Former members of NIGHTWISH, Marko Hietala and Tarja Turunen, have joined forces for a new song titled “Left On Mars,” which is available today. A music video is also expected to be released at 3pm CET via Nuclear Blast.
Last week, during their “Living The Dream – The Hits Tour 2024” in South America, Hietala and Turunen released a video message announcing the upcoming single.
“After these long 20 years, we’ve actually recorded a totally new duet,” Marko said. “This is a song that I wrote with my bandmates, and it’s called ‘Left On Mars’.” Tarja added: “[It’s a] very beautiful song. [I] can’t wait for you to hear it.” Hietala continued: “On 13th of March, it’s gonna be out. Real soon.” Turunen stated: “Very soon.”
In an interview with El Planeta Del Rock earlier this month, Marko was asked about the potential for him and Turunen to launch a new project together, to which he responded: “I won’t close that option off. We haven’t talked about it, putting up a group together or anything like that. But at the moment, it seems that we’ve got a different kind of connection than it was [in the] past. Because then the camps were really divided already when I stepped into [NIGHTWISH]. And it was hard to find the truth of things, because a lot of it was like a managerial turf war where we got told certain things by one side and told certain things by the other side and lots of confusion — blah, blah, blah — and in the end, yeah, what we already realized a few years back when we were all together there doing the Christmas shows in Finland that after all the hassle has died and the noise has died and everything, you still find out that you lost a friend. And that was the main [reason] why we are basically doing this together again.”
During a recent interview conducted by Thiago Rahal Mauro for Brazil’s Metal Musikast, Tarja Turunen discussed her collaboration with Hietala.
They joined forces to perform a rendition of “The Phantom Of The Opera” during a unique open-air concert held in July 2023 at Z7 Summer Nights in Pratteln, Switzerland. Each artist presented separate sets during the event, with their rendition of the iconic theme from Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s musical taking place during Turunen‘s performance.
She said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “I got a call from a promoter to take part in one festival in Switzerland last year in a European summertime in July. And then I got to know, when I had accepted to be the artist of the evening, then I saw that they had also invited Marko and Marko‘s band to perform in the same festival. So I thought, ‘Hmm.’ And I was actually sending a message that I wished to reach Marko, because I didn’t have his contact any longer, to ask him to perform with me ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’ in my show. And he responded ‘yes.’ So, after 18 years, we were about to sing the song together. And it was super exciting. It was really beautiful. The people got very emotional about this.
“We had met already before — we had been singing on a few occasions in Finland a few years before — so we kind of cleaned the table on that occasion already,” she explained. “So we were in good terms, so to say, but now singing ‘The Phantom Of The Opera’ together after all these years was amazing. So we did it twice, actually — we did it in Switzerland and then in Finland. And now we are going to do it — that and a lot more [laughs] — there in Brazil [during our upcoming joint tour].”
“It’s a new relationship with him, because he’s not the same person anymore than he was in the band,” Tarja continued. “He has changed a lot, and many years have passed by. I’ve changed myself. Life has changed us. So it is a new relationship, let’s say. And it had made me very happy to get to know him better after all these years.”
In November of last year, Tarja confessed to Chaoszine that she felt “nervous” ahead of her performance of “The Phantom Of The Opera” with Marko at Z7 Summer Nights.
“I believe that he was nervous as well to meet up with me, but we were both very excited to go back to the stage and to sing the song,” she said. “We sang ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ in Switzerland for the first time. Then we went over to Finland to perform it again, did a show together there — he with his band and me with my own. Wow. It was pure emotion. I think it was really beautiful, but it made me kind of… I was, like, ‘I’m in peace,’ sort of. The feeling was great. I think it was even more for Marko, because I saw him standing there after my concert, when I finished my set, and he came like almost in tears, saying that this was important. We reconnected, and it’s great. Now I’m really looking forward to have this tour [with Marko] in South America in March [2024], and I’m sure you will see something else happening also. Yeah, you’ll hear.”
Turunen was fired from NIGHTWISH at the end of the band’s 2005 tour. Tuomas Holopainen and the other band members informed Turunen in an open letter that the band did not want to work with her any more, accusing her of diva-like behaviour and greed: “To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with emotions have become much more important.”
The split and, due to the open letter’s allegations, Turunen‘s character became the subject of close media coverage. Turunen responded through an open letter on her website and through some interviews in which she explained her view. She was upset that after nine years of working together, Holopainen announced the separation via an open letter.
In 2019, Turunen addressed speculations on her potential comeback to NIGHTWISH following her reunion with the band’s former bassist/vocalist Hietala in December 2017, clarifying that it was merely a one-time performance at a “Raskasta Joulua” concert in Hämeenlinna, Finland.
“I know a lot of fans would love to see something happen, but it’s a very long distance away,” Tarja told Kerrang! magazine. “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 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.”
Marko left NIGHTWISH in January 2021 explaining in a statement that he hadn’t “been able to feel validated by this life for a quite a few years now.” He has since been replaced by bassist Jukka Koskinen (WINTERSUN), who made his live debut with NIGHTWISH in May 2021 at the band’s two interactive experiences.
