Why did turunen leave nightwish

The bass player of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish announced Tuesday he was leaving the group, citing his mental health and disillusionment with the music industry. Nightwish, whose original members came from Kitee town close to the Finnish-Russian border, rose to international fame in the s thanks to their epic compositions and the operatic vocals of classically trained singer Tarja Turunen.

The year-old accused music executives of squeezing artists and "unfairly sharing the profits". Hietala joined the group in as bassist and second vocalist, while Turunen later fell out with co-founder and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen and left the band in Nonetheless the band's cult status saw their album "Dark Passion Play" reach number one in six countries and make platinum in Germany.

With international sales of over nine million, Nightwish are the most successful metal export from Finland, the country which a analysis claimed has the world's highest concentration of metal bands per capita. Two weeks ago Alexi Laiho, frontman of the Finnish group Children of Bodom, died aged 41 following "long-term health issues," according to his bandmates.

Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at or visit www. I'm waiting for the day when everything will calm down and I'm really counting the nights until a time when I won't have to talk about all this anymore. But I suppose this will haunt me for months.

Tuomas : "It was the most difficult thing I ever had to do. I want everybody in the band to think that way. There has to be a mental connection — for the music, for the friendship, for the common journeys and for having fun together.

Tarja 's attitude and her values became more and more different from ours. In the last few months she cut herself off from the rest of the group. I think there is a specific quote from her that made her position clear: 'I don't need this band for my career anymore. It couldn't go on like that…". Q : In the end, was it a combination of many things that drove you to your decision or was there one specific event that happened that pushed you over the edge?

Tuomas : "It was a combination of many different factors: The way Tarja felt about the band, her motives, her values, the fact that the next album was definitely going to be her last [with NIGHTWISH ] and that she didn't want to tour with us anymore, not even after the next record.

Why should we continue working a person with an attitude like that? Q : Do you feel relieved now that you made this decision and put it behind you or does it feel like it often does in these situations: After the relief comes the pain along with uncertainty and doubt….

Tuomas : "It is a mixture of pain, hope and relief. All this has been a really big burden for the entire band and so it feels like relief, like a new start but of course it is sad as well that the whole thing had to end like this. It is hard for Tarja , for the band and for the fans — for everybody. But I also believe that time will heal all wounds. Perhaps the sun will shine again in a few weeks.

Tuomas : "Yes; I've always said that personal relations are the most difficult thing in life and here we have a really good example of that.

You can compare it to a divorce — a really ugly divorce…". Q : …Which you made official immediately after the show in Helsinki, right after a long tour has reached its end. When you went on stage with Tarja for the last time, you were aware of the significance of this show and that you would give your open letter to Tarja right after the concert. So how did it feel performing under those circumstances?

Tuomas : "It was really strange. That was the hardest day of my life but during the gig I was able to forget everything that was about to come. I think it was the best concert that we ever played. Everything was just great: the arena, all the visual effects and a lot more.

Above all, the fans were fantastic. During our show a lot of dreams came true and it was the first time that I cried onstage during a gig — for a number of different reasons. Q : When you decided on the title of the upcoming DVD, "End of an Era" [shot at the final concert in Helsinki], did you already know that things would be taking this turn?

Tuomas : "Yes, I wrote the letter about three weeks before the concert and when we decided on the title, we thought that it would fit the DVD. Q : You gave Tarja the letter after the show. Why didn't you wait at least one day so that she could relax a bit following the completion of this long tour? Tuomas : "The main reason was that we wanted to give her the letter personally so she didn't have to read its contents on the Internet.

She wanted to fly to Argentina [where her husband Marcelo is from] the day after the show. But after our performance, we didn't want to take this last evening and her happiness away from her — and in addition, she [was throwing] a party [following the concert].

So we gave her the letter, hugged her and said, 'It's better that you read this tomorrow. There was no possibility for us to talk about it with her. It was the only way.

