Floor Jansen

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Nightwish may not have known when they did this show that it would be their last. They thought they had one more left in Oslo, Norway before their "indefinite" break began. Floor's health, though, forced them to cancel that show. Apparently her pregnancy and health are not at serious risk, but she just was not in a condition to carry on and headed home to Sweden.

And thus, this performance of their magnum opus "Ghost Love Score" from Vaasa, Finland (hometown of drummer Kai Hahto) now stands as the last one for some time to come. And even if it was not supposed to be the last, it was definitely the last in their home country.

It is a powerful performance, with even the usual interplay between Floor and Emppu in the finale seeming longer and more poignant than usual. One hopes that "indefinite" will not become "permanent".

And the song that has become something of an anthem for me as a writer. "Storytime" is the song that introduced me to magnificence that is Floor and really solidified my love of Nightwish. And Floor's intro of hometown hero Kai is wonderful. Apparently this was his 300th show with the band, which he joined in 2014 after the retirement of their founding drummer Jukka Nevalainen due to health concerns.

Thanks to Youtuber and Floor fan MarcoPugno, who does some of the best amateur band photography and videos out there, for capturing this concert. He travelled from his home in Austria to several of the final Nightwish dates.

 

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With Floor and Nightwish on hold for a while, I am going to take us back in time to see where this marvelous vocal talent came from and how she developed in her early years.

In 1995, Dutch musicians Mark Jansen (no relation), Sander Gommans, Joep Beckers, and Jack Driessen formed a band that they initially called Apocalypse, intending it to be a death metal band with Mark's powerful growled vocals. However, in 1997, they added a clean vocalist in the person of 16 year-old Floor Jansen. Her powerful voice, eventually developed through professional training in a number of styles, led to a switch in the band's style to symphonic metal. A key feature was using the contrast between Mark's growls and Floor's operatic vocals, something Jansen uses in his compositions to this day. Besides being the lead singer, Floor also started writing lyrics, with the first album being an almost even mix between her and Mark in writing the lyrics.

The first album, Prison of Desire, came out in 2000. This performance of "Follow in the Cry" from that album dates to 2004 but gives you a good sense of the band's early sound. The song still appears from time to time, notably in setlists of After Forever's successor band Epica (more about them in a bit).

In 2001, After Forever followed up Prison of Desire with Decipher. They punched things up adding live orchestral and choral parts (backing tracks were used on tour) behind Floor's vocals. "My Pledge of Allegiance #1 (The Sealed Fate)" remains one of the more popular tracks from that album, showing off the use of alternating growls from Mark and operatic clean vocals from Floor. The "#1" reflects Mark Jansen's practice of having multipart works spread across an album (or even multiple albums in at least one cast), something Floor herself did later in her career.

"Monolith of Doubt" from Decipher is a good early song with lyrics by Floor and is another popular track from that era of the band.

All of these clips are from the band's 2004 appearance at the Pinkpop Festival in Landgraaf, The Netherlands.

In 2002, creative differences between other band members and Mark Jansen led to him leaving the band. He teamed up with another amazing young singer, then 16-year-old Simone Simons, to start the band Epica.

After Forever went ahead with a revamped lineup and Floor as the main lyricist.

 

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2004 saw the release of Invisible Circles, After Forever's first full album without Mark Jansen. It is a ambitious concept album about dysfunctional families and child abuse, partly inspired by experiences guitarist Sander Gommans had as an art teacher. Lyrics are all by Floor, with the band working together on the music.

Back to Pinkpop 2004 for a performance of "Digital Deceit" from Invisible Circles.

With Mark gone, there's less growling and Floor uses more of her stylistic range, going from rock singing to operatic belting in the same song at times.

While I enjoy Floor's work from this period, I do find she was still developing. Keep in mind that that she was still in her twenties and had been in the music industry for less than a decade in 2004. Nonetheless, she was already a top-notch metal singer and her writing was pretty solid.

For the next album, 2005's ReImagine, After Forever got a new keyboard player, Joost van den Broek. That began a partnership between Joost and Floor that still surfaces from time to time even today. Two of Floor's songs from that album stand out and are still used in her solo sets today.

