Tarja at Rockhal

In 1996, a classically trained soprano from eastern Finland co-founded Nightwish, and her voice became the band’s sound. Tarja left in 2005 and has led her own career ever since.

Tarja plays the Rockhal Club on Thursday 11 February 2027. Doors at 18:00.

Tarja Turunen trained as a classical soprano and then spent a decade applying that to metal with Nightwish, which more or less invented a genre. Twenty years of solo work later she still sings in a way nobody else in the room can, and the arrangements are built to leave space for it.

Doors at 18:00 on a Thursday is early even for this room. Standing, in the Club, part of Rockhal’s Temple of Metal strand.

Who is Tarja?

Tarja Turunen was born on 17 August 1977 in Puhos, near Kitee, in Finland. In 1996 she co-founded Nightwish with Tuomas Holopainen and Emppu Vuorinen, and became the face and voice of the band on Oceanborn, Wishmaster, Century Child and Once, which was the best-selling album in Europe in July 2004. She left Nightwish in 2005 and has led her own career ever since.

Her soprano is classically trained: she studied church music at the Sibelius Academy in Kuopio, then art song at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe from 2001 to 2003. Her solo work moves between heavy symphonic rock, Christmas records and classical concerts, and she headlined the Savonlinna Opera Festival in 2006 and 2011. She was also a coach on The Voice of Finland in 2015 and 2016. Fans simply call her “The Voice”.

Her records

• Henkäys ikuisuudesta (2006): her first solo album, a Christmas record.
• My Winter Storm (2007): number 1 in Finland, number 3 in Germany, platinum in Finland.
• What Lies Beneath (2010): number 4 in Germany.
• Colours in the Dark (2013)
• The Shadow Self (2016)
• In the Raw (2019)
• Frisson Noir (2026): released on 12 June 2026, number 12 in Germany and number 6 on the UK rock chart.

Songs to know before the night: “I Walk Alone”, “Die Alive”, “Until My Last Breath”, “Victim of Ritual”, “Innocence”, “Dead Promises”, and “Left on Mars”, her 2024 duet with Marko Hietala.

The Frisson Live 2027 tour

Frisson Live 2027 follows Frisson Noir, which Rockhal presents as her first album in a heavier direction in seven years. The venue describes the show as the start of a new chapter, mixing new songs with favourites from across her catalogue, heavy and cinematic in feel. It comes after two long runs: the 95-concert Storm World Tour from 2007 to 2009, and the Living the Dream Tour from 2022 to 2026.