Bonnie Tyler of “It’s a Heartache” Fame Suffers Cardiac Arrest Following Surgery

This ad for Bonnie Tyler’s worldwide breakthrough, “It’s a Heartache,” appeared in the April 1, 1978, issue of Record World.

Bonnie Tyler, the husky-voiced Welsh singer who earned worldwide pop hits including 1978’s “It’s a Heartache” and 1983’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” suffered cardiac arrest last week following emergency intestinal surgery. The May 11, 2026 news followed earlier reports last week that the singer had been placed into a medically induced coma.

Reports indicate that the popular singer had first felt unwell while performing in London in March. After an examination, she is said to have recovered well enough to travel to Portugal, where she maintains a home. Upon feeling “severe abdominal pain,” Tyler, who will turn 75 on June 8, was taken to a hospital in Faro, Portugal, where emergency appendix surgery was performed on around May 6. Various reports on May 11 add that Tyler suffered cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated. The singer’s social media team wrote on May 8 that she was then “put into a medically induced coma to aid her recovery.”

The full post noted, “Thank you for the incredible outpouring of love and well wishes we’ve received for Bonnie over the last few days. It truly means the world.

“Bonnie has been put into an induced coma by her doctors to aid her recovery. We know that you all wish her well and ask for privacy at this difficult time please. We will issue a further statement when we are able to.”

That next update arrived shortly after 7 a.m. on May 12, when her family issued an update. “As of this morning Bonnie remains seriously ill but stable in hospital in Faro, however her doctors are still positive that she will make a full recovery.

“Bonnie’s family are very disappointed at the many lurid and untrue rumours now circulating in the media and would like to make it clear that Liberto Mealha does not represent them in any way whatsoever and is not in contact with them regarding Bonnie.

“When there is any further news of Bonnie’s condition then we will issue another statement but ask that the media cease to speculate or publish wild rumours, which simply serve to upset her family, friends, and many fans, and ask again for privacy and decency at this difficult time.”

Tyler, born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, was brought up in Skewen, a small U.K. village near Swansea.

In 1977, she recorded a song written by her managers Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, “It’s a Heartache.” It was released as a single in the U.K. and became a worldwide smash, topping the chart in several countries. It was issued in America in March 1978, reaching #3 on June 17, 1978, giving the singer her first U.S. hit. “Maybe my husky voice was what that song, and my career, needed,” she said.

After a period with no follow-up success, she changed record labels and was teamed with Jim Steinman for 1983’s Faster Than the Speed of Night, which included “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” similar in style to Steinman’s best-selling operatic collaboration with Meat Loaf, Bat Out of Hell, from several years earlier.

The single was released in the U.K. that February and on June 12 in the U.S. On Oct. 1, 1983, it reached #1 on the Hot 100, where it remained for four weeks.

A year later came another big collaboration with Steinman. “Holding Out For a Hero,” often referred to by its lyric, “I Need a Hero,” and written by Steinman with Dean Pitchford, was recorded for the smash 1984 movie musical, Footloose. Though the track reached #2 in the U.K., it peaked at just #34 in the U.S., one of six hits from the soundtrack (that topped the album chart for two months).

Related: Our Spotlight Feature on Tyler

Tyler’s recordings are available in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.