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Bonnie Tyler
FYI
Obituaries: Total Eclipse Of The Heart Singer Bonnie Tyler, Lauren Bennett Of G.R.L.
This week we acknowledge the passing of two notable female vocalists and Cold Chisel saxophonist Andy Bickers.
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Bonnie Tyler (born Gaynor Hopkins), a Welsh singer best known for her international 1983 chart-topper, ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’, died on July 8, at age 75.
A Billboard UK obituary reports that ''Her death follows emergency intestinal surgery in May, which took place in Faro, Portugal, where Tyler had a home. She was later placed in an induced coma.''
Her first career break came in 1975 when was spotted singing with her band Imagination in the Townsman Club in Swansea, Wales by talent scout Roger Bell, who invited her to London to record a demo track. That led to a recording contract with RCA Records, who recommended she change her name.
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Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe became her managers, songwriters, and producers. "My! My! Honeycomb" was released as her debut single in April 1976 but did not chart. In September 1976, a lavish promotional campaign for Tyler's next single, "Lost in France,'' helped it peaked at No. 9 in the UK. and led to Tyler's first appearance on Top of the Pops.
Tyler's debut album, The World Starts Tonight, was released in February 1977 and she embarked on her first UK tour as a guest artist with Gene Pitney. The album failed to chart in the U.K., but reached No. 2 in Sweden.That year, Tyler underwent surgery to remove vocal-cord nodules and was advised by her doctor to rest her voice for six weeks. She screamed in frustration one day, resulting in a permanent raspy tone that became her signature.
Later in 1977, a breakthrough single, "It's a Heartache," reached number four on the UK singles chart and number three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It also made a splash in Canada, topping Toronto’s CHUM chart.
As Billboard UK notes, she then ''reached global superstardom in 1983 with 'Total Eclipse of The Heart.' Written and produced by Jim Steinman, the dramatic mini-epic spent four weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100, making Tyler the first and only Welsh-born singer to top the chart to date.
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''The song, which featured on her album Faster Than the Speed of Night, earned Tyler Grammy nominations for female pop vocal performance and female rock performance, and became one of the defining records of its era.'' sold over 13 million copies worldwide
There was a Canadian connection to the hit single in the form of Port Dover, Ontario, singer Rory Dodd, who sang on the track. The Toronto Star reports that ''Dodd sang the famous backing lines, “Turn around, bright eyes,” for the song. In a 2023 Guardian interview with Dodd and Tyler in 2023, Tyler said Dodd initially sang the song to her while Jim Steinman, the American composer and record producer behind the hit, played the piano.
Dodd explained in that interview that ''Steinman would usually get me to do a vocal to demonstrate a song to the artist, but he wrote ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ as a duet for Bonnie and myself. He liked the role reversal of a female voice doing the gruff part and a man doing the pure angelic tenor.”
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Tyler later scored another memorable hit, ''Holding Out for a Hero,” from the film soundtrack to Footloose. Her other successful singles during this period included "Here She Comes" from the 1984 soundtrack to Metropolis and "If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man)", written by Desmond Child and produced by Steinman.
She had success in mainland Europe during the 1990s with Dieter Bohlen, who wrote and produced her hit "Bitterblue." In 2003, Tyler re-recorded "Total Eclipse of the Heart" with singer Kareen Antonn; their bilingual duet, titled "Si demain... (Turn Around),'' topped the French charts.
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The prolific Tyler released 18 studio albums across a career spanning more than five decades, She represented the U.K. in the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Believe in Me,” though it placed a lowly 19th. Tyler earned three Grammy award nominations in 2013.
Billboard UK reports that ''Tyler had been due to perform at the Sunshine Festival in Worcester, England this summer, along with a number of European dates, and was also booked to perform at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena on December 17. Her final full show took place at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London on March 19.
In 2023, Tyler was made a Member of the British Empire in 2023 for her services to music, after being named in the Queen’s birthday honours list.
