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Starting today, a new activity for members of the official "Winter Storm" fanclubs is up: "Interview with Tarja" - the fans can send a question for Tarja, one of them will be chosen for each fanclub and answered by her. The deadline for this activity is the 1st of December. All fans sending questions have to be members of the fanclub from their country.

For more information, or to participate in this project, please check the fanclub from your country.

Source: www.iltasanomat.fi

Three songs sang by Tarja Turunen for a Finnish Christmas album, produced by Olli Ahvenlahti, "Maailman Kauneimmat Joululaulut" ("The World's Most Beautiful Christmas Songs") can be heard here.

TARJA TURUNEN has issued the following update:

"The long touring and the promotion for the debut album are over. Has been amazing to sing for you all. Magnificent tours, beautiful places, caring and helpful people, great opportunities, many memories.

I will never ever forget this excellent beginning for my solo career. I am so happy to realize my dreams.

Let me go back and tell you about the last days of the final tour.

Like one year ago, my show in Sofia was a great success. It is very hard for me still to understand how on earth it is possible to have such an amazing audience in Bulgaria! The venue was once again totally crowded with singing and cheering people. All having big smiles on their faces during the whole concert. The band was SO happy and oh gosh, it was a thrill. One of the best audiences in the world, for sure. 

How funny it was to travel from summer and being in the beach, to fall and few hours later to have already snow all over the place…

The summer was definitely left behind and cold weather waited for us when we arrived to Ljubljana, Slovenia. Local people told us though that only few days earlier it was still enough warm to swim in the ocean…it was VERY hard to believe that. It was damn cold.

I didn’t remember the venue until I went there and saw that it was going to be an open-air concert….with only few degrees above 0°!!!!!

Everybody in the band needed to prepare himself well for the cold air, but who was freezing the most, was Mike. Having shorts on…his hands got so frozen that he needed to have a blow dryer to warm them while he was playing! Can you imagine that? A blow dryer? Poor Mike.

I was having fun though, despite of the cold air. People seemed to be totally frozen as well, even though I tried my best to make them move.

Anyway, it was a nice return to Slovenia. I honestly didn’t remember how beautiful the city of Ljubljana really is.

Czech audience has always accepted me well. This time was no difference. It was just a dream come true again. The venue was packed and we had a lot of fun performing.

For my surprise I received a gold award from the sales of My Winter Storm in Czech Republic and it was given to me during my show. It was very touching moment. I am truly proud and happy with my relation with Czech people. Thank you very much for the support.

I got a chance to visit famous Bruges on the day of the show in Metal Female Voices Festival in Belgium. I took a train from Aalst to Bruges and enjoyed the day drinking hot chocolate and taking wonderful pictures. The city of Bruges is unreal, with its old houses and colourful little boutiques. I enjoyed the visit very much.

I am always happy to return to MFV festival. There are many lovely people around. I got an honour to perform with lady Doro Pesch two songs and we did well together. This time it was a bigger pleasure, since we had performed those songs already once before long ago, it was easier to enjoy the music now. People received us very well. Once again I got totally surprised by the new MFV award that I was given during my set. Fans had voted me in a category of “the best and the most beautiful voice”. I was so overwhelmed by this, that I forgot completely the lyrics for the next song I needed to sing…hehe.

I want to thank everybody at the festival for this honour, for the love and support.

The last show for the tour was in London. Everybody in the band was excited about this particular show.

Feelings were mixed, with lots of happiness but sadness as well. I saw that people in the band were very quiet before the last show and it showed me that we had done well.

The show was amazing ending for the tour. Oliver had his birthday again and received a cake from us. I guess it was a tasty one, since I saw only bits and pieces of it after the show…

We had to share some tears when everything was finally over. I was very, very happy, but on the other hand very sad, since I am really going to miss all this.  I am missing my band already! Sounds silly, but it’s all true.

Touring with My Winter Storm was just amazing, beautiful experience for me. I have been blessed with lovely people working with me. THANK YOU MIKE, MAX, ALEX, CHRISTIAN, OLIVER, DOUG, MARIA, KIKO, MARKUS and TONI and for making my dream come true. Not forgetting all the crewmembers that were helping and working very hard for us on our journey. Just know, you are all in my heart.

