Line #9 Music/TarjaTurunen


1	[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/110710_photo_8922.jpg]]
2
3	Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli (born August 17, 1977), generally known as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish singer-songwriter. She is a soprano and has a vocal range of over three octaves.
4
5	She's best known as the former lead singer of the Finnish {{Symphonic\|Metal}} PowerMetal band Music/{{Nightwish\|Band}}. In 2005, she left the band after receiving an open letter, leading to a public back-and-forth volley between her and the rest of the band. The letter claimed that she had missed too many rehearsals and that her husband influenced her behavior, though she vehemently denies these claims. Both she and her husband have since talked about their side of the story.
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7	Her first solo album, ''Henkäys Ikuisuudesta'', was released in 2006.
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9	Tarja has the unusual distinction of being a female soprano singer for a metal band. Her voice alone led to Nightwish being labeled as "opera metal". "Female-fronted metal" has become a subgenre in part due to the success of Nightwish. In particular she's known to have inspired future Music/{{Epica}} vocalist Simone Simons to study classical singing after hearing Tarja sing on ''Oceanborn''.
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11	Finnish President Tarja Halonen called her "the voice of Finland". She is well-known across Europe and has a small yet devoted following in North America. She coached the winners on seasons 4 and 5 of ''Series/TheVoice of Finland''.
12
13	!Discography:
14	!!With Nightwish
15	* 1996 - ''Angels Fall First''
16	* 1998 - ''Oceanborn''
17	* 2000 - ''Wishmaster''
18	* 2001 - ''Over The Hills And Far Away'' (EP)
19	* 2002 - ''Century Child''
20	* 2004 - ''Once''
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22	!!Solo
23	* 2006 - ''Henkäys Ikuisuudesta'' (a Christmas album, [[NoExportForYou only available in Finland]])
24	* 2007 - ''My Winter Storm''
25	* 2010 - ''What Lies Beneath''
26	* 2011 - ''Live At Sibelius Hall'' (with Harus) -- this is a classical album, not metal.
27	* 2013 - ''Colours In The Dark''
28	* 2016 - ''The Shadow Self''
29	* 2017 - ''From Spirits and Ghosts (Score for a Dark Christmas)'' - An atmospheric/classical Christmas album with a couple of original songs.
30	* 2019 - ''In the Raw''
31
32	!!Notable Collaborations
33	* 2013 "Paradise (What about Us?)" as a feature credit with Music/WithinTemptation
34	----
35	!Tarja shows examples of:
36	* BrokenRecord: "Too Many" from '' The Shadow Self'' repeats the last chorus ''fourteen times''.
37	* CoverVersion:
38	** "[[ComicBook/TheSnowman Walking in the Air]]" in ''Henkäys Ikuisuudesta'' (technically a cover of a cover, as Nightwish had performed it for ''Oceanborn'').
39	** "[[Music/AliceCooper Poison]]", in ''My Winter Storm''.
40	** "[[Music/{{Whitesnake}} Still Of The Night]]", as a bonus of ''What Lies Beneath''.
41	** "[[Music/PeterGabriel Darkness]]" in ''Colours of the Dark''.
42	** "[[Music/PaulMcCartney House of Wax]]" and "[[Music/ShirleyBassey Goldfinger]]" in ''The Brightest Void''.
43	** "[[Music/{{Muse}} Supremacy]]" in ''The Shadow Self''.
44	** She also sung "[[Music/SodaStereo Signos]]" and "[[Music/SeruGiran Desarma y Sangra]]" in live concerts.
45	** Tarja performs a lot of covers live, ranging from classical pieces to 80's rock medleys and even some Music/{{Nightwish\|Band}} songs as a CallBack to her former band. This includes Nightwish's cover of "Over the Hills and Far Away".
