Interviews

October 2005. Singer Tarja turunen get sacked from the biggest Finnish musical export, Nightwish. 2000 [people] hear about the vacant job. One of them is Anette from Skåne, who sings in a ABBA coverband.

- I believed that they would throw the demo in a trashcan, says Anette.

On the contrary she passes pruning after pruning in a process that takes almost a year and a half.

- It has been a long and anxious process.

"Screamed of joy"

On January 30. this year gets Anette answer from bandleader Tuomas Holopainen.

- I screamed of joy.

The next months were filled with excited secrecy game. There were only the closest family and one friend who got to know about it. For months I was forced to avoid all my other friends and try to find excuses.

- When it at last was told in public, the first days turned out quite shocking. Suddenly thre were journalists trespassing my front yard, examining our mailbox and talking with neigbours.

- I hid myself in the bathroom and thought, aargh, is this what my life will be in the future.

"Oboe - how cool is that?"
Is this here my dream?

- When I was little I told that I will become a famous singer, but my mother never believed me. She wanted me to play oboe instead, but how cool is that? And then, when one turns a bit older and starts losing hope, then it will smack even more.

At the moment Anette is 36 yrs old, with a job which she believes would have ruined her at the age of 20.

- When someone is so young, there is the risk of her/him rising like the sun and coming down flat on the face. Now I have had time to see the music world's backside and achieved a thicker skin on my nose. Worries lay on the question if my voice will last through the exhausting tour.

What does your mother, previously the singer in the danceband Candela, say about your new career?

- She has always been my biggest critic. Hard rock has never really been accepted at home. Mother has always said that it is unproper. But now she has begun liking Nightwish, so I have certainly converted her in the end.

"Stone age thinking"

You have a husband and a six-year-old son. Some people maybe think that you are betraying the family for your career.

- It's thinking from the stone age, which has no affect on anybody. It'll be obvious that there will become times when my son will hate my job. But right now he is extremely proud of me and calls me Nightwish-Anette, because he wants everybody to know. If I had not followed my dream now when I got the chance, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. I know people who had their chance but never took a hold of their dreams. They are not too a pretty sight.

Text Emil Sandgren

Translated by The Enigma from the Nightwish Discussion Board