Fugazi

By the way, the photos Floor mentions in her blog entries are still available for viewing here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130103124629/http://floorjansen.com/timeline

13 Nov 2012 From the UK to Finland and back home in The Netherlands https://web.archive.org/web/20121116011727/http://floorjansen.com/blog/from-the-uk-to-finland-and-back-home-in-the-netherlands Dear reader, At the moment I write these words to you I am sitting on the couch, at home with my homemade super black coffee. I want reflect on the last week. So much happened! Let us go back one week and a day ago. Early wake up, train to airport (with detour), flight to Manchester. Arrival at the venue at 14:00 or so. It felt great to see the band and crew again. Still new but also so familiar. We picked up were we left in the US, both personal as musically. I also met the engines behind the British fanclub ‘The Islanders’. We would have meets with their members daily! I also did a video interview, answering questions the members had send in. You can find this video linked to this blog! The show was amazing! Beautiful venue, crazy crowd, music that moves everybody in the place! Magic! The next morning we woke up in London. I happen to LOVE London 🙂 My dear friend Wieneke came to see me and together we made a fast jump into the city. Went to my favorite shoe shop Irregular Choice! The show again was pure magic; I felt I was at my best. Such an incredible high!!! Next morning: Birmingham! At this show we got such a sweet presents. A shoe with a bottle of wine in it, somehow my love for both was picked up! We also got a beautiful cake (one for each). So lovely! We get so many beautiful presents at the shows. It’s really nice! Showtime. Magic time again! We blew the roof off that place haha!!! Off to Glasgow for the last ride of the UK tour. Lovely Scotland, wish I had some time to see more of it. I got advised to go and see many nice islands and mountains. I am a huge fan of the Islay whiskeys!!! But we were there to rock and so we did. Thank you for all that rock ‘n roll that night. Magic once more! On Thursday I flew home to spend a lovely night there. On Friday morning I left to the airport again to go to Helsinki. I had a meeting with Scarlette Kara for my outfit (http://www.scarlettekara.com) In the evening we had dinner and some drinks and a good night sleep to prepare the big day with the movie premier. I was so nervous and exited!!! My parents came to see me. So did my sister Irene with her husband. My boyfriend Erik was there as well with his mother and his 89 year old grandmother. That alone is special! And I was so happy they could be there because it is almost impossible to tell you how it was… How I felt walking around that enormous arena. Or during the soundcheck when the Finnish news came to film us and we did a check of the fireworks. My dressing room is actually a room big enough to hold an entire ice hockey team 🙂 We did a photo shoot, we drank Imaginaerum wine, we got high on adrenaline and then we did that massive show. WOW…. I guess the many films on You Tube show a lot, and the pictures too. Magic to the max. (photo Timo Isoaho) It was so great to do this show with all effects. The big screens, the fire, the rocking chair with Marko, and the white curtain that fell down so abrupt. The lights, the sound of 10000 people, my new outfit…all-together I am still so impressed. The movie was part of the reason of us being there and so my family and I were let into a skybox (thank you for that!) and we could see the movie from that high place in that huge arena. I was great to see! Great to feel the music in a film score together with all the images. Amazing to see the band perform in it, really special. After the movie we rushed to the after-party. I met family and friends of my new Finnish band buddies! Really nice how positive everybody was about the show and me. I felt appreciated and loved and that was something extra special being in Finland with Nightwish amongst their closest in-crowd. Nice comments I heard this week: -You look like Xena the warrior princess in your new outfit - My favorite song ‘Ghost Love Score’ has a nickname now… Ghost Love Floor Jansen I made a photo collection of this amazing week. You can find them on my timeline. Thank you (kiitos, dank je wel) for supporting me and for reading this blog. I hope you enjoyed! In two weeks we will leave to Latin America for a tour there. Check www.nightwish .com for all dates. The coming weeks I will take it easy and relax! I will write you soon again!!! Love, Floor 19 Nov 2012 New outfits! https://web.archive.org/web/20121230020244/http://floorjansen.com/blog/new-outfits Dear reader, As you might know I will perform many shows with Nightwish the coming time! A tour in Latin America is coming up very soon now and the tour to Australia and New Zealand comes soon after I come home from Argentina! After this more shows and festivals will follow and I would love to wear some new outfits!!! I went to Ingeborg Steenhorst again. She designed and made my outfits for the last After Forever album. She has a lot of experience with metal chicks and performers in general. My ideas where made into something super cool and some very nice types of leather are bought, together with other fancy fabrics and amazing decorations. Hereby a short impression of what's to come 🙂 I will update you soon and of course you can see them in full glory on stage next week already! Exiting things!!! 23 Nov 2012 TV, clothes and tour preparations! https://web.archive.org/web/20130102130154/http://floorjansen.com/blog/tv-clothes-and-tour-preparations Dear reader, in my previous blog you can see some pictures of the new stage clothes that are a being made by Ingeborg Steenhorst. I went to see her this week and I can tell you; it will be great! She's so creative!!! Crazy pic haha, can't see too much of what's to come but I can promise you it's amazing. I am super happy!!! A part of it will be finished in time for the Latin American tour so you will see how it looks on stage soon! A Dutch tv show called 'Tiende van Tijl' called me last minute to sing in their show. It's a show about classical music. They invite 'pop singers' to sing a classical piece. And even though I studied classical singing, i am not a opera singer full time. It was great to do again. I did their trailer a few years ago as well and now the show's on tv a lot it's really nice to be invited again. It was on a short notice however so I had no time to prepare a new aria. I did "Oh, mio babbino caro' from Puccini again. I wore a dress you would normally not see me wear! On the 2nd of January 2013 it will be broadcasted! This pic was taken during the make-up moment: Busy with clothes, ReVamp songs, a tv show, my new passport, visa's..etc etc. It was lovely to take 'my girls' out for walk. The sun turned the forest into a colorful piece of paradise! It was so beautiful and peaceful! A great video from the show with Nightwish during the movie premiere in Helsinki was made and released this week. A very awesome one 🙂 Right now it's time to start preparing myself for the Latin American tour. Flight will depart soon and suitcases need to be packed...I can't wait! I will update you as soon as I can. For now I wish you a great weekend, day, night or moment you are in! With love, Floor 05 Dec 2012 Latin American tour: From The Netherlands to Peru https://web.archive.org/web/20130109082024/http://floorjansen.com/blog/latin-american-tour-from-the-netherlands-to-peru Dear reader, The vast distances between the countries here in Latin America make us fly a lot and therefore it's not a coincidence I write the first words while sitting in an airplane. A miniature plane will take us from Lima to Cusco today. No shows the coming 2 days but some very special site-seeing! We have the honor to see Machu Picchu! Time becomes liquid when you travel a lot. It's been a little over a week ago I left home to go to the airport. From Amsterdam to London where I met with all the guys to fly to Mexico City together. 15 men, 1 girl 🙂 The day after arrival we had a day off to adjust and relax. There was a nice pool and good gym where I spend some hours! So good to be back in Mexico! We had 2 shows in the same venue the days after. Two times 3000 passionate people rocking with us! What a wonderful start of the tour! Then it was time to go back to the airport for a day of traveling to Puerto Rico via Miami. A day I'd rather forget because I had problems with my visa and security and ended up missing the flight because I stayed at dinner too long talking Dutch with our tour promotor Eric. Haha, what a day! You can imagine how nice it was to finally come to the hotel in the beautiful San Juan! The next day I had some time to go to the beach before going to the venue. With my super white Dutch skin I couldn't stay long but it was wonderful nevertheless. The rain made an end to my outside trips and made the amphitheater a wet challenge. In the middle of Caribbean trees and wilderness stood an open stage in front of a concrete circle for the audience. A lovely tropical mixture of worlds. I loved it! The rain didn't came back and kept our heads and gear dry during the show. It was the first time in Puerto Rico for Nightwish but it didn't seem that way. Everybody sang along every word and in that special ambiance the night was magical! Off to Costa Rica the next day but not before we saw some more of the island. We went to the 16th century fortress 'El Morro'. Beautiful despite its cruel past; a great insight in the rich history of the island. Also the old town was great to visit. The sun was shining this day and made our European bodies sweat 🙂 in our homelands it's all frost, rain and snow... After this welcome trip away from airports, hotels and venues we again had a flight ahead and took off to Panama to transfer there to San José in Costa Rica. No delays on my behalf this time, I was at the gate in time 🙂 The next morning I woke up feeling heavy and a little sick. As if I did a marathon the day before... But instead of more sleep or sobbing about it I went to the gym of the hotel and found my energy back! Totally revived we went to the venue to do the sound check. A lot of people were standing right outside the venue listening to it and a huge applause rose when we finished. Nice! 🙂 The show was LOUD! Louder than the shows before, and those were amazing already with the singing and shouting and screaming 🙂 This was the first show in Costa Rica as well and again that didn't seem the case at all. I had a hard time hearing myself or the rest of the band on stage sometimes! Real rock'n roll, really awesome! Tears came to my eyes again during 'Ghost Love Score' and I stayed an emotional cooky after the show as well. The feeling of gratitude and love for all this grew bigger than me. Such an incredible high! The next day was a travel day again. Off to the airport with our massive amount of luggage. It was raining cats and dogs when we left to fly to Lima, Peru. Hours later we sat foot on Peruvian soil. We walked out the gates after picking up our stuff to find over a hundred screaming fans at the door 🙂 A warm and hysterical welcome into a country none of us ever visited. So amazing! While waiting to be escorted to the van (with a lot of security, weird still) we signed many things and made hundreds of pics. Our 'we just traveled long' faces were captured haha! In the hotel we went to sleep immediately for we had an early wake up to go straight back to the airport again. We fly to Cusco to take a train from there tomorrow. For now my first blog about the first part is written and I greet you from my airplane seat! With love, Floor Ps: all pictures can be found on the timeline on this website!!! 20 Dec 2012 From Machu Picchu to Buenos Aires and back home again https://web.archive.org/web/20121224010539/http://floorjansen.com/blog/from-machu-picchu-to-buenos-aires-and-back-home-again Dear reader, I left you a while ago on my way to Cusco. A city high up in the Peruvian Andes mountains. The altitude is vast there and climbing the stairs to my hotel room already made me running out of breath 🙂 We had some time off in the city but went to bed early because we would leave the hotel in the middle of the night to get to the train station. Breakfast at 03:15 at night...2 hours in a van and two more in the train. The train ride was beautiful! The track meandered along a wild river, trees and nature all around us. We arrived at a small village at the foot of the mountain where Machu Picchu lies. A scary bus ride up the mountain brought us to our destination. Quite a trip but it was worth every second of it. It's so wonderful to see an ancient city amidst huge mountains and dots of clouds. Our guide told us about the history as we walked through the it. Bringing ruins back to live as you try to imagine how it must have looked like all those centuries ago. It was a huge privilege to be able to be there! The next morning we flew from Cusco back to Lima to play our show there. Being at a normal altitude made me feel featherlight. We played in a lovely venue and had a meet and greet with the Peruvian Nightwish fan club. They surprised us with their amazing support and huge pile of presents. So sweet! Due to a crazy security situation our show got delayed 2,5 hours. We played a lot of poker dice; a game we enjoy as often as possible :-)We all had to wait long but when we finally started we had a great time and the first Nightwish show in Peru was a massive success! Early start on the day after to fly to Porto Alegre in a Brasil. A very long day of airports and flights. The venue the next day got heated up by the 1500 people that were pushed together in a 800 capacity place...Huge respect for all of you, still rocking so intensely. On stage it was incredibly hot as well. Hottest show ever I think...But so awesome! We had to leave immediately after the show for we had another early start ahead of us the next day. It took all night to dry the stage outfits though 😉 Off to Rio de Janeiro! The venue was Circo Voador, where I played with After Forever twice before. Good to be back! The place was packed again and again I was amazed by the boiling hot scenery. And again I loved it, it seems to make everything extra crazy! Obrigada! This time we didn't have to leave immediately and stayed a while longer for a nice party. Time to lit a good cigar...:-) The next morning we left to São Paulo. We had a very luxurious hotel there, really special! After a fine work out in the hotel gym we went to have dinner (not everyone went to that gym haha, but to dinner of course yes :-). Later that night we went up to hotel bar on the top of the building. The view and the scenery and was magical and my dear company fantastic! I slept long that next day and took it easy to have all my energy for the 4500 people that came to the show. A great venue! Thr show was less warm but equally intense! What a ride 🙂 Because of the soccer game (a final game with great importance to this soccer loving country) we left straight after the show to avoid traffic jams. I went to bed in time and did another work out the next morning before we left our paradise hotel to go to the airport. The flight to Buenos Aires was delayed. First time on this tour, considering the amount of flights it was bound to happen. We just had a few beers in the airport bar haha....the plane was so small I had my knees up in my nose and we had quite some turbulence so you can imagine we were happy to land in Argentina! Again it feels really good to be back here! I was dead tired when we came to the hotel but hungry too, fortunately for me we had a late dinner. A wonderful restaurant with great Argentinian food! I spend my next day taking it easy to save all energy for the last two shows. We went to the venue in the afternoon for a soundcheck and a small meet & greet. Two bands opened the night before our show and by the time we started the place was warmer than a Finnish sauna 🙂 It wasn't the first hot show however and somehow it adds extra rock 'n roll to the show! The audience sang along everything with a melody! Guitar solo's, choir parts, keyboard lines and orchestral passages, everything! It was a swirling hot mass in front of us, so awesome! I know how hard it is to sing in a heated up place without shorting notes too much or to run out of breath. But how it must feel like to be in that swirling mass? How do they do that? Singing, screaming, rocking? Big respect, for everyone that did this during this whole tour!!! The second night in Buenos Aires was even warmer...how that is possible is a big mystery to me haha, but apparently it was possible. A song was filmed for a video that will be online soon. No idea how we look like, there is no make up in the world that can survive sauna's haha! But the chemistry that was there those nights will be there on that recording, I am sure of that! On both nights we left straight after the show and on the last night we had a 'after tour' drink in the lobby bar of the hotel. Such great fun! Both nights I went to this metal bar and had the most good times there. Big thanks to the people that welcomed us so warmly! Great to see metal lives so strongly in Buenos Aires! After the lobby bar drinks and the metal bar drinks I was tired enough to sleep like a baby and to still be tired in the plane back home the day after 🙂 13 hours in a chair, you gotta love it! A little girl with massive vocal chords made the trip extra pleasant...My connecting flight didn't go and we had to board another plane. When I finally came to Amsterdam my luggage was still in London and so extra hours of waiting were added to my journey. But with all those beautiful memories to bring home and all the sweet presents and words I got from so many people; I couldn't care really! A big thanks to my dear Nightwish brothers and our superb crew as well. You are all amazing!!! And for everyone: Merry Christmas! I hope you have a great time with your loved ones and I wish you all the best for a wonderful, magical, healthy and musical 2013!!!!!!!!!!!!! With love Floor xxx Ps: pictures can be found on my timeline on this website