This is the last photo taken of the band after leaving the stage in London.

This chapter is ending now, but a new one is to start very soon. You’ll see me performing already on next week in a Halloween concert in Tampere, Finland.

The Winter Storm is over. Let’s start to dig together What Lies Beneath.

With all my love, Tarja"

TARJA TURUNEN has issued the following blog:

"So far so good. Everybody around is healthy and the road takes us further every day. Countries and environments are changing all the time. It is nice to see people having still fun and giving me smiles, even though it is obvious that all of us are already tired of traveling.

Anyway, the general feeling is excellent and positive. I am enjoining every little details of this tour, since it’s the last one for my debut album and I’ll need to wait quite a long time for the next proper tour.

Visiting Munich and Ingolstadt was a really positive experience. The old city of Ingolstadt is pretty with lots of clean, tiny streets and not that many people around.

It seemed that audiences were enjoining those shows a lot and that Germans truly gave their love for us. It’s overwhelming to see the difference from where I started and where things are now after touring 2 years! Thank you Germany, we’ll meet soon again.

After Germany we headed to Italy, Bologna. What a beautiful old town! Cameras were rolling on the off day when everybody got to go to the city and relax. Bologna would be a nice place to live…with its copper-red colored old buildings, towers and houses. And the dining is just delicious! ;)

The night of the show was fun. People came very far to see us as well and the show was a success. We keep on making some trouble for the local security, as you can see.

One day everybody will understand that fans don’t eat artists!

It has been a long time since I heard people screaming like the audience did in Croatia, Zagreb. Oh my God! It was very hard to hear the band at times :)

I wondered many times during the show how on earth my band is hearing what they need to play, but somehow they managed very well and we were having a time of our life on stage. Great people! Wonderful acceptance.

After Croatia, the loooooong journey to Istanbul waited for us. We were crossing 3 borders and needed to wait quite a while in all of them. It was not that nice to wake up in the middle of the night and go out to show your face for the passport control… several times. You just got to fall asleep, when you needed to wake up again and again :(

Well; finally sometime around 05:00 in the morning we happily arrived to Istanbul. The show was originally going to happen in a different venue, but we heard that the venue had bankrupted and we were going to perform in a “rock-bar”. It was more than exciting experience, since for example the stage was so small that Mike’s drums were not fitting on it! Well, once again we managed somehow to go through the show and the audience was excellent.

My first time in Turkey, I will never forget it. I got to do some sightseeing as well before the show, so now I know a bit more. It was not enough though. But, there is hope for the future. At least now I have something to write on my diary.

It was so good to return to Athens. Had been two years since I’ve been there and it showed me that people had been waiting for my return.

Heavens´ sake I almost burst into tears during the first song. That much the audience was screaming. There was only one thing bothering me during my performance and it was completely my own fault. I ate too late my dinner and when I was singing, the food started to rise up… I was truly suffering, but my crew told me that they didn’t hear nor saw anything strange in my performance. That’s amazing considering the mood I had during the whole show. Well, I learned my lesson and in the end, it was one of the best shows we did on this tour so far.

Day after we performed in Thessalonica and some people from Athens followed us there. It was very nice to see people so excited! I want to thank Greece once again for waiting for me patiently. I hope you don’t need to wait too long for seeing me again in your beautiful country. We had a very big dose of Greek salad in this trip until then ;)

Tonight, Bulgarians are surrounding us. Big venue, lovely people, and lot of excitement in the air…I can already feel the fans outside.

The show is to start in few hours…"

TARJA TURUNEN has issued the following tour update:

"We have been on the road two weeks already. Still many shows ahead and many new places to visit. I must say that I am really enjoining this tour very much.

Spain was a wonderful experience for all of us. We got to spend a great time in Barcelona the day before the show and relax under the Spanish sun.

I, of course, made some shoe shopping as well.

The amount of tourists was incredible in Barcelona as the city was having celebrations. Many bands playing in the streets. It was very cool with music everywhere.

