Josie Huang
is a reporter and Weekend Edition host who spotlights the people and places at the heart of our region.
Published October 24, 2023 5:00 AM
The first Hannam Chain supermarket opened in Koreatown in 1988. Thirty-five years later, some workers want to unionize.
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Josie Huang
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Topline:
Even as other labor activists score wins in L.A., grocery workers at the flagship Hannam Chain store in Koreatown are facing an uphill battle to create the first union at a Korean market in the country. Their employer Kee Whan Ha is one of the neighborhood’s most powerful developers and civic leaders.
What happened? Labor organizers say after enjoying early momentum behind an unionization effort, Hannam and its lawyers have managed to turn the tide. Earlier this month, more employees voted against a union than for it — by a margin of almost 2 to 1. A final vote count is pending, as both sides challenge ballots.
Why is this unionization effort significant? Few so-called ethnic supermarkets are unionized. Labor experts say a union victory at Hannam, a well-known chain with five locations in Southern California and one in New Jersey, could encourage other workers at groceries catering to Latino and Asian communities to attempt union drives.
What’s next? No matter the outcome of the election, union supporters say they will continue to fight for a union.
But it’s another story in Koreatown, where grocery store workers at the Hannam Chain supermarket have been locked in a year-long-plus battle with their powerful employer over unionization.
The supermarket’s owner, Kee Whan Ha, is one of Koreatown’s most politically-connected developers and civic leaders. Ha famously took up arms to defend the supermarket on Olympic Boulevard during the unrest of 1992.
Today he’s facing a coalition of employees — Korean and Latino immigrants who’ve overcome the language barriers among them to fight for better wages and workplace conditions that they say were particularly egregious during the pandemic.
“They don't care about us,” Hannam cashier Sun Ki Sim said of the company, which includes six locations. “They only care about the money.”
If Sim and other workers could have it their way, the Hannam Koreatown location could become the first Korean grocery in the country to unionize.
But the workers’ dream of a union anytime soon looks to be dimming.
A final vote is pending
Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board counted 65 votes in a union election. More employees voted against a union than for it — by a margin of almost 2 to 1. A final tally is pending, as both sides challenge ballots.
Union supporters claim Hannam ran an aggressive anti-union campaign. Ha did not respond to a request for an interview sent through his lawyer at Barnes & Thornburg, who also did not give comment for this story. A manager for the store declined comment, referring questions to the lawyer.
The L.A. office of the labor board is giving both parties until Wednesday to provide their positions on the challenges, according to an NLRB spokesperson.
Union supporters say they're not standing down
Union supporters at Hannam still hold out hope the final vote will go their way, but if it doesn’t, they’re not giving up on a union.
“Even though the progress is very, very slow, I have to keep here and then stand here,” Sim said.
Sun Ki Sim is a cashier at Hannam who supports unionization.
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Josie Huang
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Sim, who has worked at the store for four and a half years, said she realized workers needed a union during the pandemic when they were not given help with protective equipment or social distancing. As more co-workers caught COVID, Sim had a panic attack and called in sick. She said upon her return, a manager chastised her for missing work.
The message from management, Sim said, was “we have to protect the company. So you have to be here.”
Another employee, Antonia Gonzalez, said that over more than five years of working at Hannam, she would complain of sanitation problems such as a cockroach infestation in the kitchen where she worked. Management, she said, threatened to shut down the kitchen and eliminate jobs if health inspectors ever learned about the bugs.
Instead, the kitchen jobs were outsourced, and Hernandez said she was made a cashier six months ago.
How early momentum was dashed
Union organizers describe early momentum for the unionization effort, buoyed by support from labor-backing politicians like L.A. city council members Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez.
Election day is TOMORROW, and messages of solidarity for Hannam Chain workers continue to pour in! LA City councilmember @EunissesH stands with Hannam Chain workers! ✊ pic.twitter.com/aQfTEEYeAm
— California Restaurant & Retail Workers Union (@crrwunion) August 2, 2023
But any majority support was broken down by pressure tactics from Hannam and its lawyers over the last year, said José Roberto Hernández, president of the California Restaurant & Retail Workers Union, which has been organizing the Hannam workers.
“They just hire an anti-union law firm with anti-union dissuaders, so that they can start dividing the workforce, scaring some of the workers, promoting some of the other workers, bribing some of the other workers with $1 wage increase here and there,” Hernández said.
