I am very happy with the outcome of this year and I am sure that next year will bring new challenges once again. As long as I keep on dreaming my dream, I guess the path I took many years ago is the correct one

Before changing my winter jacket to the bikinis, I wanted to tell you what has happened in these last couple of weeks.

My lovely Christmas tour was very successful. It was wonderful to see all the concert places packed with people with Christmas mood, even though we took an early start for the holiday celebrations in the beginning of December.

I had never visited Keuruu before, so it was a nice surprise indeed that so many people came to listen our music in the beautiful wooden church and offered us a standing ovation. Perfect ending for this show.

Every one of us musicians was very sad that the tour had to end so soon. We would have all loved to continue with the concerts, but we live in hope that in the next years we can do many more of them together. That’s a nice wish. I already miss Kalevi, Markku, Mervi and Marzi!

Immediately after my Christmas tour, I had to get my mood back to rock´n roll for my shows in Hämeenlinna, Tampere and Mikkeli, just 2 days after the last Xmas concert. Many people have been asking me how I manage with such drastic changes, but I just love it! I will never get bored like this

I enjoy having two careers at the same time, because they both complete me as an artist, as a singer.

It was pretty tough though to front a seated Finnish audience in the concert halls in Finland. I am sad when I hear and read that Finnish people we are “cold/dead/frozen”. We are definitely not, but we have our own ways to show our interest. If you front a full house and people getting away from their seats to cheer and stand, believe me, you won this one!

I would love to specially dedicate all the shows I did in Finland this year to those ones with power to decide. Guys, open your eyes and you will see… Finland I salute you!

After Suomi we headed to Europe, Luxembourg and had a nice day off. We walked through the streets of the old city and it was the first time for me to have a chance to see the life of Luxembourg more than just through the hotel room window. Lovely!

After Luxembourg anyway my luck changed.

Nitra, Slovakia was something particular. We spent 3 days in a cosy hotel doing absolutely nothing important, since the Slovakian shows got cancelled just in the last minute. It was a really big misfortune for me and I didn’t expect that at all to happen. I really hope to be able to return to Slovakia and to sing for my lovely fans. We are working on that and I hope to have news soon about it.

You were the ones that made me really happy when I met some of you at the Christmas Market in Nitra. Even though it was a very cold day, I was surprised how many of you got my message and was there! Facebook has remarkable powers! Anyway, I ask you my deepest apologizes for not performing this time.

Luckily I had a lot of time to walk around the city of Nitra.

Well, many of us were anxious to get to Austria and Graz is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Even the sun was showing up on the day we arrived there. I wanted to see the view of the city from the Schloss Eggenberg and it was worth to go up on the hill.

The show was really great and we rocked together with the Austrian people.

The last journey we did was to Milan. I have always had good memories from my shows in Italy, but this time the people were just stunning. Beautiful, loud and happy crowd. The weather was terrible, but despite of that, there were a lot of people waiting for me after the show under the rain. People were soaked and cold, but happy.

It was a lovely ending for this 2010 tour. There are many more tours to come next year, I promise.

I want to thank for all the Xmas presents, lovely messages and supportive words you’ve been giving me during these last months. “What Lies Beneath” is alive and well, but wouldn’t be so without you all.

Now it’s time to say goodbye, but I’ll be back sooner than you expect. Perhaps just a bit more tanned

Wherever you are, I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Take care and have lovely holidays!

With all my love, Tarja

I will have my last Christmas concert in tonight. It’s been quite cold in Finland during these last days, but also it’s been just wonderful to sing these Christmas “carols” again with Kalevi, Markku and Marzi.

This group of people really enjoys performing together, but also we like to share time together. I wonder how it is possible that I have such lucky stars upon me? It’s a true blessing.

As you might have realized there is another musician with us this time. Her name is Mervi Myllyoja and she plays violin wonderfully. It has been an unexpected addition just a day before the first concert, thanks to Kalevi. I am grateful to have her with us. Violin brings a beautiful colour to our line up and there are several different options for new arrangements of the songs we are performing. Only sky is the limit!

