There was no free time apart from having a lunch or dinner break since I got to Czech. I took the only chance I got to see something in Pardubice. It was a very windy day, but the old city is beautiful.

I was expecting to have a good time in Poland and I was not wrong. The fan club people had made us Polish flags with all of our names and hanged them on the walls at the venue when we arrived there. It was a nice gesture from them. I have been trying to say at least few words in every country in their language during the concerts, sometimes with better luck sometimes not… Gosh, aren’t these languages hard?! But it is rather remarkable to see the reaction of the people when they understand me We had lots of fun in Poland with the audience.

I was quite excited to hear one day before the show in Vilnius Lithuania that it was sold out on my first visit there. Great! The venue was modern and very clean.

Unfortunately there was again NO time to see the city since we arrived in the morning and there are always too many things to do before the show. I have to be patient to wait for my return to be able to see the city of Vilnius. Everyone that I know and who has visited it says it is beautiful. Mike said after the concert to me that he had felt how the people in the audience really wanted to see us, wanted us to be close and have fun with them. We felt really welcomed.

I have always have troubles to sleep in the bus while it moves, so this time the beginning hasn’t been any exception. I whether need to wear earplugs, listen music or drink a half bottle of red wine (which I never do if there is a show on a next day ) to be able to sleep at least few hours. Well, the journey from Vilnius to Vienna was very looooooong. Finally when we arrived to the hotel in Vienna I could close my eyes and get some rest. Even though I have pretty awesome place in the bus this time. Here for you to see; my private lounge. Quite nice isn’t it?

The show in Vienna was nice and people were very warm to us. I hope I can return soon with my new album in Austria. It was my dream country when I was young and had my first concert there on my European tour with my high school choir. The lovely country of Mozart!

Finally it was a relief to perform again in Slovakia. We had a bad experience in the past due to an irresponsible promoter. But this time the show happened as expected and we had a great time.  Here the Slovakian fans are doing the “hands up” thing

How happy I was when we arrived to Slovenia in the midday and I could walk to the city of Ljubljana while the sun was shining. So the day was perfect.

I have always loved Ljubljana. I like the size of the city, ‘cause it’s rather small and the combination of its modern and old architecture. It is also a very clean city and obviously the Slovenians should be very proud of what they have. Even our modern venue made me a good impression.

There I could for the first time do what I would have loved to do everywhere; sing among the people. It was so cool to see the reaction of the people when I went down the stairs and started walking right through them, singing. I just love to do these kinds of surprises in my shows.

I had only once been in Croatia before so I was excited about my return. The people were SO loud during the concert that sometimes I had hard time hearing my own voice!!! Well I loved it though! Zagreb, thank you for your support.

After the concert we knew that the journey to Romania would be long, but no one would have expected that it was this long. Actually it took us 28 hours to get to Bucharest from Zagreb! Can you imagine that? Well there were 3 border checks, one ferry and a snowstorm that all delayed our trip with at least 16 hours.

When we arrived to Bucharest in the morning at 06:00 I was so glad that we made it in time for the show. And the show was awesome! I got totally surprised by the amount of people in the packed hall.

I also discovered a very nice grand piano at the backstage, so I wanted to use it during my show.

Everyone in the band was happy about the show.

What we didn’t expect was about to happen.

Now where I am writing you this post is quite interesting. I am in only 20 km from Bucharest at a gas station, sitting in my lounge alone and waiting. We heard last night that there is a huge snowstorm between Bucharest and Sofia and that ALL the roads are blocked, basically closed for traffic. There have been several truck accidents and those are still blocking all the traffic. We waited for further advice from the promoter of Sofia who left just couple of hours before us, but who needed to stop his journey as well because of the same storm. Even our support bands are at the same gas station where we have been now for more than 20 hrs! What a mess.

The show in Sofia has been postponed for tomorrow and we are doing everything possible with the promoter to make it happen. It’s like a worst nightmare. Luckily we have electricity, water and supplies here for us, so that everyone is ok. I will let you know immediately when I have further news.

