She is the former lead singer of the Finnish band Nightwish which she founded along with Emppu Vuorinen and Tuomas Holopainen in 1996. After being expelled from the band in October 2005, Tarja Turunen is now devoting her time to her solo career under the stage name of Tarja.

Tarja's first solo album, My Winter Storm, was released in November 2007 and achieved gold status in Finland on the day of release. The album took the number 1 spot in the Finnish charts. Tarja also sings on track In The Picture, composed by Rage guitarist Victor Smolski, on Nuclear Blast Allstars' album 'Into The Light', 2007.

Official site: www.tarjaturunen.com

Tarja is the most popular singer from the genre in Finland and throughout Europe, as well as an accomplished classical and opera singer.

Tarja began to study music at age six, and moved to the city of Kuopio at 18 to study at the Sibelius Academy.

She became a founding member of Nightwish in 1996 when her classmate Tuomas Holopainen invited her to join his new musical project. That year Tarja also performed with the Savonlinna Opera Festival. However, she did not become internationally famous until the release of Nightwish's successful follow-up album, Oceanborn, in 1998.

Tarja sang solo in Waltari's rock-themed 1999 ballet Evankeliumi (also known as Evangelicum) in several sold-out performances at the Finnish National Opera.

She continued to tour and record with Nightwish through 2000 and 2001, after which she enrolled in the Music University in Karlsruhe, Germany. While there, she recorded vocals for Nightwish's 2002 album Century Child and Argentinian bassist Beto Vazquez's internationally successful album Infinity.

In 2002, Tarja toured South America, performing in the classical Lied concert Noche Escandinava (Scandinavian Night), again to sold-out houses. Following this and an exhausting world tour in support of Century Child, Nightwish took a hiatus and Tarja returned to Karlsruhe.

Finnish President Tarja Halonen and her husband invited Tarja to the President's Palace in Helsinki in December 2003 for the Finnish Independence Day Party, Finland's biggest social event, where the viewers of Finnish television station Yle named her the most impressively dressed lady, among honors given by several newspapers and magazines.

After the hiatus, Tarja rejoined Nightwish for the album Once and supporting world tour throughout 2004-2005, and embarked on a second Noche Escandinava tour in the spring of 2004.

For Christmas 2004, she released the single Yhden Enkelin Unelma (One Angel's Dream), which sold gold in her native country, Finland.

For the spring of 2005, she prepared a collaboration with Germany's Martin Kesici, the duet Leaving You for Me, also accompanied by a video.

On October 21, 2005, Tarja was asked to leave Nightwish in an open letter by the other members of the band, over a dispute that involved "a changed attitude" and increased financial interest.

She responded through another open letter, which was posted on her website in both Finnish and English.

In December of 2005, she performed several Christmas concerts in Finland, Germany, Spain and Romania.

In 2006, Tarja was recording a Christmas album and vocals for her brother, Timo Turunen's debut album. She also made an appearance at the Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Tarja's first solo album, 'My Winter Storm', was released in November 2007, and will be released in the USA in February 2008.

Tarja also sings on track "In The Picture" on Nuclear Blast Allstars' album Into The Light, 2007.

In 2009, Tarja also released a duet with Dorothea "Doro" Pesch, the former vocalist in a heavy metal band once known as Warlock, which is found on youtube, it's not known if more duets will be recorded, but we can hope that similar material will be made

Tarja Turunen (Finnish pronunciation: [?t?rj? ?turunen]) (born 17 August 1977), full name Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli, is a Finnish lyric soprano singer-songwriter and composer, whose work includes two solo albums, with the third coming in 2010. She is best known as an original member and the former lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic/power metal band Nightwish, founded by herself, Tuomas Holopainen and Erno Vuorinen in 1996, with the first studio album, Angels Fall First, released on November 1, 1997. She was dismissed from the band on October 22, 2005 after nine years, at the end of the Once Upon a Tour. In 2006, Turunen released a Christmas album, Henkäys Ikuisuudesta, with a support classical tour between November 25 and December 26. In 2007, Turunen released My Winter Storm, an album with various styles, including alternative rock and symphonic metal, that sold over 500,000 copies worldwide and with Nightwish sold 5.5 million copies worldwide. The support tour, Storm World Tour, started on November 25, 2007, and ended in London on October 19, 2009, selling out.