We started the Xmas tour in Oulu, northern part of Finland. A short rehearsal was needed.

Last time I performed in Oulu was many years ago, so it was really nice to return there. I needed to buy a new winter coat, since the temperature went down to -22° on the first day!

Always many fans of different ages are waiting to meet us after the concert and it is always a pleasure to meet them when it is possible.

Next concert was in Kuopio where I was studying music in Sibelius Academy. Can you imagine that Kalevi and I share the same organ teacher!!!! It was so incredible to talk with him about our school times when we were travelling through the winter wonderland in our van.

I wouldn’t even dare to jump in front of the organ again and play…I leave it for the ones that are born with it. Kuopio concert was really important to me, since I had never sang as a soloist in the main church, but only dreamed about it many times. As in Oulu, the church was full of people! Lovely.

We had the chance to use the church organ for some of the numbers and I sang from the balcony.

After Kuopio we travelled to Pori. The church of Pori is amazing, like a real cathedral.

I should not forget to mention the organ of the church. Kalevi says it’s the best organ in Finland.

The acoustics were wonderful and the people in Pori were really excited about our performance. It had been again too many years since I performed in Pori last time. I know the next time won’t take that long.

Lahti concert yesterday in Sibelius hall was really a pleasure. People came to thank me and told me that the atmosphere in the concert was warm and very emotional. That is exactly our goal, to reach people with the Christmas feeling.

Next year we probably will have two concerts in the same place, since many people was left out this time. Sorry about that. Lovely audience, lovely performance.

Today we’ll head to Keuruu and that will be the end of this Christmas concerts.

We are planning 2011 Christmas Tour already!

I will be anyway staying in Finland since there are few rock shows to come. My band is going to arrive tomorrow, on the Finnish Independence Day to Helsinki and soon it’s going to be the time to rock again with them. Starting from Hämeenlinna!

I also wanted you to know that I have been following some amazingly well organized Winter Storm fan clubs web pages for some time now. It’s been great to see how well they function and how accurate they are. I want to thank all the people who are behind these pages.

If you are still not a member of any of the fan clubs, you should

http://www.tarjaturunen.com/?page_id=184

I read that the video for Until My Last Breath went to the top in MTV Brazil and that you are actively voting in every place that you can to make me be there.

Thank you once again!

And all you who have created a fan page for me

http://www.tarjaturunen.com/?page_id=181

There are more each day and is so nice to go through them.

Thanks for the support, time and loyalty. I feel that I am not alone.

With love, Tarja

There was really a lot of new material for everybody to learn, but all went very fine. Now we have prepared many different set lists, so we can do changes between the shows.

The reception of the audiences in Warsaw and Krakow was incredible. I felt really welcome again in Poland. It was nice to see and hear people singing my new songs already. That was pretty amazing.

I had never been able to visit the centre of Krakow before, so I was lucky to do it this time. It is a very beautiful city with lot of old architecture and history. Chopin’s music was played everywhere and the sun was with us for the first time after many rainy days.

After Poland we started our trip to Ukraine and everybody knew in advance that this journey would be a long one; it was. The jumpy road kept me awake the whole night and the lack of sleep and food didn’t make me very happy. I was really delighted to get a real bed after 20 hrs being in the bus. Next day we had a chance to see the older part of Kiev a little bit, but it was lot colder in Ukraine than I thought it would be! Even we Finns were freezing!

The show, even though announced with a very short notice, was wonderful. People were really excited about our concert and with the help of their love and care; I realized that my music has a special place in Ukraine.

After Kiev we headed to Ostrava and Prague, Czech Republic. It was really lovely to be back in Czech, even though my last visit was just few months ago in Masters of Rock Festival. A lot of people came to see my shows and everybody got a bit surprised about it.

For example in Prague, the house was completely full and it made me very, very happy. People were just stunning!

