Tarja Turunen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tarja Turunen
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Turunen performing in 2024
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| Birth name | Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen |
| Born | 17 August 1977 Kitee, Finland |
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| Years active | 1996–present |
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Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli (born 17 August 1977), known as Tarja Turunen, is a famous Finnish heavy metal singer. She is best known as the first lead singer of the band Nightwish.
Tarja studied classical singing at the Sibelius Academy and in Germany. She is a professional classical singer with an amazing three-octave vocal range. In 1996, she started the symphonic metal band Nightwish with Tuomas Holopainen and Emppu Vuorinen. Their music combined strong guitar riffs with Tarja's dramatic, "operatic" singing. This unique style quickly became very popular. It even inspired many other metal bands.
Tarja left Nightwish on 21 October 2005. She then started her solo career in 2006. Her first solo album was a Christmas album called Henkäys ikuisuudesta. In 2007, she released My Winter Storm, which mixed different music styles, including symphonic metal. She toured the world to support her albums. Her first live DVD, Act I, was filmed in Argentina in 2012. She has continued to release new music, including classical albums and more metal albums. Her latest Christmas album, Dark Christmas, came out in 2023.
Contents
Tarja's Early Life and Music Journey
Growing Up in Finland (1977–1995)
Tarja Turunen was born in a small village called Puhos in Finland. She has two brothers, Timo and Toni. Her mom worked for the town, and her dad was a carpenter. Tarja's musical talent was noticed early. When she was just three, she sang a Christmas song in church. She joined the church choir and started taking singing lessons. At age six, she began playing the piano.
In school, Tarja often sang for different projects. Her first piano teacher, Kirsti Nortia-Holopainen, said Tarja performed a lot. Her music teacher, Plamen Dimov, noted that Tarja learned music very quickly. Some girls at school were mean to her because they were jealous of her voice. To help, Dimov organized music projects outside of school. When she was fifteen, Tarja sang solo at a church concert for a thousand people. In 1993, she went to a special art and music school in Savonlinna.
For several years, Tarja sang many types of songs, including soul music by Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin. Later, she was inspired by classical crossover singer Sarah Brightman. This led her to focus on classical music. At eighteen, she moved to Kuopio to study at the Sibelius Academy.
Joining Nightwish (1996–2005)
In December 1996, her old classmate Tuomas Holopainen asked Tarja to join his new music project. She said yes right away. During their first recording, Tuomas realized Tarja's voice was much stronger than he remembered. This was because of her classical singing lessons. The band members soon realized her voice was too powerful for quiet acoustic music. So, Tuomas decided to form Nightwish as a metal band.
Nightwish recorded more songs in 1997. These songs were "more dramatic." Tuomas used them to get a record deal with Spinefarm Records. The band's first album, Angels Fall First, was a surprise hit. It reached the top 40 in Finland. Nightwish then started touring in clubs. That same year, Tarja also sang classical songs at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.
Because of Nightwish, Tarja couldn't focus on her schoolwork. In 1998, Nightwish released their second album, Oceanborn. This album focused on fast music and Tarja's dramatic voice. In 1999, Tarja also sang solo in a rock ballet called Evankeliumi in Finland. In 2000 and 2001, Nightwish recorded Wishmaster and Over the Hills and Far Away. They toured Europe and South America. During the tour, Tarja met Marcelo Cabuli, an Argentine businessman. They got married in 2002.
Tarja continued her music studies in Germany in 2000. She wanted to become a professional soloist. While studying, she recorded vocals for Nightwish's 2002 album Century Child. She also toured South America in 2002, performing classical concerts. After a break, Nightwish recorded Once, released in 2004. This album sold very well in Europe.
For Christmas 2004, Tarja released her first solo song, "Yhden enkelin unelma" (One Angel's Dream). It was very popular in Finland.
Leaving Nightwish
The relationship between Nightwish and Tarja became difficult over time. After their last concert of the Once Upon a Tour on 21 October 2005, the band gave Tarja an open letter. In the letter, they said they no longer wanted to work with her.
This news and the letter caused a lot of media attention. Tarja responded with her own letter on her website. She explained her side of the story. She was sad that after nine years, the band announced her departure with an open letter. Despite the difficult split, Tarja said she was very proud of her time with Nightwish. She wished the band and their new singer the best.
