since they didn't feel
that Sherene Davies gave the right image. After looking for first- and last
names in a news paper she compared them...and bingo! Bonnie Tyler was born!
Now it was time for yet one single. "Lost In France" was recorded and on
the 30th of October 1976 it became marked on the charts where it stayed for
ten weeks. Bonnie was invited to perform at Top of The Pops for the first time.
The single also became a great hit in Germany where Bonnie's popularity today
is stronger than ever.
Meanwhile, there were something wrong with Bonnie's vocal cords, and she
was forced to surgery. She wasn't allowed to speak for weeks, which was hard!
When her brother were at the hospital, Bonnie and her mother decided to
surprise him with strawberries and cream, an occasion that came to change
Bonnie's life. Suddenly, Bonnie understands that they forgot the cream at
home and forgot about her speaking-prohibition - and started to scream.
From now on Bonnie has the smoky, hoarse voice that she today is world
famous for.
With her new voice, new songs were recorded for her debut album, The World
Starts Tonight, which was released in 1976. She got a signing contract
with RCA that also released her three coming albums. On her second
record, Natural Force, the song "It's A Heartache" was included that gave
Bonnie the No.1 spots on the most charts all over the world. What many
people don't know of, is that two other singers recorded the song before
Bonnie - without any success.
In 1983, Bonnie started to work with the famous songwriter Jim Steinman
who has written hit songs to for an example Meat Loaf. He now wrote the
song "Total Eclipse of The Heart" that forever will be seen by many as
one of the most beautiful ballads ever made. The song also became Bonnie's,
until today, greatest hit, and sold for tree weeks 60 000 copies per day.
The single did also put Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" from the 1st place
on the Billboard charts and Bonnie Tyler was now the first Welsh singer
ever to achieve this.
The co-operation with Jim Steinman continued with songs like "Faster
Than The Speed of Night" which made the album with the same name a million
seller item and it hit the best placing on the charts world-wide. The
album also gave Bonnie Tyler two Grammy nominations.
Three years later yet one album was released by CBS, with several songs
written by Jim Steinman. The album includes hits like "Holding Out For
A Hero" and the duet with Todd Rundgren, "Loving You's A Dirty Job But
Somebody's Gotta Do It". To both of the songs videos were recorded that
regularly were played on the tv-stations. The both videos were also included
in the video collection "The Video" that was released after the album.
The last album to be released by CBS with Bonnie Tyler was "Hide Your
Heart". The album was produced by Desmond Child and was released in the
US in an own version with the title "Notes From America", named after one
of the tracks. The album became however not the hit it was supposed to be.
On the other hand several tracks became great hits for other artists who
made cover version of them. Some examples is "To Love Somebody" that became
a great hit for Michael Bolton and "Save Up All Your Tears" that Cher made
famous a few years later. Not to mention "The Best" that Tina Turner made
a mega hit. Despite this, the album has a special place in Bonnie's and her
fans' hearts and is seen as the best album "so far".
Now it was time to change record label once again and Bonnie Tyler chose
to accept a contract with Hansa in Germany. She was now introduced to work
with the producer and performer Dieter Bohlen. Together, they produced three
albums that were great in Europe, especially in Germany. The album "Bitterblue"
from 1991 got the golden chart placing in almost every European country and
album nr. 2, Angel Heart, sold multi platinum all over Europe.
In 1995 Bonnie signed a contract for two albums with the British company
EastWest Records. Once again, Bonnie did get an opportunity to work with
Jim Steinman and also with Stuart Emerson, who today is a close friend of
Bonnie's. The first album, Free Spirit, was released in September 1995 in
Europe and USA, but not in UK until one year later. The first single, "Making
Love (Out of Nothing At All)" was just produced in a low number of copies
and was sold out immediately. On the whole, the strategy of the album
seems strange and it lost the status it once got with the original release.
In 1996, the album was released in a new version, when Bonnie recorded
the official Olympics theme in Germany. "Limelight" was also released as
a single and became strangely enough not just a chart climber in Europe,
but in USA.
The last album from EastWest, All In One Voice, was released in 1998.
The Swedish songwriter Per Andreasson wrote many of the songs included, for
an example, the first single "Heaven" that was released in a limited edition
and is today very rare. Sadly enough, it became problems with the distri-
bution also for this album and already after a year the album was deleted.
In 1999 one of the tracks, "He's The King" became the theme of a popular
TV show in Germany, which made that Bonnie Tyler once again got to see her
name on the German hit listings. An exclusive video was also recorded for
the single.
It would now take three years until the next album was released. When Andrew
Lloyd Webber celebrated his 50th birthday with a great gala in Royal Albert
Hall, London, one of the special invited artists to honour Andrew was Bonnie
Tyler. She also recorded the song "Tyre Tracks And Broken Hearts" from one of
Andrew's musicals, and it was released on a compilation. The song was also
included when Sony Music decided to release an official Greatest Hits-album
with Bonnie. Many press pictures were taken and an extensive promotion tour
came off. This made the album a major success and it hit the charts in almost ¨
every European country.
In 2003 EMI and the Danish label CMC released the album "Heartstrings",
that isn't similar to anything else Bonnie Tyler made before. With Prague
Philharmonic Orchestra behind her, Bonnie now recorded cover versions of
famous rock ballads like "Against All Odds" (Phil Collins), "I Still Haven't
Found What I'm Looking For" (U2) and "In My Life" (Beatles). Already the year
before, the album was released in Scandinavia with the title "Heart & Soul:
13 Rock Classics" because of the Danish company.
The very same year, Bonnie receives a demo she´ll never forget! The French
female singer/actress Kareen Antonn had recorded a French version
of Bonnie's great song "Total Eclipse of The Heart". Bonnie never thought
of the song as a possible duet, while it was so special to her.
But after a few repetitions in the studio with Ms Antonn, it seemed like
Bonnie was wrong. A few months later, the single "Si Demain... (Turn Around)"
had sold a million copies and it was the start of yet another album.
"Simply Believe" was the title of the record released by Sony Music
in France. Yet another french song was recorded as a duet with Kareen Antonn,
"Si Tout S'arrętte", also this a French version of a hit, "It's A Heartache".
The album was strangely enough just released in a limited number of
countries and just in Europe. That made that the album didn't get the
status it has potential for. But thanks to "Simply Believe", Bonnie met the
producer Jean Lahcene, a.k.a John Stage. They got well on and he now wanted
to produce her next album with the small french company Stick Music. The
result was "Wings" that was released in April 2005 in a great part of Europe.
Now it was time for a world-wide release, which made this the first Bonnie
Tyler album to be released in the US since 1995. With the first single
"Louise", an excusive video was recorded in Tunisia, inside a big ship wreck.
On her birthday, Bonnie gave a concert in the beautiful theatre La Cigale in
Paris that was recorded and was later released on a DVD. Videos from a concert
in Spain, visited by 70'000 persons, was also included in the production.
In 2007, Bonnie recorded a new version of her hit Total Eclipse of The Heart
together with the young, UK punkrock band BabyPinkStar. The song was released
as a punkremix of the original song and went straight up on the UK download
charts after it's release in UK.
Copyright: Mikael Carlzon