Sometimes they were a lot louder than the band itself!

I started to feel a bit sick though during my Ostrava performance, so now I have to fight furiously against the flu that is trying to hit me. Nothing too serious, but enough to be more tired than usual.

Now we are in lovely Paris. The sun was welcoming us here yesterday and I already had my tasty, French dinner last night.

Is hard to know what to expect tonight. When we booked the shows, What Lies Beneath was not out yet and we had big expectations for the release in France with Universal Music.

Today I visited their offices to ask them why they didn’t release my album at all.

This is what I found.

It seems that in France, Universal Music is opening a market instead of selling records.

Maybe they are good in that field.

We can hear complains about the record industry going down… We should check a bit more the reasons for this to happen.

In one hour, the sound check will begin.

With all my love, Tarja

After being under the sun and enjoying lovely springtime in Buenos Aires, the weather in Europe came as a shock to me. It’s really damn cold already!

Today was the first day of the rehearsals with the band. We went through almost all the new songs already, but few are still missing. I am sure tomorrow we “kill” them all.

The band sounds tight and it’s great fun to see the guys enjoying my music again.

We have a new bass player with us: Mr. Kevin Chown.

Always when there is a change in the line up, the overall sound changes and the atmosphere among us as well. I am sure you’ll like what you’ll hear. I see many smiling faces around, so I am happy. My guys and me are going to hit the road together again!!! Jippyy

So, now I leave you with good night wishes. Got to take some rest before tomorrow.

With love, Tarja

The summer went so fast over that I cannot believe it’s time to start rocking again! Anyway, many things will be different since I am going to be performing new songs, have a new stage design, new performance clothes and even some changes in the line up!!!!  

It was really nice to plan the new set list for the tours that are about to happen soon.  There will be several surprises and among them, a song that many of you have requested in the forums for more than 10 years…

I can already tell you that there are plans to keep on presenting WLB at least until the end of 2011, since there are many places for me to visit. Of course there will be some breaks and classical concerts in between the rock tours, but I am lucky to be able to rock my new album for a pretty long time.

The rest of the year will be also very busy as I am starting to plan the follow up to WLB as well as several side projects.

I have been practising the new songs for the shows at home on my own and in few days I am heading to Poland to rehearse with my band. I am really excited about this.  I am sure I will have great time together again with the lovely guys. I am really thrilled to tell you that we added in a last minute a show in Kiev, Ukraine. So if you are Ukrainian fan, you must know that we are coming for real. I will be there on October 4^th!

The new video for Until My Last Breath is ready and will be online hopefully this week

A big kiss from sunny Buenos Aires and see you soon in Warsaw!

With love, Tarja

Thank you guys for the great summer! We had a blast.

I also want to thank you all who sent me birthday greetings and presents on my birthday. I just wish you to know that the best gift is knowing that you are there.

I am working on the album promotion at the moment at home in Buenos Aires. Even though there is a lot of work to be done, it feels so nice to be in one place for a longer period!

Also it gives me a chance to get myself in good condition for the tours that are ahead of me. Actually I can’t wait for them to begin already!

But first comes first; the new album.

Next week is the time I have been waiting for many long months.

Finland will break the ice on the 1^st of September followed by Germany, Austria and Switzerland on the 3^rd. All the rest will wait until 6^th, but I know there are always some countries that will not make it in time. US will finally have the album available on the 14^th of September.

So next couple of weeks will be a lot of fun…

I hope you’ll love “What Lies Beneath” as much as I do

Thank you all for your support!!

See you soon on tour!

With love, Tarja

It took a while, but the result is so good that I think it was worth to sweat a bit

It has been the hardest and toughest project so far in my career, but very rewarding. I am very proud of all the people that were involved and took their time for my art. I am deeply grateful.

While I’ve been working on the album, we have already started performing summer shows and done few of them. The shows have been wonderful so far. We’ve been in Hungary, Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden, Estonia, Czech and Bulgaria. All of them very different events on their own.

