You'll Never Guess What Bonnie Tyler Plans To Perform During Total Solar Eclipse

Turn around, bright eyes, because the imminent total solar eclipse just got so much better.

As next Monday’s (Aug. 21) eclipse is set to extend a narrow margin of total blackout across the United States, Royal Caribbean has planned a special musical surprise for the guests on their Total Eclipse Cruise: Bonnie Tyler will be on board to perform her career-defining single “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

The only Welsh singer to top the Billboard Hot 100, Tyler will perform her 1983 hit just as the eclipse begins, the boat positioned in its “path of totality” during its week-long trip from Orlando, Fla. to the Caribbean. Tyler will be backed by the Joe Jonas-led pop-rock outfit DNCE.

“The eclipse of the sun lasts 2 minutes and 40 [seconds], I’m told,” Tyler explained in an interview with TIME. “Unlike my song. It had to be chopped about, because it was so long. I never thought it would be played on the radio, in the beginning.”

Tyler also shared a brief synopsis of how she ended up with the song’s production courtesy of songwriter Jim Steinman, who is best known for his work with the band Meat Loaf.

“The A&R guy said, ‘Are you crazy? He’s never going to work with you.’ And I said, ‘Well, ask him!’ You don’t get until you ask,” Tyler said. ” So they asked him, and… I went over to meet him, and within three weeks he’d finished writing the song for me, ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart,’ that he’d started writing many years ago. And he finished it off and gave it to me to sing. I wouldn’t have had this hit record without bloody asking. And I got it.”

In preparation for your own eclipse tableau, jam out to Tyler’s epic track below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7VrQod3ad8

About the author

Ryan Kristobak

Music Editor

Hailing from the booming metropolis that is Lebanon, Pennsylvania, Ryan grew up surrounded by Amish farms and performed in a variety of questionable musical acts. After studying journalism at Penn State and working as an editor at the startup blog Onward State, Ryan moved to New York City to work for The Huffington Post as the Music and Entertainment Social Media Editor. When he isn't pouring through new music or managing the artists Angelo Mota and Marathon, he is endlessly quoting "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia", "Archer" and "Kroll Show" to anyone that will listen.