"Face Your Demons" is a driving rocker that gives her plenty of opportunity to show off her incredible stage presence, almost acting the song at times. This remixed version features additional vocals from Finnish vocalist-bassist Marko Hietala, later Floor's bandmate in Nightwish.

"Strong" is a powerful ballad about her mother's struggles with rheumatoid arthritis and the impact on the family. So, not surprisingly, it has been a staple of her career ever since its release. During her appearance on Dutch TV show Beste Zangers, Emma Heesters sang it on the episode devoted to Floor's music and Floor was in tears, as she often is doing it on stage.

This acoustic performance from 2007, with just Joost and Floor, really shows off the delicacy and beauty of the song.

2007 also saw the release of their fifth album, which was self-titled. Once again, all lyrics are by Floor. It also proved to be the band's swansong, as guitarist and founder Sander Gommans suffered health problems due to burnout. The band went on hiatus, but ultimately called it a day in 2009.

"Energize Me" is a driving, energetic anthem from that final album that appears in Floor's solo sets. This performance is from ProgPower 2007.

And the heavier sound and growled vocals (by guitarist Sander Gommans) of "Discord" hearken back to the band's older material.

And those performances show us a Floor much closer to the sound we hear today, a confident, powerful rock voice with more sparing use of the operatic sound.

With the end of After Forever, Floor felt ready for a big step: Starting her own band.

 

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One of the biggest musical works to come out of Nightwish and Floor's career has to be the 20 minute opus "The Greatest Show on Earth" from the album Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Blending choral and orchestral backing tracks, narration by Richard Dawkins, vocals by Floor and Marko Hietala, and some amazing playing all round from the band, the song rivals Ghost Love Score for the place of Tuomas Holopainen's masterpiece. If I have a criticism, it is that it might just be a bit too long so that some parts feel a bit like filler. They have been doing a cutdown version live of late, but on the Endless Forms Most Beautiful tour, they did the full production, with Dawkins even doing the narration live when they played it at Wembley Arena in his native England in 2015. The theme, as on much of the album, is evolution and humanity's place in the universe with Dawkin's narration drawn from Darwin's Origin of Species.

This is a song that plays really well live, with the audience joining in on the chorus of, "WE WERE HERE!" So I have chosen to post the Wembley performance, one of the band's finest moments IMHO.

One thing I would love to see happen would be the full version done with a live orchestra and choir behind the band. It's something other symphonic metal bands have done (Epica and Within Temptation come to mind, even former Nightwish lead singer Tarja in her solo career) but I don't believe Nightwish ever has.

 

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So, I left the story at the breakup of After Forever in 2009. Floor, with help from Joost van den Broek, the band's keyboardist and a successful songwriter, producer, and engineer in his own right, set out to put together a new band. With Joost on keys, Polish musician Waldemar Sorychta on guitar, and drummer Koen Herfst, she created ReVamp. The self-titled first album featured songs written by Floor, Joost, and Waldemar, with Floor writing all the lyrics. Several guests appeared to provide male vocals. Reviews were generally good and the band picked up following among former After Forever fans. They toured for the following year, but increasing health issues finally led to Floor being diagnosed with burnout, ironically the same thing that had brought down her former bandmate Sander Gommans of After Forever, ending that band's career.

Floor started back to work late in 2011 and the band went to work on songs for a second album. However, fate intervened again, with Floor getting the call to step in when Nightwish needed a singer to finish their Imaginaerum tour in 2012. ReVamp did get the new album, called Wild Card, recorded early in 2013 and it was released later that year. However, in October 2013, Floor was offered a permanent position with Nightwish and took it. ReVamp went on hiatus indefinitely until 2016 when Floor finally announced the end.

However, Revamp and its followup Wild Card remain an important part of Floor's resume. Their songs Sweet Curse and Wolf And Dog have resurfaced in Floor's solo concerts in recent years, the former as a duet with her friend Henk Poort (American rocker Russell Allen sang the male part originally).

One of my favourite performances of "Sweet Curse" spins things a bit differently as Floor's friend Simone Simons of Epica joins ReVamp on stage in 2010. Simone sings Floor's usual part, with Floor taking the part normally sung by a male. These two don't sing together very often, but it is always amazing when they do. If they ever see fit to do an album together or something, I'll be there with bells on.