All I can tell you is: Believe me. Q : So after everything that has happened, are you still sure that this was the right way to handle this? Tuomas : "My conscience is clear and I have no doubts about whether we acted correctly or the way we did it.

Q : Well, if you had only given "personal disagreements" as the reason for Tarja 's departure, there would have been thousands of rumors afterwards. Tuomas : "Yes, exactly. That was a really important point in our decision to make it not only a personal letter but an open one for everybody to see. She said that the record company trusted that the decision was a carefully considered one: "Everyone understands that the band would not have chosen such a radical course of action unless they had been forced to.

Nightwish came into being in , and the band have sold around 2 million copies of their records worldwide. Their album Once was the biggest-selling album in Finland in Tarja Turunen has of late been concentrating on a solo career. She will be appearing in recitals of Christmas songs and carols in December and next year will be recording a CD of similar songs.

In addition she is engaged to sing at the Savonlinna Opera Festival next summer. Turunen studied classical singing at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and subsequently at the Karlsruhe Academy of Music.

Holopainen stated that Turunen's solo projects were not an issue from the group's perspective. It remains to be seen how the events of the weekend will play out for the future success of the classically-influenced goth band, whose popularity has been growing, particularly in Central Europe.

As Tuomas Holopainen freely admits, Turunen was the image of Nightwish, front and centre, but Holopainen can take the credit for much of the songwriting.

The pairing of an operatically-trained and attractive and charismatic "front woman" and some melodic songs in the "symphonic power metal" or "opera metal" genre was clearly a symbiotic and fruitful one, at least until last Friday, when the wheels fell off with a vengeance. Sacked Nightwish vocalist responds with her own open letter. Sacked Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen has published an open letter to her fans on her personal website.

Turunen describes the situation where the letter of dismissal was handed to her. Tears of joy after a successful Hartwall Arena gig turned into tears of sorrow.

She disapproves of the way private matters have been made public and the way her husband has been "involved" in this. According to Turunen, the other members of the band never accepted her Argentine husband and manager Marcelo Cabuli. The fact that I chose marriage, and did not go on as the band's own girl? The fact that I was the only woman in the band and was never taken seriously by the other members?

My husband was the one who helped me to get my voice heard. The singer, who is currently in Argentina, announced she would hold a press conference once she returns to Finland. It won't. Since last Sunday morning, I have been asked to express my position by magazines, newspapers, radio and TV stations, fan clubs and fans from Finland and from all over the world. So many in total that it is physically impossible for me to find the time to reply to them all individually.

Hence I decided to put down a couple of words in this text to let my fans, family and friends and the public know how I feel after the recent events.

At the moment I am in Argentina. My husband had booked his tickets to Argentina many months ago and I decided to travel with him at the last minute. But the fact that I am in Argentina and the long distance should of course not be an excuse not to comment on the situation.

Practice started early in the morning. I was very sick and nervous because of the fact that I was not even able to sing during the rehearsals. Also nervous because the concert programme was going to be longer than usual for a Nightwish concert. Furthermore we were going to have a special guest to perform with us, more wardrobe changes for myself than usual and for the first time big screens and bigger production on stage. Even though every one of us knew in advance that the concert was sold out, finally on stage, we saw that screaming, applauding and standing people took every seat.

The feeling was unbelievable. When the concert was over, I cried of happiness on stage. Happy tears because I was able to do my best as always even though I was sick. Happy tears because our long tour got the greatest possible ending and happy tears because of the best recognition an artist can get: applause and smiling faces.

After the concert, the guys of the band invited me backstage to join them and asked me to hug altogether. This felt strange as it was the same kind of hug we traditionally came together for before every concert. That tradition remained between us, even though the tension and increasing pressure already existed since a long period of time.

After this, they gave me a letter and asked me to read it the following day. The same letter that is now public. Private matters should never be taken to the public. While there would have been so many different possibilities and ways to express what they wanted to tell me with the letter, I remain unable to understand the way they chose to handle this.