With love, Tarja

It’s quite exciting to start a new tour with my band today. We have been rehearsing a lot and everybody is having a good mood and getting ready for the big challenge that awaits us. This time the tour is going to be a long one, so there is lot to do for everyone. But the preparation was going fast forward and now we are ready to rock!

We have prepared for you many songs from my first and second album and as usual some surprises. The goal of this tour is that we try not to repeat the same songs we have played before in each city, so the set list will be changing very much every night.

It’s amazing really to think that I have been having some of these guys playing with me already more than 4 years! We have shared many brilliant moments together on the road. It is also very amazing to know that I have been lucky to find great musicians and people to work with. I am very grateful for that.

For the first time, we let the media in our rehearsals so we had a lot of cameras around

Once again on this tour we are going to visit new countries and many places where we are looking forward to return. I am so happy to see you all very soon and have a good time together again.

Thank you for this opportunity and tonight we will rock Zlin, Czech!

With love, Tarja

I had been totally excited about our “Beauty and the Beat” concert for several weeks and when it was the time for the real thing, it felt awesome. Both Mike and me had been practising a lot for this event on our own.

The heat in the rehearsal hall rose to it’s maximum at times in the room, so it was not easy for anybody to stay there for several hours. Everybody handled it very well and the mood was great. Actually the Plovdiv Philharmonic orchestra is one of the best orchestras I had been working with so far in my career. They really pulled this program through very well, with the amazingly great attitude and talent. I truly appreciate it. With the help of the conductor Levon Manukyan, we managed to get everything together and in time for the actual concert.

Have you seen pictures from the beautiful amphitheatre?

My God it’s an amazing location!!!!!!! I walked through the stage a night before the concert and wondered how it might look and feel when the place would be packed with people. I was so wrong! It was nothing like I expected actually. IT WAS SO BRILLIANT!

When the concert was about to start, I heard the screams from the Bulgarian audience and remembered of my previous visits to Bulgaria. All of my concerts there have been amazing due to the magnificent reception of the people. Now they were about to hear something totally different from me, so I got nervous.

When I walked to the stage, the audience was so loud that I got pretty confused with my thoughts and emotions, so I burst into tears even before singing a note! It was wonderful. The whole concert was wonderful. I was very, very happy. The whole idea of performing together with the orchestra, choir and Mike is very unique and I knew that this concept would work live, as it did. We hope that we can do this more often and it could happen wherever!

 
I needed to hug Mr. Terrana a loooooong time before and after the concert. Actually Mike enjoyed the concert so much that he told me afterwards this: “Dear Tarja, if I should die tomorrow, I would die happily“. It was the best concert he said he had done in his career so far. I was VERY happy to be a part of that.

I want to thank the city of Plovdiv for having me. Next time Bulgaria will see me in my last tour in Sofia Jeeeeee….

Day after this overwhelming experience, I was already on my way to Brazil where another exciting event was about to happen.

The jet lag was killing me already when I arrived to sunny Rio de Janeiro, but despite of it, I wanted to feel the breeze of the ocean and enjoy a bit of my “free” time.

I met all Angra guys next day in the rehearsals. I must say that they really practise very loud! Without earplugs, you wouldn’t be able to stay in that room for very long…WOW

Everything went fine and we went through the songs for few times and had fun. It was really nice to get to know the members of Angra better in these couple of days. They were very kind to me.

We were supposed to have a sound check very early in the morning of the show day, but due to some technical problems on the festival, it got very delayed. We ended up having barely a line check. That is just to check that all the instruments are plugged and “working”, even though not sounding good enough for a show. Well, everybody was a bit pissed and nervous about this situation, but we all thought that it would get solved in the evening. We still had high hopes and good laughs!

Show time in the famous Rock in Rio! I felt very honoured to take part of this festival as a guest of a local band. Last time this festival was held in Rio 10 years ago and I had always dreamed to be able to sing on this event one day.

