Tarja Terunen
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, 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). 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. Marcelo then posted a lengthy reply to many
of the questions he had received in June 2006.
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.