Selling more than 7 million albums worldwide with 1 silver award, 11 gold awards and 31 platinum awards, Nightwish is Finland's most successful band.

This week on "MusicNews; In Profile - Artist of the Week" is Nightwish! 

So let's start at the beginning...

1996

Founder/songwriter/keyboardist and Frontman Tuomas Holopainen, while at a camp fire with friends, decides to create his own project which would focus around acoustic mood music. With a clear idea of how the band would sound, Tuomas invites long-time friend and school-mate Emppu "Emo" Vuorinen and classical vocalist Tarja Turunen, who had the same music teacher as they. The group tapes the first three songs between October and December of 1996 with "Nightwish" band name deriving from the first song the band recorded.

1997

With the acoustic songs recorded, the band wanted to see how those songs would sound if drums were added, thus bringing in Jukka Nevalainen to the project. At this time the acoustic guitar was replaced with an electric guitar. The adding of heavy metal elements to the band's already existing experimental style gave them a unique sound, forming the heart and soul of Nightwish. After a few weeks of jamming, the band goes into the studio and 1997 sees the birth of seven songs - which can be found on the limited edition of "Angels Fall First" album. A month later the band signs a recording contract with Spinefarm Records for two albums. In August Nightwish records four more songs.

1998

In the summer of '98 Sami Vanska joined the band as bassist, Nightwish now consisting of a five-piece ensemble, enters the studio to work on their new album "Oceanborn". Though released only in Finland, Oceanborn was the pride and glory of the band with the adoption of a more technical and progressive sound than Angels Fall First. In contrast to the classical voice of Turunen, Oceanborn featured guest growling vocals from Tapio Wilska. The album was very well received with critics saying that the album "works great as a whole". It (Oceanborn) was an instant success reaching No. 5 on the Finnish album charts. Due to the phenomenal success of the album, Oceanborn was released internationally in the Spring of '99.

1999

In May 1999, the band records the single "Sleeping Sun (Four Ballads of the Eclipse)" and in one month the single sells 15,000 copies in Germany alone. Due to the band's international breakthrough Nightwish opened for Rage on the European Tour leg. 

2000

On 19th of May, the band releases their third studio album "Wishmaster" which debuted at No.1 on the Finnish album charts and three weeks at the top spot it certifies Gold. The album received mixed reviews with Allmusic citing it as repetitive, as far as saying "as a whole, it can be a little annoying, even frustrating", while German mag Rock Hard declaring the album as "Album of the Month" even though competing with heavy-weights Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi.

After the release of Wishmaster, Nightwish embarks on their first world tour covering Canada, South America, Mexico and headlining the European leg alongside Sinergy and Eternal Tears of Sorrow.

2001

Saw the band's worst year, with Nightwish describing it as "the hardest point as a band". The problem mainly hanged with Sami who started to act unprofessionally towards the band (missing appointments, failing to take concerts seriously). Discussing the problems with Vanska proved futile and tensions grew because everyone simply stopped caring. At that time Emppu (guitarist) started complaining regarding his role in the band which he described as "a hired gun who would only do what he's asked to". Tuomas however intervened and asked to stay cool, and nothing has been heard about the problem since. 

Holopainen thought of breaking Nightwish up after a sold out gig in Russia. He spoke to fellow musician Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica) under the assumption that Nightwish was over and asked what plans had Sonata in store. With the last "Over The Hills..." Tour venue played, Drakkar (studio) and Spinefarm were notified that Nightwish was unofficially over with Holopainen maybe producing one more album though he would never play live with the band again.

During a week-long hiking trip to Lapland, Tuomas understood that Nightwish couldn't disband so easily. Upon returning he receives a phone call from Ewo Pohjola who offers himself as the band's manager and hopefully this step would straight things out. Tuomas agreed and in order for Nightwish to continue a few changes had to be made and Sami Vanska was asked to leave. Marko Hietala (of Tarot) stepped in. As well as playing bass, Marco would also sing. 

Tuomas has since stated that he and Sami still keep in touch though they are not interested in creating a new project together.

