Born in Skewen, South Wales, Tyler rose to prominence with her first hit single "Lost in France" in 1976. She signed a management deal with British songwriters Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe, who wrote and co-produced Tyler's first four studio albums between 1977 and 1981. "It's a Heartache" became Tyler's first US hit, with worldwide sales in excess of 6 million.
In 1982, Tyler signed with CBS/Columbia and began working with producer-songwriter Jim Steinman. He wrote her biggest career hit, "Total Eclipse of the Heart", and produced its parent album, "Faster Than the Speed of Night" (1983), and the follow-up, "Secret Dreams and Forbidden Fire" (1986). Both albums were noted for their bombastic pop-rock production and melodramatic lyrics. Tyler's next album, "Hide Your Heart" (1988), was produced by Desmond Child and included several tracks that later became hits for other artists, including "The Best" for Tina Turner and "Save Up All Your Tears" for Cher.
Tyler leaned further into a commercial pop sound in the 1990s. She signed with Hansa Records and recorded her next album, "Bitterblue" (1991), with an assortment of producers including Giorgio Moroder, Roy Bittan and Dieter Bohlen. Her subsequent albums "Angel Heart" (1992)" and "Silhouette in Red" (1993) were recorded almost exclusively with Bohlen.
Towards the end of the 90s, Tyler moved to East West Records and recorded the albums "Free Spirit" (1995) and "All in One Voice" (1998). She continued to experiment with cross-genre sounds in the 2000s, recording the covers album "Heart Strings" (2003) with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2004, Tyler began recording in Paris with producer Jean Lahcène, beginning with a re-recording of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" which topped the charts in France and Belgium. Tyler promoted her subsequent albums "Simply Believe" (2004) and "Wings" (2005) with a world tour and the release of her first concert film Bonnie on Tour.
Tyler spent the following eight years concentrating on her live work before returning to the studio for "Rocks and Honey" (2013). The album includes her UK Eurovision entry "Believe in Me". In 2018, Tyler reunited with David Mackay, who produced Tyler's first two albums in the 1970s, for her latest releases "Between the Earth and the Stars" (2019) and "The Best Is Yet to Come" (2021).
Tyler has contributed to several film soundtracks. Her most notable recording is "Holding Out for a Hero" which featured in Footloose, and has since become synonymous with action sequences, having later appeared in Shrek 2, Loki, and in numerous movie trailers. In 1984, Tyler sang the track "Here She Comes" for Giorgio Moroder's restoration of Fritz Lange's Metropolis, a recording which led to Tyler's third Grammy nomination.
Wings
Bonnie Tyler Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And pushed back the sky
I didn't want to go there
I preferred to deny
I thought - love was for dreamers
Angels and fools
I'd had my fill of schemers
Then you made me fly
You gave me wings
Made me wanna try - a thousand things
That I thought - I'd never do
Till I caught - first sight of you
I was picking up the pieces
Of a so-called broken heart
Then you proved the best release is
A "brand new start"
Ah, 'cos you make me fly
You give me wings
You send me high - above all those things
That I thought - would keep me down
But with these wings - I'm off the ground
Funny how we don't know - what's to come -
Ooh yeah
Just when we think the party's over -
You know, the party's just begun
'Cos you made me fly
You gave me wings
Made me wanna try - a thousand things
That I thought - ooo - I'd never do
Till I caught - first sight of you
'Cos you make me fly
You give me wings
You send me high - above all those things
That I thought - would keep me down
But with these wings - I'm off the ground
Then you made me fly
You gave me wings
Made me wanna try - a thousand things
That I thought - I'd never do
Till I caught - first sight of you
'Cos you make me fly
You give me wings
You send me high - above all those things
That I thought - would keep me down
But with these wings - I'm off the ground
The song "Wings" by Bonnie Tyler is about finding love and how the love of a significant other can make us feel like we are flying, even in the toughest and darkest moments. The lyrics indicate that the singer had a pessimistic view of love before she met her lover. She believed that love was only for dreamers and fools, and she was tired of being hurt by schemers. However, since she met her lover, she has had a complete turnaround. She now feels like she has wings, and she can do anything with the support and encouragement of her companion.
In the chorus, the lyrics are repetitive and reinforce the idea that the singer's lover has given her a newfound confidence and courage that she never had before. This is represented by the metaphorical wings that the singer has received from her lover, which have allowed her to fly and try new things.
The song concludes with a realization that sometimes life doesn't go as planned, and we don't know what will happen next, but having someone in our lives can make all the difference. The singer acknowledges that the party has just begun, and with her lover by her side, nothing can bring her down.
Line by Line Meaning
You came from nowhere
I wasn't expecting you to come into my life
And pushed back the sky
You made me feel like anything was possible, like the sky was the limit
I didn't want to go there
I didn't want to risk my heart being broken again
I preferred to deny
I chose to ignore the possibility of love
I thought - love was for dreamers
I used to believe that love wasn't real, that it was something only dreamers believed in
Angels and fools
I thought only very pure and very foolish people could believe in love
I'd had my fill of schemers
I'd been hurt too many times by people who were only pretending to love me
Life was so cruel.....
I thought life was cruel and that there wasn't any real love in it
Then you made me fly
You gave me a sense of freedom and excitement I had never felt before
You gave me wings
You gave me the courage and confidence to take chances and try new things, like I had never had before
Made me wanna try - a thousand things
You made me want to explore every possibility, like a whole new world was available to me
That I thought - I'd never do
Activities and adventures that I didn't think were possible for me
Till I caught - first sight of you
Until I saw you and realized what I had been missing
I was picking up the pieces
I was trying to recover from a heartbreak
Of a so-called broken heart
From a heartbreak that people might not have viewed as very serious
Then you proved the best release is
You showed me that the best way to recover was to start anew
A brand new start
To give love another chance
Funny how we don't know - what's to come - Ooh yeah
It's strange how we can never predict what might happen next
Just when we think the party's over - You know, the party's just begun
Just when we think we've experienced everything, there's always something new to discover
'Cos you make me fly
Because of you, I feel liberated and free
You give me wings
You give me the strength and confidence to take chances and try new things
You send me high - above all those things
You lift me up above all the doubts and fears that I used to have
That I thought - would keep me down
Things that I used to think were insurmountable or overwhelming
But with these wings - I'm off the ground
You have helped me to soar and fly like I never thought I could
Contributed by Layla E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Philip Kassabian
on Straight From The Heart
Yet another excellent Bonnie Tyler song.
Philip Kassabian
on Holding Out for a Hero
A great and fantastic song by Bonnie Tyler.