Essentials:


Name: Tarja Turunen

Instrument: Vocals

Date of birth: 17th of August 1977

Place of residence: Helsinki, Finland

Musical background: Began playing piano at age six followed by flute a few years later. Majored in classical singing and music theatre at the music high school in Savonlinna before studying church music at Sibelius Academy.

Bio: (by Jessica Ball )


Tarja Turunen was born on 17th of August 1977, in Helsinki, Finland. At that time, certainly nobody expected that the bright-eyed baby would make it into the Heavy Metal scene in Finland, let alone all over the world!

"I know what I want" - The words that Tarja Turunen spoke when she was just six years old. Ever since then, Tarja knew she wanted to be a singer, “Theatrical” would explain young Tarja in one word. Her parents saw her musical talent and sent Tarja to a music school where she studied piano, this was still at only six years old. At the age of fifteen came the life changing moment however, Tarja took her first singing lesson.

At first Tarja didn't sing classical singing, she was singing songs by the likes of Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Madonna and only became interested in classical singing at the age of seventeen. At the age of eighteen, Tarja became one of the youngest students to enter the Finnish Music Academy and at that same time, Nightwish was born.

Tarja is perhaps responsible for Nightwish’s evolution into a metal band, as her voice was said to be too strong for an acoustic guitar and keyboards in the bands original acoustic material. Now, seven years on, Tarja's voice is at it's peak. She is one of the most talented women in the metal scene, and reaches high above some male singers in metal too.

Recently, Tarja has studied classical music in Karlsruhe, Germany and is about to embark upon her own solo career, although she will of course remain in Nightwish for the foreseeable future.