The Bizarre Reason Tragic Bonnie Tyler Had Rod Stewart to Thank for Soaring Voice That Eclipsed Singing Rivals

Bonnie Tyler's famously husky voice was the sound that lifted her above many of her singing rivals and became one of the most recognizable in popular music – and OK! can reveal it was created by a bizarre twist of fate after throat surgery left her sounding, in her own words, like "a female Rod Stewart."

What could have ended the late Welsh singer's career instead became the making of it, helping propel her to worldwide fame with "It's a Heartache" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

Tyler, who died this month at age 75 after complications following emergency intestinal surgery at a hospital near her home in Faro, Portugal, had spent years trying to establish herself before her life changed in 1977.

Born Gaynor Hopkins on June 8, 1951, in Skewen, South Wales, she had broken into the U.K. charts the previous year with "Lost In France."

When doctors discovered nodules on her vocal cords, she underwent an operation and was ordered not to speak for six weeks. Unable to stay completely silent, she permanently damaged her voice – but the rasp which emerged after the operation became her greatest asset.

Recalling the moment she returned to the recording studio after her procedure, Tyler said: "When I went into the studio, they all said, 'Bloody h---, where did that voice come from?'. I now sounded like a female Rod Stewart."

The comparison was impossible to ignore.

Tyler even adopted a similarly tousled, bleach-blonde hairstyle that mimicked Stewart's look, while her newly roughened vocals transformed the emotional intensity of her performances.

The first recording to showcase the change in her vocals was "It's a Heartache," which climbed to No. 4 in the U.K. and No. 3 in the U.S., giving her the international breakthrough she had spent years pursuing.

Stewart has acknowledged the musical connection between them.

In 2006, he recorded "It's a Heartache" for his album Still The Same: Great Rock Classics Of Our Time, before joining Tyler on the duet "Battle of the S----" for her 2019 album Between The Earth And The Stars.

But long before she found international success, Tyler had endured years of setbacks.

She famously said: "I began by singing in my bedroom with a hairbrush," adding she "sang for seven years before getting a record deal."

Tyler worked in grocery stores, performed in working men's clubs for around $1 a night and even laughed about one disastrous early performance when, she recalled, "My wig came off."

After "It's A Heartache," record executives tried steering her toward softer country-pop, but Tyler believed her voice belonged in rock music.

She later said: "I wanted to do more rock and roll. I thought, 'I'm not doing very well at the moment, so I may as well go in that direction.' If it's successful, great. If it's not, at least I'd be doing the music I really enjoy doing."

The decision led her to songwriter Jim Steinman, whose theatrical songwriting perfectly matched Tyler's dramatic vocals.

Their collaboration produced "Total Eclipse of the Heart," released in 1983, which topped the charts in both Britain and the United States and became one of the defining songs of the decade.

Tyler later recalled recording the epic ballad by saying: "The way Jim works is you sing the song through nine times and you decide which take has got the best feel, which happened to be the second." She added the original version "was just too long" before being edited for radio release.

Tyler continued recording and touring for decades, represented the U.K. at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2013 and was appointed an MBE in 2023 for services to music.

In her final television interview earlier this year, she reflected on a career shaped by an accident that became her greatest gift.

She told British TV presenter Lorraine Kelly: "I often said, 'Next year I'm going to slow down,' but, you know, I keep being able to do shows in great places and I love what I do. I've had a wonderful journey."