Hannam cashier Antonia Gonzalez said regardless of what the outcome of the union election is, she and other workers will keep advocating for worker rights.
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Both sides have been sparring vigorously over the last year which has protracted the union battle. The union election at Hannam actually took place Aug. 3 in a tent outside the store — nearly three months ago. But the labor board impounded the ballots, as it investigated the grocer’s charge that union organizers had used gift cards and pressure by supervisors to build support among workers.
The labor relations board dismissed the complaint, citing “insufficient evidence," and held the vote count earlier this month, during which 22 ballots were challenged.
Efforts to organize Korean BBQ and boba
Before hitting an impasse with Hannam, California Restaurant & Retail Workers Union, or CRRWU, had notched major victories at other high-profile businesses founded by Asian Americans.
In 2021, workers at the famed Genwa chain, which has three locations in L.A., voted to form a union in what is seen as a first in the country for Korean BBQ restaurants. A contract ratified last year provides overtime pay and retirement accounts to employees, the union said.
Last month, workers at six L.A. County locations of Boba Guys, based in San Francisco, won their bid to unionize in what is also believed to be a first among boba shops in the U.S.
A screenshot of the Genwa Korean BBQ location in Mid-Wilshire.
For the last several years, CRRWU has been working with Southern California employees of the Korean air purifier manufacturer Coway.
Worker support for the union is high, organizers say, but they are running into strong resistance from the employer, which is represented by the same law firm that works with Hannam.
Hannam owner is a powerful voice in Koreatown
Union supporters at Hannam have a notoriously tough adversary in their employer, Kee Whan Ha.
During the civil unrest of 1992, Ha grew angry that the Korean-language broadcaster was not telling listeners to defend their businesses. He recounted to NPR in 2012 how he went to the radio station.
“So I know the owner of that Radio Korea, so I brought my handgun and I put it on the table. I told him that we established Koreatown,” Ha said.
As Koreatown was rebuilt, Ha, a UCLA-trained electrical engineer, went on to become one of its biggest developers and landlords. And he expanded his supermarket chain to five locations in Southern California and one in New Jersey, while becoming politically connected at City Hall.
“We know that we cannot survive ourself,” Ha said in the NPR interview. “We have to have a relationship with other communities, as well as the politics, all these things.”
It would be no small thing if Ha’s store were the first Korean grocery in the country to be unionized.
“I think it will encourage other ethnic supermarkets to organize as well,” said Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center.
Wong said L.A. is a major hub for markets that cater to Latino and Asian communities.
“And yet their wages and working conditions are far inferior to those that are enjoyed by the unionized major chains, such as the Ralphs and Vons and Albertsons,” Wong said.
Hannam is not the first Koreatown grocery to face a unionization drive. Twenty years ago, the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance tried to organize the Assi market but was unsuccessful.
In Southern California’s world of ethnic supermarkets, only employees at El Super locations have collective bargaining agreements through representation by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.
Local 770 represents a majority of approximately 600El Super workers, employed across seven stores. A spokesperson for the chapter said workers were able to secure fair wages and recognition of sick leave and seniority.
Hannam workers and their supporters protest owner Kee Whan Ha (in the blue tie) at the 2023 World Korean Business Convention held in Anaheim this month.
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Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance
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Despite concerns of retaliation for their organizing, union supporters at Hannam have continued to confront Ha.
Earlier this month, the workers and their supporters went to the 2023 World Korean Business Convention in Anaheim to protest the company’s response to their unionization effort and to face Ha, who was the convention’s chair.
As Ha posed for group photos with other business leaders, Hannam Chain workers and their supporters lined up behind them and held up fliers with Ha’s face printed on them, demanding he meet with workers.
Cashier Sun Ki Sim said if she ever got to sit down with Ha, she would tell him that he “is not the only one who makes this business a success.”
The Hollywood Bowl hosts music from the films of Wes Anderson this weekend.
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Kevin Winter
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Getty Images for CBS Radio Inc.
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In this edition:
Wes Anderson night at the Bowl, the Library turns 100, a pizza fun run and more of the best things to do this weekend.
Highlights:
I’m going to come right out and say that the Music of Wes Anderson is the music event of the summer at the Bowl for a certain aging hipster crowd of Angelenos to which I definitely belong.
