Bio

Tarja turunen

         

 

   Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli was born on August the 17th  1977 in the city of Kitee, Finland. She started her piano lessons at the age of five and the singing ones at fifteen. Her teenage dream was to follow her idols, Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin, but the classical singing lessons from the Savonlinna Music High-School made her change plans. At the age of eighteen, she goes to Sibelius Academy from Kuopio, where she studies church music. By that time, her classmate Tuomas Holopainen (keyboards, music, lyrics) starts with the band Nightwish and asks her to sing on a demo tape. Even though she knew nothing about metal music, Tarja accepts to sing; and even though he expected a sweet soft voice, Tuomas is immediately thrilled by Tarja’s powerful, dramatic voice. And so, Tarja becomes the singer of the band Nightwish, which also had as members Erno (Emppu) Vuorinen- guitars, Sami Vanska- bass and  Jukka Nevalainen- drums.
            In November 1997, the first Nightwish album appears: Angels Fall First. The public’s reactions towards the new band are completely unexpected: the bombastic combination of rock/metal music and opera voice immediately attracted a large number of listeners, and the first concerts are to follow.
            The second album, Oceanborn (December 1998) makes them famous all over Finland and even outside Finland. In 1999 they go on an Europen tour with the German band Rage; also, Tarja receives a part in the modern ballet “The Evanghelicum”, along with the band Waltari.
            In the year 2000, Nightwish competes at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song Sleepwalker and they get on the second place in the national selection. In July, the album Wishmaster brings them Platinum; the album is followed by a world-tour. The five musicians reach South America, then they come back to Europe and they play at Wacken Open Air for the first time. In 2001, the DVD From Wishes to Eternity is released; the DVD contains the recording of the concert in Tampere from December the 29th, 2000. It is soon followed by the EP Over the Hills and Dar Away.
           The band’s success is huge; but the misunderstandings inside the band aren’t small either. Under the perfection of the beautiful music and the breath-taking concerts, there exist fights, stress, pressure. Tarja can’t handle with the cigarette smoke and nights without sleeping; besides this, the singer wants to continue her studies, so she moves to Karlsruhe, Germany. In the same period, she records some songs for the Beto Vasquez- Infinity project. Also, the soprano concentrates more on her classical career and, together with Marjut Paavilainen, Ingvind Storhaug and Izumi Kawakatsu, she goes on the Scandinavian Nights Tour in South America. The four musicians sing songs from the Scandinavian classical repertoire; the project has success and the tour is repeated in 2004. As for the other Nightwish members, they are all involved in side-projects and the band is neglected. At one point, Tuomas even wants to stop the band. In the end, they meet to discuss the situation and they come up with some conditions in order to keep the band going: the bassist Sami Vanska leaves the band and is replaced with Marco Hietala (Sinergy, Tarot), and the boys promise to respect Tarja’s resting program. With new forces, Nightwish releases a new album: in May 2002, the stunning album Century Child appears, followed by the Summer of Innocence Tour. In the same year, the End of Innocence DVD is released. Also, Tarja is invited to the Independence Day party by the president Tarja Halonen and is voted as the most impressive dressed lady from Finland. In personal life, 2003 is the year in which she marries the Argentinean businessman Marcelo Cabuli and moves back to Finland in order to be closer to her family and friends.
          In May 2004, the most impressive Nightwish album, Once, is released, followed by the longest tour in the band’s career. But Tarja is also devoted to the classical music, and in spring, before the Nightwish tour, the Scandinavian Nights II tour takes place, and in December she releases her first single, Yhden Enkelin Unelma (One Angel’s Dream), which brings her Platinum in Finland.
           At the top of their career, a sudden and painful change takes place in Nightwish; after their last concert of the Once tour, Tarja receives a letter in which she is informed that the band doesn’t need her services anymore and that it will go on with a new female singer. Even though it is a hard period for concerts, she doesn’t give up her Christmas concerts in Finland, Germany, Spain and Romania.
            In 2006, Tarja has several concerts: in July, she sings at the Savonlinna Opera Festival along with Raimo Sirkia; in October she sings for UNICEF- Tomorrow’s Child, together with the Tapiola’s choir. All the money are given away for charity. The year ends perfectly: Tarja releases her Christmas album, Henkays Ikuisuudesta, for which she receives Platinum. She also has a little tour in Finland and Russia.
          In November the 9th 2007, her first solo album, My Winter Storm, will be released. It is not known yet what the beautiful singer has prepared for her fans; from the declarations made for the press, it is expected to be an interesting combination of metal, some classical elements and film music, a very ambitious project strongly “pushed” in the experimental field, a project which needs a lot of courage, ambition and, of course, talent, and Tarja proved she has them all. And this is just the beginning of a career, the career of an Artist who has a lot to give…