We have met many friends in the shows and had lots of fun to play the new songs. Just wait to hear the rest of the album!

At the moment I am preparing myself for Wacken, Germany, which is happening next week.

There are only two shows still to come during this summer. But I will keep on travelling around the globe since the promotion for my new album has already started some time ago.

Here I am again recording piano parts for the last song we did for the album. That happened in the beginning of July.

It was only yesterday that this song was mastered and ready to be added to the rest. When I thought that the production for the album was finished and everything was ready, my record company in Germany wanted me to still work on this one: “I Feel Immortal”. That meant to get everybody back to studio again to record their parts, me to write new lyrics and music and to get my head back to where I had it during the whole spring…the production.

If this song turns out to be the success that my company believes it’s going to be, I am giving them all the credits.

For me it was hard to work in a song that was written already, but I decided to make it my own. I did my very best though to get the correct spirit for it, so in the end I could stand behind it; but I have to say, it was not easy.

I went to Iceland to shoot the video for “I Feel Immortal” and I know that it’s going to be probably the most beautiful video I have ever done in my career. The country is just unbelievably amazing with its stunning landscapes, so we managed to find incredible places for shootings.

I am very happy how the video turned out to be!!

In Bulgaria the city of Kavarna and it’s Mayor surprised me by organising a painting of me on a city building. It was nice to walk the streets and find similar paintings of Billy Idol, Klaus Meine, Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan… and me

It is a real honour!

My forthcoming single Until My Last Breath leaked to internet by accident few days ago. If you had the chance to listen to it, I hope you liked it. Please be so kind not to spread it all over that we can preserve it until the single will be released. I would really appreciate it very much. Thank you!

With love, Tarja

When I landed to Heathrow, the airport got closed because of the volcano ashes from Iceland! I was very lucky to get here right in time. Actually the people at the studio were not expecting to see me any more when I arrived.

Now my songs are really starting to kick some a**!

Colin has been working very hard on the songs and he does his job carefully, with lot of thought and passion.

It has been nice to see that he seems to like what he hears, so it probably makes him work even better

I am very happy with what I can hear so far. These songs that are going through his fingers, are definitely sounding lot heavier than any of the songs from my last record.

Just the sonic difference in guitars makes the songs radically heavier. I have always liked how he treats the guitars with the bands that he works with, like Slipknot for example.

In the morning I sent some songs for the band to start rehearsing for the summer shows.

Alex was the first one to react and this is what he said:

“ thank you for sending the song and: yes, fucking killer!!!:-)
very cool- sounds really cool- guitar sound is the bomb- the song turned out great! the ambience sounds and choirs are also amazing.
vocals are very nice- pretty dry and clear- cool!

wow! yes!

i think this is how it should be- great job to all you guys.
it turned out great and (of course) over the overall sound i love the guitar- sound! please tell colin an extra thank you!:-) “

Anyway, you cannot expect me to make only a heavy metal album either. I am making Colin sweat with cellos, orchestras, choirs and sound ambient design 

Among the songs Colin mixed there is a duet

I haven’t been really working with such impressive vocals before. Courtesy of “All That Remains’” singer Phil Labonte.

With him the song “Dark Star” reached another dimension. Thanks Phil!

It has been a great pleasure to work with Colin and his engineer Martyn Ford. We have had many good laughs!

Tomorrow I will have new photos taken by photographer Paul Harries. I am very excited about the forthcoming session.

Also quite many journalists came to listen to my new material in the studio these last days. Soon you’ll be able to read studio reports from London written by media from Germany, Finland and UK.

For the first time in my life I had the chance to see London Philharmonic Orchestra´s with the The London Voices and The London Oratory School Schola in the Royal Albert Hall. They performed the score of the movie “Two Towers” from Lord of the Rings while the movie was projected at the same time on the big screen. It was just stunning. The whole thing gave me goose bumps… Howard Shore, the composer of the score was also there presenting the music.