The L.A. Central Library is a survivor (see: Susan Orlean’s The Library Book), and what better way to celebrate than with a bevy of L.A. bands from the Linda Lindas to Lucy Kalantari & the Jazz Cats. Plus tons of activities and exhibits like Luceros y Penumbras: The World's Largest Pop-Up Book, created by L.A. artist Daniel González, about growing up in Boyle Heights.
If you love pizza and running, then we've got an event for you. Our friend at the L.A. Countdown, aka gourmand-about-town Luca Servodio, is hosting a charity fun run/walk from Prince Street Pizza to Bar Next Door, benefiting Soccer Without Borders.
The U.S. may be knocked out, but that doesn’t mean the World Cup action in L.A. is slowing down one bit. Pick your new favorite to root for, then head to one of the fan fests to find friends from all over the world. This weekend, Venice Beach and Whittier Narrows are both hosting events with big screens, food, music and more.
Music-wise, Friday it’s your prerogative to go old-school with Bobby Brown at the Saban Theatre, or see Bone Thugs-N-Harmony at the Garden Amphitheatre. You can go a bit more new-school with DRAM at the Blue Note, or rock out with Belmont at the Roxy. Plus, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore are at McCabe’s.
Licorice Pizza’s Lyndsey Parker is a long-time Adam Lambert fan, so you can find her at the Bellwether Friday night, catching the former Idol and current Queen frontman.
On Saturday, 5 Seconds of Summer with the Band CAMINO play the Forum; Wolfmother make their howling return at the Wiltern; the I Love Oldies fest is at Pershing Square Park with the Chi-Lites, Heatwave, the Stylistics and the Delphonics. Joji is at the Intuit Dome, and Flying Lotus is at the Blue Note — those two shows are happening Sunday, too.
Also on Sunday, 93-year-young Willie Nelson will be at the Pacific Amphitheatre; Wynonna Judd and special guest Melissa Etheridge are at Great Park Live; and bluegrass star Molly Tuttle plays the Majestic Ventura Theater.
Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12 Mark Taper Forum 135 N. Grand Ave., Downtown L.A. COST: FROM $40.25; MORE INFO
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LA ensemble MUSE/IQUE takes on iconic songstress Joni Mitchell’s history and hits in this career-sweeping look. From “Chelsea Morning” to “Both Sides Now,” the ensemble, led by Artistic Director Rachael Worby, combines visuals and expert musicians to bring cultural history to life onstage as part of the CTG: FWD series at the Music Center.
Mahjong Social
Sunday, July 12, 1:30 p.m. Hammer Museum 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood COST: FREE; MORE INFO
A game of mahjong underway at Intergenerational Mahjong in Monterey Park.
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Fiona Ng
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Clack clack clack! Fit in an afternoon of film, play and connection with Mahjong Mistress, whose instructors will be on hand to lead mahjong tables, teach beginners and welcome everyone to the centuries-old tile game. But first, catch a screening of Edward Yang’s Mahjong (1996), a “fast-moving portrait of Taipei in the ’90s where every interaction feels like a high-stakes game.”
Music of the Films of Wes Anderson
Friday to Sunday, July 10 to 12 Hollywood Bowl 2301 Highland Ave., Hollywood COST: FROM $15; MORE INFO
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Courtesy the LA Phil
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I’m going to come right out and say that this is the music event of the summer at the Bowl for a certain aging hipster crowd of Angelenos to which I definitely belong. I realize it’s going to be 90 degrees, but Margo Tannenbaum would still be in her fur coat and thick eyeliner, and so should you (well, a fake fur coat, anyway). A cast of indie stars of stage and screen join the fun, including Juliette Lewis, Rufus Wainwright, Beck, Jackson Browne, Jason Schwartzman and Steve Zissou himself, Bill Murray.
Centennial Festival
Saturday, July 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. L.A. Central Library 630 W. 5th St., Downtown L.A. COST: FREE; MORE INFO
Is there a better birthday party than one for a library? The L.A. Central Library is a survivor (see: Susan Orlean’s The Library Book), and what better way to celebrate than with a bevy of L.A. bands from the Linda Lindas to Lucy Kalantari & the Jazz Cats. Plus tons of activities and exhibits like Luceros y Penumbras: The World's Largest Pop-Up Book, created by L.A. artist Daniel González, about growing up in Boyle Heights.