I am sorry that the guys got me so wrong. They mentioned mean things about me, but the fact that they involved Marcelo, my husband, crossed the line. He is the man I love, my friend and has been my biggest support over the last years. We have been band mates for 9 years, experienced good times and not so good ones.

I thought I knew them, but I was wrong. I will announce a press conference where I will be talking about my future plans.

Thanks a lot to all the people who are supporting me during these sad times. My family, friends, colleagues, and the great number of fans. I love you and I really feel I have not failed you. Financial success, artistic ambition, and a power struggle broke up the Finnish rockers. Like, Well, no, since this is after all a rock band whodunit, it wasn't really the butler, it was the manager!

The fall-out from the great Nightwish rift, which shocked the entire nation last October, continues in the band's long-awaited history, released on the world last week. The book points the finger most firmly in the direction of Marcelo Cabuli , husband and personal manager of the band's former vocal soloist Tarja Turunen.

With every turning page, the charges against the Argentine Cabuli get heavier and heavier. The portrait of Marcelo Cabuli depicts a money-grasping, less than honest, arbitrary, and manipulative manager who was engaged on setting up his wife's solo career and who drove a wedge between her and the other members of the power metal band.

Nightwish's contractual dealings and touring plans became a painful exercise, as there was "a Hispanic in the works" at every turn. Against this background, it is somewhat awkward that the defendant himself does not get a hearing in the book, even though the other sources close to the band are given full rein to open their hearts and mouths. Not even Tarja Turunen gets to comment on her husband's doings. It is probable that the decision is the couple's own, but this does not disguise the fact that it is the book's greatest drawback.

The author Marko "Mape" Ollila has sought to be even-handed in his coverage, but in part for the reasons above, this band-history inevitably becomes a speech on behalf of the male members of the group and other figures in the background. Nightwish would seem on the basis of this work to have been so divided into two distinct camps that both sides of the story cannot be fitted between the covers of one book. The book itself does reveal that the sacked vocalist Tarja Turunen is planning her own biography.

Not even a page illustrated volume such as this is able, then, to offer the final word on the fuss that surrounded this incident last October, which swelled to quite astonishing dimensions in the media. Once again, it is only a rock band. They do have a tendency to self-destruct and to drift into arguments over differences, musical or otherwise.

In the Finnish experience, the Nightwish story is one of a kind, but as far as the end-result goes, there is nothing very new here under the sun. The book describes in quite frank and brutal terms how financial and chart success, artistic ambition, and a power struggle have eaten away at the personal relationships inside the band.

The actions of Marcelo Cabuli may have been the straw that did for the Nightwish camel, but the members of the band, too, could do well to take a look in the mirror. And this includes the composer and keyboards player Tuomas Holopainen , generally seen as the leader of the group. If this is really the attitude, then it is hardly any wonder that the going gets tense and weird every now and then! Especially as only a few pages earlier we have heard how Turunen - to everyone's surprise - brought her operatic singing style to the band's performances, and how the heavy rock backgrounds of guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and drummer Jukka Nevalainen made the music heavier than it was.

Surely it is the fusion, into something called "symphonic metal" or "opera metal", of classical singing and heavy rock? Might it possibly have been that without these surprising turns of events, Holopainen's acoustic numbers would have remained on the drawing board or as songs strummed around the campfire, and that the band's name would not have travelled outside Finland or the eastern town of Kitee.

The Nightwish story offers up a spectacular dramatic arc, and Mape Ollila grabs it with both hands. He has clearly been close and personal with the people he has interviewed for the book, and this shows up in the candidness of the statements that find their way onto the page. No stone is left unturned, whether it is about personal chemistry, contractual wrangling, or simple old-fashioned "rock stars getting trashed".

The chain of events that led to the sacking of Tarja Turunen runs throughout the book, but the work has other merits. This is the first occasion when the nature of the international rock business has been examined in such comprehensive detail in a Finnish volume.

