Tarja

A classically trained soprano whose voice spans three and a half octaves, Tarja first rose to prominence as co-founder and lead vocalist of the Finnish gothic and symphonic metal band Nightwish. Following her departure from the group in 2006, she launched a solo career that merged operatic technique with heavy metal and rock. Her second solo release, the platinum-certified My Winter Storm from 2007, remained on the Finnish Albums Chart for two and a half months. Later rock albums Colours in the Dark (2013), The Shadow Self (2016), and In the Raw (2019) likewise performed strongly, while her first all-classical project, Ave Maria en Plein Air (2015), expanded her reach. In 2021 she issued the autobiography Singing in My Blood and began collaborating with EDM pioneer Torsten Stenzel on the progressive electronic endeavor Outlanders.

Born Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen on August 17, 1977, in Kitee, Finland, she earned admission to the Sibelius Academy in Kuopio on the strength of her soprano abilities. There she met fellow student Tuomas Holopainen, who recruited her as vocalist for the project that became Nightwish in 1996. While still active with the band she maintained independent work, performing a solo in a 1999 rock ballet, touring South America in 2002, and issuing the 2004 Christmas single “Yhden Enkelin Unelma” (“One Angel’s Dream”). In 2005 the remaining members requested her exit through an open letter that cited financial and personal issues; the ensuing public exchange led to her full-time transition to solo work. After the split she made occasional live appearances and contributed to an album by her brother before beginning her own recordings. My Winter Storm appeared in October 2007 on Spinefarm Records. In 2009 she recorded the duet “The Good Die Young” with Klaus Meine of the Scorpions for the band’s 2010 album Sting in the Tail. Her second solo album, What Lies Beneath, arrived in fall 2010; the ambitious classical-metal fusion was supported by extensive touring, including German dates opening for Alice Cooper.

The live album Act I followed in 2012, and her third solo studio effort, Colours in the Dark, appeared the next year. That release reached the Top Ten in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia, and the United Kingdom while charting in twelve territories altogether. She also guested on the Within Temptation EP Paradise (What About Us?). In 2015 Tarja released the live set Luna Park Ride, captured in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and later that year delivered her classical debut, Ave Maria en Plein Air.

March 2016 brought the announcement of two new studio albums. Brightest Void: The Prequel emerged in June and featured guest contributions from Michael Monroe on the duet single “Your Heaven and Your Hell,” Chad Smith, and Within Temptation. She previewed the material on a summer tour that also showcased songs from The Shadow Self, issued in August. From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas) arrived in November 2017, applying her classical training to gothic reinterpretations of holiday repertoire. The live album Act II followed in 2018, drawn from a November 29, 2016 performance filmed at Teatro della Luna in Milan. In the Raw, her fifth solo rock album, surfaced in 2019 and paired introspective lyrics with dense, abrasive arrangements. The year 2021 saw both the publication of Singing in My Blood and the initial singles from Outlanders, her electronic collaboration with Torsten Stenzel. Additional Outlanders tracks, among them the Joe Satriani-assisted “Sleeping Indian,” appeared throughout 2022.