Tuomas Holopainen talks about Anette Olzon 14 Nov 2012 Holopainen sheds some light on the matters in an interview for the Finnish MTV3 channel news at the Imaginaerum opening night press conference. http://www.mtv3.fi/viihde/uutiset/musiikki.shtml/1656176/tuomas-holopainen-kertoo-valeistaan-anette-olzoniin Main points: TH thinks it's natural for the fans to feel confused. "It would be surprising if that wasn't the case. However, this is not such a big deal. The band has existed for 16 years and has gone through three line-up changes. This not a soap opera and we're not actors. This is a band, and music should be the only thing that matters." According to him, all NW members feel more at ease now, after the change of vocalist. TH has not cut off his relations with Olzon, and the two have been in contact since early October but mostly regarding practical matters. "We have arranged practicalities for the future. We have talked about financial matters and how they will be taken care of. We have been in contact as much as we have needed to," says TH. https://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/threads/anette-parting-with-nightwish.834935/page-9#post-10471693

I'm of two minds about Harvest. It's not among my favourite tracks, but I do like that NW gave Troi the chance to have leading vocals for once. And the latter part of the song will probably make for a good live performance. On this album Tuomas has IMO demonstrated his willingness to try different things and let everyone shine. Marko has Endlessness, I think it's only fair that Troi would have a song too. And I think he did a good job of it -- I mean, it's difficult to compare with Marko and Floor who both have exceptional voices in their way, and Troi is not a singer first and foremost, but still it's listenable and again, it will probably turn out very nicely performed live. I think they have reached a point where they really make music they like and have fun performing, without fretting too much about how it will be received by fans and critics. I'm ok with that!

Welcome to both of you! Glad to have you on board! The NW fandom is pretty fragmented now between FB, Discord, Youtube, and probably many places I don't even know about. I don't expect it's possible to build such a huge community like the old forum was, but it's not my intent. Small is sometimes better! Lumgol, I think NW is a band that can appeal to music fans way beyond the metal genre being quite eclectic themselves. I'm afraid I haven't listened much to Auri beyond some Youtube snippets, but I'll make sure to give it a fair chance. There were talks of a new album next on Tuomas to-do list, so with the Covid forced break and postponed tour perhaps a new Auri album is something we can look forward to in 2021?

