The reunion that will never be – Nightwish and Tarja Turunen

In a recent discussion with U.K.’s Metal Hammer publication, Tuomas Holopainen, the keyboardist and leader of Nightwish, shared his thoughts on the band’s separation from their original lead vocalist, Tarja Turunen, in 2005, as per Blabbermouth. Turunen was let go from Nightwish following the conclusion of the band’s 2005 tour, as she received an open letter that was also posted on the Nightwish website simultaneously. Holopainen expressed to Metal Hammer that Nightwish “get blamed for what happened, for good reason” but emphasized that “there was no future” moving forward with Turunen. He further stated that there is no possibility of a Nightwish reunion with Turunen.

We were just operating in survival mode and plagued by these dark thoughts.

He stated that the other Nightwish band members “got completely butchered in the media” following the release of the open letter.

It was like we were these evil neanderthals who’d hurt our wonderful ex-singer. I got some really interesting letters, let’s put it that way. It was a divorce, and an ugly one at that,” he explained, “so I think we have our own lives now. Someone did say to me if we got Tarja and Marko [Hietala, former Nightwish bassist/vocalist who left in 2020] back in, we could tour just South America for a year straight. That’s not gonna happen.

Nightwish is a symphonic metal group hailing from Kitee, Finland. Established in 1996, the band was initiated by keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and the original lead singer Tarja Turunen. The ensemble expanded with the addition of drummer Jukka Nevalainen and bassist Sami Vänskä. In 2001, Vänskä was succeeded by Marko Hietala, who also assumed the role of male vocalist that was previously held by Holopainen or various guest artists. Since their debut album, “Angels Fall First,” released in 1997, Nightwish has achieved notable success within Finland and gained international acclaim with the subsequent releases of their albums “Oceanborn” in 1998, “Wishmaster” in 2000, and “Century Child” in 2002.