Even when you are professional, sometimes things are just out of your control. It was a mess. Unfortunately, there were too many technical issues happening during the show that it was barely possible to perform. I couldn’t hear the guitars and keyboards. I had no idea in which key the band was playing some of the songs, so I needed to just guess and pray that I hit the notes correctly. What of course, I didn’t !!!!!!!!! :(   I wish that we could repeat all of it again with the band someday.

Anyway, I have to say that Angra and I we did the best we could in this situation and we tried to enjoy the performance despite the problems. The audience in Rio was just amazing. I saw many girls crying in front of me and those tears ended up in the cover story of a local newspaper too! It was so thrilling to rock in front of that mass of people!!!! It had been too long since. I want to thank you all for having me in Rock in Rio. I had a great time there with Angra and with you.

THANK YOU BRAZIL!!!!!!! I am looking forward to see you again next year in March.

Now I will enjoy my home for some time.
I will let you know about my plans soon

With love, Tarja

The Summerbreeze festival was again very nice experience since the staff and organization of this particular festival are great. I felt I was in good hands.

The show was amazingly emotional for many reasons; it was the last show of the summer and I knew I was going to miss my guys, the audience welcomed me warmly with birthday singing and cheering.

Few times during the show it was unbelievable to see how all the hands were waiving along with the music. These are the moments that we, on stage, will treasure forever.

And finally I received my gold award from Germany. WOW.

What a beautiful gift! Thanks to you people. I really owe this one for you…I am SO, so happy. To achieve this award means a world to me as it comes from my debut album as a solo artist what makes me really believe in my dreams.

I am fully aware how hard it is to sell any records these days, so I am deeply grateful.

The only problem that I face right now is to find a good spot on my walls for it! I have too many windows in my flat!!!!! HEHEHE.

The city of Dinkelsbühl, near where Summerbreeze is located is really nice.

Next challenge will be the “Beauty and the Beat” concert in Bulgaria in September. I am at the moment deciding the program and starting little by little to practice for it. I know that this concert will be very challenging for both uncle Mike and me, but I am also sure that we will have a grand time in Bulgaria with our amazing fans, symphonic orchestra and choir. You really cannot miss this show. It’s going to be an extraordinary experience, I promise

Right after Bulgaria I will fly over to Brazil where I will perform with Brazilian band Angra as a guest vocalist. Many people have been wondering what I will be singing there, but it will remain as a secret until I walk to the stage in ROCK IN RIO. It is an honour for me to get the invitation from Angra and to be part of this world famous event for the first time in my life.

So even though my own rock shows are over for this year, you will still see me around. I kind of tend to keep myself busy all the time…

We just mastered the live CD and DVD that will become the first release of HARUS in the end of this year. It is my classical line up with whom we have done concerts together since 2006. The name was decided now since we felt that it would be great to make people hear what we have been doing.

Just to avoid misunderstandings, my solo career in rock will definitely continue as before!

Take care.

With love, Tarja

I left Finland’s beautiful summer with the best of the signs in front of me.

To visit Sibiu, Romania was really nice again. I met many friends there and the weather was excellent during the day. And full moon in Transylvania that night.

The show happened in the central square of the beautiful old city of Sibiu so the location made the event very special. Audience was amazing once again. I had been missing my Romanian fans, so I was happy to receive such love.

Only the trip to Sibiu and back to Bucharest took several hours in a van and I didn’t have any real sleep in a couple of nights. Right after my show in Sibiu I went to the hotel to pick up my stuff and I flew to India. I looked like a walking catastrophe when I arrived to hot New Delhi

Some of you might know that I came here for a photo shoot. It is anyway too early to show you any of the pictures or tell you more about the sessions. You will get to know more when the time comes, I promise

What I can tell you is that everything went really fine and I had GREAT time in front of the camera. You will be surprised.

India is different than any other country I’ve visited so far. Food is tasty and traffic is extremely chaotic… Is sad to see the poverty in some parts of Delhi, but at the same time is a very awkward feeling that those who have less are very friendly having smile on their face when they reach you. You could really sense the kindness in their hearts. Many of us should really learn from this.

