Today’s featured song is by Nightwish, another one of my all-time favourite bands. I thought I’d start with a cover, to provide a gentle introduction to the awesomeness that is Nightwish.
The original is, of course, the eponymous song from Andrew Lloyd Webber‘s famous musical, The Phantom of the Opera, sung by Sarah Brightman.
This cover is sung by Tarja Turunen, Nightwish’s lead singer at the time.
Now, I’m also a fan of Sarah Brightman, but, with all due respect to her, for this song, to me, there is no comparison between the two. Tarja’s voice is just infinitely richer and more majestic, and the metal instrumentation in this cover brings that out beautifully.
(I’ve actually featured a song by Tarja before, though it was quite a while ago, and it was from her solo career after parting ways with Nightwish.)
The video I’m linking to is a live performance of this cover at a concert at Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland, attended by over 13000 people, which was filmed and released as the live DVD End of an Era. It was also the last concert at which Tarja sang as a member of Nightwish, a fact that gives the concert, in hindsight, an undertone of great significance (and not a small amount of sadness).
The male singer is Marco Hietala, Nightwish’s bassist who also provides male vocals on some songs. In addition to his singing and bass-playing, I’m a fan of his beard 🙂
Enjoy, and expect many more Nightwish songs to be featured in this series 🙂
There's Waldo! 
Such a beautiful lady and such a beautiful voice. When I first heard you sing the phantom of the opera I was so taken with your performance. I wish you and your family many happy times . You were and are fantastic