Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopainen talks about Floor Jansen’s victorious battle against cancer: “It all came out during the song, Sleeping Sun…”

During an intense interview for Ireland’s Overdrive, Tuomas Holopainen – Nightwish‘s mastermind – spoke not only about the band’s future projects, but he focused on the crew’s emotions around the difficult battle against breast cancer won by singer Floor Jansen. Tuomas recalls one memory in particular, which has gone viral in the metal community. We are talking about the first European date of the Human. :II: .Nature Tour in Belgium, at Antwerp on 20 November 2022. During the performance of the famous ballad “Sleeping Sun”, Floor begins to cry and courageously shows her weaknesses, in such a difficult moment of her life. It was the first live show after Floor’s cancer surgery.

Here’s a fan video of the performance, with all the empathy from both the public and the band:

Then, Tuomas spoke about this episode:

The first show of this leg in Antwerp was just so emotional for all of us, but especially for Floor. It all came out during the song, ‘Sleeping Sun‘, she couldn’t sing the song towards the end, and she just broke down. It was a positive break down, if you know what I mean. It was just a huge release of so much anxiety, and pressure that had been building up inside her. It was a culmination of beating Cancer, finally do this tour, and that her voice was good enough to do what she loves to do. All of that came out at the same time, and it’s been wonderful ever since.

– Tuomas Holopainen

We all know that now Floor is back stronger than before. And we can appreciate the delicacy with which Tuomas Holopainen treats the singer’s torment, now one more reason to burn with energy. A curious parenthesis is also reserved for Nightwish‘s virtual show, “An Evening in a virtual World…”. Tuomas revealed all of his uncertainty about the project.

All of the virtual performances that I’d seen online were just not really my taste. I thought they were a bit dull and boring. Then, when they showed me the overall concept of the virtual world that could be created, then I started to look at it from a different angle. I brought it to the rest of the band, and we really started to talk about the possibilities of doing this, and what it could potentially look like. Then we made the decision to do it, however, do it really well. To the level that had never been done before…at least in Finland.

– Tuomas Holopainen

So, what better time to enjoy some pieces of music from the virtual tour? Let’s light the past!