Nightwish Artistfacts

1996-
Tuomas HolopainenKeyboards1996-
Emppu VuorinenGuitar1996-
Tarja TurunenVocals1996-2005
Jukka NevalainenDrums1997-2019
Sami VänskäBass1998-2001
Marko HietalaBass2002-2021
Anette OlzonVocals2007-2012
Floor JansenVocals2012-2026
Troy DonockleyUilleann pipes, tin whistle, bouzouki, guitars2013-
Kai HahtoDrums2019-
Jukka KoskinenBass2022-
Nightwish are a Finnish symphonic metal band who pair a full orchestra and operatic lead vocals with heavy guitars, becoming one of the biggest musical exports in Finland's history. Few bands have done more to shape modern symphonic metal. Their music has outlasted several lead singers and the loss of a founding drummer.
Nightwish started as a campfire project. On July 6, 1996, a 19-year-old Tuomas Holopainen invited guitarist Emppu Vuorinen and singer Tarja Turunen to his parents' cabin on an island in Lake Pyhajarvi. There he played them songs he had written during his national service in the Finnish army.

The band's own history describes the initial concept as a solo project of "mood music." Holopainen pictured acoustic guitars, flutes, strings, piano, and female vocals. Only later did Vuorinen switch to electric guitar and Jukka Nevalainen join on drums, moving the sound toward metal.
The first songs were recorded at the Huvikeskus studio in late 1996. The band's name came from the first track the three musicians made together, which they called "Nightwish." The same acoustic demo includes "The Forever Moments" and an early version of "Etiäinen."
Holopainen does not see the band's Finnish identity as a deliberate choice. "I guess the Finnishness shows in my songwriting because I am a Finn," he noted to Roppongi Rocks. "It is not a deliberate thing. But Holopainen still considers Nightwish part of the Finnish metal scene.
Nightwish fired Tarja Turunen in October 2005, just after a show at Helsinki's Hartwall Arena, by handing her an open letter that the band also posted on their website. The letter said, "Nightwish is a band, it's an emotion. To you, unfortunately, business, money and things that have nothing to do with those emotions have become much more important." Turunen said the band wanted to "destroy her publicly."

Tuomas Holopainen later admitted to Metal Hammer in 2026 that the band was blamed "for good reason" for how they handled it.
Floor Jansen made her live debut with Nightwish on October 1, 2012, at Showbox Sodo in Seattle. She stepped in after singer Anette Olzon abruptly left during the Imaginaerum tour. Jansen was a touring replacement at first, became a full member in 2013, and made her recording debut on Endless Forms Most Beautiful.
Jukka Nevalainen stepped away from Nightwish in 2014 because of severe insomnia. In his statement, he said it had been "my unwanted companion during many of our tours" and that he could no longer play "with the precision that the music deserves." He sat out the album Endless Forms Most Beautiful and its tour but kept running the band's day-to-day affairs. In July 2019, he announced he would not return, and his friend Kai Hahto, who had filled in, became the full-time drummer.
Holopainen told Metal Hammer in 2019 Nightwish would end if another member left, then changed his mind. when bassist Marko Hietala departed, two years later saying, "I take my words back when it comes to that." He drew one line: "if it would be Floor leaving, that's it, it's the end of Nightwish."

On October 15, 2026, Jansen announced she had left Nightwish, but the band confirmed their intention to carry on.

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