For now, this part is over. Colin and Ginge will get back home and I will continue the mixing process in LA.

With love, Tarja

Only waiting for some guests that will record few parts and send them over.

It was a great last vocal session. I am grateful that everything I planned was accomplished. Also the things that we decided on the way have only improved the songs making the overall picture clearer in the end.

It’s going to be a very nice and powerful album!

It has been a “long and winding” road, but definitely worth every step.

You see who came to visit me in the studio in these last couple of days? Both my lovely and talented brothers Timo and Toni shared their vocals with me in one particular song, which you are going to hear pretty soon in my summer shows with orchestra and choir.

The name of the song of course will need to remain as a secret until that

It was so wonderful to sing with them. I am very proud of them. We are all very different kind of singers, which makes us a very unique musical family

The next challenge is the intense mixing process that will take place starting from … tomorrow!

I can’t believe that I am at this point in the production. Makes me really thrilled!

We have decided to mix in three different locations with three different engineers to get the best out of each song.

The first stage will take us to London!!!! I am going to spend next couple of weeks mixing part of the album with Mr. Colin Richardson at Miloco Studios.

We have met after my last show in London and since then we have been working already in the songs.

I am truly looking forward our collaboration. Colin is very kind and a true British gentle man.

London is also one of my favourite cities in the planet, so I cannot be more than happy to be there. Maybe I’ll have some time for shoe shopping (as you know already), if I am lucky!

Now I’ll enjoy a glass of red wine that I feel I’ve well deserved it.

Be well my friends.

With love, Tarja

It was great to sing with Scorpions, of course! I have to tell you that these guys from the band are SO kind. They were treating me like a queen and I was very delighted of their support and trust.

Is funny to see the bigger “names” with humble attitude that allows them to see and understand. Many times better and faster than people around you who you need constantly to convince of what you want and like.

I had very nice talks especially with Klaus and his family. They seem to be a great team and we share many similar things in our private lives.

I also found out that the writer Paulo Coelho, who is a great inspiration to me, is also a friend with Rudolf!

I wish The Scorpions the best for their last album and tours and congratulations for the great chart entries in the world! I am sure we will meet very soon again.

Few nights ago I had a chance to see Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Love never dies” musical and I fell in love with it in an instant. It was just a wonderful performance and an amazing piece of art. There is still hope, since good music really exists and people are willing to hear more.

I finished writing the lyrics for a song that I composed last in the writing process. It is a piano/orchestral piece that I could have called “Oasis 2”. This time it has English lyrics and continues the story of “Naiad”. During the piano recordings at Petrax studios, this song changed quite radically, because I decided to write an improvised piano piece in between the song. It feels good to be free and open to hear suggestions, but also to follow my own instincts.

In few days I’ll get back into recording the vocals for the last songs and immediately after I’ll let you know where I am heading to mix the album.

The orchestra and choir are already recorded!

There are exciting times ahead of me. Getting the final album in my hands is getting closer and closer day by day.

I have been trying to re gain the lost energy in these last couple of days and it feels I was able to do exactly that. I am ready for new challenges.

I think I already mentioned you the song called “Crimson Deep”.

Find here the lyrics we wrote with Angela.

Sometimes I see the pulse

numb I feel,

so unreal.

Blood on my lips I taste the heavy lead.

What can I find behind the mirror,

I’ll never know.

Who’s the reflection within?

Should I frame for you the other world?

Another world?

I’ve heard the voices of Elysium.

The scent of a sudden wish,

never there, everywhere.

Read me the space in-between.

Sharp is the edge of all discovery,

now I see.

A scar without suffering, impossible.

I’ll wait until my last day

with no shame.

Who’s to blame?

Shaping the signs left for me.

Come to me

I cried

I need you.

I am seeking

the gates unfold inside

my lost soul

in the dark.

Far beneath my breath

I’m burning

at my core.

Show me how

let me see beyond

I will find

my Crimson Deep

With love, Tarja