by Chris Willow
— Guest Columnist —
Tarja Turunen, who has an unbelievable 3-octave vocal range soprano, and as a heavy Symphonic Metal singer has a unique individual stage personality. She studied singing and graduated Sibelius Academy in Finland and Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, in Germany. She has a very emotional and open-minded fragile soul. Her 2000 National Finnish Eurovision Song Contest appearance as a front lady for the Heavy Metal band Nightwish paved the way for her international career. Although Nightwish placed first in the Finnish televote, the jury overruled them, choosing another artist instead.
Nightwish was formed in 1996 by her colleague Tuomas Holopainen and he was a strong personality and a good composer too so the conflict between the two of them was inevitable. In 2005 Tarja was asked to leave the band. The open letter stated financial and personal concerns, and Tarja left the band with the tears in her eyes but this made her strong individual performer with her own group. Her new band record and perform as Tarja Turunen.
Her first album Winter Storm was noticeable but it lacked uptempo numbers and was rather nostalgic. Before she released her second album What Lies Beneath at the end of 2010 she managed to record a video song ‘The Good Die Young’ together with supergroup Scorpions and the duo Tarja and Claus Maine sparked well. She was keep recording together with other well-known rock stars like Within Temptation, Chad Smith and Michael Monroe. Her follow up albums Colors In The Dark in 2013, and The Shadow Self in 2016, bring vast and glorious success and she performs for a large audience in South America, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Poland and for smaller venues throughout Europe and USA.
Her last year’s concert at B90, Gdansk Poland on 24th Oct 2018 was a part of her ‘A Nordic Symphony ’18 Tour’. The thunderous delivery of ‘Demons In You’ gave the supreme pleasure to the ears of a small but responsive crowd. They wanted her, they needed her, they had got to be near her because the club was small and gave them all home alike feeling.
The capacity of the venue was around 1500 people but just about 500 fans turned up what is not understandable because Tarja’s band itself and two support groups Serpentyne and Stratovarious with Jens Johansson on the keyboards (who is a keyboard man for current Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow line up too) are well known, Melodic Metal bands in Europe. And it is simply a predicament the audience was so small.
Local promotion failed or maybe on Wednesday evening boys and girls couldn’t go too far! But the performance itself was beautiful, on the highest level. In spite of lack of full attendance and poor sight lines, B90 Club provided extremely tight sound and powerful dynamic. That kind of show gets written down in history. Hurrah! While singing ‘500 Letters’ and ‘I Walk Alone’ Tarja showed her sensitive soul and deep artistic heart. And her high C was irresistible. The whole band performed with the huge power of expression and the ‘giant’ cellist was unbelievable, his massive performance together with solo parts of the guitar and keyboards are not from this Earth. The driving force of Traja’s vocal kept all the band together at a the top level. Overall it was an unforgettable experience, in a small venue, where you can stare at the souls of the artists up close and personal.
Top music, best bands, good Polish drinks at the bar, some cynicism from the club crew and at the coat check department – just a good heavy Rock show with all the local pleasures.
Tarja Turunen Concert Photo Gallery
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Tarja Turunen Concert Photo Gallery – All Photos by ⓒ Anna Ex
Tarja Turunen Official Web Page http://tarjaturunen.com/home-tarja/
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