There's lots of ReVamp's performance at Graspop 2010 on YouTube. Here's a couple good samples of the band in action on stage.

These are all from the self-title first album.

 

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I am not sure about these videos. They say they are from Bloodstock in 2014 but I can't find any history of ReVamp that mentions this concert. If so, it was a year after Floor joined Nightwish and must have been a one-off reunion. Nightwish was on a tour break that year, recording Endless Forms Most Beautiful so it was possible.

"Wolf And Dog" from Wild Card, the band's sophomore and swansong album, remains a part of Floor's repetoire in her solo career. As she explains it, the wolf is the wilder side of her that likes to be on stage, singing, playing to an audience, traveling while the dog is her domestic side, sitting by the fire with family.

And the title track from Wild Card, which also offers a rare case of Floor growling.

Floor wrote some extremely good material during ReVamp's short life and if I could visit one alternative universe, it's the one where she doesn't join Nightwish and instead continues this band. The two extant albums are excellent and I can only see them getting better with time.

OTOH, from a career standpoint, joining a well-established band with one of the best, most challenging, songwriters in metal likely expanded Floor's audience and helped her build the incredible vocal skills we hear today. So the end of ReVamp, while it might have left some great songs unsung, also opened the door for Floor's current success and for Nightwish to hit the heights they have reached in the past decade with her voice as part of their sound.

October marks ten years since Floor became a permanent member of the band along with multi-instrumentalist and backup singer Troy Donockley. We know that her third studio album with the band will happen next year. The guys have been working on recording the instrumentals this summer. Floor will record the vocals once she is able. Then there will be several months of production work, including recording and mixing the backing tracks that are part of the band's signature sound. After that? With the announced Nightwish tour break, no one is sure. Floor is basically on mat leave for a while, so it is conceivable that she might use the time to start writing again, getting material ready for a second solo album. Maybe we'll get another Floor solo tour next year given how successful her 2023 tour ended up being. At this point, only the release of the new Nightwish album seems certain.

 

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So just to close one open loop before I put this thread to bed for a while, Floor has.officially announced the birth of her second child, Lucy Van Dahl. Apparently, the family are all doing well.

Next up, when time and health allow, is recording the vocals for the tenth Nightwish album. The guys are largely done recording instrumental parts, including a few days at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London, England recording orchestral and choral backing parts. Anticipation is high in the fan community even though the album is not due for several months.

 

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Friday night marks Floor's first stage appearance since June, returning to AFAS Amsterdam where she recorded her live solo album in 2021. And she's doing it in style, with her friend Anneke van Giersbergen as the opening act and her sister Irene joining the show. Floor and Irene have sung together several times over the years both on stage and record and it is always a treat to have them together again. Not sure what they will sing, but it will no doubt be a highlight of the concert.

Here's the sisters with Floor's band After Forever in 2007.

With something like 70 members of Floorworld having tickets, some of them travelling from other European countries just for the show, I'll be hearing plenty about it on the weekend and hopefully there will be some fan vids so I can live vicariously.

 

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Oh, I neglected to mention that the Nightwish recording sessions happened last week and from a post by the engineer on Instagram, it looks like she did them in her home studio. At least, there was an image of a mike posted that matched one she used in her pandemic solo covers.

 

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And the first fan videos are coming out from today's concert.

One of my favourite songs of the year is "Daydream" from Paragon. It's a powerful piece that really hit me right from its first release as a single. So is there any way that Floor could possibly improve on it? How about turning it into a duet with her sister?

And I think it speaks volumes about the relationship between these two sisters that Floor hands off to Irene to close it out, both song and concert.

One of the oldest songs on the setlist of Floor's solo shows is "Face Your Demons", which originally appeared on the 2005 album ReImagine by After Forever. Lyrics by Floor, music by the band. And apparently she borrowed some of Nightwish's pyro for this one.

And finally, this was apparently the only Nightwish song on the setlist but it's one I know is very meaningful for Floor, who has been doing it both solo and with the band over the past year. The song debuted in 2015 on the album Endless Forms Most Beautiful.

