Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli (born August 17, 1977, in Kitee, Finland), is the former lead singer of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Turunen is the most popular singer from the genre in Finland and throughout Europe, as well as an accomplished classical and opera singer. She now devotes her time to her solo career. She married the Argentinian businessman Marcelo Cabuli in early 2003.

Biography

Turunen began to study music at age six, and moved to the city of Helsinki at 18 to study at the Sibelius Academy. She became a founding member of Nightwish in 1996 when her classmate Tuomas Holopainen invited her to join his new musical project. That year Turunen also performed with the Savonlinna Opera Festival. However, she did not become internationally famous until the release of Nightwish's successful follow-up album, Oceanborn, in 1998.

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 Music University in Karlsruhe, Germany. 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.

Finnish President Tarja Halonen and her husband invited Turunen to the President's Palace in Helsinki in December 2003 for the Finnish Independence Day Party, Finland's biggest social event, where the viewers of Finnish television station Yle named her the most impressively dressed lady, among honors given by several newspapers and magazines.

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 asked to leave Nightwish in an open letter by the other members of Nightwish [1], over a dispute that involved "a changed attitude" and increased financial interest. She responded through another open letter, which was posted on her website in both Finnish and English (unfortunately, although a link can be found in the archived news section, the letter itself is no longer there. It is anyway reported on a fans page [2]). In February 2006, Tarja's husband Marcelo posted a message to her website addressing the situation, and asked for anyone who had questions pertaining to the issues between Tarja and the rest of the band to email him [3]. Marcelo then posted a lengthy reply to many of the questions he had received in June 2006 [4].

In December of 2005, she performed several Christmas concerts in Finland, Germany, Spain and Romania. 2006 will not be a break year for Turunen, who will be recording a Christmas album and vocals for her brother, Timo Turunen's debut album. She will also be making an appearance at the Savonlinna Opera Festival. Tarja Turunen's much anticipated first solo album is planned for release in 2006.

Tuomas Holopainen


Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen (born December 25, 1976, in Kitee, Finland) is the keyboardist and main songwriter in the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. He has also played in the bands Nattvindens Gråt and Darkwoods My Betrothed. His current side project is gothic-doom metal band For My Pain.... He currently plays in the band Timo Rautiainen.

Biography

Holopainen started to study in a musical college majoring in clarinet and minoring in piano. He played in several bands, including recording keyboards for three albums with the black metal band Darkwoods My Betrothed, before coming up with the idea of a band of his own, where he would write all the music. That was the birth of Nightwish in July of 1996, around a camp fire. He then asked Emppu Vuorinen and Tarja Turunen to join what then was but an acoustic project. After hearing Tarja's strong lyrical voice, Tuomas decided to turn Nightwish into a metal act.

Nightwish's first release, Angels Fall First, came in 1997, but it was in 1998, after the release of Oceanborn, that Holopainen's incredible compositional skills reached full acclaim worldwide. Another four releases followed; Wishmaster (2000), Over the Hills and Far Away (EP) (2001), Century Child (2002) and Once (2004). In the last two, Holopainen took Nightwish to a whole new level by collaborating with symphonic orchestras from Finland and the United Kingdom.

The next Nightwish release is expected for early 2007, though without the vocals of Tarja, who was asked to leave the band in October 2005.

Emppu Vuorinen

Erno "Emppu" Matti Juhani Vuorinen (born June 24, 1978 in Kitee, Finland) is the lead guitarist in the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. He started to play guitar as a private study at the age of 12 and since then he has played in various bands including Nightwish, in which he has played from the beginning, and Altaria. As Tuomas Holopainen (band director and keyboard player) composes most of the music for Nightwish, Emppu can be heard playing unordinary guitar riffs that were most likely originally meant for a keyboard. Vuorinen is also known noted for his somewhat diminutive stature - he is around 165 cm tall (5'5").

The solo techniques of Vuorinen include short range tapping and minor to extreme, whammy bar use for vibrato.

As of 2006 one of his side-projects Brother Firetribe released their debut album, "False Metal", in Finland.

Marco Hietala

Marko "Marco" Tapani Hietala (born January 14, 1966 in Finland) is the bassist and second vocalist of the Finnish power metal band Nightwish and is easily noticed for his unusual facial hair. He joined the band for their 2002 album Century Child, following the departure of previous bassist Sami Vänskä. Hietala is also vocalist, bassist and songwriter of the Finnish band Tarot and has also been part of the band Sinergy. Marco plays in Impaled Nazarene on album Suomi Finland Perkele (1994). He was a prominent guest musician in Delain, a project involving many members of the gothic rock community. He is the bassist and lends his voice to a number of songs.

Since his arrival, several songs have been written to contain duets with the former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen, allowing songwriter and band leader Tuomas Holopainen to take full advantage of Hietala's raucous voice to add a new dimension to the band.

During Nightwish's shows, Turunen would take a break halfway through the set. Before Hietala joined the band, they used to perform an instrumental song during this time. Since Hietala joined the band however, they have performed covers of well-known songs, with Hietala singing the lead vocal part in this break. The band has performed Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train", W.A.S.P.'s "Wild Child", Dio's "Don't Talk to Strangers", Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" and most recently, Pink Floyd's "High Hopes". Some of these songs have been put up for sale as well on various Nightwish album releases.

In Delain Hietala played the bass for the album Lucidity, and he was also the main male vocalist on the album.

Jukka Nevalainen

Jukka "Julius" Antero Nevalainen (born April 21, 1978 in Finland) is the drummer in the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish.

He lives with his wife Satu, daughter Luna (born in 2003) and son Niki (born in December 2005) in Joensuu, Finland.

Biography

He spent his early years in the city of Kitee. His drumming career started at the age of eleven when his music teacher at school told him that a new educational program for music was opening, and he thought Jukka would fit in well as a drummer. He lacked a suitable place to practice so he made do at his home. He first band was "The Highway" but he joined his first real band at the age of 15-16. The band had a rehearsal place, but was restricted to practice only a couple of days a week. After he left that band, he joined up with Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen and they got a permanent practice place.

At the age of 17, his friend Emppu had already been contacted by the songwriter and keyboard-player Tuomas Holopainen. Tuomas wanted to start an acoustic mood music project that would later become Nightwish and they needed a drummer, at which point Emppu suggested Jukka to Tuomas.

After the early years of the band, Jukka got a new, professional drum kit. He used that kit on the album Wishmaster to the end of the Once world tour in 2005. He is currently endorsed by Tama drums, Paiste cymbals and Pro-Mark sticks. He is famous among Nightwish fans for wearing a bandana on his head, and is also known for being a vegeterian. He also has a side-project; Sethian, but this band is almost completely dormant because of band members being busy with other bands.