Biography
Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli
Born: August 17th 1977 in Kitee, Finland
Early life (1977-1997)
Tarja Turunen grew up with two brothers in Puhos, a village near Kitee. Her music education began with piano lessons when she was six. A little bit later she started singing in a local choir. At the age of 15, she had her first bigger solo performance on a Christmas concert with over 1000 listeners. Later on she attended the Senior Secondary School of Art and Music in Savonlinna. When she was 18, she moved to Kuopio to study Music at the Sibelius Academy.
Christmas 1996, her former classmate Tuomas Holopainen together with Emppu Vuorinen asked Tarja to take part in their acoustic project. She immediately agreed. They recorded their first demo called Nightwish which later became the name of the band. Tarja’s voice however had become much more powerful and dramatic than Holopainen remembered from their school time and didn’t fit the music style. They started making heavier music. Tarja played a major role in the development of the band’s style.
In April 1997 they recorded their second demo, Angels Fall First, with more bombastic and dramatic sound. With this demo Holopainen convinced Spinefarm Records to sign the band and release their debut album of the same name. The album made it to the Top 40 in the Finnish charts, so the band started touring in December. Tarja had to spend most of her time with the band, so she couldn’t concentrate on studying. Finally she interrupted her academic studies.
During the whole year she also performed classical pieces as a member of the festival choir at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.
The Nightwish era (1998-2005)
In 1998 Nightwish released their second long play Oceanborn with music even more focused on Tarja’s classical signing. The first single Sacrament of Wilderness reached the first place in the Finnish single charts and stayed on this position for a surprisingly long time. Due to this great success, the band started touring in other European countries and got a big amount of new fans in countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Tarja also played one of the main characters in the metal ballet Evankeliumi at the Finnish National Opera.
In 2000 Nightwish recorded their third album Wishmaster which was an international success making the title song the band’s most recognized song. In 2001 the EP Over The Hills And Far Away followed up. In September of the same year Tarja joined Karlsruhe’s University of Music in Germany to study at the soloists department (2001 – 2003).
In 2002 Nightwish released their next album Century Child with a completely different style which made Tarja change her way of singing and improved her skills. Though she wanted to focus on her studies, her future husband Marcelo Cabuli convinced her to also participate on the solo album Beto VázquezInfinity by the Argentinian musician Beto Vázquez. Later this year Tarja was touring in South America with the Noche Escandinava project singing classical pieces by the most known Finnish composers to the Southamerican public. Straight after the Noche Escandinava Tarja went on the Century Child world tour with Nightwish, to promote another great success the album was.
At the beginning of 2003 Tarja married Marcelo Cabuli, the boss of the Argentinian metal label NEMS Enterprises who she met on the Wishmaster tour in South America. In November Nightwish started recording their fifth studio album Once and released it in 2004. It was their most successful album reaching the very top of both German album charts and European Top 100. A world tour called Once Upon a Tour followed to finish with a huge show on October 21st, 2005. It was recorded and later released on the band’s DVD End Of an Era It was Nightwish’s last live show with Tarja as their vocalist (See Separation).
Christmas 2004 Tarja released a seasonal single her first solo record Yhden Enkelin Unelma reaching the first place in the Finnish charts in 2004 and 2005 and a golden record award. In spring 2005 sang in Leaving You For Me – a duet with Martin Kesici released as a single off his album So What…!?
Separation (2005)
End 2004 Tuomas had some fights with Tarja’s husband, Marcelo. They had influence on the relationship between Tuoman and Tarja, so in December 2004 Tarja announced she was going to record one more album and do one more tour with Nightwish and then leave the band. She also announced to fully start her solo career after she leaves Nightwish.
