And that same sense goodwill has even been extended to those who ended up singing in Nightwish after you…
“Of course. I’ve shared the stage with Floor [Jansen] and have been inviting her to my shows. I care for her and love her, and only wish her the best. There is no competition between singers like us. We are all living in a man’s world, sort of. So each of us being out there, doing our own thing, can only be a good thing. It’s a sisterhood that is beautiful.”
On December 14, 2017, you reunited with Nightwish member Marco Hietala on stage for the first time in 12 years. Was it nerve-wracking on the night?
“Naturally I was nervous. I hadn’t seen Marco in 12 years, we hadn’t been in touch. So it would be silly to say I wasn’t nervous, but more than anything I was curious about he was doing. I just wanted to see him. On the day of the show, he came to knock on my [dressing room] door, as he’d been unable to make rehearsals. It was just like, ‘Hey!’ with a massive, long hug after 12 years apart. Just a few things were said like, ‘Great to see you’ and ‘See you soon on stag.e. Then we sang those songs, the last of which was Ave Maria, just the two of us with acoustic guitars. It was very intimate, yet in front of a huge crowd with thousands and thousands of people in front of us. That was a moment neither of us will ever forget. We were very emotional, the whole place exploded with emotion. It was beautiful.”
Could that mean there’s potential to re-join Nightwish for one song or one tour, who knows, maybe even an album?
“I know a lot of fans would love to see something happen, but it’s a very long distance away… Personally, I don’t see anything happening with me and them, to be perfectly honest. Marco came a little later into the band, he wasn’t there since the beginning, he was always a guy I was close to. Me and [Nightwish keyboardist/leader] Tuomas Holopainen, however, haven’t seen each other in a long time… but we have been in touch. It’s not bad. The past is what it is, we can’t change that. We can only change the future.”