1977–1995: Early life Tarja Turunen was born in the small village of Puhos, near
Kitee, Finland. She has an older brother, Timo, and a younger brother, Toni. Her mother Ritva Sisko Marjatta (Hakkarainen) worked in the town administration, and her father Teuvo Turunen is a carpenter. Her talent for music was first noted when she sang the song "Enkeli taivaan" (the Finnish version of "
From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") in the Kitee church hall at age three. She joined the
church choir and started taking vocal lessons. At age six, she started playing piano. At comprehensive school, Turunen performed as a singer for several projects. Her first piano teacher Kirsti Nortia-Holopainen (
Tuomas Holopainen's mother), "Tarja was in a school that had some very musical people. Even then she got to perform a lot. I think she sang in every school function there was." Her music teacher,
Plamen Dimov, later explained that, "If you gave Tarja just one note, she immediately got it. With the others, you'd have to practice three, four, five times". At school she had a tough time, since some girls
bullied her because they envied her voice. To solve that problem, Dimov organized projects outside school. At fifteen, Turunen had her first major appearance as a soloist at a church concert in front of a thousand listeners. In 1993 she attended the Senior Secondary School of Art and Music in
Savonlinna. For several years Turunen performed various songs including
soul music by
Whitney Houston and
Aretha Franklin. Later she listened to songs from the
classical crossover singer
Sarah Brightman, especially the song "
The Phantom of the Opera", and decided to focus on that genre of music. At eighteen, she moved to
Kuopio to study at the
Sibelius Academy.
1996–2005: Nightwish , Finland, on 25 June 2005 In December 1996, former classmate
Tuomas Holopainen invited Turunen to join his new acoustic mood music project, and she immediately agreed. At the recording session for the first demo Holopainen discovered that due to her classical singing lessons, Turunen's voice had become much more powerful than he recalled from their school days. At the following band practices,
Emppu Vuorinen used an electric guitar instead of an acoustic guitar because he felt that it gave a better accompaniment to her voice. Holopainen later explained that the band members had gradually realised that 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. Hence Holopainen decided to form Nightwish as a
metal band. Nightwish recorded a second demo with "more bombastic, dramatic" songs in September 1997. Holopainen used this material to convince the Finnish label
Spinefarm Records to publish the band's debut album,
Angels Fall First. The success of the first album came as a surprise to the label. As the album hit the top 40 of the Finnish charts, Nightwish started touring in clubs around Finland. That same year, Turunen performed at the
Savonlinna Opera Festival for the first time, singing arias from
Wagner and
Verdi., Finland, on 22 May 2004 Due to her commitment to the band, Turunen was not able to concentrate sufficiently on her schoolwork and her academic studies were interrupted. In 1998, Nightwish published their second album,
Oceanborn. This album lacked the earlier elements of folk and
ambient music, and instead focused on fast, melodic keyboard and guitar lines and Turunen's dramatic voice. In addition to the Nightwish tour in 1999, Turunen sang solo in
Waltari's rock-themed ballet
Evankeliumi (also known as
Evangelicum) in several sold-out performances at the
Finnish National Opera. In 2000 and 2001, Nightwish recorded
Wishmaster and
Over the Hills and Far Away and toured Europe and South America. During the Wishmaster World Tour, Turunen met Argentine businessman Marcelo Cabuli, owner of the record label and tour promotion company
NEMS Enterprises, whom she married in 2002. Turunen enrolled in 2000 at the German music university
Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe to gain a professional qualification as a soloist with further specialization in
art song. In addition to the good reputation of the university, Turunen chose to go to Karlsruhe because some people at the Finnish university did not take her seriously as a classical singer due to her commitment in a metal band. While there, she recorded vocals for Nightwish's 2002 album
Century Child and for
Beto Vázquez Infinity. As with the other albums, Holopainen wrote the pieces and sent Turunen the lyrics and a demo recording of the prerecorded instrumental tracks by mail. Using the demo, Turunen designed her vocal lines and the choral passages. The album has sold platinum in Finland and Germany and was the best selling album in all of Europe in July 2004. The band performed in the supporting
Once Upon a Tour throughout 2004 and 2005. For Christmas 2004, Turunen released her first solo single, titled "
Yhden enkelin unelma" (One Angel's Dream), which sold gold in her native country of Finland. At Christmas 2005 it made a reentry at position one in the
Finnish Charts. In spring 2005 she prepared the duet "
Leaving You for Me", a collaboration with
Martin Kesici, accompanied by a video.