My show went well and everybody got really excited about the reception of Spanish people. The venue has been recently renewed, beautiful and having great acoustics. The following night we travelled to Madrid.

I haven’t been performing in the capital Madrid in a very long time, so I was very thrilled by this opportunity.

It was only very sad that for security reasons, the responsible of the venue in Madrid, didn’t allow us to perform our acoustic set among the audience.

We were forced to play it from the stage as we have done earlier. There was nothing we could do about it; the decision was not in our hands. I hope the people in Madrid enjoyed my show anyway despite of this. Muchas gracias por “Olé, olé, olééé…” :)

After Spain the long travel to Pratteln was nicely interrupted by a beach break in France.

It didn’t take us too long to recharge our batteries, as there was something good to expect from Switzerland.

The venue Z7 was crowded again!!!!! And we were playing there just 3 months ago! I am so happy. The feeling of being on stage in front of such supporting audience made me very proud of us. We have gone a long road with this group of people already, but there are even better moments to come, I am sure. Thank you all for keeping the music alive, as I like to say.

Last time I was performing in Ludwigsburg Rockfabrik was in 1999. That makes 10 years!!! The time flies!

I was so excited to be back in there with my own show. The place was packed and the reception was amazing. It was fantastic to receive such a warm welcome from Ludwigsburg."

TARJA TURUNEN has issued the following update:

"The long distance between Berlin and Barcelona is getting shorter as the road takes us further, closer to Spain. Is the best chance I have to write a new post.

I am the only girl again on the road with the guys, but the group of people are having fun together and it looks like this tour is going to be nice ending for My Winter Storm album.

Shows have gone really well so far. Is very encouraging to realize that nearly two years after My Winter Storm was released, more people is reaching us in our shows now than ever before :)

I have met many people that have seen my show for the first time. It is very awarding and refreshing to hear and see people excited about my work.

The rehearsal days in Germany seem now long gone. Everything went very fine.

The band sounds tighter than ever before. Christian and the new crew members are doing a great job and all of us are enjoining the results of our efforts. I am very positive that this feeling will continue until the end of this long tour. It is for sure the most challenging and roughest one for me so far on my solo career, but I am really working hard to get all the good things out of it and to cherish the moment.

I want to thank the people at the Elf Fantasy Fair for the great experience and memory. I have to say that everybody from our band and technicians were having fun at that festival, taking millions of photos and having good time with the visitors of the festival. People have put so much effort in making this beautiful event happen. I wish the festival would continue making people happy for centuries!

After the nice beginning for the tour, we visited Bremen, Hanover and Berlin. Germany and Germans showed me their love and support in a magnificent way. Oh man, these shows were all great. We took the chance to perform a quiet, acoustic set in the middle of the audience, like we did already in my hometown Buenos Aires earlier this year. It worked out very well and people seemed to be pretty surprised about it. After doing so in Bremen, every one of us felt that we have to try to do this in every venue when possible, since it was very nice to see people’s reaction towards us. Happy, smiling faces."

Turunen recently has announced the members of her Final Storm touring band. They are as follows:

Mike Terrana - drums (MASTERPLAN, SAVAGE CIRCUS, ex-RAGE, ex-MALMSTEEN)
Christian Kretschmar - keyboards (SCHILLER)
Oliver Holzwarth - bass (BLIND GUARDIAN, ex-SIEGES EVEN)
Alex Scholpp - guitar (ex-FARMER BOYS)
Max Lilja - cello (HEVEIN, ex-APOCALYPTICA)

Confirmed dates of the 2009 Final Storm Tour are below:

December
4 - Lahti, Finland - Sibelius Hall
5 - Tampere, Finland - Kaleva Church
10 - Lappeenranta, Finland - The Church Of Maria
12 - Joensuu, Finland - The Church Of Joensuu
13 - Haapajärvi, Finland - The Church Of Haapajärvi
18 - Seinäjoki, Finland - The Church Of Lakeuden risti

Source: Bravewords.com

In an exclusive interview with ex-NIGHTWISH frontwoman, TARJA TURUNEN, Greek-based Rockpages Web Magazine talked with the Finnish singer about her solo career, Nightwish, opera and other interesting stuff. Here's an excerpt:

Rockpages.gr: The last time that we talked, you had said to me that you’d probably see yourself in 15 years singing Opera. Do you think that maybe this time approaches?

