- Nightwish is a Finnish Symphonic Power Metal band formed in 1996.
- Their song "Wish I Had An Angel" was featured on the soundtrack of the 2004 horror film Alone in the Dark starring Christian Slater and Tara Reid. "Nemo" was featured on the soundtrack of the 2005 survival horror film The Cave.
- Current group members are Tuomas Holopainen, Erno 'Emppu' Vuorinen, Kai Hahto, Floor Jansen and Troy Donockley. Former group members are Tarja Turunen, Marko Hietala, Jukka Nevalainen, Anette Olzon and Sami Vänskä.
- Pictured on one of six Finnish postage stamps celebrating Finnish Rock Bands, issued 11 September 2015. Price on day of issue was 1.10 Euros.
- The San Antonio Spurs (2005) introduction song into the stadium was Planet Hell (no vocals).
The Minnesota Wild (NHL) introduction song for their home games was the beginning climax of The Poet And The Pendulum (no vocals) during the Stanley Cup Playoffs (2014). - Nightwish's cover of "The Phantom of The Opera", with Tarja Turunen and Marko Hietala at End of An Era (2005 Hartwall Areena), is Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's favorite version to date.
- On January 12th 2021, Marko Hietala announced his official resignation from Nightwish. Since his hiring in 2001, he had the second longest lasting tenure of any bandmember, second only to Tuomas and Emppu's joint #1, and was the longest lasting vocalist in Nightwish (20 years) since it's conception in 1996.
- Jukka announced his hiatus from Nightwish on August 6th, 2014, due to insomnia. In July 2019, he announced his hiatus as permanent, and officially resigned as Nightwish's drummer. Kai Hahto was announced as his permanent replacement.
- Nightwish is Finland's biggest, best-selling band, with multiple platinum, 3x platinum, and gold selling albums and singles.
Nightwish singles that went Platinum: "EverDream", "Bless The Child", "Nemo", and "Amaranth". Nightwish singles that went Gold: "Sacrament of Wilderness", "Walking In The Air", "Sleeping Sun", and "I Wish I Had An Angel". - As of 2021, Nightwish's most successful album to date remains 2005's Once; the last album to feature Tarja Turunen as lead vocalist, with 2,300,000+ albums sold Worldwide. The second most successful Nightwish album is 2007's Dark Passion Play, Anette Olzon's debut, with 1,800,000+ sold Worldwide, followed by 2011's Imaginaerum (900,000+ Worldwide), then 1998's Oceanborn (800,000+ Worldwide).
- The three Founding Members of Nightwish are Tuomas Halopainen, Tarja Turunen and Emppu Vuorinen. After their debut album Angels Fall First, they hired friends Sami Vänskä and Jukka Nevalainen to be Nightwish's bassist and drummer, respectively; this was the original lineup. After Sami Vänskä's firing, Marko Hietala was hired, this was called Nightwish's Golden (or Classic) Era.
- Whilst many fans are extremely passionate about their favorite Nightwish Singer and claim them to be the true face of Nightwish, most fans are saavy enough to understand that Nightwish is the brain and lovechild of Tuomas Halopainen, who composes and writes (at least) 90% of the music and lyrics. The guitarists write their solos, and the singers create their melodic lines.
- Nightwish Composer and Main Lyricist Tuomas Halopainen's favorite Composer is Hans Zimmer, and draws heavy inspiration from him.
- The song "Higher Than Hope (album Once)" was written in memory of, and dedicated to, Marc Brueland. Marc Brueland was a passionate fan and became a good friend of Nightwish, and he and Tuomas would talk over the phone frequently. He was given a speaking part in the song before he died of cancer in 2003, at 30yrs. old.
- Since Anette's time as Lead Singer, Nightwish has become very saavy in how to best to utilize their wide discography with Floor Jansen in Live shows, whilst differentiating her time from Tarja and Anette's. ie: Old Nightwish classics such as "The Devil and The Deep Dark Ocean", "Gethsemene" and "Stargazers" have become regulars at Nightwish shows with Floor, that were rarely performed Live with Tarja or Anette.
- Nightwish has covered several songs throughout their career, Gary Moore's "Over The Hills and Far Away", Howard Blake's "Walking In The Air", Pink Floyd's "High Hopes", and Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of The Opera". "Walking In the Air" became an instant classic in Finland, Andrew Lloyd Webber "absolutely loved" their cover, and "High Hopes" (though beloved by fans) was only played Live during Tarja's final year with Nightwish as their preeminent (unbeknownst to her) farewell.
