TARJA TURUNEN: 'I'm Breaking Boundaries Everywhere I Go'

Former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen spoke to France's Duke TV about her knack for mixing a variety of musical styles and bringing together audiences from different backgrounds.

"I wouldn't call myself at all as a crossover artist — I kind of hate that word — but in a way, you need to see me like that, because I'm working in classical music, I'm doing these other projects, and I'm having a rock career at the same time," she said (see video below). "So in a way, for me, music is emotion, and I'm breaking boundaries everywhere I go, because when I go to do my classical concerts, half of the audience are metalheads and they're coming to see those ones. And the same happens in my rock concerts — it's a very mixed audience, which is fantastic. Music is emotion; it's a beautiful thing that connects people despite their age or differences or cultural differences and anything. We are still the same, and we can love the same things."

Tarja's latest studio album, "In The Raw", was released on August 30 via earMUSIC.

Last year, Tarja told Bloodlines that her new album would be "darker" and "a bit heavier" than 2016's "The Shadow Self". But she added that she would never forget "the symphonic side of mine, as my first love of music was classical music, so I will never get away from that."

Turunen was fired from NIGHTWISH at the end of the band's 2005 tour by being presented with an open letter which was published on the NIGHTWISH web site at the same time.

NIGHTWISH mainman Tuomas Holopainen later called the decision to split with Turunen "the most difficult thing I ever had to do."