Not just any NW cover band! https://nightwish.com/news/crewish-unemployed-blacksmiths-announced Peculiar times spawn peculiar ideas, and that's exactly what our beloved Crew has been up to lately! "Crewish - Unemployed Blacksmiths" features their interpretations of five Nightwish songs, everything played, sung and recorded by them, and it`s something guaranteed to put a big smile on your face. Our branch of industry has been struck hard by the recent events, and if you wish to support our Crew in a tangible way, please join us and get your copy of this once-in-a-lifetime album now. Available only from Nightwish Shop. All the profits from this album will go directly to our technicians, the band or the record label will not touch a cent. Thanks, and stay safe everybody. - Tuomas Holopainen Tracklist: 1. Sleeping Sun 2. Wish I Had An Angel 3. Amaranth 4. Nemo 5. Elan All instruments and vocals by CREWISH. Crewish are: Kimmo Ahola, FOH Aksu Rönkkö, Mon Ville Wahlroos, LD Tero Kinnunen, Keyboard & ProTools tech Lassi Kauppinen, Bass tech Jarkko Piipari, Drum tech Antti Toivianen, Gtr tech Juuso Jaakkola, Video tech Markku Aalto, Pyro tech Teemu Koivistoinen, Pyro tech Jaska Erkinheimo, Stage manager Ulrich Weitz, ex-Drum tech Release date: September 18th 2020

How Nightwish’s Floor Jansen has spent a lifetime silencing the dickheads By Dave Everley (Metal Hammer) January 09, 2019 https://www.loudersound.com/features/floor-jansen-people-dont-get-to-dictate-what-they-want-from-me Floor Jansen isn’t just the singer with the world’s biggest symphonic metal band – she’s a figurehead for female musicians everywhere Floor Jansen can remember the first time she took on the knuckleheads and won. It was the early 00s, and her band, After Forever, were part of a tour whose bill featured a mix-and-match assortment of other, exclusively male, European metal outfits. The presence of a female singer on stage was apparently too much for some, frequently sending the less- enlightened members of the crowd into a testosterone-fuelled meltdown. “I’d get shit from the audience all the time,” she says. “‘Oh look, there’s a woman up there.’ In the beginning, I thought it was just part of it. But it soon became, ‘Really?’ They’d either be screaming ‘Slayer!’ or ‘Boobs!’ ‘OK, we’re not Slayer and I have boobs – very perceptive of you, can we move on now?’” Given that the woman their unwanted attentions were focused on was, in her own words, “headstrong and forceful and not afraid to call people out”, it was inevitable that things were going to come to a head at some point. Floor can’t remember the date, or even the venue when it happened, but she vividly recalls how the confrontation played out. “This guy was just constantly shouting stupid stuff at me: ‘[Moronic Beavis And Butt-Head voice] UH, BOOBS!’ This guy would not shut up. Eventually, I just said: ‘Seeing as you have such a big mouth on you, why don’t you come and tell me all these things to my face after the show?’” There was, she says, a mass intake of breath from the audience. A six- foot Dutch woman armed with a fearsome death stare and a reservoir of patience about to run dry had just publicly offered out a drunken troglodyte. There was only ever going to be one winner in this smackdown. “Yeah, I picked a fight with that guy from the stage,” she says. “It worked like a charm. He didn’t say another word.” She arches a dismissive eyebrow. “If you want to be that stupid, by all means do it. But you don’t deserve my attention.” Given the snootiness sometimes directed towards it, it’s ironic that symphonic metal has been at the forefront of the battle for gender equality for the last 20 years. There are few other genres where women are afforded such a prominent role, from Within Temptation’s Sharon den Adel and Epica’s Simone Simons to Floor herself. And while it’s still chiefly dominated by men – the driving force behind Floor’s current band, Nightwish, is undeniably keyboard player and composer Tuomas Holopainen – it’s far less exclusive than many other supposedly more progressive strands of music. Floor herself blanches at the idea of being anyone’s figurehead, though that’s as much down to modesty as a reluctance to be a gender warrior. “There are people who consider me a role model, I suppose,” she says. “At first I thought… [makes a dismissive noise], but then I thought, ‘Maybe this is flattering.’ I don’t want people to copy me. I want you to like you. You’re already good enough. Anyway, I don’t want people to think that being me is all great.” We’re sitting in an ice-cold photo studio on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Gothenburg. Floor lives half an hour’s drive away, with her partner, Sabaton drummer Hannes van Dahl, and their 10-month-old baby daughter, Freja. It’s the first week of January. In a few days’ time, Floor will meet up with her bandmates in Nightwish to discuss the forthcoming US and European tours in support of their new greatest hits album, Decades. It will be the first time they’ve been together since the end of 2016, when they embarked on a year-long break. For the singer, the prearranged hiatus and her pregnancy dovetailed perfectly – though not in the most obvious way. “I think a lot of people think I had the year off because of my pregnancy,” she says. “But the pregnancy was because we had a year off. That’s a very important order.” When the break was first mooted, she wasn’t keen on the idea. She had only been in the band a few years, and her batteries were still fully charged. “It wasn’t a point where I thought, ‘Yeah, let’s have a break.’ It was more like, ‘Oh shit…’” But an idea began to germinate in the back of her mind. She and Hannes had talked about having children, and this could be the perfect window of opportunity. “You’re in a band of six people,” she says. “If one person decides to just do something, it affects everybody else. Then I started to think, ‘Hmmm, a year off could be the time.’ But even that presents its own challenges, ha ha ha! There’s only so much planning you can do when it comes to pregnancies, y’know…” Onstage and on record, Floor is a commanding figure. Her voice – powerful but emotional, strident yet pliable – is a controlled force of nature. Today, perched cross-legged on a low chair, she’s friendly and open, even if the whiff of steeliness still surrounds her. She admits that she’s impatient and has a low tolerance for idiots. “Everybody meets a lot of idiots in their line of work, not just in music,” she says. “But I’m an impatient person. That can make everybody an idiot pretty soon. So that’s not fair.” What Floor Jansen definitely is not is a diva, at least not today. The ‘d’-word has plagued her for several years. It’s an accusation that has been brandished as a weapon by people who seem unable to comprehend that a woman in her position is entitled to refuse to stand for bullshit. In 2014, she felt obliged to post an open letter online in response to criticism of how she dealt with fans. The letter’s contents were summed up in the typically blunt line: “I am not an arrogant bitch.” (A sentiment a male contemporary would never have to express.) “That upset me terribly, just having to write it,” she says, looking genuinely pained. “Because I felt so misunderstood. But I stand by it. People think that when they come up to me, screaming things into my ear, that I will respond according to what they want. I’ll turn around and smile and take the photo. But I’m not somebody’s marionette. Just because I sing in a band, people don’t get to dictate whatever the fuck they want from me.” She rarely uses social media these days. She hasn’t been on Twitter for months, if not years, and she can barely hide her contempt for those singers of either gender who “post 12 photos of themselves posing on Instagram every day”. She’s been the target of the kind of apoplectic online fury that certain metal fans serve up so well, not least after a Hammer interview in which she called Slayer “a dreadful band”. “The whole social media thing is ridiculous,” she says, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Everybody gets to say what they want all the time. That’s fine in theory, but it’s not civilised. Imagine going into a bar and everybody in that bar is talking like people do online. They’d just get their teeth punched in. Social media, it’s…” She looks so exasperated she can barely be bothered to describe it. Brilliantly, she makes one long raspberry noise instead. She hasn’t always been this bullet- proof. As a teenager finding her voice, she had the usual mix of confidence and insecurity. Physically, her height was a benefit when it came to singing – she had power and presence even then. But it also meant that she stood out from her peers. “I was tall, and I was teased for it for a long time,” she says. “There was serious bullying for many years. It was not nice. I was a loner for a long time. I only had one or two friends.” Music provided solace. She signed up for her high school’s musical production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. “That’s where I started to connect to people who didn’t really care about any of the things that apparently upset other people, like I was really tall or I had a different accent because I came from a different area.” In 1999, the year she graduated from school, Floor enlisted at the Rock Academy, a brand new music institute in the Dutch city of Tilburg set up to nurture homegrown talent (fellow students in that inaugural year included members of the rock band Krezip and rapper Cilvaringz, who, bizarrely, went on be part of the Wu-Tang family). “Everybody applied for it, but there were only 40 or 50 spaces, so the chances were very limited,” she says. “But I got in. The downside was that it was not really developed yet, so we were seriously guinea pigs. I didn’t really learn enough.” She had other things on her plate. By that time she was already a member of After Forever, one of the first wave of prominent symphonic metal bands to emerge in the 1990s. She’d joined a couple of years earlier, at the age of 16. Such a predominantly male environment – a 1990s metal band – might have been an intimidating proposition for a teenage girl with no experience of the music industry. She dismisses the notion. “I thought it was pretty easy,” she says, shrugging. “I’ve always considered myself one of the guys, without being a tomboy. Being tall helps, and not being offended that easily, without having to just accept certain things. The whole #metoo thing never really got anywhere close to me in that sense. Mainly because I was 1.83m tall and definitely had a mouth on me.” After Forever had a good run. They cultivated a large fanbase in mainland Europe, even if they were never as big as the likes of Nightwish. But when the end came in 2009, it hit Floor hard. “The engine was broken,” she says ruefully. “We took a break to see if we could cut loose some parts and fix it, but unfortunately I was the only one who wanted that. For me, it felt like a huge knife in the back.” Her troubles weren’t helped by the financial crisis that had just hit. Once she’d been able to help support herself by teaching singing masterclasses or appearing on the odd tribute album. Suddenly, the extra work dried up. “I was pushing 30, I knew how much effort it takes to bring up a new band from scratch,” she says. “I thought, ‘Do I want to do that again? Do I want to sing different kinds of music? Do I want a complete career switch?’ It was not a cool time.” She dusted herself down and dived back into the fray with a new band, ReVamp, releasing their self-titled debut album in 2010. “I wanted something even heavier than before, something uncompromising,” she says. “And then I had my burnout.” ‘Burnout’ is the name that the Dutch give to a physical and mental condition bought on by a combination of stress, overwork, tiredness and other, related things. It sits somewhere between nervous exhaustion and clinical depression, and it is a genuine problem in the Netherlands – according to a 2016 report, one in 17 people suffer from it. “Your stress levels stay high, disrupting your hormone balance,” she says. “You make adrenaline through the day and you go through highs and lows, highs and lows. With a burnout, you don’t have those lows any more. Your body keeps producing the highs – you can’t relax. And you can’t keep that up, so you become really tired. That results in all kinds of weird things.” For Floor, the symptoms were debilitating. She started to get throat infections regularly, which she had never had before. Her breath became short. She found it difficult to climb stairs. “You become so tired that you lose your lust for life,” she says. “I had tests and my heart rate, lung capacity, everything looked good. But it was obvious something was wrong. I looked like shit and I felt like shit.” This was, she says, the only time in her life that she came close to quitting music. “I hated it,” she says. “I found it terrible. I didn’t want to listen to it, I couldn’t sing, I had a breakdown every time I tried. But I was just too stubborn to give it up.” Instead, she eased back her workload with ReVamp and began teaching a little bit here and there. The band had started work on a second album just before she’d become ill and she tentatively began to pick that up as an aid to recovery. Slowly, she started to feel better. Her old confidence returned. She prepared to relaunch the next stage of ReVamp. And then she got the phone call that would change her life. The first time Floor stepped onstage with Nightwish was at the Showbox in Seattle, on October 1, 2012. The band’s most recent singer, Anette Olzon, had left suddenly just two days before, mid-tour (in a reversal of Floor’s own situation, Anette later claimed she had been fired because she told the band she was pregnant, a claim they strenuously denied). Floor received the fateful phone call at her sister’s wedding*. She knew Tuomas and Nightwish after touring with them a decade earlier in After Forever. She was familiar with their music, too. But not so familiar that she didn’t need a crash course on the journey over. “When they asked me to fly over and do it, I said, ‘Yes, OK, I’ll do it,’” she says. “Was I cocky about it? No. Well, maybe. You need a kind of cockiness to be able to go, ‘Yes, I want to join one of the biggest bands in this genre, and no, I don’t know the setlist yet.’” She arrived to find the band in full- on firefighting mode. Their priority was simply to finish the tour; there was no question of this being an audition for the role of frontwoman. “Absolutely not,” she says. “At that point it was really, ‘How are we going to make this work?’ I certainly didn’t think, ‘Well, now I’m the new singer of Nightwish’, I really didn’t. I thought it was cool that they called me out of all the people in the world it could have been. But it wasn’t a happy time; they weren’t exactly feeling great.” The offer to join Nightwish full time came 10 months later. The conversation happened in a hotel bar after an appearance at a festival in the Finnish city of Tampere. “I said yes, I laughed, I cried… and then I couldn’t say anything to anyone,” she says. “It wasn’t even a conversation with all of the band. So I had to pretend we had just talked about the setlist for the next show or something.” She dismisses the suggestion that joining Nightwish was her last roll of the dice. “ReVamp were still going at that point,” she says. “And I’m too much of a fighter to think, ‘Fuck it.’ I wasn’t done yet.” She notes that she received an email from Anette Olzon when the announcement was made public. “She wrote to wish me luck. That was cool.” Floor’s relationship with Anette and especially original singer Tarja Turunen is different to the one that her male bandmates have with them. In November 2013, at the Metal Female Voices festival in Belgium, she and Tarja duetted together on a cover of 80s guitar hero Gary Moore’s Over The Hills And Far Away (which was covered by Nightwish in 2001). At the end of 2017, the pair teamed up again for a version of Spanish-language Xmas song Feliz Navidad. She points out that the two of them always got on, even after Tarja was fired from the band in 2005. Do they avoid talking about certain subjects whenever they meet? “No,” she says after a pause. Do you talk about your individual experiences in Nightwish? “Yes, actually, we do. But what I don’t want is any of their stuff to come into it. What she and the guys had, and what happened, is between them, and not with me. I’ll leave it at that.” Nightwish’s new compilation, Decades, officially marks the end of their year off. A two-disc retrospective arranged in reverse chronological order, it covers the three distinct eras of the band (four if you count the huge step-change between their third and fourth albums, the Tarja-fronted Wishmaster and Century Child). For Floor, it’s a celebration of her time in the band, but also of her place in a bigger history. She says that there were discussions about her re-recording some of the earlier songs, but that idea was swiftly dispensed with. “That would be like rewriting time. It would be like…” – she reaches for an appropriate comparison – “… writing the history of England and replacing Queen Elizabeth with her sister. These songs are already out there. And it’s not even a respect thing on my part. These songs are part of the Nightwish story, as much as the soap opera stuff.” There are plans for a new studio album, she says, though they mostly reside in Tuomas Holopainen’s head at this stage. “He’s a force of nature – he just has to write. I know from conversations we’ve had on email and on the phone that he’s been getting stuff together, but I haven’t heard any of it yet. Getting a tour like this started [the Decades tour, which includes a headlining appearance at Bloodstock in August] is our complete focus. 2019 will be a good year for a new album, but first things first.” Symphonic metal’s attempt at gender equality doesn’t quite extend towards Nightwish’s songwriting process, which is largely in the hands of Tuomas. Floor puts this down to the fact that the band is one person’s vision rather than endemic sexism. “If I had something that would really add to what we have, I am sure Tuomas would be open for it,” she says. “But the way he writes, it’s not very necessary. He’s just so good. And his sound is the Nightwish sound.” She sounds entirely comfortable with the notion. If she wasn’t, you suspect her bandmate would be the first to know about it. You don’t get this far by surrounding yourself with idiots and fools. Floor Jansen might not willingly wear the mantle of figurehead for female musicians everywhere, but sometimes actions speak louder than words. This article originally appeared in Metal Hammer issue 306 * Irene Jansen's wedding took place on September 20, 2012 (source).