Bad Hair
Saturday, July 11, 2 p.m. North Hollywood, address on RSVP COST: FROM $45; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Bad Hair
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Watching Bridgerton, I was blown away by the elaborate wigs and hairpieces — how do they do it?! Learn how to make your own bird’s nest or macaron-inspired wig at the new creative event Bad Hair (though it kind of looks more like "insanely fabulous hair," if you ask me). Guests take wigs and make them into original, wearable artworks with all kinds of unusual accoutrements. Join the group’s inaugural event at Miniluxe in North Hollywood.
Rail Giants Train Museum
Saturday and Sunday, July 11 and 12 L.A. County Fair Complex 1101 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona COST: FREE; MORE INFO
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Courtesy Rail Giants Train Museum
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Train fiends, this is for you. The second weekend of the month means the Rail Giants Train Museum is pulling into the L.A. County Fair Complex. Check out steam locomotives, the largest surviving diesel locomotive, plus the historic Arcadia Depot and much more train lore.
UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art
Ongoing Segerstrom Center for the Arts 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa COST: FREE, MORE INFO
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Estate of Raymond Saunders
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UC Irvine Orange County Museum of Art
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Three new exhibits recently opened at the always-free OCMA. Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden takes a sweeping look at Black artist Raymond Saunders' painting work, Staging California in Early Hollywoodacknowledges the artistry of set designers and painters in the early studio system, andJon Serl: As One Many examines his work from 1940s rural California through the late 20th century. All three exhibits are on view through the summer.
Rhythm & Flow
Saturday, July 11, 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Aliza Hotel 710 Rose Ave., Venice COST: $25; MORE INFO
Get up early and hit the Pilates mat for a special reset by the beach at the Aliza Hotel in Venice. A mat Pilates flow class starts at 9:30 a.m., followed by a restorative sound bath from 10:15 to 10:40 a.m. and a live DJ set from MANDAS.
L.A. Pizza Run Club: West Hollywood
Sunday, July 12, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Prince Street Pizza 9161 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood COST: $30; MORE INFO
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The LA Countdown
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Eventbrite
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If you love pizza and running, then we've got an event for you. Our friend at the L.A. Countdown, aka gourmand-about-town Luca Servodio, is hosting a charity fun run/walk from Prince Street Pizza to Bar Next Door, benefiting Soccer Without Borders. There's a three-mile run or a mile-and-a-half walk option, finishing with Bar Next Door's bar pies and Henry's Secret Ice Cream (the first 30 sign-ups get a free half-pint). And don’t worry if the running isn’t your thing; you can just come for the food and cocktails part. -Gab Chabrán
This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass.
Details: The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program's graduates don't earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor's degree.
The pushback: This new test, known as "do no harm," raises some thorny questions about the purpose of college. Like: Is it just about making more money?
This month, the U.S. Department of Education began rolling out a new accountability test that most colleges and universities will soon have to pass.
The test itself is simple: If an undergraduate program's graduates don't earn more than workers who never went to college, that program could be cut off from federal student loans. The same goes for any graduate program whose graduates earn less than someone with only a bachelor's degree.
"If a program cannot show that it leaves its graduates financially better off than if they had never enrolled, it should not be underwritten by federal taxpayers," said Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent in a recent statement.
But this new test, known as "do no harm," raises some thorny questions about the purpose of college. Like: Is it just about making more money?
Some advocates for postsecondary arts education think not.
"Earnings is only a small piece of that puzzle," said Lee Ann Scotto Adams, executive director of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a nonprofit that studies the careers of arts graduates.
She and Doug Dempster, the president of SNAAP, worry the new test might lead colleges and universities to preemptively slash low-earning creative arts programs in music, theater, studio art and design. Dempster says that could lead to a further devaluing of jobs that are critical to a well-functioning society.
"We know we need nurses. We know we need journalists. We know we need early childhood educators," he said. "We don't know how many artists we need, but I can guarantee that if you eliminate access, we will impoverish our cultural life nationally."
How the new standard will work
The new earnings test comes courtesy of last year's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a slew of big higher education policy changes meant to address rising concerns over the cost and value of college.
Higher education experts across the political spectrum told NPR the test sets a pretty reasonable expectation: In many states, federal data shows, graduates of bachelor programs will have to earn a minimum of about $30,000 and $41,000 a year for their program to pass.
"This is really a very low floor," said Christopher Madaio, a senior adviser at the nonprofit The Institute for College Access & Success. "I mean, high school earnings is not an exceedingly high metric for a program to meet."
Programs fail the test when they don't meet the earnings requirement for two out of three consecutive years.
The current test does not take student loan debt into account, which means there's no way to distinguish between a graduate who is struggling with low pay while being debt-free and a graduate who is struggling with low pay while also paying off tens of thousands of dollars in loans.
The Education Department says it will begin calculating the first year of graduate earnings in early 2027, and "some programs could be designated as low-earning outcome programs beginning in the 2028-2029 [financial aid] award year."
The kinds of programs that are likely to fail
According to Education Department estimates, the vast majority of undergraduate and graduate programs should easily pass the new earnings test.
But more than 800,000 students attend a program that would likely fail the measure, according to department data. Roughly half of those students are enrolled in for-profit schools, which already have a reputation for shortchanging students.
Other takeaways from the department's data:
About 18% of undergraduate certificate programs, which often bill themselves as career-focused fast tracks, would fail the earnings test. Specifically, certificate programs in cosmetology and somatic body work have the highest predicted failure rates.
Two-year associate degree programs have the next highest failure rate, at 6%. Associate programs that train specialized educators, including early childhood educators, are the most likely to fail.
Most traditional, four-year bachelor programs fare well, with roughly 1% failing the earnings test. When these programs do fail, it's often in areas like theater, music and studio art.
About 4% of master's degree programs would fail, with the highest failure rates for programs teaching mental and social health services.
For one music teacher, it was "never about the money"
Some of the United States' most prestigious music programs — known for training the country's most talented young musicians — are among the 14% of bachelor music programs predicted to fail the new earnings test, according to Education Department data. That includes The Juilliard School in New York City, the New England Conservatory in Boston and Indiana University Bloomington's Jacobs School of Music.
The undergraduate music program that Cindy Flores attended at Portland State University (PSU) also wouldn't pass. Flores teaches mariachi music to middle and high school students at Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon's Willamette Valley.
Cindy Flores smiles as she teaches mariachi to students at McKay High School in Salem, Oregon.
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Her path to becoming a full-time music teacher started with studying music education at PSU; then she got an educators license from Western Oregon University — and she used federal student loans to help pay for all of it.
She now holds close to $55,000 in federal student loan debt.
Flores said she wouldn't be where she is now without that access to federal aid.
"If it wasn't for PSU and the loans I could get … I wouldn't be a Mexican American mariachi teacher for my Mexican American students," she said.
But given the new federal test, future PSU music students might not have the same access to federal student loans that Flores did.
She said she feels lucky to have found a job that she's passionate about and that pays a living wage. But, for her, a career in music was about much more than a paycheck.
"It is never about the money," she said. "I realized I wanted to have a career in music when I was in the eighth grade, because every music teacher I had were such good role models in my life and I wanted to be part of that community."
Defining success in the arts
SNAAP's Lee Ann Scotto Adams said the federal government's one-size-fits-all accountability approach doesn't make sense for students graduating from creative arts programs because wages aren't the only measure of success for studio artists, musicians and designers.
"Yes, you need to earn money to make a living, but we see our creative workers want the ability to have independence in their work. They want jobs that are socially conscious. They want to make an impact culturally," Adams said. "These are all metrics that fall outside of just straightforward earnings metrics."
She also takes issue with looking at earnings in the first few years after graduation. Adams points to SNAAP survey data that shows arts graduates often have unpredictable incomes at the beginning of their careers, but their pay tends to stabilize and increase over time.
"Looking at earnings as the sole metric of success is very limited, and that's because artists have nonlinear careers," Adams said. "For the most part, people who graduate from these programs move into careers that they're personally satisfied with."
Students considering any of the at-risk programs won't immediately lose access to federal aid. While the accountability test is being rolled out this month, its implementation will be phased in over the next couple of years.
Copyright 2026 NPR
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Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star best known for singing the chart-topping power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983 has died. She was 75.
Details: Tyler died "unexpectedly" in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery and was later placed in an induced coma.
Read on... for more about her life and legacy.