Tarja Turunen: "Well I hope so…you know…I hope that in the future my voice would be even stronger. We will see, for the time being I focus on my career as a solo artist and if the conditions are right in the future and if I am lucky then who knows? Maybe, I will do opera, too."

Rockpages.gr: Do you think that the opera audience will welcome a singer that made a name from the metal scene?

Tarja Turunen: "They have done it already! I have done opera in Finland and people were really positive - they didn’t pay attention to the fact that I am the singer of a metal band. After all, they don’t expect to hear metal songs in the opera, they wanna hear a good and powerful voice. Let me tell you something. The opera audience shares one thing in common with the metal audience: the love for music! As I say, I am not a fan of metal music, I am a fan of music simple as that! It’s a beautiful thing that I have already managed to do both opera and metal. I love them both, you know."

Rockpages.gr: I probably know the answer to that last question, but our readers want to hear it straight from you…the last Nightwish Tour got negative reviews from the worldwide music press. Maybe, there is something in the horizon?

Tarja Turunen: "Are there such rumors in Greece…(laughs)…me and Nightwish? Noooo…of course, not!"

Rockpages.gr: I was sure but I wanted to hear it straight from you…

Tarja Turunen: "No, there are just rumors. There is no truth in that."

Read the whole interview at this location.

On Saturday 20, TARJA TURUNEN started her last European tour called "Final Storm Tour" at Elf Fantasy Fair, Arcen (The Netherlands). The setlist and fan footage of songs Tired of being alone and deep silent complete  follow below.

Tarja Turunen will embark on a Christmas tour of Finland with renowned Finnish musicians Kalevi Kiviniemi, Marzi Nyman and Markku Krohn. They will perform in churches in Lappeenranta, Joensuu, Tampere, Haapajärvi and Seinäjoki and at the Sibelius Hall in Lahti.

During 2009, Tarja has performed only three times in Finland: at Rockperry festival in Vaasa, at SOI Suvessa classical music festival in Mäntyharju and with the Tampere Philarmonic Orchestra.

The upcoming shows will mark the last time Tarja will play Finland before the release of her second album, "What Lies Beneath", in 2010.

The dates are as follows:

Dec. 04 - Lahti, Sibelius Hall
Dec. 05 - Tampere, Kaleva Church
Dec. 10 - Lappeenranta, The Church of Maria
Dec. 12 - Joensuu, The Church of Joensuu
Dec. 13 - Haapajärvi, The Churh of Haapajärvi
Dec. 18 - Seinäjoki, The Church of Lakeuden risti

About the artists:

Concert organist Kalevi Kiviniemi (b. 1958) is one of the internationally most active Finnish instrumental musicians. He has performed in most European countries, Russia, Japan, the Philippines, Australia and the United States as a concert and recording artist. He has served as a jury member in many international organ competitions and given masterclasses. Kalevi Kiviniemi was the Artistic Director of the Lahti Organ Festival for ten years between 1991 and 2001. As a recording artist, Kalevi Kiviniemi's recordings exceed a hundred records. The recording venues have included important organs in Finland as well as historical instruments in the USA, Japan, the Philippines, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany. Kalevi Kiviniemi has also received several awards in recognition of his remarkable work in the field of organ culture.

Marzi Nyman is a Finnish guitarist, who has become famous due to several TV shows in Finland. He has played with numerous groups; for example as a bandmate of Lenni-Kalle Taipale, Iiro Rantala new trio, UMO JAZZ ORCHESTRA and NYLON BEAT.

As a percussion artist of Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Markku Krohn has become a well-known classical musician in Finland. He has studied music for example in the Graz International Bilingual School. After 20 years in Finnish music scene Markku gave his best performances with the Tapiola Sinfonietta at the beginning of the '90s and at the Spanish Nights of Granada in Alhambra palace in 1998.