- Born
- Birth nameTarja Soile Susanna Turunen
- Nicknames
- Taape.
- The Voice of Finland (Title).
- Deusa (Latin fans).
- The Queen of Metal (fans).
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli was born in Puhos, Finland on August 17th, 1977; she has one older brother (Timo) and one younger brother (Toni). Her talent for music was first noticed when, at 3 years old, she sang "Enkeli taivaan" (the Finnish version of "From Heaven Above to Earth I Come") in the Kitee church hall. She started taking vocal lessons, and joined the church choir. At 6 years old, she started learning to play piano. At comprehensive school, Turunen performed as a singer for several projects. Her first piano teacher, Kirsti Nortia-Holopainen, "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, some girls bullied her because they envied her musicality and vocal talent. To solve the problem, Dimov would organize projects outside school. At 15 years old, Turunen had her first major appearance as a soloist at a church concert in front of one 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 classical crossover artist Sarah Brightman, especially the song "The Phantom of the Opera", and decided to focus on that genre of music. At 18 years old, she moved to Kuopio to study at the renowned Finnish music conservatory, Sibelius Academy. In December 1996, former classmate Tuomas Holopainen invited Turunen to join his new acoustic mood project and she agreed. At the recording session for their first demo, Holopainen discovered that due to her classical singing lessons ,Turunen's voice had become much more powerful than he remembered from their school days. At following practices, Erno 'Emppu' Vuorinen used an electric guitar instead of acoustic because he felt that it better accompanied her voice. Holopainen later explained that the band members had gradually realized that Turunen's voice had become too dramatic for acoustic music, and eventually came to the conclusion that the music had to be massive too. Holopainen decided to form Nightwish as a metal band, and Erno 'Emppu' Vuorinen and Tarja Turunen became Nightwish's fellow Founding Members. The rest is history.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Imrahil
- SpouseMarcelo Cabuli(December 31, 2002 - present) (1 child)
- ChildrenNaomi Eerika Alexia Cabuli Turunen
- RelativesTomi Turunen (older)(Sibling)Toni Turunen (younger)(Sibling)
- Finnish accented Lyric Spinto-Soprano with a rich, haunting, melancholic timbre. Dark low register with a silvery, creamy, well rounded mid-register, and powerful, metallic top notes. Balanced chiaroscuro with a medium-heavier sized vocal weight.
- Sheer vocal prowess with a high degree of musical sensitivity, and penchant for Musical Theater and Drama.
- The Red Coat.
- Matches color of microphone to stage outfits and multiple wardrobe changes. Wearing coats with long, split-bell sleeves, corsets, or structured collars.
- Legato singing predominantly on the main melodic line, with recordings of her singing the contrasting melodic lines in the background chorus. Frequently trills the last word in a phrase, adding staccato and coloratura for texture.
- Tenure with Nightwish was 1996-October 21st, 2005. Their last concert together was Hartwall Areena, Helsinki, Finland on October 21st, 2005, the final concert of a 1.5yr long tour (titled "Once Upon a Tour"). She was fired via a personal letter directly after the concert; a copy of which was uploaded to Nightwish's personal website, as an open letter, the day after. Their final concert was recorded Live and released titled "End of An Era" one year later. Tarja gave a tearful press conference the week after her dismissal, and posted her own open letter in response to the allegations made by Nightwish. After media attention grew too intense, she fled Finland to join her husband in Argentina via a last minute plane flight. After receiving death threats, Tuomas retreated to his parents house to recuperate. The traumatizing experience of Tarja's (very public) firing would be his inspiration for writing "The Poet And The Pendulum", later recorded for their cathartic album, Dark Passion Play.
- She met her Husband, Marcelo Cabuli, during Nightwish's first South American tour in 2000-2001 while promoting the newly released album Wishmaster. He was the band's Tour Manager for South America, in charge of finding venues for the band to play; They started having "full, warm feelings" for the other within the first few days of them meeting. The budding relationship was cemented and the two started dating after Marcelo saved Tarja being sexually assaulted by a fan, onstage, in Guadalajara, Mexico: The man had rushed onstage while the band was playing "Fantasmic III", grabbing Tarja from behind before the other band members could react, and both fell to the floor. Marcelo kicked the man in the head to get him off Tarja, and handed him to Security. She married the Argentinian businessman on December 31st, 2002, and he became her Personal Manager during her last 3 years with Nightwish, and continues to be employed as her Personal Manager to this day. He owns NEMS Enterprises, Tarja's Record Label. They have one child, and lived together in Argentina until 2018. They currently reside in Andalusia, Spain.
- Nightwish was originally meant to be an acoustic band. Tuomas soon discovered that Tarja's voice had grown much more powerful than their Comprehensive (High) school days, and would need equally powerful music to suit it. Taking inspiration from his Metallica concert in the United States, and from Finnish Metal band Stradivarius, Tuomas decided to make Nightwish a Metal band instead.
- Fluent in English, Finnish, German and Spanish.
- Favorite director is Ridley Scott, favorite actor is Russell Crowe, favorite movie is Gladiator (2000), favorite album is Gladiator (2000) soundtrack, favorite song is "Von Ewiger Liebe" by Brahms, and her favorite author is Mika Waltari.
- For me, it is incredible to hear singers in the metal scene telling me I had been their inspiration.
- It is vital for me to make progress as a lyrical singer since it also helps me to sing rock better.
- Music is emotion; it's a beautiful thing that connects people despite their age or differences or cultural differences and anything. We are still the same, and we can love the same things.
- I've always enjoyed the respect from my male colleagues or my audiences all over the world. I've never suffered by the fact of being a woman on the road.
- Since I was a little child, I always wanted to do music. That was my passion.
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