1996 -

PRESENT
 1996
Beginning of an Era

Facts
- Formed in a
small town called
Kitee in Finland
during 1977.
- Recorded a 3-
track acoustic
Tuomas Holopainen (1976) Tarja Turunen demo at their
Keyboard - player / Founder school with help
(1977) from their music
Vocalist ( 1996 - teacher.
Forms the band at a camp fire in 2005 )
the summer of 1996 with the
ambition of creating moody and - Was negatively
atmospheric music with acoustic received by the
Instruments. His inspiration comes press, being
primarily from movie soundtrack criticized as
composers such as Hans Zimmer, having “ no
fairytales and Walt Disney whom commercial
which he loved. potential”.
 1997
Release of “Angels Fall
First”
Facts
-Tuomas is pursued by the music label Spine Farm to take
the
project in a heavier direction, then signs the band shortly
after
receiving
-First album “Angels
their secondFall
demoFirst
. ” gets released nationally .
-The press remains sceptical calling them “Farmer-kids
attempting metal”.

-The first single “The Carpenter” hits number 15 on the

Finnish
radio charts
-They play .
their first gig in their hometown of Kitee with
an
audience of 400 people.

From the right, band consisting of

Tarja Turunen (Vocals ), Tuomas
Holopainen (Founder , keyboardist ,
music and lyrics-writer), Jukka
Nevalainen (Drums) and Emppu
Vuorinen (Guitars )
 1998
Release of “Oceanborn ”

Facts
- Bassist Sami Vänskä joins the band.
-The first single “The Carpenter” hits number 8
on the Finnish radio charts and the album
“Angels Fall First” reaches number 31.
-A low-budget music video is filmed for
“The Carpenter” in Norway.
-Their second album “Oceanborn” is released
and is claimed to be their technically most
difficult album to work on and Tarja cried alot
as she did not have enough experience to
perform what Tuomas asked of her.
This album pushed back their limits introducing
faster beats, increasing quavers and tripled fickleness.

- The band starts touring and a video for

their second single “Sacrament of the
Wilderness” is recorded which is
considered a total failure by the band.
 1999
Success after the hard
work
Facts
-“Oceanborn” turns out to be highly popular.
-Tuomas is moved by the tragedy in Columbine, thus wrote
and dedicated to it, the song “The Kinslayer” which is
played throughout the big Finnish festivals.
-Tuomas writes the song “Sleeping Sun” which is
dedicated to the solar eclipse that took place
throughout most of Europe.
-Oceanborn became a gold record and Nightwish was asked
to support bigger bands on their touring.
 2000
Release of “Wishmaster ”

Facts

-The band released their

third album “Wishmaster ”
which was heavier than any
of their previous albums
abandoning most of their
acoustic sound.
-The band took part in the
Finnish Eurovision where the
audience placed them as
number 1 but the jury placed
them number 3, preventing
them from being chosen to
represent Finland in the
contest.
-Nightwish begins to tour
internationally.
-Nightwish receives a
platinum disk for the album.
-The first live-concert DVD
and VHS is released out of a
concert in Tampere.
 2001
Sami leaves, Marco joins.

Facts
-Sami departs from the band
due to musical differences.
-The band goes through some
hard times.
-Metal-veteran Marco Hietala
joins the band as the new
bassist.
-The band does a successful
cover and music video of
Gary Moore’s “Over the Hills
and Far Away”.
-They keep on attending major
festivals throughout Europe.

Sami Vänskä (1976) Marco Hietala(1966)

Bassist (1998-2001) Bassist and vocalist (2001 – Present)
 2002
Release of “Century Child”

Facts

-“Century Child” received very good ratings from

the press.
-The band was feeling excellent, thanks to
Marco .
-The single “Ever Dream ” was made platinum in
Finland.
-The band toured across Europe.
 2003
The DVD “End of Innocence ” is released

Facts

-The band tours Slovenia and America for the

first time.
-A live-concert DVD named “End of Innocence” was
released to illustrate the band’s transformation
from being in-experienced musicians from a small
town to a popular metal band touring the world.
-
 2004
“Once” is released

Facts
-The orchestral parts on the album were done by
the London Studio Orchestra which consisted of
52 musicians conducted by Pip Williams who
also worked on the soundtrack for Lord of The
Rings.
-Tuomas contacted John Two - Hawks, a native
American descent, asking him to play the flute
and do some backing vocals on the song “Creek
Mary’s Blood” which was dedicated to the native
Americans.
-“Once” made Nightwish reach new heights, they
changed their record label from Spine Farm to
Nuclear Blast and the singles “Nemo” and “I Wish
I Had An Angel” was very well received, even
being used in some films. Nightwish followed the
release with a massive tour that took them
through Europe, America and Asia.
 2005
End of an Era

Facts

-Nightwish releases a “best of”

album named “Highest Hopes”
and records a new version of
“Sleeping Sun” in order to
promote the album.
-Nightwish wins the band of
the year award in Finland.
-The band records their biggest
live-concert at Hartwall Arena,
Helsinki in front of 11500 people
for a future DVD.
-After the concert Tarja is
dismissed from the band,
the reason being a change of
attitude and values towards
the band.
 2006
The DVD “End of an Era” and Nightwish’ biography “Once Upon a Nightwish”
is released

Facts
-The DVD “End of an Era” gets released in Europe ,
immediately earning a gold record.
-Nightwish ’ biography written by Mape Ollila is
released and
Tarja ’ s husband threatens to censor it.
-Tarja goes solo.The relationship between Tarja and
Nightwish is tense.
-Emppu starts working on other musical projects .
-Tuomas is searching for a new singer and is feeling
depressed thus
resulting in some of his darkest lyrical creations.
 2007
The new vocalist is announced and “Dark Passion Play” is released

Facts
-Anette Olzon from Sweden is announced as the new
vocalist for the band.
-The band turns to a more mainstream approach, abandoning
the operatic vocals.
-Their sixth album “Dark Passion Play” is
-According to Last.fm "Dark Passion Play" is their most
played album, and its successful single "Amaranth" has as
of February, 2009 been holding the position of most played
song since its release.
-“Dark Passion Play” is also Nightwish fastest and highest
selling album.
-
 2009

Facts
-Nightwish is touring the world, ending with a concert
at Hartwall Arena where they haven’t played since 2005.
-The band releases it’s third live-concert DVD entitled
“Made in Hong Kong” which features material from their
concert in Hong Kong.
-They are currently working on a new album to be released
during late 2009.