Starting a Solo Career (2005–2009)
At the end of 2005, Tarja performed several classical concerts. In 2006, she released her Christmas album Henkäys ikuisuudesta. She also sang at the Savonlinna Opera Festival again in July 2006. In November, she performed at a charity concert for UNICEF. On 6 December 2006, a big concert of hers was broadcast live on Finnish TV. She was nominated for a Finnish music award.
In August 2006, she started working on her main solo project, My Winter Storm. This was the first time Tarja wrote her own songs, with help from other songwriters. The album came out in November 2007. It mixed symphonic metal with her classical singing. The album was a big success in Finland, Russia, and Germany.
On 25 November 2007, Tarja started her Storm World Tour. She performed 95 concerts across Europe, North America, and South America. The tour ended in October 2009. She also sang on a Finnish charity Christmas album in 2009. In December 2009, she recorded a duet with Klaus Meine for the Scorpions' album.
New Albums and Tours (2010–2014)
Tarja recorded her third album, What Lies Beneath, in 2009 and 2010. It was released in September 2010. This album combined metal with classical elements in new ways. She started the What Lies Beneath World Tour, playing at big festivals like Wacken Open Air and Graspop Metal Meeting. Some concerts included a full orchestra. The tour lasted until April 2012. In 2010, she also supported Alice Cooper on his tour in Germany.
On 17 July 2011, she sang again at the Savonlinna Opera Festival with tenor José Cura.
In March 2012, Tarja was voted "Europe's best crossover performer."
In May 2013, Tarja announced her fourth solo album, Colours in the Dark, released on 30 August. A song called "Never Enough" was released as a preview. Later that year, she sang as a guest on the song "Paradise" by Within Temptation.
In January 2014, Tarja shared that she was working on her Outlanders project. This project combines her vocals with electronic music.
In May 2014, the DVD Beauty and the Beat was released. It showed Tarja performing live with an orchestra, choir, and drummer Mike Terrana. Songs included classical pieces and rock covers. In July, Left in the Dark was released. It had different versions of songs from Colours in the Dark.
Classical and Metal Mix (2015–2018)
On 22 July 2015, Tarja announced her first fully classical album, Ave Maria – En Plein Air. It featured different versions of "Ave Maria", including one she wrote herself.
In October 2015, Tarja performed two new songs from her upcoming rock album. One was "No Bitter End" and the other was a cover of "Goldfinger" by Shirley Bassey.
Tarja announced a new album for summer 2016. She said she was working to create her "heaviest sound so far." On March 14, 2016, she revealed the album title: The Shadow Self.
On April 7, Tarja announced The Brightest Void, a "prequel" to The Shadow Self. It included "No Bitter End" and her duet with Within Temptation.
The Shadow Self was released on August 5, 2016. The first song released from it was "Innocence".
On November 17, 2017, Tarja released From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas), her second classical Christmas album. With it came a graphic novel about the world of dark Christmas.
On July 27, 2018, Tarja released Act II. This was a live album and DVD recorded during her world tour for The Shadow Self.
Recent Projects (2019–present)
On 30 August 2019, Tarja released In the Raw. For this album, she sang with other heavy metal vocalists like Björn Strid, Tommy Karevik, and Cristina Scabbia.
On 19 June 2021, Tarja announced a book called Singing in My Blood. It shares her life story in music.
At the end of 2021, Tarja started a ten-year project called Outlanders. It mixes her vocals with electronic beats. It features guest artists like Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin and jazz guitarist Al Di Meola.
On 2 December 2022, Tarja released her first collection album, Best of: Living the Dream. This celebrated her 15 years as a solo artist. She then announced the 2023 Living the Dream Tour.
On 14 June 2023, Tarja announced her next live album, Rocking Heels: Live at Metal Church. It was released on 11 August 2023. This album has live recordings from her performance at Wacken Open Air in 2016. It includes metal covers like Linkin Park's "Numb" and Metallica's "The Unforgiven". It also has her own songs and a Nightwish cover.
On 23 June 2023, Tarja and EDM producer Torsten Stenzel released their first album as Outlanders.
On 1 November 2023, Tarja announced her third Christmas album, Dark Christmas, which came out on 10 November 2023.
On 14 March 2024, Tarja released the song "Left on Mars." This was a collaboration with her former Nightwish bandmate Marko Hietala.
Tarja's Unique Singing Style
How Her Voice Developed
Tarja started serious classical vocal training at age 17. After school, she studied church music at the Sibelius Academy. When she first started singing, her voice was incredibly powerful. She had to pause her studies because of her work with Nightwish.
