Nightwish

Formed in 1996 by Tuomas Holopainen with guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and classical singer Tarja Turunen, Nightwish have sold over seven million records, making them Finland's most successful rock band ever. They had big ideas from the start, writing mythological songs and putting crashing heavy metal arrangements around them after discovering Turunen's operatic voice was drowning everything else. The result was an original style that came to be dubbed "symphonic metal". They achieved early success on a national level in 1997 with the single “The Carpenter” and debut album Angels Fall First. Their next three albums – Oceanborn, Wishmaster and Century Child – established their fan base in the rest of Europe and, after their videos were shown on MTV, they cracked America with the 2004 album Once. Taja Turunen was sacked in 2007 after disputes between her Argentinian husband and the rest of the band, who replaced her with former Alyson Avenue front woman Anette Olzon, instantly making her mark on their explosive album Dark Passion Play. After one further album with Olzon, Imaginaerum, she ultimately cut ties with the band while in the midst of a 2012 tour, during which ReVamp’s Floor Jansen was promptly ferried in as her replacement for the final shows. She impressed her bandmates, and was formally welcomed into the fold the following year, making her studio debut on the group’s critically acclaimed 2015 album Endless Forms Most Beautiful. After being inducted into the Finnish Music Hall of Fame in 2018 and even having a newly discovered species of crab and a prehistoric rockshelter named after them, the group returned amidst the coronavirus pandemic with the April 2020 effort Human. :II: Nature, which received four Emma Award nominations. Forced to reevaluate their world tour for public health reasons, the group postponed their events, instead constructing a virtual reality live show experience to support the album’s release.

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