FACTFILE Nightwish (1996-)
Nightwish, a Finnish band in the "symphonic power metal" genre, are:
Tarja Turunen, 27 (vocals),
Tuomas Holopainen, 28 (keyboards),
Erno (Emppu)Vuorinen, 27, (guitar),
Jukka Nevalainen, 27 (drums), and
Marco Hietala, 39 (bass, vocals). Hietala joined in 2001, replacing
Sami Vänskä, who had been added to the original four-piece line-up in 1998.
The original band came together in Kitee in the summer of 1996. The first album Angels Fall First was released in the following year.
Chart success in Finland came with the second album, Oceanborn, recorded in the fall of 1998 and released at the end of the year. Oceanborn charted at #5, and the single Sacrament of Wilderness was at #1 for several weeks.
The band were already attracting a solid fanbase, and they then won nationwide attention in the qualifiers for the Finnish entry in the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. They did not quite make it into the finals, but they did clean up on the televoting. Gradually the mix of heavy rock and Turunen's classically-trained voice began to pick up listeners outside Finland, and singles were released in Germany.
Later in 2000, Wishmaster was released, not just here at home but also in a number of European markets, and the band made a tour of south America and to festivals in Europe. Century Child (2002, after the change of bassist) built on this success and saw Nightwish polishing up their style. Century Child went gold in Finland in two hours and sold platinum inside a fortnight, and the album and the single Ever Dream topped the Finnish charts simultaneously.
There was then a time-out as Tarja Turunen announced she was taking a break from touring to complete her music studies in Germany, but in 2003 the band were back in the studio recording what was to be their real breakthrough album Once (2004).
The decision to record in London was clearly a smart one: the CD has sold more than 900,000 copies worldwide, going triple platinum in Finland with sales of 100,000 and shifting a quarter of a million records in the German market. The single Nemo also sold by the cartload. In all, Nightwish have amassed album and single sales in excess of 2.5 million copies.
The "Once Upon A Tour 2004-2005" tour has been seen by more than a million fans. It comes to an end on October 21st with a sold-out gig at the 13,000-seat Helsinki Arena.
In late September the band will release a best-of compilation CD entitled Highest Hopes. A limited edition version comes with a bonus disc containing videos of three tracks performed live at the 2003 Mera Luna Festival in Hildesheim, Germany.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 5.8.2005
More on this subject:
 From Kitee to the ends of the earth and back: Nightwish on tour
Links:
Nightwish (Wikipedia)
Helsingin Sanomat
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