The most detailed portrait of the characters involved is that of Tuomas Holopainen. A multifaceted image of Holopainen's escapist view of the world is presented. In the end, it is probably most interesting to read just how these innocent young people from rural Kitee became a worldwide success-story: the band have performed and toured in 40 countries and have shifted nearly three million CDs.

There are a number of surprising factors that pop up and influence the tale - not least the Finnish school system. It turns out that each and every one of the original members of the band was at some time the pupil of the enthusiasitic music teacher Plamen Dimov , who also incidentally provides violin back-up on the band's second album Oceanborn.

Furthermore, little Kitee seems to have taken a surprisingly sanguine and positive view of its rock ambassadors, right from the very earliest days. Which just goes to show that when you are out conquering the world, it does no harm at all to have things in good running order at home. The cooperation of Nightwish and Tarja Turunen is history. Rock Hard accompanies the band at their last common weekend and finds out the reason for the split as the first magazine in a moving interview.

The calm before the storm During the approach to Helsinki Finland shows itself from its most beautiful side. It is a sunny autumn day. The woods and the meadows shine in different tones of brown and green and the white clouds are reflected in the steel-blue lakes. All the passengers at the airplane are pressing their noses against the windowpane to admire the nature. Only a young American pesters a stewardess with an unbelieving expression if she is really sure that Finnland is not a part of the Netherlands.

But Nightwish seem to be the true heroes of the Finnish music scene at this weekend. Their show in Hartwall Arena is announced on the radio every few minutes. The Finnish quintet does have the whole town of Helsinki in its grip. The rehearses for the upcoming gig will last until midnight, so there will be no time for the planned interview with Tarja. No explanation is given why Miss Turunen will not do the interview which was planned for a long time.

In the middle of all you can see John Two-Hawks who came from the USA only for the gig and who tries to find his way through the crowd together with his wife while shaking a lot of hands. But Jukka who is there together with his pregnant wife Satu and his mother runs from small talk to small talk.

Finally the whole group heads to Hardwall Areena in a line of taxis. In the backstage-area of the arena where smoking is strictly forbidden the atmosphere is tense. From the dressing-room of Sonata Arctica you can hear someone singing. Tuomas runs through the hallways regularly with a petrified expression in his face. The petite woman has a dressing-room of her own in which she vanishes right after her arrival. Although a lot of Nightwish-fans are still standing at the bars and snack-points inside the hall there are several thousands of spectators on the stands already.

The atmosphere is good. Jukka and Tuomas watch the gig and the reactions of the fans with serious expressions from the side of the stage.

After an hour the five Finns end their performance. A quarter of an hour later everybody has to leave the hallway which leads to the dressing-rooms because Nightwish have to prepare for their gig.

Somewhere you can hear Marco doing some loud warm-up-exercises for his voice while the first La Ola-waves run through the hall. After twenty minutes Nightwish are finally ready for the last show of their Once-Tour which lasted almost one and a half years and included nearly gigs all over the world.

Tuomas wears a hat, takes deep drags from his cigarette and heads to the stage like a cowboy, being the first one. Behind him walk the rest of the guys and finally Tarja and Marcelo follow. When the intro begins the La Olas inside the arena get bigger and the audience on the seats stands up for standing ovations. Behind a black curtain, invisible for the audience the group awaits their performance for the last time.

Tuomas crouches in a corner turned away from the others and lost in thoughts. Marco grins and rehearses some final singing parts once more and Emppu hugs Tarja who is visibly nervous for a few times encouragingly while Marcelo tugs at her dress hectically. When the intro is almost over the five Finns form a circle and stand there arm in arm with their heads together in the middle to encourage each other. John Two-Hawks is next to them; he raises his fist and shouts something to Tuomas.

The light inside the hall go out, yelling can be heard and Nightwish enter the stage — in the back of it there is a huge backdrop with the logo of the current record.