- Out of respect for Tarja Turunen's vocal prowess and it's importance in Nightwish's conception, Nightwish (specifically Tuomas) has refused to hire another Classically singing Lead Singer, or perform The Phantom of The Opera (Tarja's favorite song, and her inspiration to start Classical singing lessons in the first place) ever again since her firing in 2005 (they played Phantom nearly every show in their last tour with Tarja, 2004-2005); despite Floor Jansen possessing the ability to do so. In accordance with this, Floor sings primarily in an extremely well trained Contemporary voice where she uses classical techniques to floridly embellish her singing; in a sort of 70/30 Contemporary-Classical singing "marriage". Or, by using a much lighter, delicate Classical voice that differentiates her from Tarja, whose exceedingly well trained Classical voice was much darker and more robust.
Many Floor-Nightwish fans were treated with her singing The Phantom of The Opera for the first time via the Netherland's TV show, Beste Zangers 2019, with Henk Poort. Henk (the longtime Phantom in The Netherlands) has announced he wants to perform Phantom live with Floor and Nightwish, Nightwish has yet to comment.
Tarja's legendary performance of the song at Hartwall Arena undulated between E(flat)6 and D6, whilst Floor's renowned Beste Zangers performance ended on the classic D6. ----------------------------------------------------- Nightwish performed The Phantom of The Opera, live, for the first time in 17 years, on November 27th 2022 at Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Henk Poort served as Floor's duet partner. - Floor Jansen's rendition of Ghost Love Score Live at Wacken 2013, made Nightwish go viral on YouTube and brought in a legion of new fans to the point the song was renamed "Ghost Love Floor".
- As of 2021, former Frontwoman Tarja Turunen still has the longest tenure as lead vocalist in Nightwish with 9yrs., and the longest discography with 5 albums. Current Frontwoman Floor Jansen will officially take over as lead vocalist with the longest tenure in Nightwish at the beginning of 2023, with 10yrs. Former Frontwoman Anette Olzon is the lead vocalist with the shortest tenure in Nightwish with 5yrs., and has the shortest discography with 2 albums.
Marko Hietala was the secondary vocalist for Nightwish since joining in 2002, and has the longest lasting tenure of any Nightwish vocalist with 19yrs., and longest discography of 6 albums (two with each Lead Nightwish singer). As of yet, he has the honor of being the only Nightwish vocalist to willingly leave and not be fired. - Every album since 2002's Century Child has a "magnum opus" to end the album, that averages about 10 minutes long. Century Child: "Beauty Of the Beast", Once: "Ghost Love Score", Dark Passion Play: "The Poet and The Pendulum", Imaginaerum: "Song of Myself", and Endless Form's Most Beautiful: "The Greatest Show on Earth". Human/Nature is the first album to break the pattern in 18 years, with two songs that are 7 minutes instead.
- On June 7th 2004, Nightwish released their all time best-selling album Once, and embarked on a 1.5 year long World tour to support the new album. Unfortunately behind the scenes, tensions between Tarja, Marcelo, the rest of the band, and band management, was reaching it's boiling point. In late 2004, bassist Marko Hietala was the first to float the idea of firing Tarja, Jukka agreed first. Eventually Tuomas, Emppu, and Ewo would also agree, and kept their final decision in secret from Tarja and Marcelo. A 'personal' letter, with a list of grievances, was written specifically to be given to Tarja, with the signatures of all four (now) ex-bandmates signed at the bottom. This letter was scanned to be uploaded onto Nightwish's personal website later. On October 21st 2005 after their (now legendary) concert at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland, fellow Founding Member and Lead Vocalist Tarja Turunen was unceremoniously fired via open letter. The personal letter was given to her backstage directly after the concert, with fellow Founding Member Tuomas Halopainen personally asking that she not open it until the following day. Tarja gave a tearful press conference, and posted her own open letter in response to the allegations made by Nightwish, to her personal website in the following days. Media scrutiny and fan backlash to the debacle was so intense, Tarja fled the Country to join her husband, Marcelo Cabuli, in Argentina, and Tuomas retreated to his parent's house to recuperate after receiving death threats. The incident flung Tuomas into a major depression, and he wrote the song The Poet and The Pendulum as catharsis so that he'd "be able to kill myself in a song without having to do it in real life". In response to the continuous references to her and vitriol aimed at Marcelo in 2007's Dark Passion Play, Tarja responded to Nightwish via her own song Enough, on her 2009 solo album My Winter Storm.