One Canadian music industry veteran with fond memories of Tyler is Greg Torrington. In a Facebook tribute, he recalled that ''back in my days as music director at CHEZ in Ottawa, I was invited to drive down to Montreal to have an early dinner with Bonnie Tyler, her husband and her Sony UK and Canada reps.
''CHEZ was the first station in North America to go on 'Total Eclipse' and the first one where it went to number 1 on the playlist. As Bonnie and her husband were flying back to the UK that night out of Mirabel (back when it still was a passenger airport!) I drove them there on my way back home. She was a total sweetheart.''
Lauren Bennett, a former vocalist in the Paradiso Girls and G.R.L., has died at age 37. The surviving members of G.R.L. announced the news in a statement posted to the group’s Instagram account on July 6. A cause of death has not been reported.
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A Billboard obituary notes that ''Bennett began her career in the music industry as one of the Paradiso Girls, a group formed by Pussycat Dolls founder Robin Antin. Its 2009 debut single, “Patron Tequila” featuring Eve and Lil’ Jon, peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.
''After Interscope dropped the group in 2010, Bennett continued her career as a soloist, working with artists such as CeeLo Green, will.i.am on his remix of “I Got It from My Mama” and she was featured on LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem,” which was a Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 song for six weeks in 2011.
She then became a founding member of the girl group G.R.L. (an acronym for Girls Rock Life). They debuted in 2013, releasing a single, “Vacation,” on the soundtrack to The Smurfs 2, in 2013. G.R.L. also appeared on Pitbull’s “Wild Wild Love” in 2014. The song peaked in the top ten in the United Kingdom, Norway, Australia, reached the top thirty in the U.S. and was certified silver, gold and platinum in various regions.
Later that year, the group released an eponymous debut EP. It spawned a hit single, "Ugly Heart", which peaked in the top ten in Australia, Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, and Sweden.
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Band member Simone Battle committed suicide in 2014 at the age of 25. The group then disbanded, only to reunite briefly in 2016 (as a trio including Bennett) and again in 2020. In 2026, the group were scheduled to reform for a second time until the death of Bennett.
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Andy Bickers, the longtime saxophonist in Australian rock superstars Cold Chisel, died on July 10, at age 56.
Cold Chisel confirmed his death in a statement posted to social media. “Our much-loved sax player of more than 30 years, Andy Bickers, passed away this morning after a hard-fought battle with cancer,” the Instagram post said.
Vickers also toured and recorded with many stars of Australian music, including Icehouse, Midnight Oil, Richard Clapton, Silverchair, Diesel, You Am I, the Presets, Hoodoo Gurus and Vika and Linda.
A Billboard obituary reports that ''Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Bickers spent the 1980s working the local rock scene before relocating to Australia, first to Melbourne and then Sydney, where his tenor and baritone playing quickly established him as one of the country’s most reliable session and touring musicians. His breakthrough came via Jimmy Barnes’ touring band, and by the early 2000s he had become a fixture in Cold Chisel’s live lineup.''
Cold Chisel frontman Jimmy Barnes paid tribute, writing that “Andy also toured many times with me, playing soul and rock shows. We were friends not only because he was a great player, but he was funny, intelligent, and most importantly, he was a good man.
Icehouse leader Iva Davies shared this message on social media: ''I am saddened and very sorry to hear the news about the loss of Andy Bickers. We saw and performed with him only a few weeks ago. Andy was a consummate musician as attested by the great array of people he performed and collaborated with along with the many he mentored and inspired,” Davies continued. “He will be truly missed by the Australian music community.”
Billboard notes that ''Cold Chisel remain one of the most commercially significant bands in Australian history, with a catalog that has produced multiple No. 1 albums on the ARIA Albums Chart. Bickers’ saxophone was central to the live renditions of some of the band’s most enduring songs, and his work across thousands of concerts and recording sessions made him one of the most quietly ubiquitous figures in Australian rock.''
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