Bonnie Tyler remembered as a star

SWANSEA, Wales

Bonnie Taylor died last month in a hospital in Portugal at 75.

Fans crowded outside a Welsh church on Aug. 17 where family and friends remembered husky-voiced singer Bonnie Tyler as a star loved worldwide.

Tyler’s “If I Sing You A Love Song” played as her rose-covered coffin was carried into Swansea Minster for the invite-only funeral that was projected on a screen outside. Her “It’s a Heartache” played as the coffin was placed in front of the altar.

“Bonnie was always a star but never a diva,” her manager, Matthew Davis, said in one of several tributes. “She never forgot her roots or where she came from. She would have been amazed and very gratified at the massive outpouring of love from all over the world that has occurred since her sudden and unexpected passing.”

The Grammy-nominated pop star, beloved for her 1983 chart-topping power ballad “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” died last month in a hospital in Portugal at 75. She had been hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery. The funeral was held less than a week after her signature song served as the soundtrack at celebrations marking a total eclipse that darkened skies across parts of Europe.

Crowds lined the streets on Aug. 15 in her seaside Welsh village of Mumbles as a hearse carried her coffin, draped in a Welsh flag, home.