Tarja Turunen

Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli, known professionally as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish heavy metal singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Nightwish. Turunen studied singing at Sibelius Academy and Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. She is a professional classical lied singer with a three-octave vocal range, and founded symphonic metal band Nightwish with Tuomas Holopainen and Emppu Vuorinen in 1996. Their combination of hard and fast guitar riffs with Turunen's dramatic, "operatic" lead vocals quickly achieved critical and commercial popularity. Their symphonic metal style, soon dubbed "opera metal", inspired many other metal bands and performers. Turunen was fired from the band on 21 October 2005 for personal reasons accompanied by an open letter from the band. She started her solo career in 2006 with the release of a Christmas album called Henkäys ikuisuudesta.

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Nightwish members
Finnish sopranos
Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe alumni
Finnish Karelian people
Finnish expatriates in Spain
Finnish singer-songwriters
Finnish heavy metal singers
Finnish composers
Singers with a three-octave vocal range
Finnish Lutherans