Here's a transcript that I thought you might find interesting, from back when Anette joined NW. Be warned, it's a long one, but full of gems. It's all salvaged from the old official forum, thanks to those who made the interview and translation possible. INTERVIEW WITH TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN BY Estevão on 6th of June [2007], translation by Flavinha from the official NW forum Rock Hard Valhalla: Well, let’s start with the beginning of what we call the “New Era” to Nightwish. As we know, the demo CD that Anette sent to you was one of the first ones you got, right? Tuomas Holopainen: Yes! Actually, was one of the first twenty that we received, already on November of 2005. RHV: We know that when you got this CD, you got really surprised with her interpretation for Ever Dream, and has even said that the way she sung it was the best that you have ever heard. TH: Indeed, and I can say that she became a parameter for everything we would receive. I mean, she totally came out of the bushes, totally from nowhere and sent a demo with only one song, Ever Dream. I opened her pack, read her letter, put the CD to play and was totally amazed with the material, after all, I didn’t know what expect and we didn’t have any idea about what kind of singer we were looking for. Her voice amazed all the band! Everything sounded so natural, so easy and good that everyone enjoyed. More than a singer, I can say that Anette is a good story teller. She has a very particular form to give life to the lyrics, because usually, she understands what they say. Anyway, as the whole incident with Tarja happened just 3 weeks before that, we decided to take it easy and wait one more year, since the last thing we had was hurry. RHV: This is good, because gives me the impression that even being too early for you to think in a substitute for Tarja’s place, at least you guys could relax about the quality of the material that you were about to receive. TH: Absolutely! I can say that was exactly this way. On that moment, we had the impression that there’s lots of amazing singers around the world, so, we believed that that everything would be ok (laughs). RHV: After all, have ever existed other singer that made your choice more difficult or Anette was like a black diamond since the very beginning? TH: Well, to be honest, from the almost two thousand demos that we received, I can say that fifty of them impressed the band to a point that made us send to these people an instrumental copy of Once, so they could sing some Nightwish’s songs to us. So, from these fifty, we chose about ten, with whom we met and played some songs live, on the studio. In the end, the decision was really, really hard but was unanimous between us that Anette should be the chosen. And I really think that we picked the best one. RHV: Well, after listening the new album a few times, I can only agree! (laughs) TH: Good! (laughs) It’s that thing, you know… first we only knew the basic: that she is swedish, thirty five years old, a nice background, which is really good but we didn’t have any idea about how she was as a person. So, we had to meet her a couple of times to know her better. The problem firstly was how she would be personally. But in the same moment that we met her for the first time, we realized that she is a really nice girl and would be a lot easy for us to get along with her. RHV: True. Particularly, I have the impression that in a few months, she had already more fun with you guys than Tarja had in almost ten years with the band. For instance, she was in parties with the band, likes to rehearse, traveled to Germany to see Tarot’s gig and has just returned from Disney with you. TH: Yes, she was there too! As you can see, we’re getting along really well. We had great moments with Tarja too, but in the end was different. Anyway, we are living happy days with Anette, everything looks really good, although, you never know what can happen. I mean, we know her for only five months and you can’t say in such a short time that you really know a person. I know there’s secrets in her that we don’t know yet and vice versa, everything is a constant learning process for us. But yes, at the moment everything is really, really good. RHV: It brings me to a weird and different question: are you afraid that she could not stand the routine and Nightwish’s frenetic rhythm and maybe decide to leave the band in one or two years? I mean, do you have some contract to avoid it or it’s just better let things roll naturally? TH: Of course we talk about it, but we don’t have any kind of contract with her. You know, people usually change their minds all the time and suddenly any member can leave the band. Everybody changes mind sometimes. I don’t think that we have to do any kind of contract about that, like we were forcing her to be with the band for more five years or for more two or three albums. For now, we all agree that she is a member of Nightwish, recorded an album with us and will be touring and promoting the new songs. We hope that she stay with us for the next twenty years, but it’s better to walk day-by-day. RHV: It’s been really touching to see the way she talks about her new band’s mates and her entry on Nightwish to the European Media. She seems to be really glad with that! TH: Yes, she is a very kind person, a true genuine character. This is what I respect the most in her. She is totally ordinary, humble and simple person, as the guys are. She’s not a star at all! She is simply a nice girl, nice to hang with and sings very well. And that’s all we need at the moment. RHV: Just to make It clear: Did the band, somehow, ever thought that only an already known singer would have chance to get the job? TH: No, not at all. Actually, it was as simple as this: we didn’t care about who she would be, we just wanted a nice voice and a really good “guy”! (laughs) We never looked for a famous or not famous person. It’s so true that we ended up with a Swedish girl! Even with this historical love and hate thing between Finland and Sweden, we got a Swedish. (laughs) Good that 99% of the people don’t care about these things, just the way it should be. RHV: Talking a little bit about the songwriting process of the new album, Dark Passion Play. You always said that you imagined Tarja’s voice to compose the vocal lines. How was these time, to compose vocal lines for the new songs? Has something changed or you already had an idea about what you wanted? TH: The process was exactly the same. I heard that voice in my head, but didn’t know what kind of or who’s voice was. I stayed there, thinking in the vocal lines and hearing that voice in my head, as a guide. Actually, doing these songs was extremely easy for me. I wrote fifteen songs in only four months, which is the easier songwriting process for me until now. RHV: It scares me in a good way, because the album is so huge in many aspects that’s hard to understand how such thing can be written in such a short time (laughs). TH: Yeah, I know, but that’s it! (laughs) It was a really emotional moment to me, when good and bad dramas were around me, and that affects you in a certain way, makes you want to write songs. That is what happened this time. This is how I explain that. RHV: Getting a bit back to Anette, how was the firsts rehearsals with her, singing old and new songs? TH: The first rehearsal with her was actually the first time we met either. She came to the studio, we talked a little bit and rehearsed with her six old songs, as we agreed. The songs were: Higher Than Hope, Nemo, Wish I Had An Angel, Ever Dream, Sleeping Sun and The Siren. When she started to sing, everything sounded so good, we all felt convinced about her qualities. After that, we were just jamming for more two hours. Only on the next day, when she back to the studio, where we had already recorded the basis of the new album, that she tried to sing three new songs: Sahara, Bye Bye Beautiful and Eva. She has done a great work on these tracks too and we felt really satisfied since that. RHV: Straight about Dark Passion Play now. Obviously, all the problems between the band, Tarja and her husband, Marcelo, was the inspiration source to write this album. How was to compose about all that stuff? TH: Was incredibly easy. Songs are emotion’s manifestations, from different feelings. You can’t write songs when you’re empty inside, when nothing is happening around you. That time I was suffering of the worst pains and feelings you can have in your life, but on the other hand, when all the problem was gone, I felt the uppermost relief. So, I was feeling good things too. Those feelings mixed and all that influenced me in a natural way. All this can be noted on the album, all these problems. Of course is not only a concept album about what happened between me and Tarja, there are other themes too, but definitely this affected me a lot. RHV: One can hear and feel that on Dark Passion Play. It’s not even necessary to read the lyrics. The album actually transmits this bombastic and tragic air many times, since we have this so massive sound with a beautiful and dramatic voice of Anette’s. I would even say that the album doesn’t sound like an ordinary album, but like a score to a tragic theater’s play sometimes. TH: Hmm, yeah, you are right. This was a good term! Theater play. Sometimes even I think that some track is not a single music, but is a theatre play theme. It fits perfectly, for example, on the first one, The Poet And The Pendulum. Although the whole album is, actually, ridiculously huge (laughs). In every aspect. And it can be a sign that maybe it’ll become a timeless album, because there no chance to understand the entire album after one single listening. You have to listen repeatedly to start to understand everything and really see some sense on that, which is good, because you not only create, but give to the public something more challenger. RHV: Some days ago (Note: this interview was made on 6th june) Eva leaked before its release date on the internet. By one side, I was positively surprised with most people reacting to the to the voice changing, on the other side, being honest, I should say that the song doesn’t fit even a little with the reality of Dark Passion Play, because... TH: (interrupting) Yes, it’s true! One of the things that I really don’t like on the music industry nowadays is the fact that you have to release singles. You end up putting the music in some kind of altar, and in the end it doesn’t make justice to the whole album or the song itself. I really hate the fact of being necessary to release singles on the market. Eva doesn’t represent in any way the content of Dark Passion Play, but, as always happens, was chosen to be the first hit. But, as you said, after all was a relief, because we felt a huge support from media and fans. And it was time to stop hiding Anette as well, that was a hell of a work! (laughs) RHV: Talking about that, what did you guys do to keep her in the shadows for such a long time? TH: We always avoided to be seen together at the airport. Inside the plane we were sitting totally apart and distant from each other. When she needed to come to Finland, we booked different hotels, with different names and all these kinds of things. We took a lot of care with these details and I think we got a good result. RHV: Indeed! Yet about our previous question, there’s one “funny” thing about the leaking of Eva. A lot of people insists on judging an album and even the whole future of a band based on one single song. I’d say these people will so burn their mouth after hearing the whole album! (laughs) TH: (laughs) Yeah, and those people should be ashamed! I can’t just believe there’s still people this dumb, judging an album based in one single song or even a 30 seconds sample of it. What a shame! I couldn’t care less. At least we know the most part of the fans, liking Eva or not, understands that’s just a first single, a nice ballad, and will definitely give the whole album a chance. Just the way it should be. RHV: So let’s back to The Poet And The Pendulum, the first track. It is, by far, in my opinion, the best Nightwish’s song ever made. As I said before, this one sounds like a theater’s play, since it seem to have five different songs in it. Also there’s a lot of movie-like sounds, giving a tragic atmosphere to the track. Tell me a bit more about this song. TH: It’s a song… (stop and think). It’s a very personal song, about the uppermost self hate and self disgust you can feel. The feeling that you’ll never stop doing wrong things in your life. On this song, I actually killed myself. There’s a line that goes like: “Today, in the year of our Lord, 2005, Tuomas was called from the cares of the world”. RHV: Oh, now it’s clear that this heartbeat fading is yours then... TH: Yes, exactly. The heartbeat fades away. But after that comes the resurrection! (laughs) The last tree minutes is like my ressurection. Jesus-like! (laughs) But seriously again, it was something that I really had to do. Is the most ugly and disturbing lyrics I’ve ever wrote, but I needed to do it. Now I feel a certain relief with that. RHV: Since we’re talking about bombastic things, how was working with London Session Orchestra and with Pip Willians again? TH: It was so fantastic, just like the first time, but in certain way even better now! (excited) I know I’ve said this when we recorded Once, but these people are such musical and passionate at what they’re doing. I can only say it’s a great honor to see them playing our songs. It’s fantastic! And this time wasn’t just the orchestra and the choir, but a gospel choir too, which was very cool to record, some celtic instruments and the “boys sopranos” singing in The Poet And The Pendulum. We ended up being eight days at Abbey Road Studios. So cool! RHV: The gospel choir did a wonderful job in Meadows Of Heaven! It’s a very strong song and will impress a lot of people. How did you come with the idea for this song? After all, mixing heavy metal with this groovy choir voices isn’t a thing that people expect. TH: THAT’S where it came from! (laughs) I intend to always raise new things, try and experiment new elements in our songs. After Once, I started to think: what kind of music could exist in the world and we didn’t try to do yet? (laughs) Or what kinds of instruments moi, things, we could use. Suddenly, I realized that the gospel choirs are amazing, because it has a very strong sound, people sing in a very genuine way! Then I said we would need to have one of these choirs in the new album. I told Pip Willians about the necessity of a gospel choir in a song and he booked one of these, which made a wondeful job in Meadows Of Heaven. But you can listen to the choir on the chorus of Eva as well. They ended up doing some stuff in this song too. RHV: The end of Meadows of Heaven, with the choir’s singers doing some solos is absolutely amazing! This is for sure one of the best songs of the whole album. TH: Yes! And