On October 22nd 2005, after the last concert of the Once promotional tour, Tuomas gave Tarja a letter signed by himself and the other band members informing Tarja that the band didn’t want to work with her anymore. The letter claimed that Tarja skipped too many rehearsals and behaved like a diva. It also blamed her husband to be partly responsible for her behavior. The letter was posted on the bands website. (Read the letter here: http://www.nightwish.com/en/article/6)
In response, Tarja gave multiple interviews and an official statement on her website in which she explained everything from her point of view. She showed her disappointment in Tuomas. After nine years of Nightwish she expected it all to happen in a different way. (A fan interview with Tarja: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=44206)
[The first interview with Tarja after the separation with the band]
Despite the circumstances of the separation, Tuomas’ appreciation of Tarja as an artist remained. He explained that he did not search for a similar singer, because he “considers her to be extraordinarily good in her genre and therefore irreplaceable”. He said that he had attempted to contact Tarja by text messages (without success) since the split, and that he hopes to re-establish friendship with her again some day in the future. On the next album Nightwish released appeared a song entitled Bye Bye Beautiful which was inspired by the split with Tarja.
In October 2007, Tarja said in an interview that she is very proud of her career with Nightwish. She considers all the band members extremely talented and wishes all the best for them and their new singer – Anette Olzon.
Solo career (2006 – 2011)
At the ending of 2005 Tarja toured with Christmas concerts in Finland, Germany and Spain announcing her first solo album, Henkäys Ikuisuudesta , a seasonal album which was released in October 2006. Also, she returned to the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland, but this time as a soloist and performed classical pieces and opera arias with other well-known opera singers.
After the release of Henkäys Ikuisuudesta Tarja gave some Christmas shows again. With this album she got nominated for the Emma award in the category Best Soloist of 2006.
In 2007 Turunen recorded vocals for the track In The Picture on the Nuclear Blast All-stars album Into the Light.
After the separation with Nightiwsh people expected Tarja to focus on classical singing, so the single I Walk Alone released in October 2007 was quite a big surprise for both – the critics and the fans. The basic message of this single was simple – Tarja Turunen is back in a great style, growing strong on her own. One month later she released her first solo metal long play – My Winter Storm. The album was a great success for a newcomer, as for Tarja was one, since it was the first time she had written songs. She was supported by some professional songwriters though. The album went platinum in Finland and double platinum in Russia.
Her touring/studio band consisted of musicians Tarja knew before including names like Mike Terrana, Max Lijia or Alex Schlopp. After the Warm-Up-Concerts in 2007 Tarja went on tour in Europe and both Americas achieving great success.
In 2008 Tarja recorded two duets with the German metal queen Doro Pesch. The song The Seer was released on a re-release of My Winter Storm and Walking With The Angels on Doro’s album Fear No Evil. In December Tarja participated in Doro’s 25th Anniversary Concert where she sang both songs together with Dorothee. The concert was released on a DVD/CD in 2010.
In November 2009 the Finnish charity Christmas album Maailman Kauneimmat Joululaulut was released with Tarja’s vocals on three songs. In December Tarja provided vocals to the final single, The Good Die Young, by the German heavy-metal band Scorpions. The song premiered on the German TV show Wetten dass…? in March 2010 and was watched by millions of people form all over Europe.
In November and December 2009 Tarja returned with her Christmas shows and toured around Finnish churches.
In 2009 and 2010 Tarja recorded her third studio album – What Lies Beneath, which was released in September 2010. It was an international success reaching place #4 in German album charts and peaking at place #1 on Brazilian MTV. Tarja started the What Lies Beneath world tour performing in the biggest European festivals, with special concerts at Miskolc Opera Festival and at the Masters of Rock, when she performed accompanied by a full orchestra. She also supported Alice Cooper on the German leg of his tour. The What Lies Beneath tour is scheduled to last until the end of 2012.
In December 2010 Tarja did another Christmas tour and promised to do this one next year as well, but not only in Finland.
In April 2011 Tarja announced that she was planning to record a classical album live in a church in Finland and also release a Christmas DVD with footage recorded on her last Christmas tours.
On July 17th, 2011, she is scheduled to sing again at the Savonlinna Opera Festival as the main act.