In two days you’ll see me at the stage of “Summerbreeze”- festival in Germany. There will be a signing session on the day of my show so I expect to see you all there! Please check the announcements at the festival about it.

This will be the last show with my rock band for this year

But that doesn’t mean holidays

Heading back to the airport again….

With love, Tarja

Some days ago I met Erik in Finland and we wrote a couple of very nice songs together. You know Erik already from the songs “Rivers of Lust” and “Sing for me”. Now when we sat down together, very different kind of songs were born unexpectedly and that was really cool.

The songs I wrote so far are very different in spirit: about eagles, killers, dreams, love, journeys, colours, and darkness.

I already sense that the new album will have a more positive vibe than the previous ones and it’ll rock!!!!!

Until yesterday I was in Sweden where I spent few days having fun and writing songs with Mattias and Anders writers of “I Walk Alone” and “In for a Kill”.

We spent the most incredible time in the archipelago of Stockholm and I realized again how important it truly is to have an inspiring environment around you when you write songs.

The water was too cold for a swim though…but we had the sun with us all the time!

And when the sun went down the ghost stories begun…

I want to thank all of you guys for being so supportive. It’s great that I’ve found people that are open enough for my “crazy” ideas and art. The story will continue for sure

Next time you’ll see me rocking in Romania. I have been waiting a long time for my return to the beautiful city of Sibiu.

With love, Tarja

First I went back to my high school city Savonlinna where I also enjoy the best weather of Finland, the real summer time.

I have lots of wonderful memories from Savonlinna since I was living there for three important years in my life. That is where I started singing classical music and found my way to be an independent young woman.

This is the “Puijo” ship where I was working as a crewmember for couple of months a summer many years ago. It is still doing the same round trip through channels from Kuopio to Savonlinna and back. That was an exciting summer for me.

Olavinlinna castle had changed just a bit after my last visit there in 2006. I was so happy to be back to feel the magic of the castle.

I met Maestro Cura a night before our rehearsals during the intermission of the opera “Tosca”. I immediately felt that he is a great man, with good spirit and warm heart.

During our performance I had a roller coaster ride through great emotions! It was an unbelievable honour to sing with Mr. Cura. He treated me nice, with respect and kindness. I will never forget it.

Thank you Olavinlinna for so warm welcome! I can still remember the BRAVO shouts that not even a deaf would have missed. It felt so amazing!

Muchas gracias José!

The following weekend things remained exciting. I got Scorpions’ invitation to take part in their show in Saimaa Open Air just two days before the show was about to happen. I was happy to be able to meet the guys once again. They are always so kind.

The performance was a privilege for me and the first time we performed live together “The Good Die Young”. That was the night of the Oslo tragic events and Klaus was very wise to dedicate it to the victims. Such a waste of lives in a stupid way.

I extend through these lines my thoughts to the families and friends of the victims in Norway.

I had to wonder how great singer Klaus Meine truly is. He has this clean, healthy and beautiful voice. He is working very hard and I respect him deeply.

Thank you Scorpions for a wonderful evening and friendship. I am sure we will meet again.

Next day there was a nice surprise waiting for me in Saimaa Open Air festival area. I was requested to sign a painting for a rock truck!

Finally I was very happy to have my own show in Finland. My band got to see the beautiful festival site, just beside a huge lake and Finnish surroundings. They were glad to visit my old home country and so was I.

During the day I met Maija and Marko, two # 1 Finnish artists that I had the opportunity to share the Festival with.

My life is definitely not getting boring as you can read

With love, Tarja

I am thrilled by the wonderful concerts I have had during this summer already and the best is yet to come.

What a lovely weekend we left behind! This time we visited RockHarz festival in Germany and Sonisphere festival in France.

First we had a long journey with the band to the countryside of Germany and finally we ended up in a beautiful hotel in the middle of nowhere. It was just unbelievable tranquil location, so we enjoyed the place a lot. Every one slept well after a very tasty dinner.

Just before leaving to the festival.

