NIGHTWISH's TUOMAS HOLOPAINEN: First Live Show After FLOOR JANSEN's Cancer Diagnosis 'Was Emotional For All Of Us'

NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen spoke to Ireland's Overdrive about what it has been like for him and his bandmates to return to the road just weeks after singer Floor Jansen revealed her breast cancer diagnosis. "The first show of this [European tour] leg in Antwerp [Belgium on November 20] was just so emotional for all of us, but especially for Floor," he said. "It all came out during the song 'Sleeping Sun'. She couldn't sing the song towards the end, and she just broke down. It was a positive breakdown, if you know what I mean. It was just a huge release of so much anxiety and pressure that had been building up inside her. It was a culmination of beating cancer, finally do[ing] this tour, and [the fact] that her voice was good enough to do what she loves to do. All of that came out at the same time, and it's been wonderful ever since."

On November 18, Floor revealed that she was "cancer free" after undergoing surgery to have a tumor removed following a breast cancer diagnosis. At the time, she wrote on social media that "the surgery took everything cancerous out and it hasn't spread!"

Jansen went public with her diagnosis in October. At the time, she wrote: "The word cancer is a shocker. All that you found important in life before this diagnosis changes radically within minutes. Now I just want to be healthy again. I want to see my daughter grow into a woman; I want to live! And the scariest part of this diagnosis is that I thought I was healthy! I didn't feel the cancer, I didn't know it was there until I, as a 40+ woman, went to a standard mammogram checkup. Something many countries offer, for free even for the lucky ones. Had I not gone there, the tumor would have gone undetected. In a year from now this could have grown much bigger. The thought of that makes me share this story with you. A mammogram is lifesaving! It's uncomfortable and you might think that you won't have something in your breasts anyway but GO! And for the men reading this: remind your wife, girlfriend, mother, sister to go and get checked. Even without the luxury I as a western woman experience with free mammogram checkups: GO! Luckily, there are many organizations that offer information about self-detection if you do not have access or funds for a mammogram.
If I might inspire you to take good care of yourself, then something good will come out of this cancer diagnosis."

Jansen made her live debut as the frontwoman of NIGHTWISH on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington following the abrupt departure of the band's lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon. Jansen officially joined NIGHTWISH in 2013.

As part of NIGHTWISH, Jansen landed two number one albums in Finland, and Top Five albums in Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Born in the Netherlands, Jansen joined her first band, one of the world's first symphonic metal bands, AFTER FOREVER, when she was only 16 years old. The group went on to release five albums from 2000 to 2007, before they broke up in 2009.

Jansen's next band, REVAMP, released two albums in 2010 and 2013, before she joined NIGHTWISH as a full-time member. NIGHTWISH's first album with Jansen as the lead singer was 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", which landed in Top 10s around the world. This was followed by 2020's "Human. :II: Nature." , which was also an international success.

Jansen has toured extensively with the band and appeared on three of NIGHTWISH's live albums "Showtime, Storytime", "Vehicle Of Spirit" and "Decades: Live In Buenos Aires".

In 2019, Jansen participated in the popular Dutch TV show "Beste Zangers" where she scored a big hit with "Phantom Of The Opera" together with Henk Poort. She was recognized with a Dutch Popprijs award — a prestigious accolade for artists that has made important contributions to Dutch music. In the same year, her first solo tour sold out in less than 24 hours.

Floor will release her debut solo album, "Paragon", on March 24. The LP contains "a diverse collection of pop-infused tracks and emotional ballads influenced by the sounds of her career," according to a press release.