Thousands of Bonnie Tyler fans gather to pay respects as coffin brought home

Fans line streets, singing Total Eclipse of the Heart ahead of Welsh singer’s Swansea funeral

Thousands of Bonnie Tyler fans lined the streets of her home town in south Wales to pay respects to the singer as her coffin was brought back to her former home.

The singer, whose real name was Gaynor Sullivan, died unexpectedly on 8 July in Portugal at the age of 75.

Many fans stood along Newton Road in Mumbles, Swansea , to watch the procession as her coffin was brought back. The coffin was draped in the Welsh flag and accompanied by a framed photograph of the singer.

Fans threw flowers on to the hearse, and the crowd erupted into applause and broke out into a rendition of Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Mumbles was Tyler’s part-time home, as she split her time between Algarve in Portugal and a large Victorian house in Blackpill, near Mumbles, overlooking Swansea Bay.

Tyler became renowned globally for her pop music hits, including Total Eclipse of the Heart and I Need a Hero.

Among those waiting to pay their respects to Tyler was Carys Edwards, 18, who said the singer was “an inspiration to everybody”.

She told PA Media: “Her music touched a lot of people, especially me. I’m quite surprised how many people came here today, but then not as well, because she was such an icon.

“She was always coming home and making sure that she came back to her fans in Wales .

“Her songs really did touch a lot of people here in Wales, we loved her a lot. When we found out she passed away, it was such a heartbreak to all of us. We cried and everything.”

Michael Bone, 58, and his partner Alan Hawkins, 54, travelled from Derby to watch the procession.

“We thought it’d be nice to pay our respects,” said Bone. “For me personally, it’s because in my teens, her music was quite prolific. For me, it was her most iconic period in the 1980s.”

Others were reported to have travelled from as far as Austria to witness the procession of Tyler’s coffin.

Her other hits included It’s a Heartache and If You Were a Woman (And I Was a Man). She represented the UK in the 2013 Eurovision song contest in Malmö, Sweden, with the song Believe in Me, finishing in 19th place.

A celebration of Tyler’s life is set to take place at Swansea Minster (Church of St Mary’s) on Monday 17 August. Only those with invitations will be allowed inside, but the service will be shown on a large screen in nearby St David’s Square – and members of the public can pay their respects.

After the service, Tyler’s coffin will make a final journey through her home village of Skewen – followed by a private gathering strictly for family and friends.

Tyler grew up in a council house in Skewen with five older siblings. “I class myself as a working-class girl, and I’ve never stopped working,” she told the Guardian in 2013. “I do an awful lot [of performances] because I feel other people would love to be offered what I’m offered.”

In her memoir, she wrote fondly of Wales: “I may have done some extraordinary things … but in so many ways, I’m still that young girl from Wales, dancing around the piano with her family, and I always will be.”

At the time of her death, then prime minister, Keir Starmer, said Tyler was an “iconic figure” and “one of Britain’s greatest recording artists”. Others who paid tribute to her included Catherine Zeta-Jones and Cliff Richard.