Bonnie Tyler dies, the Welsh singer whose husky voice and operatic pop anthems made her one of the most beloved artists of the 1980s, has died aged 75 in hospital in Portugal. A statement published on her official website confirmed the news on behalf of her family and team.

"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 statement read. "We will issue a further statement shortly but for now ask for privacy to deal with this tragedy."

Tyler had been rushed to a hospital in Faro in May for emergency intestinal surgery and was placed in an induced coma to aid her recovery. An update last month said she was out of the coma but remained very unwell in intensive care. Her management had cancelled or postponed dates on her summer tour, though they had hoped some later-year shows could still go ahead. Her death came as a shock to fans who had been following regular updates suggesting slow but continuing progress.

How a punnet of forgotten strawberries and a scream in a car gave Bonnie Tyler the voice the world fell in love with

Bonnie Tyler's unmistakable raspy voice had one of the most improbable origins in pop history. In the mid-1970s, around the time of her breakthrough hit Lost in France, she developed vocal nodules from overuse and underwent surgery on medical advice. Her recovery required complete vocal rest.

One day, driving to visit her brother in hospital, she realised she had forgotten a gift of strawberries. In her autobiography, Straight from the Heart, she described what happened next.

"I was so frustrated that I'd have to drive all the way back home, I let out an 'Oh no!' scream."

Bonnie Tyler, Straight from the Heart

Her consultant informed her the scream had caused permanent damage to her surgically repaired vocal cords. What appeared to be a career-ending setback turned out to be the making of her. She was left with a new, deeper, huskier voice that she came to cherish for the emotional weight it gave her performances. She even joked it made her sound like a female Rod Stewart. Pop history was changed forever by one forgotten punnet of fruit.

"I thought she was one of the most passionate voices I'd ever heard in rock and roll since Janis Joplin." Jim Steinman, 1983

Total Eclipse of the Heart: the song that nearly never happened and the billion-stream anthem that made Tyler almost nothing

Total Eclipse of the Heart is Bonnie Tyler's defining work and one of the most enduring pop singles of the last half century. It topped the charts in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Zimbabwe. It has been covered in Spanish as Eclipse Total del Amor and in Italian as Eclissi del cuore. It reached one billion streams on Spotify earlier this year. Yet Tyler told BBC News she barely saw a penny from her biggest song. "Oh it's nothing, just about nothing," she said.

In 1983, Tyler had suffered a string of flop singles. Her record label wanted her to return to the country-rock sound of It's a Heartache. But after watching Meat Loaf perform Bat Out of Hell on the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, Tyler became determined to work with his songwriter Jim Steinman. Steinman was unconvinced until Tyler's new manager sent him a cassette of her rock demos. Intrigued, he agreed to meet her in New York, and they immediately connected.

That same evening, Steinman sat at his piano and played Total Eclipse of the Heart for her. Tyler later described the moment in Fred Bronson's Billboard Book of Number One Hits: "When he plays, he practically knocks the piano through the floor. He won't give the song to you on tape. He has to tell you the big story and play it for you." It became the fifth best-selling UK single of 1983 and cemented her place in rock history.

Why Tyler saw almost nothing from a song that earned $1.4 million in streaming royalties last year

Spotify paid out $1.4 million in royalties on Tyler's back catalogue last year. The gap between that figure and the almost nothing Tyler described to the BBC is explained by the structure of the music industry's rights architecture. Total Eclipse of the Heart was written solely by Jim Steinman, which means all publishing royalties flow entirely to his estate rather than to Tyler.

The remaining streaming income goes to the owner of the master recording, currently Sony Music, which then shares a percentage with Tyler based on the recording contract she signed in the 1980s. Contracts negotiated before the internet became the primary mode of music consumption were not designed with streaming economics in mind and typically pay artists very little for digital plays. The result is that one of the most streamed songs of its era generates substantial revenue for rights holders and publishers while leaving the performer who made it famous with almost nothing.

Tyler's case is one of the most frequently cited examples in the ongoing industry debate about streaming royalties and the fairness of legacy contracts. Her public acknowledgment of receiving almost nothing from a billion-stream song drew widespread attention earlier this year when the milestone was announced, and her comments renewed calls from artist advocacy groups for reforms to how streaming revenues are distributed between rights holders and recording artists.

Tributes pour in for a Welsh music icon who won a Grammy, a Brit Award and the hearts of millions

Wales Secretary Jo Stevens was among the first public figures to pay tribute following the announcement of Tyler's death. "So sad to hear of the death of Bonnie Tyler," she wrote on X. "A Welsh music icon, Grammy and Brit award winner and the sound of my teenage years." The tribute reflected the particular pride Wales takes in one of its most internationally celebrated artists, a singer who carried the distinctive emotional directness of Welsh music into the global mainstream.

Tyler's career spanned more than five decades. From Lost in France in the mid-1970s to It's a Heartache, Holding Out for a Hero, and Total Eclipse of the Heart, she built a catalogue that transcended genre boundaries, blending country-rock, operatic pop, and arena rock in ways that were unusual for the era and that still sound singular today. She represented Wales at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 with Believe in Me, bringing her career full circle to the big-stage anthemic performances that had always suited her voice best.

In a 1983 interview, Jim Steinman said he thought Tyler had "one of the most passionate voices I'd ever heard in rock and roll since Janis Joplin." That assessment, made in the year Total Eclipse of the Heart topped charts on multiple continents, has only grown more apt with time. The voice that began with a scream about forgotten strawberries ended four months of illness and emergency surgery at the age of 75, leaving behind music that will endure far longer than any of the contracts that so inadequately compensated the person who made it.