Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler is out of a coma but remains “very unwell” in intensive care, her spokesperson has said.
The 74-year-old, famed for her 80s hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” was rushed to the hospital last month in Faro, Portugal, where she received emergency intestinal surgery. She was placed in a medically induced coma to aid her recovery.
In a statement posted on the star’s website, her spokesperson said Tyler was healing.
“Although her condition is improving, it is a slow process,” the post read. “Her doctors remain confident that she will make a good recovery but it is going to take time.”
Tyler's 30-date tour — which was scheduled to begin July 20 in Dinslaken, Germany with a homecoming gig taking place in Cardiff in December — will be cancelled or postponed, while some autumn dates are still hoped to go ahead.
The spokesperson thanked fans around the world for their “huge outpouring of love and support,” adding that Tyler was grateful for the good wishes.
The statement also addressed the rescheduled tour dates, saying: “We apologize to all of Bonnie's fans and to our promoter partners for the disappointment that this will cause but trust that you will understand and bear with us in these difficult circumstances.
“We hope to see you next year instead.”
Tyler’s friend Liberto Mealha, a businessman based in the Algarve, previously described the weeks leading up to Tyler’s emergency surgery, with the singer first complaining of feeling unwell while playing a gig in London in March.
“She started feeling unwell during a concert in London and went to a doctor for tests, but they didn’t detect anything there,” Mealha told The Sun. “She decided to travel to the Algarve, where she began to feel severe abdominal pain.”
He continued: “Two days later, she went to a private hospital, which urgently transferred her to the hospital in Faro because her appendix had burst and she needed emergency surgery.”
Mealha said that Tyler was being supported at her hospital bedside by her husband Robert Sullivan, a property developer she married in 1973.
Tyler, whose additional hits include “Holding Out for a Hero” and “It’s a Heartache,” has released more than 15 albums across five decades of work in the music industry, and said at the time that she has no plans for slowing down.
The musician, born Gaynor Sullivan in Skewen, Wales, has said in the past that she will never grow tired of performing her signature hit.
After accepting her MBE at Windsor Castle in 2023, Tyler said: “Lots of people ask me aren’t you fed up of singing it, but there is no way, I love it and everybody does, it is a karaoke classic.”