2002

During this year Nightwish released their 4th studio album - still on Spinefarm - "Century Child" along with the singles "Ever Dream" and "Bless the Child". The album certified Gold two hours after its release and platinum two weeks afterwards. All thanks to the band's new direction in musical style. Century Child used a live orchestra on almost 40% of the album in turn giving the audience a more bombastic sound combined with Tarja's classical vocals. 

2003

Nightwish releases "End of Innocence" DVD, a two and a half hour documentary which tells the story of how the band became to be in Tuomas's, Jukka's and Tapio's words containing bits of live concerts, exclusive footage, etc. 

Tarja gets married in 2003 with rumours spreading of yet another Nightwish breakup which proves to be false. The marriage of Turunen will later play a part in her dismissal from the band.

2004

The 5th album "Once" is released on the 7th of June alongside the band's first album single "Nemo". The single tops the charts in Finland and Hungary and reaches top 10 spots in several other countries. Nemo remains the band's most successful single to date. The album starts using a full orchestra in nine of the eleven songs and unlike Century Child, the band decides to look for an orchestra outside Finland thus hiring the London Philharmonic Orchestra. "Once" has sold - to date - triple platinum in Finland, platinum in Germany, gold in Sweden and reaches No.1 in the Greek, Norwegian and Hungarian album charts. 

Aside from the commercial success - selling more than 1 million copies - "Once" was praised by critics with many comparing the album to "Oceanborn" album.

2005 - End Of An Era!

The success that followed from the band's latest studio album "Once" led them to form the "Once World Tour" with the band visiting countries previously unaccessible to them. Nightwish became a household name. In ten years they came, they saw and they conquered the metal scene like no other band has. In 2005 Nightwish performed at the opening of the World Championships in Athletics, held in Helsinki.

With the last sold out show of "Once World Tour", at the Hartwall Arena, on October 21st the four band members decide that if Nightwish was to continue Tarja had to be let go. Tuomas, Emppu, Jukka and Marco expressed their thoughts through an open letter which was given to Tarja by Tuomas after the Hartwall concert and also posted on the bands website. Even though the letter was written by Tuomas, the other band members signed it. The news came as a shock to Turunen, as to all the fans worldwide, who didn't expect it. The main reason was her firing was simple: the band felt that her heart was no longer in the project, part of it played by Turunen's husband - Marcelo Cabuli (an Argentine businessman and Tarja's agent), with commercial interests which changed her attitude towards the band. 

Many felt that this was in fact The End of Nightwish since Turunen's over-powering classical vocals was the driving force of the band.

2006 - A New Beginning, A New Image!

The band started to look for a new female vocalist. On March 17th Nightwish announces an open audition to all singers (worldwide). As most of you can imagine, the band was overwhelmed with the amount of demo tapes, CD's and DVD's received.

On Thursday 24th May Anette Olzon from Sweden was announced as the replacement of Turunen and the new frontwoman of Nightwish. Her addition to the band had fans change the band's name to New Nightwish. 

2007 - To present...

With the band's hiatus over and Anette added to the line-up, Nightwish enters the studio to record their 6th album "Dark Passion Play". The album was released in Europe in the last week of September, UK on October 1st and USA on October 2nd, "Dark Passion Play" was awarded double platinum in Finland the second day after its release and took the No.1 spot on the charts in Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Hungary, Croatia and got in the top 100 in 16 other countries including United States. Nghtwish received the German Echo Music Award in 2008 for the "Best International Group" with other nominnes including: Kaiser Chiefs, Within Temptation, Foo Fighters and Marilyn Manson.

The "Dark Passion Play" tour, which came to Dublin, March 2008, turned out to be Nightwish's longest tour in the band's history starting in autumn 2007 and ending in September 2009! 

To date "DPP" sold 6 times platinum worldwide.

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Thirteen years in progress, the band reached numerous awards, topped charts worldwide and with the last album costing more that €500,000, it IS metal scene's most accomplished band. 

Visit www.nightwish.com for more information.