SWANSEA, United Kingdom -- Hundreds of people joined mourners on Monday for the funeral of Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler, with fans singing along to the star’s song “It’s a Heartache” as her coffin was carried into church. The husky-voiced star, known for a string of hits including “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” died in Portugal last month aged 75. More than 1,000 people gathered outside the church ahead of the funeral in south Wales, which was also live-streamed. There was applause as a hearse carrying her white coffin -- covered with white roses and lilies and etched with a small hand holding a microphone and a treble clef -- arrived at Swansea Minster, which was packed with family and friends. “It’s a Heartache” and another of her hits, “If I Sing You A Love Song,” were played as pallbearers carried the casket into the minster. “She is a Welsh icon,” 75-year-old retiree Bette Richards told AFP. “She was a beautiful person. She never changed,” she added. The funeral also featured Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” performed by a male voice choir. Another Swansea resident, John Edwards, 70, paid tribute to a star who was also very much “an ordinary person” and “one of us.” “I feel proud... Everybody loves her. It is a big loss,” he said. A life ‘well-lived’ Tyler died in hospital in Faro in southern Portugal on July 8. In a eulogy, Tyler’s long-time tour manager Matt Davis remembered a star who could “command any stage” and led a “big and well-lived” life. Tyler’s death came after she was placed in an induced coma to aid her recovery after emergency surgery in May. The Grammy-nominated singer, whose real name was Gaynor Hopkins, was born and raised in a traditional coal-mining village northwest of Swansea. In recent years, she had split her time between Wales and Portugal, where she had a holiday home. She shot to fame in the 1970s with hits including “Lost in France” and “It’s a Heartache.” “Total Eclipse of the Heart” later topped the charts in both Britain and the United States. A male voice choir sang a mournful, slow version of “Total Eclipse” as her funeral drew to a close. Tyler also hit the charts with “Holding Out for a Hero” in 1984, which featured on the soundtrack to the huge U.S. box office success “Footloose.” At the time she was taken ill, she had been about to start a European tour in Malta to mark 50 years since the release of “Lost in France,” which was her breakthrough hit in 1976. By Caroline Taix
