NIGHTWISH's FLOOR JANSEN Looks Back On Her 'Extraordinary', 'Incredible' And 'Challenging' Year

NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen has shared the very first episode of her new YouTube series "Coffee, Questions & Answers". According to Floor, "Coffee, Questions & Answers" is a heartfelt and intimate series where she and her viewers "share a cup, life's highs and lows, and the simple joy of connecting over a warm brew."

In the first "Coffee, Questions & Answers" episode, Floor says in part (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Quite the year it has been. I mean, obviously, I had a baby. Great to have little Lucy into this world. 'Paragon' album, my first solo album, came into this world. We did a world tour with NIGHTWISH. We finally got to finish that post-pandemic and decided to stop touring for a while. So we actually played our last shows for a while. Not to mention I got cancer. I got too tired. We moved into a new house, and lots and lots has happened. So let's talk about that.

"Little Lucy. She's looking at me right now as I'm drinking coffee with you," Floor continued. "She just woke up from a little nap. She's eight months old already. Can you believe that? I mean, time just [flies]. It's incredible.

"Last year, exactly a year ago, I was very, very round, still doing show, trying to pull everything off with her in my belly. Crazy year it has been, really. Yeah, just like that she was there — this tiny, tiny creature. As a mother of two now, I thought I kind of knew what was gonna happen, and partially you do actually know and you remember, and, 'Oh, yeah.' Oh, this.' But you forget how tiny, tiny, tiny they are. I guess there was a lot of distraction for me too. This came right in between touring, making the first solo album, making 'Paragon'. I'm forever proud of this first album. Yeah, it made the fight extra, extra worthwhile in that sense. This album is really an empowering one. Finally being able to tour with NIGHTWISH. I know I'm jumping from one thing to another a little bit, but they're all quite entwined for me, because the cancer came right in the middle of this postponed 'Human. :II: Nature.' world tour. I found out a few days before I was supposed to come to South America that I had cancer. I had no idea what to do with it more than, 'Okay, this needs to be out of my body.' That's the first and only thing you can think about. 'Now I know that it's in there, I want it out.' And they kind of would have done that on the spot if there wasn't a long travel ahead of me to South America. So, we planned it [for] the day after I landed back from that tour.

"It felt like I'm losing all control over everything — the control over my health, the control over my future," Jansen admitted. "It was definitely difficult times for me. But once again there, the audience and also my band really helped me to pull through and to make the tour as good as possible, given the stress of, yeah, the physical aspect. Yeah, a tough cookie. Definitely a tough cookie.

"From there we rolled into the new year, and all of a sudden, just like that, the dark clouds [disappeared], and I got pregnant," Floor added. "I still had ahead of me, with NIGHTWISH, with the release of this album, with the tour I was gonna do solo, 'Okay, I'm gonna do that with a baby in my belly now. Oh my god.' Challenge. Challenge accepted. And so there we went. And I look back to it as an absolute challenge, but also the best of all worlds combined. I was able to still pursue my solo ambitions, make the tour with NIGHTWISH as good as possible, carry my child in a healthy way. Also there you guys were all the time. Every show, especially with the solo shows, it was so great to get to meet you, to talk, to share. But also online, and sometimes silence also means a lot, the fact that I know that I can take a step back when I have to."

In November 2022, Floor revealed that she was "cancer free" after undergoing surgery to have a tumor removed following a breast cancer diagnosis.

In March 2023, Floor and SABATON drummer Hannes Van Dahl announced that they were expecting their second child. Jansen and Van Dahl already have a seven-year-old daughter named Freja, who was born on March 15, 2017.

In April 2023, NIGHTWISH surprised fans by announcing that the band was not going to be playing any live shows for the foreseeable future and would be not be touring in support of the group's next studio album, "Yesterwynde", which is due on September 20, 2024 via Nuclear Blast.