Unable to tour, and missing her fans, Tarja has spent the last year writing her first book – sign up at tarjabook.com to learn more.It includes lots of previously unseen, intimate photographs to illustrate her memories of making music in the studio, on stage and at home.When you sign up you can:• Get an early-bird discount when pre-sale starts• Choose to have a name printed in the book• Hear all the news and be among the first to get Singing In My Bloodtarjabook.com
With a heavy heart, we need to announce that due to Covid -19 restrictions still in place in many of the countries where the tour should take place, the Raw Tour 2021 dates have been postponed to 2022.Tickets and VIP Upgrades will remain valid.Support bands: Serpentyne, AbakasHere's the new dates, including two new shows in Romania!17.10.2022 - Sofia, Bulgaria18.10.2022 - Bucharest, Romania19.10.2022 - Timisoara, Romania21.10.2022 - Budapest, Hungary22.10.2022 - Ziar nad Hronom, Slowakia23.10.2022 - Bratislava, Slowakia25.10.2022 - Krakow, Poland26.10.2022 - Wroclaw, Poland1 h
Czech Republic! Here's the new dates for the Raw Tour 2022!28.10.2022 - Pardubice29.10.2022 - BrnoTickets and VIP Upgrades will remain valid.Support bands: SERPENTYNE , Abakas
First warningSinger Tarja Turunen considers the cerebral infarction she suffered as a warning in the middle of speed blindness. The experience changed her everyday life which Tarja is now learning to run with the strength she has learned from her Latino husband.That September morning started like the ones before it. Only something in Tarja Turunen had broken badly but she didn’t know it yet. In her home in Spain’s Marbella Tarja gets out of bed and steps into the kitchen to get a cup of milk for her daughter. Tarja tries to grab a mug but can’t get a hold of it and it shatters to pieces on the floor. Husband Marcelo Cabuli hears the crash into the bedroom and calls for Tarja, who doesn’t answer. The man hops into the kitchen and finds his wife confused in the middle of the shards. The left side of Tarja’s face seems to have slumped and Tarja can’t form a coherent word. Marcelo realizes immediately that he needs to act fast – every second from now on is crucial.In the hospital the feared hunch is turned into a diagnosis: Tarja has had a cerebral infarction. They start treating the blood clot in her brain with thrombolysis therapy. Tarja’s body responds to the treatment excellently and she stays in the hospital for three days. After that she tells she’s signing herself out of the hospital. The doctors sternly disagree, the señora should recover in peace, but the singer appeals to her upcoming tour and its 22 concerts.- I knew I’d rather die of worry and stress, if I hadn’t done them, Tarja says today, in the same sceneries in Marbella, at her home’s pool.It’s now three years since the infarction and Tarja, 44, seems to just the way she used to: talkative, laughing, thoughtful, vivacious – and her ‘darns’ ring out like before. The experience didn’t leave any physical marks, except that Tarja more often touches the Die Alive tattoo in her left arm. The words are borrowed from writer friend Paulo Coelho and they tell to enjoy life every moment so that on the moment of death, sometime long in the future, you can say that you lived life to the fullest.The experience left more mental scars. Tarja describes the first year after the attack as a year of fear. During which she kept thinking how close she was to lose it all.- The cerebral infarction was a huge shock. After that the fear of being sick and dying was the first thought in the morning and the last thought at night when going to sleep. What if it happens again?No one carry a burden like that. Tarja ended up getting help from an Argentinean mental coach, who she knew has mentored many other famous people. The intimate discussions helped her understand what kind of changes Tarja needed to make to reduce the things in her life that might risk her getting sick.- It has been hard for me to understand why I got sick, and the doctors haven’t really been able to figure it out. I think that my work at the time demanded such qualities from me that didn’t come naturally, she ponders.A little while earlier Tarja had taken care of the boss duties on a long and hard tour in the United States. The tour had had all sorts of things to take care of and worry about. Usually, the role has been managed by Marcelo but after their daughter started school, the family’s arrangements had changed. Tarja stressed about her new position and stretched her strengths to the limit.- After a tour I’m always exhausted and need a few days to recover but after coming home from that tour I was drop dead tired. My theory is that too much stress backfired as getting sick. I had for years ran around and people close to me had told me that maybe you should hit the brakes sometimes, Tarja tells.- When I got sick that brake hit me right in the face. Maybe this happened because it needed to happen.It took a whole year before fears started to retreat and Tarja began to feel stronger, survived.- I’ve gotten rid of my fear of death and I don’t think about what happened every day. On the contrary, now I can speak about it and tell that this happened to me.Tarja now talks about getting sick for the first time publicly in an interview with MeNaiset and in her new book Laulun virta veressäni (Bazar).What is strength?Some of the changes were clear and easy to make: improvements on diet, more times to rest and time to recover, some changes to staff and sharing the responsibility on tour. Check, done, tick the box.Then there was the part that still today makes Tarja squirm and roll her eyes.