It was as long ago as June 2023, three years ago, that Nightwish founder, band leader, and chief writer Tuomas Holopainen announced that his band would be going on an indefinite hiatus from touring, immediately after what should have been its last performance of a tour was abandoned in Oslo over health concerns for singer Floor Jansen.
Then in interviews leading up to and following the release of Nightwish’s 10th studio album, ‘Yesterwynde’, in September 2024, Mr Holopainen explained that the break was necessary for the band’s “continuation.” While they had to step away from live performances for personal reasons (which have never been explained) – and they have never played a single ‘Yesterwynde’ song live – he confirmed that the band was not breaking up and would eventually return to the studio for more albums (hinting at 2027) but said nothing about resuming touring.
As its millions of fans around the world know, Nightwish is very much a live band, perhaps even the leading one in the world.
Since then members have gone their own way with what amount to more than side projects. Mr Holopainen and Nightwish member Troy Donockley set out to reignite Auri, a progressive folk-rock band that had been around for 15 years and which is signed to the same label as Nightwish but which had never toured. It recorded and released a new (third) album and then played a month long tour around Europe in September 2025 to very positive reviews, accompanied by Nightwish drummer Kai Hahto who also played on the new album. Auri is also playing festivals in Finland this summer.
(NMC review of Auri gig in Manchester, September, 2025, debut international performance).
To some observers, Auri has become Nightwish-lite, reverting back to the acoustic direction in which it began in the mid 1990s.
Mr Hahto is also in demand in another band, Wintersun, from whence he originally came, and with other projects, as is relatively new Nightwish bassist and formal member Jukka Koskinen.
That leaves two other current band members whose contrasting fortunes epitomise fans’ concerns about Nightwish’s future.
Vocalist Floor Jansen had already found her own personal niche by participating in a Dutch TV singing programme in 2019, subsequently becoming a household name in a country, her own, that had in most cases never previously heard of her. She launched a solo career out of it and has toured consistently since Nightwish’s hiatus began (and even before then), to rave reviews.
Both in solo performances and with a band Ms Jansen performs her own songs and Nightwish songs including some which, remarkably, have never been played by Nightwish itself (from the ‘Yesterwynde’ album). That is a case of playing a cover version of a song she herself sang on before the original has been heard live and must be a world first.
It has been suggested to me by several long time fans of Nightwish that Floor Jansen had a degree of dissatisfaction concerning the preference of Nightwish to stay within its own Symphonic Metal comfort zone and not to stray outside it by trying to reach out to new audiences. That she craved a bigger audience. If that is true then she has certainly found one.
But that then raises the question of whether she has now outgrown the band and no longer needs Nightwish. Does she perceive a better future for herself outside it?
She said in a podcast three years ago that it was “incredibly unfortunate” that Nightwish would be out of action for years as she was “in the middle of my career”. Does that benign viewpoint still hold or has she now moved on, never to look back?
The other, contrasting, member is guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, also a founder member (and one of only two remaining, along with Mr Holopainen).
Mr Vuorinen has disappeared from public view in the last three years and is believed no longer to be active in his side project Brother Firetribe. While he is known to keep a low profile personally concerns have been raised online for his welfare.
It was evident for example from his emotional reaction to resuming live performances after the Covid pandemic just how important recording and playing live is to him. It is hard to reconcile such joy with its total loss, however content he might be with his private life.
There are many questions here but few if any answers coming from Nightwish and its management. In today’s world you cannot rely on statements made three years ago to have any relevance now. Any casual study of comments made on YouTube videos relating to Nightwish, Auri and Floor Jansen will reveal the same sort of questions arising with increasing regularity.
Bands and their leaders can live in a bubble, oblivious of what the word is thinking. That is the preserve of the creative class. Management cannot.
If a week is a long time in politics, then three years can be the End of an Era in rock music.
Nightwish’s public relations hardly rank amongst the best. Take its social media for example. On Facebook the last post was on 8th May, congratulating Sir David Attenborough on his 100th birthday. Prior to that was a post about an orchestral performance of ‘Yesterwynde’ (9th March) – which at least had some relevance – and before that one about Kai Hahto and Troy Donockley joining the band Eye of Melian at its album release show (9th February), which had little significance for most Nightwish followers.
Otherwise posts are mainly merchandising oriented. Much the same goes for Instagram and the last post on X was in March 2025, 15 months ago.
I do believe it is high time Tuomas Holopainen, as band leader, seizes the moment and comes clean to its many fans about future prospects, whether that message is positive or negative. A public statement is now overdue, especially as the band has chosen so far to ignore its own 30th anniversary year!
That sort of thing hardly goes unnoticed. As good as Nightwish is, it isn’t the only symphonic metal show in town and fans will abandon a band if they think it has abandoned them.
‘Seven days to the wolves’, New York performance without visuals and pyrotechnics, 2022. When will they come?
Find them on:
Website: https://www.nightwish.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nightwish
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NightwishBand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nightwish/