Nightwish's Hartwall Arena concert was recorded Live, titled "End of An Era" and released as a concert DVD in 2006. The band's biography "Once Upon A Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996-2006", was also released that same year; detailing the incident, the band's founding, the band's early years, their successes, and the inner-personal tension that eventually led to Tarja's dismissal. Tarja and Marcelo attempted to sue Nightwish for defamation and libel over the book, but the Helsinki court tossed out their case in 2011. Nightwish's open letter to Tarja, and Tarja's subsequent press conference and replying letter can still be found online. - After Turunen's dismissal, the band reviewed about 2,000 applicants for a new Lead Singer. Around 10 progressed enough they were able to personally audition in front of Nightwish. Anette Olzon was eventually chosen as their new Lead Singer in February 2007, after initially being rejected due to Tuomas's concerns of her having a young son, however, she was persistent. Her audition song was Nightwish's EverDream. Her identity was kept secret, with her being introduced as Ewo's (Nightwish's manager) Swedish cousin whilst at a Tarot concert. She was officially announced as Nightwish's new Frontwoman on May 27th, 2007. Eva was released as Anette's debut with Nightwish the day after. And Dark Passion Play was released later that year on September 26th, 2007.
Fan backlash to Anette Olzon was swift, with many Nightwish holdouts believing it was too drastic a change from Turunen's dark, precision based, operatic vocals, for Anette's bright, relaxed, pop/rock style vocals. Sadly, at many concerts, Anette was harassed from stage by Tarja-Nightwish fans to the verge of tears. - Tuomas Halopainen originally meant for Nightwish to be an acoustic band. His decision to make Nightwish a Heavy Metal project came, in part, from his time as an exchange student in the United States, where he saw Metallica Live for the first time, and then cemented by hearing Tarja Turunen's singing voice for the first time. He asked her to sing for his project because he knew her from being a classmate prior, they were friends, he knew that she was a Voice major, and she agreed. Upon hearing her (now) much stronger voice for the first time, he realized he had to make the music heavier to better suit her so that the music wouldn't be drowned out. Evidence of Nightwish's acoustic roots are evidenced in the album Angels Fall First's, self-titled song, Angels Fall First.
Tuomas always used male vocals in addition to Tarja's, as evidenced by his first (and only) attempt to sing, in Nightwish's The Carpenter. - Marko Hietala (Tarot, Sinergy, Northern Kings etc.) officially joined Nightwish in 2001, after Sami Vänskä's firing. His hiring turned Nightwish into an official Heavy Metal band, and attracted many Metal fans. Marko enabled Tuomas to add an aggressive, masculine component to Nightwish's music, to contrast with Tarja's soft, feminine soprano; a modernized, more pleasant usage of the "Beauty and The Beast" effect that's common in Gothic Metal bands. His Nightwish debut was Century Child. Previously when Tuomas needed a male voice, he'd either ask Tapio Wilska (Finntroll) or Tony Kakko (Sonatica Artica).
- Anette Olzon's last concert as Nightwish Lead Singer and Frontwoman was at The Complex, September 29th, 2012, in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was hospitalized with a liver cyst, and was forced to cancel subsequent shows. Nightwish tapped Elize Ryd of Amaranthe, and Alissa White-Glutz of then-The Agonist, to fill her place as singer(s) for her shows instead of wanting to cancel them. Olzon was extremely upset by this, and traded barbs online with Nightwish via her hospital bed. Nightwish fired Anette Olzon on October 1st, 2012 subsequently. Anette has gone on to theorize that the reason she was fired was because she was pregnant. Nightwish vehemently denied this, stating they were all congratulatory to her, but that "the split with Anette wasn't because of pregnancy or illness. We discovered her personality didn't fit this work community, and was even detrimental to it." Anette further went on stating that she was fired exactly the way Tarja was, and wants to speak to Tarja directly, so that they can share their experiences. Tarja is supposedly yet to do so, and seems unlikely to, as in all interviews since her Solo career, answers in questions regarding Nightwish that she is proud of what she and Nightwish did together, but has since moved on. "I have my Life, they have theirs."
After, Floor Jansen was called whilst at her sister, Irene Jansen's, wedding, and asked to be Anette Olzon's temporary, emergency replacement for Nightwish, still on mid-Tour. Floor agreed, and learned Nightwish's setlist on the plane ride over to the United States, documented in Nightwish's "Please Learn the setlist in 48 Hours". Floor Jansen's first debut with Nightwish was in October 2012, in Seattle, Washington, to raving reviews. Floor Jansen was officially announced as Anette Olzon's permanent replacement, and Nightwish's third Lead Vocalist in October 2013. - Nightwish is heavily influenced by Finnish Power Metal band Stradivarius, and Film Composer Hans Zimmer. Other influences include Metallica, Rammstein, and Black Sabbath.
