Though Tyler’s success in the United States peaked in popularity in the 1980s, she enjoyed a career in Europe, from her first singles in 1976 to hits in the new millennium. In 2013, she represented the United Kingdom in Eurovision. Over the course of her career, Tyler was nominated for three Grammy Awards.
Born in Wales in 1951 as Gaynor Hopkins, Tyler got her first taste of the stage performing at open mics and talent shows. In 1975, she was spotted by a talent agent and signed to RCA. Her first hit, “Lost In France,” which peaked at number nine on the U.K. singles chart, came the following year. “[T]hen all of a sudden, I had all these nodules on my vocal cords – I thought my career was over,” she reflected to The Guardian in 2009. She ended up having surgery to remove them, and wasn’t supposed to talk for months. “But after I got my voice back, I went into the studio for the first time and started singing. The band said, ‘Woah, your voice sounds great.’ My voice was huskier than before, and had more of an edge.” Her first hit in the United States—”It’s A Heartache,” which hit number three on the Billboard Hot 100—came in 1977.
But the song that would truly break through in the United States came years later with “Total Eclipse Of The Heart.” At that point, as People reported in 1983, Tyler had already been considered a one-hit wonder with “It’s A Heartache.” But “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” marked the first collaboration between Tyler and songwriter Jim Steinman, which ended up providing her most recognizable hits in the U.S. “I never thought it had a prayer as a single,” Steinman said about “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” in a contemporary interview. “It was an aria to me, a Wagnerian-like onslaught of sound and emotion. I wrote it to be a showpiece for her voice.” The two would work together again for “Holding Out For A Hero,” which appeared on the Footloose soundtrack.
Tyler didn’t achieve any hits in the U.S. after the mid-1980s, but her success continued in Europe through the 1990s. In 2003, she recorded a duet version of “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” with singer Kareen Antonn in French, titled “Si demain… (Turn Around).” The recording was a major success in the country and reinvigorated her career in France. In 2013, Tyler represented the U.K. in Eurovision with the song “Believe in Me,” and placed 19th. Her final album, The Best Is Yet to Come was released in 2021. While promoting the album, she was proud of how consistently she had worked throughout her singing career. Her only extended break, she said, had been when she recovered from her vocal nodules. “Apart from that, I’ve worked all my life,” she told Goldmine. “And loved every minute of it, too.”
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