Für ihr aktuelles Album “Heart Strings” hat Bonnie Tyler einige der schönsten Balladen der Rock-Geschichte ausgewählt. Dank ihrer unverwechselbaren Stimme hat sie es geschafft, den Songs ihre persönliche Note zu verleihen.
Bonnie Tyler’s success story has been going on for more than a quarter of a century. Through numerous chart successes, resulting from more than a dozen albums and over 60 singles, Bonnie Tyler, real name Gaynor Hopkins, became one of the most successful artists the United Kingdom has ever produced.
Born in a small Welsh town near Swansea, music has always been a central theme in her family’s life. Bonnie now fondly remembers how the neighbors would gather at the Hopkins house to listen to her opera-loving mother sing. As a teenager, she wrote out the lyrics to the songs that her father recorded on tape so that she could later perform them in front of the mirror. Impressed by the Motown sound and the passion of Janis Joplin, Gaynor dreamed of a career as a singer.
It took a lot of persuasion from her family before Gaynor decided to take part in a local talent competition. But she pulled through and finished in a respectable second place. Anyway, this stage debut gave her so much confidence to stick to her dream of becoming a singer. Shortly afterwards she joined the “Dixies”, the background singers in Bobby Wayne’s band. Under the stage name Sherene Davis, she gained professional experience at the age of 17 by experimenting with all kinds of musical styles.
A short time later she founded “Sherene and Imagination”, her first band, which played regularly at the “Townsman Club” in Swansea. Here she fell in love with Robert Sullivan, whom she married in 1973. It turned out that marriage laid the foundation for the long and successful career that lay ahead of her.
One evening she came to the attention of Roger Bell, his talent scout at Chappell Music. He immediately contacted songwriter-producers Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolve to tell them about the fantastic voice he had discovered in Swansea. Without further ado, demos were made, contracts were signed and a new name was chosen – Bonnie Tyler was born!
Bonnie’s first single “My, My Honeycomb” was occasionally played on the radio outside of Swansea. The second release flirted with hit lists that lasted for months. A short time later, on October 30th 1976, Bonnie scored her first hit with “Lost In France”, which stayed in the UK charts for ten weeks. The success spread to mainland Europe and helped her land an appearance on “Top Of The Pops” – Bonnie’s dreams had come true.
Bonnie’s ’76 debut album “The World Starts Tonight” entered the European charts, received excellent reviews and earned her the reputation of a promising newcomer. Equipped in this way, she achieved her final breakthrough in 1978 with “It’s A Heartache” from the album “Natural Force”. In some European countries, the song made it to the top spot and even landed at number 3 on the “Billboard Hot 100”. In addition, “It’s A Heartache,” one of the biggest hits of 1978, was certified gold on the American Country Music Charts.
A few years later, Bonnie’s career reached new dimensions with “Total Eclipse Of The Heart”. She was the only Welsh artist ever to achieve the feat of reaching the top spot in both the UK and US charts. Bonnie had thus made history. With the album “Faster Than The Speed Of Night” she became the first woman to reach number 1 in the UK charts and was nominated for a “Grammy” twice in America. The album sold 4 million copies.
Meanwhile, Bonnie continued to do what she loves most: being on stage; sold out in hundreds Venues all over the world. She published more in the following years
Studio albums and compilations. Some in collaboration with other artists such as Mike Oldfield, Todd Rundgreen and Rick Wakeman. Over the course of her phenomenal career, Bonnie has won numerous awards and won over many loyal fans from all over the world.
On March 3rd, 2003, Bonnie released her latest work “Heart Strings”, a balanced mixture of robust rock and symphonic sound diversity. The 13 rock classics are pieces by other artists. However, Bonnie Tyler has managed to interpret the songs in her own way through her extraordinary voice and thus make them appear in a different timbre.
“Amazed”, originally from “Lonestar”, will be released as the first single on February 17th.
2003, CMC Records/EMI Music Group
