Nightwish keyboardist, co-founder and songwriter Tuomas Holopainen admits that the band were blamed “for good reason” for how they handled the dismissal of original lead singer Tarja Turunen.
Turunen, who fronted Nightwish from their 1996 founding until 2005, was let go via a scathing public letter from her bandmates. It alleged that “business” and “money” had become more important to her than the emotion behind the band’s music, and that her “attitude and behaviour” had changed due to the influence of her husband/manager Marcelo Cabuli. The couple denied the allegations.
Looking back in an exclusive interview with Metal Hammer, Holopainen says that Nightwish “get blamed for what happened, for good reason” but insists that “there was no future” for the band with Turunen: “We were just operating in survival mode and plagued by these dark thoughts.”
He adds that the remaining members “got completely butchered in the media” after the open letter was published. The split became such a hot-button topic that Finland’s then-prime minister, Matti Vanhanen, was asked to comment on it in parliament.
“It was like we were these evil neanderthals who’d hurt our wonderful ex-singer,” Holopainen recalls. “I got some really interesting letters, let’s put it that way.”
The keyboardist now has a civil but distant relationship with Turunen: the pair have exchanged a handful of emails over the years but not had any further interactions. He dismisses the possibility of reuniting with his ex-singer.
“It was a divorce, and an ugly one at that,” he explains, “so I think we have our own lives now. Someone did say to me if we got Tarja and Marko [Hietala, bassist/vocalist who left in 2020] back in, we could tour just South America for a year straight. That’s not gonna happen.”
Now fronted by Dutch singer Floor Jansen, Nightwish put out their latest album, Yesterwynde, in 2024. Holopainen revealed to Hammer last month that he has six songs written for the follow-up release.
“I feel more inspired than ever – proof of that is that I’ve already got six new Nightwish songs done,” he said. “Every time I sit in front of my keyboard, I’m like, ‘Ah yeah, this is great! Just wait till everyone hears this.’ It’s exhilarating.”
He added that the band have “reserved things” for 2027, hinting that they’ve booked studio time. He also suggested that 2028 will be the year that they end their ongoing hiatus from live shows, which started in summer 2023.
“Next year is too early to be going back on tour. The year after, possibly? I want to do another album before any live shows, and that’s definitely happening. We’ve already reserved things for that next year.”
Following her Nightwish exit, Turnen launched a solo career. Her latest album, Frisson Noir, came out in June. She will perform a special show with an orchestra at the Ancient Theater in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on September 18, then tour Europe from September 30 to October 25.
