Welsh pop legend Bonnie Tyler has passed away at the age of 75 but she left behind a timeless legacy, an iconic power ballad known as Total Eclipse of the Heart. Early this year, the 1983 track hit a milestone of 1billion Spotify streams 43 years after its original release. However, it is reported that Bonnie has made no money from streams of this worldwide chart hit.

Bonnie, whose birth name was Gaynor Hopkins, died on Wednesday night as her family announced on the Welsh star's website that she "unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for". She had been placed in intensive care in an induced coma after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery.

Total Eclipse of the Heart was written by acclaimed songwriter Jim Steinman, who disclosed the track had originally been written for a musical adaptation of Nosferatu, but had never been finished. By the time recording got underway, Meat Loaf had temporarily lost his voice, leaving Bonnie to truly make the song her own.

Despite joining Taylor Swift and Eminem in the one billion club, the Neath-born singer said she "has made about nothing" in revenue from the classic track. Speaking to BBC in January, she shared her thoughts of receiving a billion streams plaque from Spotify.

"I'm really happy, when you think about it, there's only 8.3billion people in the world," she said. "It's quite an evergreen song - how many times have you heard it popping up in adverts and movies? People just love it."

But the streaming figures does not translate to her bank account as Bonnie said: "Oh it's nothing, just about nothing."

A spokesperson for Spotify said the platform paid out more than $1.4million in 2025 for streams of Bonnie Tyler’s catalogue in 2025. However, the streaming platform does not pay directly to the singer. Instead the money goes to publishing rights and master recording rights.

In this case, with Jim Steinman the sole credited songwriter for Total Eclipse of the Heart and Bonnie not holding any songwriting credit on the track, the royalty goes directly to Steinman's estate and his music publisher.

But Bonnie said she "never gets tired of singing" the hit song, she recalled her first impression when hearing the song, sharing: "The first time I heard it was when Jim Steinman just played it on the piano in New York. 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.'

"When I recorded the song, I thought no one is going to end up playing this because it's so long. The original version is eight minutes long."