46	* GenreMashup: While generally SymphonicMetal, Tarja's solo material shows aplenty of influences from ClassicalMusic, AlternativeMetal, ArenaRock, {{Prog\|ressiveRock}}, Pop, PsychedelicRock, Industrial and even Ambient. ''Colours in the Dark'' is especially [[GenreRoulette prominent]] in its experimental nature, while ''In the Raw'' is straight-up TraditionalHeavyMetal.
47	* GratuitousForeignLanguage:
48	** "Montañas De Silencio" is sung in Spanish.
49	** Most of ''Henkäys Ikuisuudesta'' is sung in Finnish. She sings a gorgeous version of "Ave Maria" on this album in German.
50	** "Mystique Voyage" is in four different languages.
51	** On ''From Spirits and Ghosts'', Tarja sings "O Tannenbaum" in the original German, and one verse of "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" in Latin.
52	* LighterAndSofter: "Underneath", "I Feel Immortal", "Mystique Voyage", "Until Silence", "The Living End" and "Calling Grace" from her solo albums. ''Live At Sibelius Hall'' has her singing classical music.
53	* LongestSongGoesLast:
54	** ''What Lies Beneath'' ends with "Crimson Deep" (7:35).
55	** ''Colours In The Dark'' ends with "Medusa" (8:12).
56	** ''The Brightest Void'' ends with "Too Many" (7:48, 12:43 if one includes the HiddenTrack "Hit Song").
57	* OneWomanWail: Quite possibly the world grandmistress of this, with classical operatic vocalizations a common feature of her songs.
58	* SingingVoiceDissonance: Her speaking voice is fairly harsh with a noticeable Finnish accent. As a singer, she's a classically trained American accent singer who has been described as "American" and, especially nowadays, her accent nearly disappears (it was much thicker earlier in her career, sparking many mishearings of Nightwish songs).
59	* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: It was nigh-impossible early in her career to figure out what she was singing. She got better about that.
60	* {{Supergroup}}: So far, you have [[Music/{{Masterplan}} Mike Terrana]], [[Music/{{Angra}} Kiko Loureiro]], [[Music/{{Apocalyptica}} Max Lilja]] and Music/VanCanto accompanying her.
61	* TakeThat: Tarja responded to her former band's personal attacks in ''Dark Passion Play'' with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imBsSIFjPfA "Enough"]], which accuses Tuomas Holopainen of being a prima donna who choked her with darkness and couldn't comprehend that her love for her husband Marcelo Cabuli is genuine. They've reconciled somewhat since then: Tarja has spoken approvingly of her replacement Anette Olzon's performances and is friends with Anette's replacement Floor Jansen (which dates to Floor's time with Music/AfterForever), and has had guest appearances in her solo career by Floor and, in 2017, by Marco Hietala.
62	* WeUsedToBeFriends: This is pretty much Tarja and the rest of Music/{{Nightwish\|Band}}. While they all originally seemed tight-knit and were getting a good measure of success after releasing ''Wishmaster'', ''Century Child'' and ''Once'', but then after her final performance (''End of an Era'', ironically), the band released an open letter announcing her termination from the band. There have been ''multiple'' stories about the reasons behind the split (the band - Tuomas especially - accusing her of choosing money and her new husband while Tarja and her husband emphatically deny this and say the band - particularly Tuomas - treated her badly), but it seems that nobody will ever know the full story. Tarja has said that she does not regret her time in Nightwish, and indeed she has performed with Marko, praised Anette and has been known to be friends with Floor.
63	** In 2022, she mentioned she and Marko had been the closest during her time in the band, as he joined later and was more "neutral", she had been "in touch" with Tuomas (although she had not seen him in person in years) and did not rule out the "very, very hypothetical" potential of getting back together for a reunion tour with Nightwish, as long as the former members (Tuomas, Emppu and Jukka Nevalainen specifically) apologized to her, something she acknowledged was very unlikely.
64	* WinterRoyalLady: In the cover art of ''My Winter Storm''.

Context Music / TarjaTurunen