that part with the solos was totally improvised! Those people never heard the song before starting recording it, actually. They just started to sing those “Heaven, heaven” in every possible ways. I told them they could do whatever they wanted, except to mention the words “Jesus” and “halleluia” (laughs). Then they started to laugh, and that made me realize that they have a good sense of humor. It’s one of my favorites too. At the moment, I’d pick The Poet And The Pendulum, Sahara and Meadows Of Heaven as my favorites. RHV: I don’t know if you have already heard it, but some fans of Nightwish usually joke and say that they always burn their mouth, because when they think you can’t come with something better and bigger, you actually do that. Do you think that the fact of you are always growing on the music, in a certain way, makes some pressure on you to always write better songs? TH: (laughs) This is cool, but I see that more like a matter of personal opinion. I know that we are in a constant evolution, from one album to the other. I really don’t know what to say to the word “bigger”, but it is being better all the time, although I really don’t have any idea about what will happen in the future. Dark Passion Play is so big that I don’t know what we’re gonna do next, if we will keep this line or if we will sound totally different. I really don’t know. RHV: Even being a huge album, in Dark Passion Play you can notice a lot of moments where Anette’s voice stands out a lot in the middle of that mountain sound. It’s the case of songs like Amaranth, Cadence Of Her Last Breath, Whoever Brings The Night and also Meadows Of Heaven. Besides For the Heart I Once Had, with a very high chorus. That songs suffered some kind of change on the studio or they ended up on the album exactly the way they were written? TH: To be honest with you, Anette was able to sing all the vocal lines I’ve wrote. There isn’t anything that we had to change and that impressed us a lot. Of course that some songs were harder, like For The Heart I Once Had, but this song is difficult for any person to sing. But she recorded it perfectly. There was nothing written by us that she couldn’t sing. RHV: Eva is just a single for download. Firstly, you wanted to put an edited version of The Poet And The Pendulum as the first real single, with video and everything else, but Amaranth was chosen in the end. How was all that and why this changing? TH: It’s true. There was so many things happening at the same time. I really wanted The Poet And The Pendulum as the first single, but then we started to discuss it and all kinds of problems started to appear. They were saying that nobody would play the video of the song, etc. And the obstacles kept coming. So, somebody suggested that we should put Amaranth as the first working single and I just agreed, for me it’s just fine. As I said to you previously, I don’t care about the singles, is the total content of the album that really matters to me. And I think Amaranth is very good, because it has less than four minutes, is very catchy and works very well as a single. RHV: What makes it very interesting is that even having a comercial appeal for being a single, at first Amaranth would be just a bonus track from Dark Passion Play! (laughs) TH: Yes! (laughs).This is quite funny, actually! It was the last song in my list of preferences among the fifteen I’ve wrote! And even after recorded, without the vocals, it was still like a bonus track for us. Only after Anette recorded her vocals we felt that this track gained a lot of life, and then we started to like it a lot. Now it’s here, first single! (laughs) I don’t want to sound repetitive, but I hope people understand that is just a single, because this song doesn’t represent the whole thing either. RHV: Something that the band brought back in Dark Passion Play, after some albums, was an instrumental track. In the case, Last of the Wilds, that makes you feel like dancing around a bonfire (laughs). Why have you decided to record a track like this again, after all these years? TH: To tell the truth, I don’t even remember if this song was born like an instrumental track. We just let it roll to see what would happen with it in London, in the additional records. Then we heard the performance of Troy Donoclkey and Nollaig Casey with their Irish instruments. They was there, jamming this song so delightfully that made us really impressed and then we thought that It had to be instrumental! It is like a cool war between Ireland and Finland, you know? We have Emppu on the guitars and Senni Eskelinen playing the kantele, a typical finnish instrument, and they have their Irish instruments. And everybody keeps dueling for five minutes, all the time, which I think it’s a great idea. Everything works on this music, I love the final result. It really makes you want to be drunk and start do dance around (laughs). RHV: Well, a bit about the polemic side of the album. I even think that you’re already waiting for this question. Are you prepared to deal with some people, both media and fans, that will probably not understand lyrics like Bye Bye Beautiful and Master Passion Greed? TH: I don’t even think about it, to be honest. And I truly don’t care. Strong themes like those make me write songs, that way I can get rid of my bad feelings. That’s what made me a musician. There is no way in the world that I would just hold what I feel and avoid this kind of subject. And this is the result. If it offends someone, what a pity, but I had to do that. When you listen to these songs, when you read their lyrics… (pause) Maybe people will understand that they were not made to offend anybody. For example, Bye Bye Beautiful was made in really good terms, with sense. It’s a sad song, I’d say and it’s not about blaming someone, it only tells what I was feeling. RHV: Yes. If I understood correctly the meaning of Bye Bye Beautiful, I’d say that it’s much more about everything that the person lost when she couldn’t see what Nightwish was all about, what the band’s essence. TH: Yes, exactly. And like the lyrics says: “you chose the long road, but we’ll waiting”, it’s a way to bring at least half of the guilt to myself. It’s not a mocking song, it was never my intention to mock people with it. No one of them, actually. It’s just about writing to feel free of those bad strong feelings I had at the moment, nothing else. RHV: And even with a strong theme, Bye Bye Beautiful it’s a extremely exciting and catchy song, so much that I can guess it will be the second sing of Dark Passion Play, with a videoclip and everything else, right? TH: Yes, that’s correct. At the moment we’re here in Los Angeles (USA) shooting our next two videos, for the songs Amaranth and Bye Bye Beautiful. I cannot say anything about them yet, but it’s gonna be GOOD! (laughs) RHV: Lyrics apart, Master Passion Greed scares in a good way, because it’s so heavy. And only Marco sings on this track. TH: It’s a simple thing actually. I do the things the most natural way possible and this song had to be like that, heavy. Anette don’t sing on it because would be unfair to put her inside one subject she have nothing to do with. That’s why only Marco sings Master Passion Greed. It can even sound selfish, I know (laughs), but we cannot think on fans’ reaction when we’re doing music. We only do what we like and what we want to, if someone don’t like Master Passion Greed, then just skip it and don’t listen to the song. RHV: Marco wrote an entire track singed by him, called The Islander, and so did Emppu, with Whoever Brings The Night. How was to you to work for the first time with tracks totally made by other members? TH: It’s totally clear to everybody that all of them can bring songs to Nightwish. If these songs are between the best ones and fit the whole thing, of course they’ll be used on the band. Marco just appeared with this acoustic melody e during the rehearsals that turned to be a very interesting track. We could add some nice celtic and Irish touches on it. On the other hand, Emppu showed us this bunch of different riffs and it was a rough work to find a proper vocal melody to fit this song (laughs)! It’s a typical guitarist-song, lots of riffs and Anette sings really well here. But just for the record, I still keep doing all the lyrics (laughs). RHV: About the upcoming tour, you’ll start it on USA and Canada, and I believe that one of the reasons for that is the fact that Nightwish and Tarja’s name aren’t that big there yet, so it’d be easier for the band. Tell us about it. TH: Yes, this is one reason. But the main reason is because we had to cancel two tours there in the past years, so I believe that we owe this to the fans. Besides that, we have a brand new singer and I would be scared to death if we needed to start the tour playing in some big European arenas. It’s gonna be good to put things in their right place with Anette, you know? Nobody knows us there, we’ll play in venues with capacity between 400 and 2000 people and it will be a good warm-up for her too. After five weeks, I believe we will be ready to face our already known and traditional public. RHV: The obvious question: Do you already have an idea of when Brazil will be included on the band’s schedule? TH: God, I really don’t know yet, because there will be two years of touring! (laughs) But, as I heard from the agency dudes, I believe we will be back in Brazil in 2008, probably in the second semester. RHV: About the plans of doing a big show with an orchestra, like was planned to happen in the end of the Once Upon a Tour. Do you still have this idea to play at the legendary Royal Albert Hall? TH: We’re gonna try it, for sure! Last time didn’t happen, but we will try our best to make such an big event like this happen with this album. It’d be nice to do it to end the tour, which should happen only in late 2009. Then we would have the orchestra, choir, Irish instruments and even dancers if that be the case. That would be one of my biggest dreams coming true! I don’t know about making it at the Royal Albert Hall, but it needs to be done in some really beautiful, old and theatrical place like that, for sure. This is not a festival thing to do. Something big like that needs a better acoustic and everything else. RHV: Before finishing it, what’s your feeling now, after everything happened between you and Tarja, after a long process to pick up a new singer, recordings, new album etc? TH: I’m feeling relieved, pretty good actually. But a little sad too, cause of what happened. Even If I think now that is part of our history. I really wish all the best to Tarja and her career. And about Nightwish, I really think that the new album is really good. I couldn’t be more satisfied with it. Same thing with the new singer, we’re really happy about her and for being able to tour again. God only knows how people will react at the shows, we cannot just predict that, but let’s just hope for the best. RHV: Well, it’s your final space now to make some final considerations. Feel free to give us a message. TH: I just would like to say that the band is really relaxed right now. The atmosphere between the members is the best since a long time and I would like to tell the fans once again not to take single songs too seriously. Just wait for the whole album, give it a chance, listen to it a few times and them say if you like or not. I really think it’s worth getting because it’s a big work. And, of course I can’t wait to play there again. I hope to see you all soon! To know that we’re starting to book some shows in Brazil already makes me anxious! Until there, take care! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 questions from fans to Tuomas Holopainen: Thiago Cardoso – Curitiba/PR: Nightwish has already been in Brazil four times. What place did you like the most? And what place do you want to know? Tuomas: It’s impossible to mention just one place, because all the shows we’ve done in Brazil were awesome! I know it sounds too corny and cliché but it’s true. And a place that I would love to play is the North, in the middle of the Amazonas, in the city of Manaus for example. This is a place we’ve never been yet and would be pretty cool to visit. César Galvão – Londrina/PR: To the new tour, do you intent to use the same keybords set that you used on Once Upon A Tour or we should expect some changes? Tuomas: I’ll use basically the same. I still use KORG’s keys, because they sponsor me and I really think they are the best for the kind of music we play. Maybe I can change on model or other, but the basic set to the shows will be the same. Various: What can you say about the way Anette sings the old Nightwish songs? Do you think the fans will enjoy? Tuomas: Everything we heard she singing so far, like Ever Dream, The Siren, Higher Than Hope, Nemo, sounded really wonderful. We really liked the result and we are all very delighted with everything she did on the songs. At the moment, this is what really matter. When the shows start, I know many people will say that they hated the way she sings, but at the same time, many people will like a lot what she have done. Only time will tell. 3 questions from fans to Anette Olzon: 01. Jonas Santana – Catanduva/SP: Every single career has pros and cons. As a singer of a famous band like Nightwish, what do you think it will be the good and bad for you? Anette Olzon: Well, it’s hard to answer to that before start to really live it, but I think the positive side it’s the fact that I’ll be able to work with music full time, as I’ve always dreamed to, and I’ll meet many different places in the world. The negative side could be the fact of being the only woman in the middle of many men, maybe I could feel alone every once in a while. And the tight schedule could be, for sure so cruel to a singer, if she got a flue, for example. 02. Flávia Lorenzon – São Paulo/SP: Your former band, Alyson Avenye, was awesome! Even knowing that Nightwish is now your priority, do you think you would find some time to them if they decided to get back to play a few shows? Anette Olzon: The boys are already busy with another band and now I have Nightwish, so I don’t think we will see Alyson Avenye to play again. It’s been a while since we got separate ways, each of the guys is doing their own things, so I really don’t think it will happen. 03. Erika Méier – Brasília/DF: How is your relationship with the other Nightwish members now? Anette Olzon: As every job or team work, it takes some time until you really know the people you’re dealing with. Always happens to have this kind of honey moon, when anybody have nothing bad to say about the others etc. After some time I think we will have more serious talk, as like any other group, but nothing that could become a real problem, as long as we keep a good communication. At the moment everything is fine and we’re spending a great time together! From <https://web.archive.org/web/20090217220743/http://www.eaglescry.de/Articles/NWVal0707.php>

