OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
As most on here know I'm passionate about several things, one is obviously power generation (nuclear in particular) but another is music. I'm almost always listening to music. A couple of years ago now a fellow BITOG'er introduced me to Nightwish and I became a fast-fan of their current lead singer Floor Jansen, who is the 3rd singer for the band and a formidable talent.
Now, I'll preface this with the fact that my taste in music probably isn't shared by the majority here, but I do know that some folks like @DriveHard do have similar taste to my own and appreciate a similar spectrum of genres.
Personally, I love good lyrics (made a thread on that years ago now) and I love somebody who can SING. No autotune, no filters, just go on stage and blow everybody out of the water. There are few that can do this. Sarah Brightman is an obvious example as are Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Amy Lee, Brent Smith and Adele.
Anyways, I think the story of Floor is good enough to tell here in an abridged form.
Basically, Nightwish is a symphonic metal band. Think Metallica meets the Opera. The original diva for Nightwish, Tarja Turunen, parted ways with them and she was replaced by a pop singer, Anette Olzon in 2007. This was a big change in sound for the band. Anette couldn't do the operatic style that Tarja was famous for, but the music was still very good, albeit, different.
Well, in the middle of their South American tour, Anette leaves the band. They have no singer. Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and another singer help them complete their set, but they have a serious problem, they need a new singer NOW. They had previously approached Floor before hiring Anette, she had her own band After Forever and wasn't interested at the time.
They reached out to her and asked her if she wanted the job. She decided, what the hell, she'd give it the old college try. After her flight over, jet lagged, she had something like 24hrs to learn the setlist. Totally nuts.
Her first performance with the band was surprisingly good, though you could tell she was nervous, however she quickly caught her stride and started to make some of the most notable pieces her own. I've posted this in the "what are you listening to" thread a few times, but she just hits it out of the park on this one, which I believe was during her 2nd performance with the band (if you don't like the music, watch from 8:15, the power she shows at 9:35 is insane):
In comparison, here's Tarja singing the same song:
Of course Floor also has a commanding stage presence being north of 6' and typically wearing heels that make her even taller.
She was recently (2019) featured on the Danish TV show "Beste Zangers" (best singers) where she sang a myriad of different genres including doing a Phantom of the Opera collab with Henk Poort:
She also covered Lady Gaga's "Shallow", which, given this isn't the genre she normally sings, did an incredible job:
One of the aspects of this show is that you sing another contestant's song (you can figure out pretty quickly whose song it was). She covers this Spanish piece:
Now, I'll preface this with the fact that my taste in music probably isn't shared by the majority here, but I do know that some folks like @DriveHard do have similar taste to my own and appreciate a similar spectrum of genres.
Personally, I love good lyrics (made a thread on that years ago now) and I love somebody who can SING. No autotune, no filters, just go on stage and blow everybody out of the water. There are few that can do this. Sarah Brightman is an obvious example as are Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Amy Lee, Brent Smith and Adele.
Anyways, I think the story of Floor is good enough to tell here in an abridged form.
Basically, Nightwish is a symphonic metal band. Think Metallica meets the Opera. The original diva for Nightwish, Tarja Turunen, parted ways with them and she was replaced by a pop singer, Anette Olzon in 2007. This was a big change in sound for the band. Anette couldn't do the operatic style that Tarja was famous for, but the music was still very good, albeit, different.
Well, in the middle of their South American tour, Anette leaves the band. They have no singer. Alissa White-Gluz (Arch Enemy) and another singer help them complete their set, but they have a serious problem, they need a new singer NOW. They had previously approached Floor before hiring Anette, she had her own band After Forever and wasn't interested at the time.
They reached out to her and asked her if she wanted the job. She decided, what the hell, she'd give it the old college try. After her flight over, jet lagged, she had something like 24hrs to learn the setlist. Totally nuts.
Her first performance with the band was surprisingly good, though you could tell she was nervous, however she quickly caught her stride and started to make some of the most notable pieces her own. I've posted this in the "what are you listening to" thread a few times, but she just hits it out of the park on this one, which I believe was during her 2nd performance with the band (if you don't like the music, watch from 8:15, the power she shows at 9:35 is insane):
In comparison, here's Tarja singing the same song:
Of course Floor also has a commanding stage presence being north of 6' and typically wearing heels that make her even taller.
She was recently (2019) featured on the Danish TV show "Beste Zangers" (best singers) where she sang a myriad of different genres including doing a Phantom of the Opera collab with Henk Poort:
She also covered Lady Gaga's "Shallow", which, given this isn't the genre she normally sings, did an incredible job:
One of the aspects of this show is that you sing another contestant's song (you can figure out pretty quickly whose song it was). She covers this Spanish piece: