Tarja Turunen

Tarja Turunen

Tarja Turunen (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈtɑrjɑ ˈturunen]) (born 17 August 1977), full name Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen, is a Finnish singer-songwriter, Pianist and composer, whose work includes two solo albums, with the third coming in 2010. She is best known as an original member and the former lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish, founded by herself, Tuomas Holopainen and Erno Vuorinen in 1996, with the first studio album, Angels Fall First, released on November 1, 1997. She was dismissed from the band on October 22, 2005 after nine years, at the end of the Once Upon a Tour.

In 2006, Turunen released her first independent album, a Christmas project called Henkäys Ikuisuudesta, with a support classical tour between November 25 and December 26 in Finland and Russia. In 2007, Turunen released My Winter Storm, an album with various styles, including alternative rock and symphonic metal; it sold over 700,000 copies worldwide and was promotioned by a big tour, the Storm World Tour, between 2007 and 2009. Tarja's third album, What Lies Beneath, was released on September 1, 2010, and between june and august Tarja performed several concerts in Europe, playing in famous metal festivals including the Graspop Metal Meeting and the Wacken Open Air, with more dates expected to be confirmed in the near future.

Tarja is the most successful singer from Finland, with more than 4 million sold copies with Nightwish and more than 1 million in solo career.

Personal biography

Born in Kitee, Finland, Turunen grew up with an older and a younger brother. She began playing the piano when she was six. At the comprehensive school Turunen was notorious for performing as a singer in every project. Her teacher Plamen Dimov later on explained that he had to give Turunen just one note, she immediately got it, while with other - nevertheless talented - pupils he would have had to practice a couple of times. At the school she had a tough time for some girls bullied her because they envied her voice. To solve that problem Dimov organized a lot of projects outside the school. At the age of fifteen Turunen had her first bigger appearance as a soloist on a church concert in front of a thousand listeners.

Later on she attended the Senior Secondary School of Art and Music in Savonlinna. At the age of eighteen she moved to the city of Kuopio to study at the Sibelius Academy.

Career

With Nightwish

At Christmas break 1996 her former classmate Tuomas Holopainen invited her to join his new acoustic mood music project. She immediately agreed. At the first recording session it became apparent, that due to her classical singing lessons, Turunens voice had become much more powerful than Holopainen had in mind from their school days. At the following band practices Emppu Vuorinen used an electric guitar instead of the acoustic guitar because he felt that it better fitted to the voice. Holopainen finally decided to form Nightwish as a metal band. He later on explained, that the band mates bit by bit realised, that Turunens voice had become too dramatic for acoustic mood music, they came to the conclusion, that the music had to be massive too. Thus Turunen as a founding member was at the same time influential on the musical style of Nightwish.

In April 1997 Nightwish recorded a second demo with “more bombastic, dramatic” songs, with which Holopainen could finally convince the Finnish label Spinefarm Records to publish the debut album Angels Fall First. The success of the first album came as a surprise to everyone. As the album hit the top 40 of the Finnish charts, Nightwish started a first tour. Due to her commitment in the band Turunen soon was not able to concentrate sufficiently on her academic activities anymore and finally interrupted her academic studies.

Nightwish live on June 24, 2005, during their "Once Upon a Tour".

In the year 1998 Nightwish published their second album Oceanborn. This album lacked the earlier elements of folk music and ambience, instead focusing on Turunen's dramatic voice and including fast, melodious keyboard and guitar lines. Turunen sang solo in Waltari's rock-themed 1999 ballet Evankeliumi (also known as Evangelicum) in several sold-out performances at the Finnish National Opera. She continued to tour and record with Nightwish through 2000 and 2001, after which she enrolled in the German Music University Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. While there, she recorded vocals for Nightwish's 2002 album Century Child and for Beto Vázquez Infinity.

In 2002, Turunen toured South America, performing in the classical Lied concert Noche Escandinava (Scandinavian Night), again to sold-out houses. Following this and an exhausting world tour in support of Century Child, Nightwish took a hiatus and Turunen returned to Karlsruhe. After the hiatus, Turunen rejoined Nightwish for the album Once and supporting world tour throughout 2004-2005, and embarked on a second Noche Escandinava tour in the spring of 2004. For Christmas 2004, she released the single "Yhden Enkelin Unelma" (One Angel's Dream), which sold gold in her native country, Finland. For the spring of 2005, she prepared a collaboration with Germany's Martin Kesici, the duet "Leaving You For Me", also accompanied by a video.

On October 21, 2005, Turunen was dismissed through an open letter written by Nightwish. Turunen responded through another open letter, which was posted on her website in both Finnish and English. In February 2006, Cabuli posted a message to her website addressing the situation, and asked for anyone who had questions to email him. Cabuli then posted a lengthy reply to many of the questions he had received in June 2006.

Independent career

In December 2005, Turunen performed several Christmas concerts in Finland, Germany, Spain and Romania. 2006 was not a break year for Turunen, who recorded a Christmas album and vocals for her brother Timo Turunen's debut album. She also made an appearance at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

On September 17, Turunen's solo dates were announced across Europe in Berlin, London, Moscow, Budapest, Athens, Cologne, Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich.

In October 2007 a street team endorsed by Universal Music and Spinefarm UK was launched for Turunen through UK-based company Worst Decision. The team's aim is to help promote Turunen's upcoming single, album and tour with the help of dedicated fans, the most dedicated of which will be eligible to receive free gifts for their work. While aimed mainly at the UK market, it was hoped that members from all over the world would join to help spread the word about Turunen throughout the UK, Europe and around the world.

Turunen's first independent album, My Winter Storm, was released in November 2007 and achieved gold status in Finland on its day of release. The album took the number 1 spot on the Finnish charts, went platinum in Finland and gold in Russia. My Winter Storm has also achieved gold in Hungary and in the Czech Republic. Turunen also sings on the track "In The Picture" on Nuclear Blast Allstars' album Into The Light, 2007.

Tarja with her own band in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on September 6, 2008.

In late 2007 Turunen was nominated for two awards, an Echo as best newcomer and an Emma for best Finnish artist. She was also confirmed to headline day one of the 2008 Metal Female Voices Fest in Wieze, Belgium. On May 9, 2008, Turunen embarked on a long European tour to promote My Winter Storm, Storm Tour. She chose to open the tour by performing at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig, Germany. Turunen has also told fans via her My Winter Storm blog that she is relocating to Antigua to work with the same producer as before, and that she has many ideas for her third album, currently in progress.

In July 2008, she announced two tracks in the My Winter Storm blog: "The Crying Moon" for the new album, and "Enough", for one special edition of My Winter Storm. In August 2008 she played "Enough" in her Storm Tour, in South America 2008. On September 10, 2008, a Spinefarm UK representative announced that they would be releasing an EP for Turunen on December 1 which would include new material. In December 2008 The Seer EP was released in the U.K. and the new extended edition of My Winter Storm released on January 2, 2009.

On November 18 the Finnish charity Christmas album "Maailman kauneimmat joululaulut" was released, containing three songs featuring Turunen's vocals. In December 2009 she recorded her part of the duet with Klaus Meine which is part of the final Scorpions album Sting in the Tail. The song is called "The Good Die Young".

Turunen recorded her third album, What Lies Beneath, between 2009 and 2010 and it was released on September 1, 2010. The first single, "Falling Awake", was released on the 19th of July. The second single, "I Feel Immortal", was released on August 27, 2010, and a music video for it has already been uploaded to YouTube. The official single "Until My Last Breath" from the album was released on the 23th of August.

Reception

Tarja during a christmas concert in Lahti, Finland, on December 6, 2006.

Turunen's voice is described by critics as remarkably powerful and emotional. Sometimes it is stated that her voice is too trained or operatic for metal music, but even critics who do not like classical voices admit that her voice suits the kind of metal songs she sings unusually well.

Until the end of the cooperation Turunen was the trademark of Nightwish, while band leader Holopainen was the soul. Turunen is seen as a key to Nightwish's success. She is respected as hugely influential on other metal bands and singers. For instance Simone Simons names her as her inspiration to study classical music and to sing in a metal band.

A very large media feedback aroused on the subject of the publicly carried out separation from Nightwish when even Turunen's character became a subject of public discussions. The band members stated, that she had become greedy.

To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with those emotions have become much more important.
-Nightwish in the open letter -

Turunen's husband Cabuli answered to the fans questions related to this topic that the band had agreed on the distribution of earnings in a contract right at the beginning of Nightwish. Due to that contract other members got a higher share of profit, which Turunen has never aggrieved.

For sure in her case, money is not coming first in her book of life. [...] If we would check which band member earns a lot more money than any other one in the band, you should be surprised.
-Marcelo Cabuli

Turunen achieves the largest media feedback in her homeland Finland. In December 2003 she was invited by Finnish president Tarja Halonen to celebrate the Finnish Independence Day in the presidential palace together with other persons of large public interest. The event was televised for 2 million Finnish viewers by the Finnish television station Yle. In December 2007 she performed different versions of the Finnish national anthem Maamme (Finnish: „Our country “) accompanied by the Tapiola Sinfonietta to celebrate the 90. Anniversary of Finnish independence. The concert was televised live by the Finnish television station Yle.

In Europe her media feedback is mainly limited to the hard rock and metal scene. She had a broader feedback on 30 November 2007, when she was invited to open the farewell fight of Regina Halmich with her performance of "I Walk Alone" televised live by the German television station ZDF for 8.8 million viewers.

Live performances

Turunen with her own band at Wacken Open Air

Tarja performed live for the first time at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Savonlinna, Finland, in 1996, singing songs from Richard Wagner e Verdi . Since 1997 she toured the world beside Nightwish playing in all the continents, except the Africa. With Nightwish, Tarja played in some of the most important heavy metal festivals, like Wacken Open Air, Lowlands Festival, Download Festival and Tuska Open Air. In her solo career she also mainly performes at metal festivals like Metal Female Voices Fest, Gods of Metal or Wacken Open Air.

Tarja is famous as a metal singer, but she still has her classical carrer; every year Tarja plays a Christmas tour in Finland, ocasionally with dates in Russia, but in 2005 Tarja hosted some classical concerts in some europeans countries. In 2006, Tarja played a sucessfull tour in Finland, singing several songs from finnish culture, and also singing consagrated songs like Walking in the Air, Ave Maria and You Would Have Loved This. On December 6, 2006, Tarja performed a big concert at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland; it was live broadcasted by the finnish channel YLE TV2 for 450.000 viewers

In july 2006 Tarja played again at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, at that time as the main act; Tarja sung beside the finnish tenor Raimo Sirkiä and was suported by the Kuopio Symphonic Orchestra. Tarja performed classical areas like "O Mio Babbino Caro", from Puccini, and also some songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber like "Don't Cry for me Argentina", among other songs.

Discography

Main article: Tarja Turunen discography

• Henkäys Ikuisuudesta (2006)
• My Winter Storm (2007)
• What Lies Beneath (2010)

External links

• Official homepage
• Tarja Turunen microsite at Universal Music
• Template:Myspace
• Template:Last.fm