{"id":432367,"date":"2026-01-27T08:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/432367\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T08:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:05:08","slug":"bonnie-tylers-classic-hits-1bn-streams-but-singer-reveals-it-makes-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/432367\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonnie Tyler’s classic hits 1bn streams – but singer reveals it ‘makes nothing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

With her instantly recognisable gravelly-voice and big, blonde hair, Gaynor Hopkins became an international sensation as Bonnie Tyler with her 80s hit, Total Eclipse of the Heart.<\/p>\n

43 years on, and the song has cemented its place as one of the most famous power ballads of all time by surpassing a billion streams on Spotify.<\/p>\n

But despite joining Taylor Swift, The Weekend and Eminem in the exclusive one billion club, Neath-born Tyler says that she’s made “about nothing” in revenue from the classic track.<\/p>\n

As the platform’s most streamed song by a Welsh artist, Tyler “never gets tired” of singing the iconic tune, despite the astronomical streaming numbers not making a dent in her bank account.<\/p>\n

Born Gaynor Hopkins<\/a> in a council house in Neath, Tyler grew up with a love for music before she was discovered by talent scout Roger Bell in a Swansea club.<\/p>\n

Tyler released her first single, Lost in France, in 1977, but it was the release of Total Eclipse of the Heart<\/a> five years later which changed her life.<\/p>\n

“The first time I heard it was when Jim Steinman just played it on the piano in New York.<\/p>\n

“He sang the song all the way through and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this song is amazing. I can’t believe Jim is giving it to me.’<\/p>\n

“When I recorded the song, I thought no one is going to end up playing this because it’s so long.<\/p>\n

“The original version is eight minutes long.”<\/p>\n

But the four-minute radio version took the world by storm, with the ballad spending two weeks at UK number one, and four weeks in the US.<\/p>\n

\"Bonnie<\/p>\n

Neath-born Bonnie Tyler became a household name after the release of Total Eclipse of The Heart [Getty Images]<\/p>\n

Now, 43 years on, it’s clear the best of all the years have not gone by, as Tyler shared her delight with fans at receiving a one billion streams plaque from Spotify.<\/p>\n

The feat came as a surprise to the singer, who only found out after the streamer contacted her website to send her the “beautiful” disc.<\/p>\n

“I’m really happy, when you think about it, there’s only 8.3 billion people in the world.<\/p>\n

“It’s quite an evergreen song – how many times have you heard it popping up in adverts and movies?<\/p>\n

“People just love it.”<\/p>\n

As one of the most iconic love songs of all time, the music video has already surpassed 1.2 billion views on YouTube.<\/p>\n

But does she ever get a little bit tired listening to it?<\/p>\n

“Never, I never get tired of singing it, I love it because everyone can’t wait to sing it.”<\/p>\n

While the song has been listened to over a billion times, streaming means that the number doesn’t necessarily translate to the artist’s bank account.<\/p>\n

“Oh it’s nothing, just about nothing,” Tyler said.<\/p>\n

Tyler also received another plaque in the same week – a gold disk for the success of David Guetta’s Together, which samples the iconic song.<\/p>\n

Except for taking photos and getting her nephew to hang the plaques in her music room, Tyler says she won’t be doing “anything special” to celebrate the spectacular milestones.<\/p>\n

Grammy-nominated Tyler has had a string of other hits, including Holding out for a Hero and also represented the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013.<\/p>\n

She was named in the Queen’s last Birthday Honours list in 2022 and was awarded an MBE for her services to music by Prince William the following year.<\/p>\n

Tyler shows no signs of slowing down, with a string of tour dates scheduled for spring.<\/p>\n

“I’m 74 now and I never would have imagined that I’d still be singing.<\/p>\n

“I’m really looking forward to the shows and hope everyone comes along and has a great time.”<\/p>\n

More top stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With her instantly recognisable gravelly-voice and big, blonde hair, Gaynor Hopkins became an international sensation as Bonnie Tyler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[204942,88,204946,204943,204945,216,204944],"class_list":["post-432367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-bonnie-tyler","tag-entertainment","tag-evergreen-song","tag-gaynor-hopkins","tag-jim-steinman","tag-music","tag-total-eclipse-of-the-heart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}