Will be shortly updating this with the latest cancellations. Some interesting "official" (?) statements on the NW Facebook replying to comments about why NW isn't touring North America more extensively. North America is also 95% Spotify today, so the tours do not promote the album sales anymore. And Spotify does not generate almost any real income to the Artist compared to the actual album sales. If you do not wanna lose money every night that is. Why would anybody in the right mind sit 8 weeks in a tour bus in the USA and come back with nothing ? Especially if the band is 20 years old and everybody has a family to feed at home. In the early days you did that to promote your latest album, but now Spotify destroyed even that source of income completely. There you go. They have been touring America 12 times and people still do not "know" the band. Heavy Metal is just underground in the US and it will not get any better 😞 The band would love to bring the full European production to all the US fans as well. Sadly it does not fit into 75% of the venues that the band has played/they have been offered. Just to give you more idea, the band CANNOT play in any venue under 3000 cap in Europe, because it would be just minus right away. The production is so expensive. Imagine all the costs getting this arena show & the crew to the US + just add the high Visa costs. Just impossible. Just a handful of venues for them in the US are even 3000 cap. (admin) Bring a total crew of 20 people from Europe and 5 tons of gear plus have three buses and two trucks and you can start understanding the total costs per night. This is really sad to hear. I won't be expecting a second leg to this American tour now. It's true that tickets to the Toronto gig didn't appear to sell so well, even before Covid became a concern.