LONDON — Bonnie Tyler, the gravelly voiced, Grammy-nominated Welsh pop star best known for singing the chart-topping power ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in 1983 and seeing new generations succumb to its bombastic charms during solar and lunar eclipses, has died. She was 75.
Tyler died "unexpectedly" in a hospital in Portugal where she was being treated for an illness, her family said Thursday in a statement on her website. She was hospitalized in May in Faro, where she had a home, for emergency intestinal surgery and was later placed in an induced coma.
"Bonnie's family and team are heartbroken to announce that Bonnie unexpectedly passed away last night in hospital in Portugal as a result of the illness that she was being treated for, her family said.
Tyler earned three Grammy nods, represented Britain at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 — where she came in 19th — and was awarded an MBE for her services to music by Queen Elizabeth II in 2023, all largely thanks to "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which has had more that 1 billion streams, boosted by real eclipses in 2017 and 2024.
The song spent four weeks at No. 1, the video has surpassed 1 billion views and when Stereogum reevaluated it in 2020, the music outlet declared it an "extinction-level event rendered in musical form."
"It's pop music as heart-pounding, chest-thumping, blood-gargling, heavens-falling passion explosion. It's sheer spectacle. It's fireworks and lasers and lightning and thunder. It soars and swoops and barrel-rolls," the site said.
The song has never really gone away, covered by the English singer Nicki French in 1995 and the band Westlife in 2006. Cate Blanchett sang it while hitting Billy Bob Thornton with her car in 2001's "Bandits," it appeared at a wedding scene in 2003's "Old School" and One Direction sang it in 2010 on a U.K. version of "The X Factor."
Early life
Tyler was born — as Gaynor Hopkins — a coal miner's daughter in public housing with an outside toilet in Skewen, Wales, about seven miles outside Swansea. She grew up with three sisters and two brothers.
She adored the Beatles and her first album was "A Hard Day's Night." The first song she bought was "Hippy Hippy Shake" by the Swinging Blue Jeans at 13 and watched "Top of the Pops" religiously, according to her memoir, "Straight From the Heart."
She would record "Top of the Pops" on a reel-to-reel two-track recorder and write down the lyrics of songs she loved. Her favorites were songs by Janis Joplin, Nina Simone, Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding.
"I used to sing them into my hairbrush for hours and hours, and that's how it all started for me. I fell in love with singing just from doing that. Looking back, even then my voice had a husky tone to it, but I didn't think much of it. I thought everyone's voices were different from each other's," she wrote.
In 1976 she had to have surgery to remove nodules on her throat, leaving her with that trademark vocal sound. Changing her name to Sherene Davis, she was fronting a soul band when she was discovered by talent scout Roger Bell, who brought her to London for demo sessions. Then she waited for a label until RCA said it was interested.
Under her new RCA-sanctioned name Bonnie Tyler, her debut album "The World Starts Tonight" in 1977 contained her first chart hit, "Lost in France," and she was nominated for a breakthrough artists award at the Brits Awards. She then had a No. 3 hit in 1978 with "It's a Heartache," but soon drifted. She then signed with Sony and saw Meat Loaf perform "Bat Out of Hell" on the BBC. Impressed, she requested to work with Meat Loaf songwriter and producer Jim Steinman.
'Total Eclipse of the Heart'
Steinman introduced her to his song "Total Eclipse of the Heart," which would become the debut single for her fifth studio album, "Faster Than the Speed of Night." He borrowed one of the song's lyrics — "Turn around, bright eyes" — from his 1969 musical "The Dream Engine" written as a student at Massachusetts' Amherst College. He told her the song was from a prospective musical version of "Nosferatu."
Singer Bonnie Tyler performs her song "Believe in Me" during a rehearsal for the final of the Eurovision Song Contest at the Malmo Arena in Malmo, Sweden on May 17, 2013.
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Alastair Grant
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"Jim liked to put down a basic rhythm track, do nine takes of the song, choose the best one and then put the kitchen sink on there, like Phil Spector used to," Tyler told The Guardian in 2023. "He gave me a cassette to listen to in my hotel and we both preferred take two."
Featuring E Street Band members Roy Bittan on piano and Max Weinberg on drums, "Total Eclipse" is a rumination on lost love: "Once upon a time there was light in my life/But now there's only love in the dark," she sings.