I met many nice people at the festival and got serious talks with my colleagues, which was great. The show itself was fun, people were lovely and organization worked very fine too.  The day before the weather had been really rainy, but I enjoyed lovely sunset at the end of my show.

We travelled over night to France with our very comfortable nightliner bus. You can see how we normally spend our time after a concert until the adrenaline levels go down.

The guys were jealous about my back lounge!

That is not a guarantee for a good night sleep. Is very hard for me still today to sleep in a moving bus

We arrived to Sonisphere festival early in the next morning.

I was truly excited about this show because I’ve heard and been told that I was going to be the only female artist on the 2 days festival as well as the only solo artist among bands.

I had such an honour to be part of the festival line up in this important event this year in France and I can assure you, I will never forget the experience.

I did several interviews before the show and everybody was asking me how I felt playing just right before METALLICA !!!!!!!

Here the press is taking the last shot right before going to the stage while you can see Dave from Megadeth in the screens behind us…

It was overwhelming! People needed some girl power and that is what they got!

The show went fine; everybody was completely excited about it. What a great evening!

Merci la France et vous voir bientôt!

Now after the lovely weekend, I arrived to Finland where I haven’t been in a long time.

The next days will go with rehearsing for the Olavinlinna Castle Classical concert program in Savonlinna, Finland. Next weekend I will enjoy lots of opera music and you’ll see me singing with Maestro José Cura. Can’t really wait!

Today I had some time for something else that is really therapeutic.

With love and kisses, Tarja

I have all together already 18 songs in progress. The goal is to have the entire album composed by the end of the summer!!!!

It was really nice to visit Serbia. The Motorock meeting was held in a small village called Debeljaca, around one hour drive from Belgrade.

We spend most of the time at the hotel, but we had time with Chris to visit a very nice Naive Art local Gallery.

Day before our concert the weather changed radically from sunny to stormy and I was joking with the local people that I brought the storm with me to Serbia Luckily on the day of the show, the weather was really nice. I got to meet many of my fans, since we did an extended sound check on the show day and there were lots of people already waiting for the concert.

I even managed to get two girls singing with me on the stage during the sound check! That was fun!

It is always very nice to play in festivals, even though the show cannot be the same than usually my shows are. What I really hope is that I can return to Serbia in 2012 for a concert on my own. The support from the people was fantastic! Thank you very much for the love.

I am working on a Live DVD from 2009 Christmas tour right now and I would like to ask you a favour. Would you have any nice photos taken from our Christmas concerts with Kalevi, Markku and Marzi from 2009? If you would like your photo to be part of the photo gallery of the DVD, please send them to: andrea.yeber@nems.com.ar
We might end up using some of them. Thank you so much!

Next time you’ll see me in Rock Harz, Germany and Sonisphere in France!

And now back to work

With love, Tarja

I never thought the local people would welcome me so warmly there though. Most of the bands were Russians and I was a bit nervous how my music would fit in this Rock on Volga festival. When it was time for us to start our show, people were shouting my name and my doubts were gone. Our show was great and the people in Russia were beautiful to us.

The organization of the Festival confirmed that there were 242.000 people watching my show that night!!! That is more than 4 football stadiums all together! It was very difficult to see the people far back at the end.

This was an overwhelming experience for all in the band and one of the nicest moments in my career.

Something I will never forget.

I got a chance to sing in Russian with Kipelov and that just topped everything I had experienced so far. I had the lyrics in front of me, but not even once I needed to check them out! I was so proud of myself. Ha-Ha. Russian is definitely very difficult language, but I wanted to learn it well. Let me tell you, it was a hard work, but I am a hard worker!

Today I woke up in the morning and found out that I am on a beautiful island where the sun is shining and the breeze of the sea is tender

It’s really amazing to realize how happy one can be just when there is silence around. Well, now there is a little lizard keeping me a company and a bird came to say hello too.

Now I am writing songs again for the new rock album. I am sure the environment I am having around me at the moment helps me a lot with it. Oh, the nature is very inspiring here.

Next time you will see me in Serbia and I am truly excited to travel there again. It has been way too long since my last visit.

With love, Tarja