Departure from the band , Finland, on 12 December 2006 The first change in the line up of Nightwish was in September 2001, when bassist
Sami Vänskä was fired because Holopainen was no longer able to continue working with him. In the following years, the relationship between Holopainen and Turunen's husband and manager Marcelo Cabuli deteriorated. This affected the relationship between Holopainen and Turunen as well. At a band meeting after the concert in
Oberhausen in December 2004, Turunen informed the band members that she wanted to leave the band, but agreed to record one more album and to participate in the subsequent tour, planned for 2006/2007. According to her husband, Turunen had further agreed not to make her decision public and to release her first solo album after the new studio album from Nightwish. After the last concert of the
Once Upon a Tour on 21 October 2005 (which was released on video as
End of an Era), Holopainen and the other band members informed Turunen in an open letter that the band did not want to work with her any more, accusing her of
diva-like behaviour and greed: The split and, due to the open letter's allegations, Turunen's character became the subject of close media coverage. Turunen responded through an open letter on her website and through some interviews in which she explained her view. She was upset that after nine years of working together, Holopainen announced the separation via an open letter. Turunen said in an interview that she is very proud of her career with Nightwish. She considers the remaining band members extremely talented and wished all the best for them and their subsequent then-lead singer
Anette Olzon.
2005–2009: Solo career beginnings, Henkäys ikuisuudesta, My Winter Storm At the end of 2005, Turunen performed several classical concerts in Finland, Germany, Spain, and Romania. Since she expected to participate in another Nightwish album, several concerts and the release of her Christmas album
Henkäys ikuisuudesta (officially translated as
Breath from Heaven) were the only activities scheduled for 2006. Turunen again played at the
Savonlinna Opera Festival in July 2006, this time as the main act; she sang alongside Finnish
tenor Raimo Sirkiä, supported by the Kuopio Symphonic Orchestra. Turunen performed classical arias like "
O mio babbino caro" by
Puccini, "
Libiamo ne' lieti calici" by
Verdi and some songs from
Andrew Lloyd Webber—"Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "Phantom of the Opera"—among other songs. In November she performed at the charity concert "Tomorrow's Child" with the Tapiola Choir as a benefit for the
UNICEF Children's Fund. On 6 December 2006, 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. The following year, Turunen recorded vocals for the track "In the Picture" on the
Nuclear Blast All-stars album
Into the Light. ,
Bulgaria, 23 July 2010 In August 2006 she started to work on her next solo album,
My Winter Storm, the beginning of her main solo project. It was the first time that Turunen had written songs. She was supported by some professional songwriters. The choir and orchestral arrangements were written by film music composer
James Dooley. Turunen released
My Winter Storm, an album featuring various styles, including
symphonic metal with classical "operatic" lead vocals, in November 2007. The album took the number one spot on the Finnish charts, and went
platinum in Finland double platinum in Russia and
gold in Germany. She was nominated for an
Echo as best newcomer and an
Emma for best Finnish artist. On 25 November 2007, Turunen embarked on the Storm World Tour to promote
My Winter Storm. She performed 95 concerts throughout Europe, North and South America and ended the tour in October 2009 at the
O2 Academy Islington in London.
2010–2014: What Lies Beneath, Colours in the Dark Turunen recorded her third album,
What Lies Beneath, in 2009 and 2010; it was released in September 2010. The album combined
metal with classical "operatic" elements in an out of the box approach. She 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, where she performed accompanied by a full orchestra. The tour lasted until April 2012. Also in 2010 she supported
Alice Cooper on the German leg of his
Theatre of Death Tour. On 17 July 2011, she sang again at the
Savonlinna Opera Festival along with acclaimed tenor
José Cura and accompanied by the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra. , 6 August 2010 In March 2012, Turunen won the title "Europe's best crossover performer" with over 100,000 votes. In May 2013, Turunen announced the title of her 4th solo album,
Colours in the Dark, which was released on 30 August. On 31 May the song "
Never Enough" was released as a teaser. Later this year, in September, it was revealed that Turunen would appear as guest vocalist on the title track and video of
Within Temptation's EP
Paradise, released on 27 September. In January 2014, Turunen revealed through her blog that she would soon return to the studio and record vocals for a couple of songs for her
Outlanders project together with
Torsten Stenzel &
Walter Giardino. In May 2014, it was released the DVD
Beauty and the Beat, providing live footage from 3 concerts as part of the Beauty and the Beat World Tour. The DVD shows Tarja performing live with a symphonic orchestra, choir and
Mike Terrana on drums. Songs include
Antonín Dvořák's "Song to the Moon" from
Rusalka and
Led Zeppelin's "
Kashmir", and also a live version of the rarely performed song "Swanheart" from the 1998 Nightwish album
Oceanborn. On the same year, in July,
Left in the Dark was released as an EP containing alternative versions from Tarja's album
Colours in the Dark, as well as a studio version of "
Into the Sun".