Oh yeah, it turns out that I have seen most of these too! A relative newcomer to the world of NW reviews, but offering quality production and insightful comment: Chase Carneson : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GactKM5AlJA&list=PLeGLzUFBc35pVTj1bnuN1xCLlMCD_nHrv

Welcome! I'm glad that you decided to un-lurk and join the forum. And thanks for the nice introduction! You're lucky to have discovered Nightwish and Ms Jansen way before I did, and to have so many opportunities to see them live! Somehow I get the feeling that live tours will get fewer and far between. With everyone getting older, the cadence of album releases slowing down, and now with the cost of touring post-Covid (travel, safety...) probably sky-rocketing, we may have fewer opportunities to see them live in the future.

This is a great news: a brand new live streaming gig, on September 11th. https://www.ticketone.it/tickets.html?affiliate=LVS&doc=artistPages/tickets&fun=artist&action=tickets&erid=2795859&language=en Lacuna Coil announce "Black Anima: Live From The Apocalypse", an exclusive streaming show featuring a full performance of Black Anima for the very first time, including songs never performed live, plus special backstage/off camera moments and more! The band, stationed in their hometown of Milan, Italy since February 2020, is fired up for their first show since the COVID-19 lockdown forced the entire music business, and the world, to stop. "When the world changed, we were in the early stages of touring our new album, BLACK ANIMA. Months have gone by and the desire to get back up on stage and play our music for you has just grown bigger and bigger. While the pandemic won’t allow us to travel to your hometowns, it can’t stop us from coming directly into your homes. Please welcome Black Anima, Live From The Apocalypse….." The italian gothfathers will play a special streaming show on Friday, September 11th (11.9) from the Alcatraz Club in Milan in what will certainly be a unique and once in a lifetime event. After the success of their acclaimed 20th anniversary show “The 119 Show”, the band has once again gone all out to create an outstanding and exclusive spectacle that won’t disappoint fans all over the world. The show will be available to view only once, live, via streaming. BLACK ANIMA: Live From The Apocalypse will be hosted on A-Live. Early Bird and General Admission Tickets On Sale Wednesday, July 22nd 17:00 CEST here

Ok it's bad bad news for Canadian fans. It's not even good news for American fans either, this is such a far cry from previous North American tours. Here's hoping for more in 2022. As published on the band FB: RE-SCHEDULED NIGHTWISH USA 2021 DATES ARE HERE. Due to the current situation surrounding covid-19 in North America we are forced to postpone our shows. October 1, 2021 - Los Angeles (CA) - The Wiltern October 2, 2021 - Los Angeles (CA) - The Wiltern October 5, 2021 - New York City - Terminal 5 October 7, 2021 - Lowell (MA) - Tsongas Arena All previously bought LA & NYC tickets are valid to the new dates. TORONTO show will be cancelled and all tickets refunded. These will be the only North American shows in 2021.

August already, and still no word on when the tour might start. The next planned show is Toronto in less than a month now, but I seriously doubt it will happen. Canadian borders are still closed, current health regulations in Ontario don't allow for large scale public events, and the US dates are even less likely to go ahead. No word from the Toronto venue about a cancellation yet, but it's bound to be announced before long.

Thank you! I do have plans to add more content but with the Covid thing I have been busier than ever so spare time is limited right now. On the other hand, the band isn't doing much lately so I have a chance to catch up!

New dates in Europe! The list has been updated.

More updates, at this moment it will appear that the tour might begin in Russia. However there are many unknowns and more shows could still be postponed.