The video, a staple of early-days MTV, was shot in a frightening gothic former asylum in Surrey, where the guard dogs apparently wouldn't set foot in the rooms downstairs where they used to give people electric shock treatment. The visuals included slow-motion tossed doves, candles, dancing ninjas, dancing greasers, Tyler in frighteningly big shoulder pads, fencers, gymnasts, wind machines and shirtless boys wearing swim goggles being doused with water.
"Faster Than the Speed of Night" earned a Grammy nomination for best rock vocal performance — losing to Pat Benatar's "Love Is a Battlefield" — and Tyler got another nod for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in the best pop vocal performance category, losing to Irene Cara's "Flashdance — What a Feeling."
After the 'Eclipse'
Tyler never reached such dizzying heights again but stayed current with such movie soundtrack singles as "Holding Out For a Hero" — from 1984's "Footloose" — and "Here She Comes" from "Metropolis" also in 1984.
Her 2019 disc "Between the Earth and the Stars" featured duets with Rod Stewart, Cliff Richard and Status Quo's Francis Rossi, and she ended that year performing a Vatican Christmas concert before Pope Francis.
In 2013, she switched gears to make a country-flavored record in Nashville, "Rocks and Honey," which included the Vince Gill duet "What You Need From Me" and a little ballad called "Believe in Me," written by American songwriter Desmond Child and British songwriters Lauren Christy and Christopher Braide. "Believe in Me" was picked to represent the United Kingdom at that year's Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden.
"It was an absolutely wonderful atmosphere there," she told the San Francisco Examiner in 2023. "I was being interviewed every 15, 20 minutes, and when I walked out onstage behind the British flag, I thought the roof was going to come off! It was awesome, just awesome!"
In 2017, she joined Joe Jonas' band DNCE for a performance on the cruise ship Oasis of the Seas as part of a "Total Eclipse Cruise." When the moon passed in front of the sun, they played "Total Eclipse of the Heart."
Tyler was married to property developer and former Olympic judo competitor Robert Sullivan.
Temperatures in downtown L.A. to reach 91 degrees.
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QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Sunny
Beaches: 74 to 81 degrees
Mountains: Mid 80s to mid 90s
Inland: 93 to 103 degrees
Warnings and advisories: Heat advisory, extreme heat
What to expect: More dry heat and windy conditions across Southern California. Coachella Valley highs could reach up to 118 degrees today.
Read on ... for more details.
QUICK FACTS
Today’s weather: Sunny
Beaches: 74 to 81 degrees
Mountains: Mid 80s to mid 90s
Inland: 93 to 103 degrees
Warnings and advisories: Heat advisory, extreme heat
Get comfortable with the heat because it's here to stay. The dry weather and windy conditions will continue to make conditions ripe for fire.
The National Weather Service says coastal areas will continue to see cooler weather today with highs in the mid 70s to low 80s, while temps along the inland coast are expected to reach mid 80s to low 90s. In Orange County inland areas will see temperatures from 81 to 90 degrees.
For the valley communities, temperatures there today will reach 89 to 98 degrees again, and up to 99 to 104 degrees more inland.
Coachella Valley will be scorching today with highs from 113 to 118 degrees. Meanwhile, in the Antelope Valley, expect highs from 101 to 110 degrees today, and around 93 to 98 degrees for the cooler hills.
Wind gusts today could reach up to 35 mph but otherwise expect southwest to northwest winds of 10 to 25 mph.
Make sure to stay hydrated and check in on any loved ones who might be vulnerable to the heat!
Need a place to get out of the heat?
You can find cooling centers via the following links:
Don't wait until you're thirsty to drink water or electrolyte replacements
Drink cool water, not extremely cold water (which can cause cramps)
Avoid sweetened drinks, caffeine, and alcohol
Protect a pet from excessive heat
Never leave a pet or animal in a garage
Never leave a pet or animal in a vehicle
Never leave a pet or animal in the sun
Provide shade
Provide clean drinking water
Protect a human from excessive heat
Check in frequently with family, friends and neighbors. Offer assistance or rides to those who are sick or have limited access to transportation. And give extra attention to people most at risk, including:
Elderly people (65 years and older)
Infants
Young children
People with chronic medical conditions
People with mental illness
People taking certain medications (i.e.: "If your doctor generally limits the amount of fluid you drink or has you on water pills, ask how much you should drink while the weather is hot," says the CDC)