Tarja Turunen

Tarja Turunen is Nightwish's original singer, a member between 1996 and 2005, and the figure who established the template of the classically trained soprano fronting a metal band. Born in Kitee, Finland, in 1977, she has an operatic training — she studied at the Sibelius Academy and later in Germany — and that is what distinguishes her from her successors and imitators. Turunen does not sing with rock technique adapted to symphonic repertoire: she sings as an opera singer does, with support, vibrato and projection built to carry over an orchestra without a microphone. Applied over distorted guitar and heavy drums, that technique produced something that did not exist before Oceanborn (1998) and Wishmaster (2000), and created an entire subgenre. Her departure in October 2005 is one of the most discussed episodes in European metal. At the end of the final show of the Once tour, in Helsinki, she was handed an open letter signed by the other members informing her of her dismissal — a letter published shortly afterwards on the band's website. The public form of the break drew considerable reaction, and both sides' accounts were debated for years. She has pursued a solo career since My Winter Storm (2007), with albums alternating symphonic metal, classical music and Christmas repertoire, remaining continuously active ever since.