- Yes, the boss duties. I’m not at all that kind of person, Tarja squirms.The mentor challenged Tarja to wonder exactly that side: how do you treat others and how do you let others treat yourself, why do you adapt or don’t demand more, why do you let things happen and aren’t firm enough? Tarja started to understand that unnecessary conforming had burdened her, even though she had considered herself as a strong woman. And what did being strong really mean?- In Latino cultures women mostly say how things go. I’ve tried to learn to do that, Tarja says.- Us Finns consider of ourselves strong but that may mean something else. Our strength is more coping and enduring. Not breaking when you’re tested.As an example, Tarja brings up her mother who had cancer and felt bad for years. She was described as resilient and a fighter.- Why did she need to endure that, when her life could’ve been made easier? That’s just perverse! Tarja huffs in frustration.Tarja sees her stage of endurance happening especially in her band years in the early stages of her singing career. At the time, being strong was to conform to being one of the guys, adapt to the habits of the majority.- In metal circles I got used to being a tomboy, always the only woman in a group. There was no point in bringing that up if you wanted to avoid trouble. I’m often still the only woman in a group, but it isn’t something to endure anymore. Nowadays it’s self-evident, before it was a course to survival.Tarja recalls how her wish for her own dressing room was considered diva-like behavior on band tours. She would’ve settled for any small closet where she didn’t need to be naked in front of her bandmates to change clothes and where to warm up her voice without smokers in the same space. Or not being left alone for hundreds of fans to tear into pieces as the musicians walked away. In a situation like that Tarja met Marcelo, who as a manager came to help and take care of security.- Marcelo saw how I was treated. I didn’t demand others to carry my bag or open doors for me, but I would’ve deserved to be safe. He was the first to respect me that way.Then there were situations that Tarja wouldn’t have wanted as a woman to be witness to.- Other women were brought to backstages and things were done, taking off one’s pants and showing everything. Different terrible things, that bad behavior of youth without any sense of the situation.The feeling of being an outsider would be easy to explain with just gender. Tarja says that contradictions were deeper in attitudes and worldviews. In her band years Tarja was a college student whose ambitious aim was far in her singing career.- I felt that I wasn’t understood when I wanted to take it seriously and others were there to have fun.Tarja says she turned a blind eye and ear to the nincompoopery, because she was in a state and situation where she couldn’t just take off. If she’d raised hell for the situation, Tarja imagined she’d be fired. Twice she did. The famous Nightwish firing happened only later.- Two times in my band years I truly blew up, but that didn’t change anything. The atmosphere was that boys will be boys.Tarja wouldn’t feel like that anymore and she wouldn’t teach that attitude to her daughter. She points out that it’s a different time and the next generation has different circumstances.- Naomi is still a child, only nine years old, but she already has more backbone than the young me to intervene in situations, to question and contradict. She’s growing up stronger in many ways. Maybe the next generation of women will get rid of tolerating things they shouldn’t.Ease and respectTarja emphasizes that she never faced sexual harassment or abuse. The phenomenon is of course familiar to her and Tarja has been at a time a shoulder to her friends. In her new book she calls the singer colleagues in the same genre as her metal sisters, the connection and spirit are that strong between the female singers. She describes herself as the mommy figure with her advice and experiences.- I think my originality and voice have been a sort of blessing in this too. Because of them I’ve always been so different, Tarja thinks.- Maybe also my tomboy demeanour has shielded me from the wrong kind of attention and treatment. My style has been the way that I haven’t liked to show off my body, show myself as a sensual or sexual person. Damn, I haven’t liked my body myself, I’ve judged it and had a complex about it.Tarja says that she learned to be okay with her appearance only during the last few years. That change might have started with getting sick and because of that updating her values, and exercises where Tarja made it clear to herself what things matter to her and what kind of burdens have been useless to carry.- Goddammit I have been so tough on myself and complained about nothing. Like these legs and marathon runner calves, such ridiculous trauma about them, Tarja tells.For years Tarja covered her legs in boots, trouser legs, behind long hems because she hated them and didn’t dare show them in front of an audience. With the growing self-acceptance, the hems have gotten shorter.