68 Facts About Tarja Turunen

1.

Tarja Turunen is a soprano with a three and a half octave range.

2.

Tarja Turunen is a professional classical lied singer, and the former lead vocalist of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, which she founded with Tuomas Holopainen and Emppu Vuorinen in 1996.

3.

Tarja Turunen was fired from the band on 21 October 2005 for personal reasons accompanied by an open letter from the band.

4.

Tarja Turunen started her solo career in 2006 with the release of a Christmas album called Henkays ikuisuudesta.

5.

In 2007, Tarja Turunen released My Winter Storm, an album featuring various styles including symphonic metal, and started the Storm World Tour.

6.

Tarja Turunen performed several concerts in Europe, playing in metal festivals including the Graspop Metal Meeting and the Wacken Open Air, before releasing her third album, What Lies Beneath, supported by a tour, which lasted until April 2012.

7.

Tarja Turunen started the Colours in the Dark World Tour in October 2013 to promote her new album Colours in the Dark.

8.

Tarja Turunen was born in the small village of Puhos, near Kitee, Finland.

9.

Tarja Turunen has an older brother, Timo, and a younger brother, Toni.

10.

Tarja Turunen's mother Ritva Sisko Marjatta worked in the town administration, and her father Teuvo Turunen is a carpenter.

11.

Tarja Turunen joined the church choir and started taking vocal lessons.

12.

At comprehensive school, Tarja Turunen performed as a singer for several projects.

13.

At fifteen, Tarja Turunen had her first major appearance as a soloist at a church concert in front of a thousand listeners.

14.

For several years Tarja Turunen performed various songs including soul music by Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin.

15.

In December 1996, former classmate Tuomas Holopainen invited Tarja Turunen to join his new acoustic mood music project, and she immediately agreed.

16.

At the recording session for the first demo Holopainen discovered that due to her classical singing lessons, Tarja Turunen's voice had become much more powerful than he recalled from their school days.

17.

Holopainen later explained that the band members had gradually realised that Tarja Turunen's voice had become too dramatic for acoustic mood music and eventually came to the conclusion that the music had to be massive too.

18.

That same year, Tarja Turunen performed at the Savonlinna Opera Festival for the first time, singing songs from Wagner and Verdi.

19.

Tarja Turunen enrolled in 2000 at the German music university Hochschule fur Musik Karlsruhe to gain a professional qualification as a soloist with further specialization in art song.

20.

In 2002, Tarja Turunen toured South America, performing in the classical Lied concert Noche Escandinava to sold-out houses.

21.

The split and, due to the open letter's allegations, Tarja Turunen's character became the subject of close media coverage.

22.

Tarja Turunen responded through an open letter on her website and through some interviews in which she explained her view.

23.

Tarja Turunen was upset that after nine years of working together, Holopainen announced the separation via an open letter.

24.

Tarja Turunen asked that anyone who had questions should email him.

25.

Tarja Turunen answered questions related to the greed accusation by explaining that the band had agreed on the distribution of earnings in a contract at the formation of Nightwish.

26.

Marcelo Cabuli stated that, unlike others, Tarja Turunen had never fought for additional songwriter royalties.

27.

Tarja Turunen explained that he did not search for a similarly trained singer as a successor for Turunen because he considers her to be extraordinarily good in her genre and therefore irreplaceable.

28.

Tarja Turunen said in an interview that she is very proud of her career with Nightwish.

29.

Tarja Turunen considers the remaining band members extremely talented and wishes all the best for them and their subsequent lead singer Anette Olzon.

30.

Tarja Turunen again played at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in July 2006, this time as the main act; she sang alongside Finnish tenor Raimo Sirkia, supported by the Kuopio Symphonic Orchestra.

31.

On 6 December 2006, Tarja Turunen performed a big concert at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland; it was broadcast live by the Finnish channel YLE TV2 for 450,000 viewers.

32.

Tarja Turunen was nominated for the Finnish Emma Award as Best Soloist of 2006.

33.

Tarja Turunen released My Winter Storm, an album featuring various styles, including symphonic metal with classical "operatic" lead vocals, in November 2007.

34.

Tarja Turunen was nominated for an Echo as best newcomer and an Emma for best Finnish artist.

35.

On 25 November 2007, Tarja Turunen embarked on the Storm World Tour to promote My Winter Storm.

36.

