Tributes have been paid to Grammy Award-winning singer Bonnie Tyler following her death at the age of 75, with friends remembering her as a woman of deep Christian faith, extraordinary generosity and remarkable humility despite her global success.
The Welsh singer-songwriter, best known for 'Total eclipse of the heart', died in hospital in Portugal on Wednesday after complications following emergency intestinal surgery.
Tyler, whose real name was Gaynor Hopkins and who later became Gaynor Sullivan after her marriage, had been hospitalised in Faro in May before spending a month in an induced coma. Her manager, Matt Davis, confirmed she died on 8 July following the illness for which she had been receiving treatment.
Welsh broadcaster, musician and Premier Christian Radio Mal Pope, who knew Tyler for decades, described her as one of the most generous people he had ever met.
"I've known Bonnie Tyler all of my life, really," he told Premier Christian News. "We started off in the record business at around the same time. Obviously, her career went in a slightly more stratospheric direction than mine, but she's always been a part of my life."
Although Tyler became an international superstar, Pope said she remained firmly rooted in her hometown of Mumbles near Swansea.
"She still lived just around the corner. You'd see her on a weekly basis in the local supermarket. We'd have a chat. She did so many shows for me - TV, radio, concerts. She always turned up, even when she was a global superstar," he said.
Pope said Tyler never allowed fame to change who she was:
"She was a very, very generous person. She was humble in the fact that she knew how big she was and how successful she was.
"If you lived in the area, you'd call her Gaynor. People would say, 'Oh Gaynor, are you still singing a bit?' - and she'd have just finished stadium tours across Europe. But she would never make people feel bad. She'd simply say, 'Oh yes, I'm still doing a little bit.'"
He recalled how Tyler frequently contributed to his own musical projects without asking for payment.
"She recorded a number of songs with me, and the amazing thing is, she didn't want anything. She sang on lots of my records and musicals. She turned up at concerts. She just loved singing," he said.
Before Tyler performed Abide with Me at the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley in 1994, she rang Pope for advice on which musical key to sing it in.
"I sat at the piano while she sang down the phone," he laughed. "She had to go across the other side of the kitchen because she couldn't sing quietly.
"The following week I congratulated her, and five minutes later a bottle of champagne arrived on my table to say thank you. That's the kind of person she was."
Beyond her music, Pope said Tyler's Christian faith was central to her life.
He shared a message from Tyler's sister, Avis which said: "She loved the Lord Jesus, brought up to love Him by our mum and dad. Now she sees Jesus face to face and looks into His beautiful face as He welcomes her back into His loving arms and says, 'Well done, my child.'"
Reflecting on her legacy, Pope said Tyler remained an icon because she never forgot where she came from.
"In many ways, Bonnie Tyler was the superstar on stage, but Gaynor Sullivan was the woman everyone knew at home," he said.
"Mumbles, Swansea and Wales loved her because she sounded like us. She never changed her accent. She never changed who she was."
Tyler is survived by her husband of 53 years, Robert Sullivan.