- Recently I was watching an episode of The Voice of Finland and myself in it and thought that quite alright. I hope I’d still look like that in ten years!Tarja praises her age at 44 as excellent. Her voice chimes freer, her shape is good all around and her mind more forgiving then maybe ever before.- I accept myself better at this age and it feels really good. I don’t need to be perfect and accomplish life, which I fell into doing before and which is probably so typical to us Finns, Tarja ponders.- Life next to a Latino and in the Latino culture has taught me to relax and ease, but the same time a healthy respect for myself.No more wailingWhen the COVID resections in Spain eased, the first morning after lockdown Tarja walked to the seashore with her family. She sat on sand and suddenly burst into tears. The feeling of freedom, the scent of the sea and the dolphins that swam into view sensitized after a distressing period. The beginning of the pandemic was spent in shock: she worried about the people close to her, the tour that ended right after it started and how her crew would manage financially. Tarja was used to getting inspiration for her new songs while traveling – how would she be able to do that now, inside four walls?Tarja began to relieve her anxiety by training. When she couldn’t leave her home, she would run in her yard and the stairs of her three-storey home until she took it too far. One morning her feet felt like they were on fire and the doctor diagnosed a severe inflammation: usually the plantar fasciitis that affects the heel, had spread all the way to her hip.- To put it shortly, my running is now done.Now the performer takes care of her shape by swimming, training with a personal trainer a couple of times a week and playing padel, as much as her legs allow. Tarja has meditated and done the neural pathway nurturing Amino Neuro Frequency therapy for years. The next health-conscious change will soon be seen on stage: Tarja will no longer step on stage in the familiar whopping high heels but in healthy three-centimetre heels.- Because of the shape of my feet I have to abandon the insane heels that have always been a part of my image. Geez, I had such an arsenal of bling waiting for the next tour! But I’ve destroyed my feet by running, jumping and rocking in sick shoes no person should ever even walk with, Tarja repeats her doctor’s instructions.- In the adrenaline rush you can’t feel the pain on stage at all, but I have been wailing backstage after concerts because of them.//
TARJA TURUNEN and TORSTEN STENZEL create OUTLANDERSThe first single "Closer to the Sky" is now available for pre-order at https://tarja.lnk.to/CloserToTheSkyOUTLANDERS was created by no one less than Finnish soprano legend Tarja Turunen and EDM pioneer Torsten Stenzel; both were able to win over some of the most influential guitar players of our time as featuring guests.So what genre is OUTLANDERS? The answer is simple: it is a music genre on its own as classifying OUTLANDERS as any existing genre will just fail. Tarja's vision of OUTLANDERS is to create something exciting and new: OUTLANDERS combine chilled but exciting electronic beats with Tarja’s emotional, classically trained vocal skills and unique guitar performances. These three elements are a constant in all the songs and are equally important.Their new song "Closer to The Sky" marks the start of a release series of 8 tracks on earMUSIC preceding a full-length album: each song presents an exceptional guitarist as guest including Al Di Meola, Joe Satriani, Jennifer Batten, Steve Rothery, Mike Oldfield, Walter Giardino, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Vernon Reid and Marty Friedman. Recorded and mixed mainly on the Caribbean island of Antigua during the last 10 years, the sounds of OUTLANDERS is mystic; soft and powerful; catchy and dreamy; modern but vintage at the same time. Their music contains opposites that magically attract each other and the three aesthetic pillar elements unite to create one unique sound.First track "Closer to the Sky" composed by Tarja and Erik Nyholm is set for release November 26th, 2021 featuring guitarist TREVOR RABIN, best known as guitarist of Prog-Rock icons YES as well as a top Hollywood blockbuster movies score composer.
Due to the surge in COVID-19 and the challenges it presents, mainly to travel between countries or even regions within the same country with different restrictions, we are forced to postpone, once again, the February and March dates of the Raw Tour. While we all hope that this ongoing situation will see the end very soon and when there are new speculations that it might be the case, still it is a bit early to do a proper tour as we are used to. Tickets and VIP and M&G Updates will remain valid for the new dates. Thank you for your support and understanding. Please find the new dates hereunder:01.02.23 - Glasgow, UK02.02.23 - Wolverhampton, UK04.02.23 - Manchester, UK05.02.23 - London, UK06.02.23 - Paris, FR08.02.23 - Strasbourg, FR09.02.23 - Lyon, FR10.02.23 - Milan, IT12.02.23 - Marseille, FR13.02.23 - Barcelona, ES14.02.23 - Madrid, ES (New venue! Sala But)01.03.23 - Lyss, CH03.03.23 - Ljubljana, SL04.03.23 - Wien, AT05.03.23 - München, DE 07.03.23 - Nürnberg, DE08.03.23 - Leipzig, DE09.03.23 - Berlin, DE 11.03.23 - Mannheim, DE12.03.23 - Herford, DE13.03.23 - Hamburg, DE 15.03.23 - Bochum, DE16.03.23 - Nijmegen, NL17.03.23 - Haarlem, NL
