Operatic singer Tarja Turunen is best known for her nearly decade-long tenure as the voice of symphonic Finnish power metal band Nightwish. What’s most impressive about her is that before joining the band, she was never into heavy metal.

The band approached her because they knew she was a good singer. Apparently, “good” is a word to describe Tarja’s world-class talents, but a thesaurus will lead you elsewhere. Nightwish helped pave the way for what would become a wave of female-fronted, operatic symphonic power metal, with Tarja at the helm of it all. Unfortunately, she was fired from Nightwish via an open letter. Since then, Tarja has embarked on a successful solo career.

More From Loudwire