Bye Bye Beautiful

I'm writing this blog post, because it's been a very emotional day for me. I was chilling at home rocking to Lordi and Gangnam Style (Random combination, I know) when I came back to the computer to change the song, and the first thing I saw was this press release from Nightwish:

Press statement
Another chapter of the Nightwish story has ended today. Nightwish and Anette Olzon have decided to part company, in mutual understanding, for the good of all parties involved.
In recent times it has become increasingly obvious that the direction and the needs of the band were in conflict, and this has led to a division from which we cannot recover.
Nightwish has no intention of
cancelling any upcoming shows, and as a result we have decided to bring in a substitute vocalist starting in Seattle 1.10.2012. Her name is Floor Jansen from The Netherlands (ex-After Forever, ReVamp), and she has graciously stepped in to help us complete the Imaginaerum world tour.
We are all strongly committed to this journey, this vehicle of spirit, and we are sure that this will lead to a brighter future for everyone.
We forever remain excited about the adventures to come, and we are extremely proud of the two beautiful albums and the wonderful shows we shared together.
- NIGHTWISH & Anette Olzon

 I was shocked. I've heard of many strong unions breaking recently, but this came out of the blue for me. Anette and the band seemed to get along perfectly.

To make it clear to those who aren't familiar with what I'm talking about: Nightwish has been around since 1996, and they've given out 7 albums now. For the first 9 years, until October 2005, the singer and frontwoman was Tarja Turunen. She's an amazing singer with a very powerful operatic voice, and for the first 9 years, her voice pretty much defined the sound of the band. In October 2005, she was expelled from the band with this open letter. Nowadays she's successfully performing as a solo artist. I guess an example of Nightwish with Tarja wouldn't hurt: Here's a song from their 4th album, Century Child.

In May 2007, Anette Olzon was announced as the new frontwoman. She wasn't very famous before joining the band, and it must've been very hard for her - she was immediately exposed to big fame and everything that comes with it. She had to deal with a lot of haters, mostly those who loved Nightwish for Tarja and couldn't get over the split. Unlike Tarja, she was a mother already when she joined. She did two albums with Nightwish - Dark Passion Play (2007) and Imaginaerum (2011). Here's a pretty song from Imaginaerum, where Anette's singing with Troy Donockley.

I became a fan in late 2010, so I've always been accepting her as the frontwoman. In fact, I don't think anyone could pull off something like Imaginaerum as well as Anette did. I saw her live with Nightwish, and that made my respect for her grow even more. I really had the impression that everything's perfectly fine - her and the band seemed so happy, and now this. Well, as many tears as this has brought to my eyes, I've no other option than to accept it. I really hope the band will release something soon to make it a bit clearer, because me and many fellow fans are very confused right now. I hope to hear from Anette in the future too. She's a great singer and it would be sad if this ended her career as a singer as well. I will stay the same Nightwish fan I was before. I'm more than sure that I'm in this for Tuomas Holopainen, the songwriter. Nightwish has always been his band and his creation in the first place, and his songs have that special something that makes me a fan.

Here's another one of the many songs they did together. It was one of the first they recorded with Anette, and according to Tuomas, it was written as a farewell to Tarja. I believe it's a good song to remember in this situation.

Here's a little picture about it. The portrait on the left is one of the best I ever drew.

Me and the fellow fans I talk to have agreed to wear our Nightwish shirts tomorrow as a reaction.


But enough of mourning. A lot of positive things happened today as well. First of all, my two dear friends whom I mentioned in my last post seem to be getting along a bit better now, and today I also received some positive and very heartwarming feedback from a reader - You know who you are, thanks a lot! :)