From 2001 to 2003, she studied at a music academy in Germany. There, she trained to be a soloist. Tarja sings with a classical vocal technique. She explained that it was hard at first to mix classical singing with metal music. But she learned to do it without hurting her voice. She decided not to train in rock/pop singing.
Around the year 2000, the mix of heavy guitar riffs and classical female vocals became very popular in metal. Nightwish's new style was called "opera metal." Tarja doesn't see herself as an opera singer. She has sung parts of operas, but she says singing a full opera needs special training.
Tarja believes that opera and metal music have some things in common:
The scenes are very similar. There are many people who would never go to an opera and the same goes for metal. But the real fans are incredibly loyal. And both styles are bombastic and express strong emotions.
From Nightwish's first album, Angels Fall First (1997), critics called Tarja's voice "angelic" or "valkyrian." The Valkyrie image was even used in a music video.
On later albums, her singing became more complex. On Nightwish's Oceanborn (1998), her classical training was very clear. For the song "Passion and the Opera", Tarja sang fast, high notes like the Queen of the Night in Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. The song "Sleeping Sun" needed excellent breathing control. Tarja said she worried she wasn't skilled enough when they recorded Oceanborn.
A different challenge was covering Gary Moore's "Over the Hills and Far Away" (2001). This song needed a much deeper voice than a typical soprano. Tarja worked hard and expanded her vocal range to include lower notes.
For the album Century Child (2002), she tried a more "rock" sound. She still used classical technique but sang with less vibrato (vibration in the voice). Tarja felt she truly mastered this new style on the album Once (2004).
I feel very comfortable with Once because I have tried to change my singing style with Nightwish already since Century Child because Tuomas requested that, the songs requested that ... It has been hard work and I didn't manage to do that on Century Child, I was not very happy with it. On Once it's all very natural, how I'm singing and what I'm singing. But as I said, it has been really hard work because I've been a classical singer for the last ten years so it was hard to start over again and think of different styles. Of course I'm always singing with my classical techniques, I never sing with my poor speaking voice – I cannot do that anymore.
This deeper, "rock" voice on Once was liked by critics.
Her first solo album, My Winter Storm (2007), has both rock/metal songs and classical-sounding songs. Tarja uses both her classical voice and a rock voice. She often starts with a rock voice and then switches to a classical voice for big melodies.
Tarja's classically trained voice flies bravely over orchestral sounds and brute guitars. Like a phoenix from the ashes [...] she lifts up again and again for widely arching melodies, sometimes spurred on by multi-voiced female choirs.
Tarja said My Winter Storm was the first album where she could use her full vocal range.
Now that I can use the whole range of my voice, it feels very nice. I have never sung so low as I did on one of the songs on the new record and there's a song on which I sang my highest notes ever! I really have used a huge range on this album, because the moods are changing in every song and this reflects that.
Vocal Range
Tarja's voice type is soprano. Over her career, she has developed a vocal range of three and a half octaves. She has said:
I sang a repertoire of a mezzo-soprano for many years and because of that, still today, I have rarely quite low register for a lyrical soprano. Nowadays, I see myself as a light lyrical soprano.
Tarja's Personal Life
Tarja married Argentine businessman Marcelo Cabuli on 31 December 2002. They had a wedding celebration in July 2003. They lived in Buenos Aires with their daughter, who was born in 2012. In 2016, Tarja said they planned to move back to Europe because of her touring and her daughter starting school. She now lives in the south of Spain. In October 2021, she shared that she had a stroke three years earlier after a tour in the U.S.
Tarja speaks Finnish, English, Spanish, and German very well.
Music Albums
Solo Albums
- Henkäys ikuisuudesta (2006)
- My Winter Storm (2007)
- What Lies Beneath (2010)
- Colours in the Dark (2013)
- Ave Maria – En Plein Air (2015)
- The Shadow Self (2016)
- From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas) (2017)
- In the Raw (2019)
- Dark Christmas (2023)
Albums with Nightwish
- Angels Fall First (1997)
- Oceanborn (1998)
- Wishmaster (2000)
- Century Child (2002)
- Once (2004)
Concert Tours
- Henkäys ikuisuudesta Tour (2006)
- Storm World Tour (2007–2009)
- What Lies Beneath World Tour (2010–2012)
- Colours on the Road (2013–2015)
- The Shadow Shows (2016–2018)
- A Nordic Symphony Tour (2018)
- The Raw Tour (2019–2023)
- Living the Dream (2024–2025)
As a support act
- Bleed Out Tour (2024)
See also
In Spanish: Tarja Turunen para niños