 

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Maybe the high point of the show, now that I have seen more of it through the various fan vids, is "Dangerous Game". Floor originally recorded this duet from the musical "Jekyll and Hyde" with her friend Henk Poort during the pandemic and he has appeared on stage with her to perform at some solo shows. However, here Irene steps in on the second part and ends it by delivering a belt reminiscent of her big sister's powerhouse belts with Nightwish. These two really need to do an album and tour together, I think.

And how else could Floor start this show but with the song that kicked off this whole amazing journey, her first solo single "Fire". With pyro, no less. The song is a spirited celebration of the world coming back to life after the pandemic and she really kicks it up a notch here.

 

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And we got our Christmas present from Nightwish, a video for the song "Tribal" using footage from their 2022-2023 Human : || : Nature tour. It's as much a showpiece for drummer Kai Hahto as for Floor. The footage comes from throughout the tour, which is evident if you watch Floor's belly. She's obviously pregnant in some clips and not in others.

 

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And the gifts just keep coming. Floor has kicked off 2024 by re-releasing all the old After Forever videos, plus "While Love Died" by Northward, on her own channel. It's a treasure trove of early Floor plus the one and only official video from her 2018 collaboration with Norwegian guitarist Jorn Viggo Lofstad. I even mentioned not being able to find that Northward video in my post about the album in this thread.

So, first of all, here is "While Love Died" by Northward, with Floor and Jorn rocking hard to the only single from that album

And then to go back early in Floor's career, here she is at 21 in After Forever. Only four years into her music career, she was already a powerhouse vocalist. If you compare this to the Northward video or to the Nightwish video above, you can see how she has matured and developed as a singer over the years.

And from five years later, my favourite After Forever song is the high energy anthem appropriately titled, "Energize Me" (I think I posted a live version rather than the official video before). This is one of the old songs that Floor still sings in her solo concerts, so it is apparently a favourite of hers, too.

 

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So Floorworld is in party mode as the site's subject turns 43 tomorrow. I don't think I've posted this performance before. Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, Floor took classical training early in her career. Here is a rare case of her actually singing classical material, Frank Lehar's "Vilja Lied" from The Merry Widow.

 

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And the clock has begun ticking. Yesterwynde, the next Nightwish album is announced for release on September 20. Even better, "Perfume Of The Timeless", which is the first single and the first new Nightwish song in over four years, drops on May 21 so only three weeks to wait. It clocks in at almost 10 minutes so this may be this album's "Ghost Love Score". Great cover art, too.

From an interview with songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen about the new album:

What does the title, Yesterwynde, mean?
“It’s a made-up word. There's this thing called The Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows. It gave me the idea that if you don't have an English word to describe a certain emotion, you can just make your own. This particular dictionary is dedicated to that, like, the feeling of longing for a place that you have never been in. What is that feeling? And it was something weird, I can remember. And this album was born from a certain sensation that I felt really strongly, but I couldn't find a word in human language to describe it. So I started to talk with Troy [Donockley, multi-instrumentalist] and said, ‘Should we come up with a new word? Does that make any sense to you?’ And he's like, ‘Yeah, that's a brilliant idea. What did you have in mind?’ It was something like time, memories going black and white, sepia, and I said, ‘something yesterday’. Then he said, ‘How about Yesterwynde?’ That's perfect! But yeah, it's just a made up word to describe what the album is about."

A sense of longing?
"Not so much longing as realising what time is all about. Realising that there is such a thing as time and past and history. The internet and YouTube is full of these old black-and-white images, and even video clips, that you first see in black-and-white, and then they have been coloured. Have you seen those? That's the effect that I get at the moment. It's like it's coming from an other dimension, these are black-and-white images, then you colour it, and it's right there, as if it was filmed yesterday. Something happens in my mind when I see those. I thought, 'This has to be put into a song or into an album somehow.' Suddenly, you feel so connected to the past generations, and those people that you see in those images. They've all had their lives, their ups and downs, and they don't exist anymore, except as atoms scattered all over the universe. And we're going to be in that state pretty soon as well. So that should give you something to think about."

As I commented under Floor's post about the album on Floorworld, the title, song titles, and cover all feel very proggy to me, moreso than metal. However, this is promised to be a heavier album that 2020's Human : || : Nature so it all sounds very intriguing. Looking forward to that first single to get a better sense of what the band is up to with this one.