Tarja Turunen has been singing since she was a child. In school, at public performances, and later, as the frontwoman of Nightwish. She was in the band for a decade, during which time she broadened metal's scope, incorporating classical singing techniques for an unlikely marriage with symphonic heaviness... and now she's the latest guest on "Wikipedia: Fact or Fiction."

In this episode, we work chronologically through Turunen's life, from the small village town in Finland where she was born, through her childhood to Nightwish and beyond as she's maintained a solo career for almost 15 years now.

It's true that her father was a carpenter. "We always lived in a house he built," she recalled. "We were always in the same area. First I was born in a very tiny little village that at that time had like 500 habitants [and] now probably 300 — [I'm a] country girl."

If you're not a Nightwish fanatic, you may be surprised to learn that the band was originally a vessel for acoustic mood music, not orchestral metal. "I was not a metal fan. I never thought in my whole life of becoming a heavy metal singer, but it just happened because I took the challenge," she began when explaining how this took place.

We go further into some Nightwish history, including a bit that even stumped Turunen, who had never heard of the rumor about "Creek Mary's Blood" before. She discusses how she worried about damaging her voice singing in a metal band, some confrontation she faced in school, the inspiration behind "The Kinslayer" and some beautiful insights her young daughter had.

Get the answers and stories behind the history of one of metal's greatest singers in the video above.

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