2015–2018: Ave Maria, The Shadow Self, From Spirits and Ghosts On 22 July 2015, it was announced that Tarja would be releasing her first fully classical album,
Ave Maria – En Plein Air. The album features various different renditions of "
Ave Maria", including Tarja's own composition. A teaser trailer was released on 6 August 2015, and a music video was released on 13 August 2015, with Tarja singing "Ave Maria" by Paolo Tosti. On 17 October 2015, Tarja performed two new songs from her then-forthcoming album, "No Bitter End" and "
Goldfinger", which is a cover of
Shirley Bassey's song from
the titular James Bond film. Tarja announced she is to release a new album in the summer of 2016. She explains that "she has been working hard once again with
Tim Palmer to create the heaviest sound so far of her career for her fourth rock album". She also explained that the album will follow in the same footsteps as her other albums but with a new soul and growth. A teaser with a snippet of two songs was then released on her official YouTube channel. On 17 February 2016, Tarja also 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. On April 7, Tarja announced the release, scheduled for June 3, of
The Brightest Void, the "prequel" of
The Shadow Self;
The Brightest Void contains the song "No Bitter End", also included in
The Shadow Self, the duet with Within Temptation "Paradise (What About Us?)" and several covers.
The Shadow Self was released on August 5, 2016. On November 17, 2017, Tarja released
From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas), her second classical and Christmas album. With the album release comes also Tarja Turunen's first graphic novel,
From Spirits and Ghosts (Novel for a Dark Christmas). The 40-page novel is about the world of dark Christmas scripted by Peter Rogers with accompanying art by Conor Boyle. On July 27, 2018, Tarja 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.
2019–present: In the Raw, Dark Christmas and Frisson Noir On 30 August 2019, Tarja released
In the Raw. For this album Tarja Turunen joined forces with other Heavy Metal vocalists such as
Björn Strid,
Tommy Karevik, and
Cristina Scabbia, thus including in the album vocal collaborations with them. On 19 June 2021, Tarja 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. At the end of 2021, Tarja launched the ten-year project called
Outlanders which combines her vocals with electronic beats, and featuring guest artists such as
Yes guitarist
Trevor Rabin and jazz guitarist
Al Di Meola. Tarja 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. On 2 December 2022, Tarja released her first compilation album,
Best of: Living the Dream in many formats to celebrate her 15-year solo career. She later announced the beginning of the
Living the Dream Tour in support of the compilation album, starting in the United States. The tour lasted until 2026, and later runs of the tour included former
Nightwish member
Marko Hietala as a special guest. In 2023, Tarja released three studio albums. On 14 June 2023, Tarja announced her next live album,
Rocking Heels: Live at Metal Church. The new live album was released on 11 August 2023 by earMUSIC and is the first release of the live series "
Rocking Heels". The album contains live recordings of her private performance which opened
Wacken Open Air in 2016. The live album contains multiple metal covers, such as
Linkin Park's "
Numb" and
Metallica's "
The Unforgiven", as well as Tarja's own original music and a Nightwish cover. On 23 June 2023, Tarja and
EDM producer
Torsten Stenzel released their self-titled debut studio album under the moniker of Outlanders. Tarja also released her third Christmas album,
Dark Christmas on 10 November 2023.
Dark Christmas acts as the sequel to her 2017 Christmas album
From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas). Tarja released the single "Left on Mars" on 14 March 2024, a collaboration with former Nightwish bandmate
Marko Hietala, whom she toured with for the Living the Dream Tour. 2024 also saw the release of Tarja's ninth live album,
Rocking Heels: Live at Hellfest on 6 December 2024, the second release in the "
Rocking Heels" live album series. It was announced on 27 September 2024 with the release of the single "Supremacy". The album contains the live recordings of her setlist at Hellfest 2016. The second single "Ciaran's Well" was released on 25 October 2024. In 2025, Tarja announced her tenth live album and sixth video album
Circus Life, which contains the live recordings of her January 2020 show in
Bucharest, Romania. The album was announced with the release of the first single, "Shadow Play" on the same day. The show was a part of a special two-night show series titled "
The Best of Tarja: A Night to Remember". The show was performed on a circus-like "in the round" stage, and features sixteen guest orchestral instrumentalists, as well as guest singers
Clémentine Delauney, Toni Turunen, and Chiara Tricarico. The video album was previously released and included on physical editions of
Best of: Living the Dream in 2022. The second single, "Diva", was released on 4 April 2025. Turunen announced her tenth studio album,
Frisson Noir, on 16 March 2026. It is set to be released on 12 June 2026. ==Singing style==