Tarja Turunen performed 95 concerts throughout Europe, North and South America and ended the tour in October 2009 at the O2 Academy Islington in London.

37.

Tarja Turunen contributed three songs to the Finnish charity Christmas album Maailman kauneimmat joululaulut released in November 2009.

38.

Tarja Turunen recorded her third album, What Lies Beneath, in 2009 and 2010; it was released in September 2010.

39.

Tarja Turunen started the What Lies Beneath World Tour performing in several festivals, including the Wacken Open Air and the Graspop Metal Meeting, with special concerts at Miskolc Opera Festival and at the Masters of Rock, when she performed accompanied by a full orchestra.

40.

In March 2012, Tarja Turunen won the title "Europe's best crossover performer" with over 100,000 votes.

41.

In May 2013, Tarja Turunen announced the title of her 4th solo album, Colours in the Dark, which was released on 30 August.

42.

The DVD shows Tarja Turunen performing live with a symphonic orchestra, choir and Mike Terrana on drums.

43.

On 17 October 2015, Tarja Turunen performed two new songs from her forthcoming album, "No Bitter End" and "Goldfinger", which is a cover of the title song of the James Bond film with the same name.

44.

Tarja Turunen announced she is to release a new album in the summer of 2016.

45.

Tarja Turunen explains that "she has been working hard with Tim Palmer to create the heaviest sound so far of her career for her fourth rock album".

46.

Tarja Turunen explained that the album will follow in the same footsteps as her other albums but with a new soul and growth.

47.

On 17 February 2016, Tarja revealed the first letter of the album name to be T On March 14,2016, Tarja made public title and cover of her new album, The Shadow Self.

48.

On November 17,2017, Tarja Turunen released From Spirits and Ghosts, her second classical and Christmas album.

49.

On July 27,2018, Tarja Turunen released Act II, a live album and DVD recorded during the concert on November 29,2016, at the Teatro della Luna in Milan, during the world tour The Shadow Shows.

50.

On 19 June 2021, Tarja Turunen announced the release of a book in October 2021, Singing in My Blood in which the book would share the story of her life in music.

51.

Tarja Turunen confirmed in an interview on 15 August 2022, that not only was she working on two albums for 2023, she stated that there will be a new album at the end of 2022.

52.

On 2 December 2022, Tarja Turunen released her first compilation album "Best of: Living the Dream" in many formats to celebrate her 15-year solo career.

53.

At the audition she attracted the attention of professor Mitsuko Shirai, who encouraged Tarja Turunen to apply for soloist training.

54.

Tarja Turunen explained that in the early days of Nightwish, it was difficult to combine classical technique with the metal sound in a way that gave her liberty of action without damaging her vocal cords.

55.

Tarja Turunen has sung excerpts from operas at the Savonlinna Opera Festival, but she stresses that singing opera cannot be performed as a side project.

56.

Tarja Turunen explained in an interview that when they recorded Oceanborn, she had serious doubts, fearing that she was not yet advanced enough in her studies to have mastered the required techniques.

57.

Tarja Turunen was not satisfied that she had successfully transitioned to this new style until the album Once.

58.

Tarja Turunen uses both her classical singing voice and a rock-sounding voice.

59.

Tarja Turunen's classically trained voice flies bravely over orchestral sounds and brute guitars.

60.

Tarja Turunen's range is apparent on her album My Winter Storm, where the lowest note sung is F3 in the song "The Seer", while in another song, she aimed for D6.

61.

Tarja Turunen's voice is described by critics as remarkably powerful and emotional.

62.

Until the end of their collaboration, Tarja Turunen's singing was a trademark of Nightwish.

63.

Tarja Turunen was known as the face and voice of Nightwish while bandleader Holopainen was the soul.

64.

Tarja Turunen is respected by other musicians of the metal genre and is an influence on their work; for instance, Simone Simons of Epica names her as her inspiration to study classical music and apply that vocal style to a metal band.

65.

Tarja Turunen receives most of her media attention in Europe, especially in her home of Finland.

66.

In December 2013, Tarja Turunen was the invited soloist at the Christmas Peace event in the Turku Cathedral, Finland, with the presence of Finnish president Sauli Niinisto.

67.

Tarja Turunen had a broader exposure on 30 November 2007, when she was invited to open the farewell fight of Regina Halmich.

68.

Tarja Turunen was one of the star coaches in the fourth season of The Voice of Finland in the spring of 2015 on Nelonen.