- Erno 'Emppu' Vuorinen almost quit Nightwish before Sami Vänskä's firing in 2001. Sami Vänskä had started missing appointments and failed to take gigs as seriously as the other members did. After the band discussed this with Vänskä several times, without getting any change, everyone simply stopped caring and tensions grew. Emppu started complaining about his role in the band, akin to feeling like "a hired gun who would only do what he's asked to". Plamen Dimov (their music teacher at Sibelius Academy), he and Holopainen had totally different characters, and difficulties were expected to arise. Vuorinen was advised to stay cool and "bite the bullet", and after Sami was eventually fired, tensions ceased.
- The two most personal songs in Nightwish's entire discography are "Dead Boy's Poem" and "The Poet And The Pendulum". "Dead Boy's Poem" is Tuomas Halopainen's autobiographic song, and "The Poet And The Pendulum" contains excerpts of what Tuomas's parents actually said to him ("Mother and Father" sequence) in the wake of the Tarja's sacking debacle. He requested Audio Tech mute his ear phone from the vocals in PATP multiple times.
As of 2021, Nightwish no longer performs "The Poet and The Pendulum" Live; Tuomas's Father, Pentti Holopainen, died on February 4th, 2021. - Plamen Dimov and Tony Kakko (Sonatica Artica) are directly responsible in both the formation of Nightwish, and continuing it's existence. Plamen Dimov was Tuomas Halopainen and Emppu Vuorinen's Music Teacher and mentor, and Tarja's Vocal Teacher in Comprehensive (High) School. Plamen Dimov mentored Emppu in how to best handle his frustrations at feeling "like a hired gun who does what he's told", at a time when Emppu was seriously considering quitting the band because Sami was lowering morale. During a hike, Tuomas divulged to Tony Kakko that he was seriously considering disbanding Nightwish due to rising tensions over Sami's behavior. Tony convinced him not to quit because he'd regret it, and offered some advice in how to handle it. When they got back from their hike, Tuomas officially hired Ewo Pohjula as Nightwish's personal Manager, and had Sami Vänskä fired.
- "Nightquest" (Oceanborn) was written implying the hopeful belief that Tuomas (the storyteller and pied piper), Tarja (the maid and queen of the night), Jukka (the warrior), and Emppu (the merry minstrel) would be in the band as friends for it's entire duration, and likened it to a Fantasy Quest. Sadly, this would prove to not be the case.
- "Shoemaker" (Human/Nature) is in honor of the true story of American Geologist, and a founder of Planetary Science, Eugene Merle Shoemaker (April 28, 1928 - July 18, 1997). He co-discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Carolyn S. Shoemaker (his wife) and David H. Levy. This comet hit Jupiter in July 1994, with the impact televised around the world. Shoemaker studied terrestrial craters, such as Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, and along with Edward Chao which provided the first conclusive evidence of its origin as an impact crater. He was also the first director of the United States Geological Survey's Astrogeology Research Program, and worked closely with NASA in training U.S. Astronauts. He himself was candidate to be an Astronaut for one of the Apollo missions, but was disqualified after he was diagnosed with Addison's disease (disorder of the adrenal gland). Sadly on July 18th 1997, he was killed in a head-on car accident, while on his way to visit an impact crater site, on the Tanami Track, in Australia. His wife was with him, and was severely injured in the crash but survived. His remains were cremated with half his ashes given to his Wife, and the other half given to NASA to take to the Moon for his final resting site, on the Lunar Prospector mission; for his contributions to Science and in honor of his part in training their Astronauts. His urn is inscribed with the excerpt;
"And, when he shall die Take him and cut him out in little stars And he will make the face of heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun."
from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The brass foil wrapping on Shoemaker's memorial capsule is also inscribed with images of Comet Hale-Bopp and the phrase "The last comet that the Shoemakers observed together". He is the only human being whose remains are interred on the Moon.
The final lyric "Laudato si Ad Astra" is Latin for "Glory to the stars". This is the first Nightwish song to feature Tuomas Halopainen's wife (married 2015) Johanna Kurkela, who speaks the Shakespeare excerpt. - "The Kinslayer" (Wishmaster) is based on the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999; the lyrics are based on both the shooters, and survivors perspectives.
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