A few more GLS reactions I like: Beth Roars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iI2UFN3gSU Sam Scott-Thorne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bXoPCx611c The Voice Love Co.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbRmMuUz_oQ

I'd like to start with a mention of ThiccGeek, my favourite non-professional NW reviewer. He's not a (real or pretend) vocal coach, just a Tarja-era fan who moved away from NW during the Anette era, and only recently rediscovered NW not even knowing that they had a new singer for a couple of years now. His rediscovery of GLS as sung by Floor at Wacken is well worth the listen! He seems like an authentic guy, and his point of view as a reborn fan is interesting. Link to his channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1tjv7klakTfflpdNdSoAmg Edit: There you go, my favourite fan review of GLS: https://youtu.be/WMUBlT6ixMI

Music (Human. :||: Nature. 2020) Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwz7-h9LCDU Lyrics: Before you My home was in the wind and surf The birds and rain, voices of the northern lights Then you came I joined you beyond the aeons As you blew your cave bear bone And began to hum Eradicate the torment of a heavy heart Emancipate the deaf Sing the graceful third part Then orchestrate an air for only you to sing Caress it deep It's always there to unlock the stars To enter Music Fanning the flames of a mystery Deepening the listening Losing Yourself to the endless symphony Of now Human Singing the tale of another man Have you ever heard Music It is coming, coming, coming your way The very first song You want to dream? Want a tale in major scale? Wish to leave the hollow, to dance with Pan? Can you hear the brave drum from the moors? Follow the beat And leave the noise behind if we be lovers Performance starts, come join the gathering And you will leave with a wildflower aftertaste Become the kind who still laughs at butterflies Give me a home inside you until the final Thank you and a good night In here, I am the silence of sound Curing the common show For the steady song There, I'll greet the greedy crowd But will never, ever sing to them Tick-tock, time stops Follow me into the fog To the hilltop Follow the call sky-clad Evoke the Hum Allure the sirens All it took was Time and silence From the band: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5OsJe24qKA Floor mentions this song is about music itself, going from the first rudimentary sounds to music as we know it today.

Another of my favourite bands... Was coming to North America this spring, but got cancelled like everything else. Now the Lacuna Coil-Apocalyptica American leg of the tour has been postponed to Feb 2021. I miss the early era of nostalgia-drenched, moody songs. But they keep delivering solid, solid albums with honest heavy sound and Ms Scabbia's unique, amazing voice. Black Anima is a great album. Looking forward to seeing them live in 2021.

The first "live" performance of new material? Sort of. I will comment the song later in the Music section, but this... this version is amazing. Such a stripped down yet powerful delivery of a song looking deceptively simple yet likely very technically challenging. Thank you to Planet Rock for making this possible, especially with the tour being delayed for probably many months! YouTube

Human. :||: Nature. (2020) Track list (with relevant threads when available) CD 1: Music Noise 🎞️ official video Shoemaker Harvest Pan How’s The Heart? Procession Tribal Endlessness CD 2: All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Vista All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Blue All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - The Green All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Moors All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Aurorae All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Quiet As The Snow All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Anthropocene (incl. “Hurrian Hymn To Nikkal”) All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World - Ad Astra 🎞️ official video Booklet download link: http://media.nuclearblast.de/download/temp/Nightwish-Human-Nature-Mediabook.zip Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCXT64tlvQM Countdown #1 - Music (Floor): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5OsJe24qKA Countdown #2 - How's The Heart (Tuomas): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmkrnzFVT3c Countdown #3 - Harvest (Troy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EnvpRfsTPE Countdown #4 - Procession (Tuomas): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIoQ-bP6xYs Countdown #5 - Pan (Emppu): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doSr5SRhtsQ Countdown #6 - Endlessness (Marko): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfc9wbqyDZ4 Countdown #7 - Tribal (Kai): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcviGHdHHRY Countdown #8 - Shoemaker (Floor): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd2EYheiurU From Nuclear Blast: Imagine the cave where music was born. In the introduction to their 9th studio album "HUMAN. II: NATURE.", NIGHTWISH take us all the way back to this ancient place and time when bashing rocks became rhythm and voice turned into harmonies. In the course of the millennia, this amazing cultural achievement evolved via Bach and Beethoven into blues, rock and heavy metal – a mental journey that the Finns trace in their upcoming full-length’s first song, ‘Music’. This opening track features all the elements that NIGHTWISH have fused into their own unmistakable sound ever since the band came to life in the small Karelian town of Kitee in 1996. There are the keyboards, which are also being used by bandleader, main composer, and lyricist Tuomas Holopainen at the starting point in the creation process of each of his albums. Another distinctive tone manifests in the Uilleann Pipes played by Northern English multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley. The multi-instrumentalist and his great voice have enriched the sound of NIGHTWISH with a traditional flavour since Troy’s first appearance on the album "Dark Passion Play" (2007), which led to him becoming a permanent member in 2013. Guitarist Emppu Vuorinen leaves his metallic mark on ‘Music’ with a rocking solo. The same can be said about exceptional drummer Kai Hahto, who has been infusing his versatile, and highly precise style since the recording of "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" (2015). The other half of the band’s rhythm section rests solidly on the rock of Marko Hietala’s bass lines. The cherished Finnish veteran also contributes vocally with his deep sonorous timbre. On these massive rhythmic pillars rests a complex sound vault with an arching superstructure that is ornamented by stunning choirs and strings. Making the most of the two excellent male voices of Marko and Troy, Tuomas has gifted each with a tailor-made song, ‘Harvest’ and ‘Endlessness’, on the new album. Yet there can be not a shred of doubt that Floor Jansen has the leading vocal role in NIGHTWISH. To capture the long career of the Dutch singer would fill a book. Her powerful, stylistically versatile voice and strong stage presence had quickly attracted a large following with Dutch symphonic metal outfit AFTER FOREVER, which were founded in 1995 and officially dissolved in 2009. Even back then, the dedication and determination of the charismatic frontwoman was easily noticeable. Floor’s unconditional devotion to always expand her own boundaries is once again showing on "HUMAN. II: NATURE." Floor already delivered a world-class performance on the previous album, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" (2015), which prompted NIGHTWISH's orchestral arranger Pip Williams, a university music lecturer with pitch perfect hearing, to state that "Floor is the best singer for NIGHTWISH as she masters all styles perfectly." On "HUMAN. II: NATURE." the Dutch singer masters even technically highly demanding passages with apparent ease and gracefully breathes deep emotional life into the lyrical stories behind the songs. Floor is also representative for a characteristic trait of the Finns: Tuomas and NIGHTWISH always strive for the very best in their music. All too often folk metal acts seem to recruit their instrumentalists in the closest Irish pub. NIGHTWISH, on the other hand, have introduced Troy Donockley into their midst, one of the best current Uilleann pipers on this planet. It also remains a contemporary trend among rock and metal musicians to work with orchestras with the attached price tag being the decisive criterion. NIGHTWISH, however, refine their sound with The London Session Orchestra, who are at the top of their genre alongside Hans Zimmer's orchestra in Hollywood. Like a starred chef, Tuomas possesses the rare genius to handle these finest compositional ingredients in a virtuoso way. His exponentially increasing mastery of the orchestral body – also due to the meanwhile completely seamless cooperation with Pip Williams – finds its strongest expression yet in the instrumental second part of the album. "All the Works of Nature which Adorn the World" comes in eight connected but far ranging fascinating movements that should be understood as Tuomas' "love letter to our world". In its artistic approach, this musical epic of the Finnish storytellers resembles the cinematic observations of earthly beauty of Sir David Attenborough for example. And just like the work of the British nature film-maker, this display of beauty might also inspire to think about the state of earth, but it shall be duly noted that Tuomas does not want NIGHTWISH to be understood as a political band at all. The thematic fields of "humanity", "nature" and "technology", "art" and "music" run as a red thread through "HUMAN. II: NATURE," which is explicitly not a concept album. Therefore, it is only fitting that the first single ‘Noise’ – and the breath-taking video clip created around it, self-ironically take up the theme of the digitalised human. To conclude, "HUMAN. II: NATURE." is a musical bag of magic, which is filled with unexpected twists and turns stylistically ranging from rock to metal, from folk rock to the neo-classical – yet every second sounds 100% NIGHTWISH. Goose bumps are a certainty and an incredible wealth of detail promises exciting voyages of discovery, which will still yield hidden treasures after years of intensive listening, and still allow us to find hidden secrets. It does not take a prophet to predict that the Finns will add more precious metal to their impressive collection of 25 platinum and 20 gold certifications with this future classic.

It's out! Well, it's in transit for me, but people have been already started unboxing for a day or so! If you're one of the lucky ones, or if you had a chance to hear the Radio Rock premiere, feel free to comment! 😀

Covid-related news in the other thread, but I will keep updating the tour schedule here. Understandably no dates have been announced for postponed shows yet.