In a new interview with U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine, NIGHTWISH keyboardist/leader Tuomas Holopainen reflected on the band’s 2005 split with original lead singer Tarja Turunen.

Turunen was fired from NIGHTWISH at the end of the band’s 2005 tour by being presented with an open letter which was published on the NIGHTWISH web site at the same time. In the letter, the other members of NIGHTWISH wrote: “To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with emotions have become much more important.”

Holopainen told Metal Hammer that NIGHTWISH “get blamed for what happened, for good reason” but insisted that “there was no future” for the band with Turunen. “We were just operating in survival mode and plagued by these dark thoughts,” he explained. He added that the remaining NIGHTWISH members “got completely butchered in the media” after the open letter was published. “It was like we were these evil neanderthals who’d hurt our wonderful ex-singer,” Holopainen recalled. “I got some really interesting letters, let’s put it that way.”

Holopainen went on to say that there is no chance of a NIGHTWISH reunion with Turunen.

“It was a divorce, and an ugly one at that,” he explained, “so I think we have our own lives now. Someone did say to me if we got Tarja and Marko (Hietala, former NIGHTWISH bassist/vocalist who left in 2020) back in, we could tour just South America for a year straight. That’s not gonna happen.”

Last month, Tarja told U.K.’s Metal Hammer magazine about her 2005 split with NIGHTWISH: “It’s very sad how everything ended up, but the thing that I would have done differently is, I probably should have put them through hell. I had all my rights, there were contracts, and they would have been in deep shit for a long time if I had done that, according to my rights, but I didn’t. I just decided to move on and leave.”

Tarja continued: “What followed was their really great planning, how they wanted to destroy me publicly. That was something I never expected. It was nasty.

“It was an insane period, and in a small country like Finland, my face was covering the tabloids for three weeks or so,” Tarja said. “I left my home country. I had to. I went down to Buenos Aires.

“It was tough, because it affected so many more people than just me,” Turunen added. “It affected my family, my friends. Everybody was destroyed. It took me a long time to gain trust in people again. But luckily, I have amazing relationships and a long-lasting marriage with my husband. My family, my friends were there for me in that very hard period.”

Holopainen later called the decision to part ways with Turunen “the most difficult thing I ever had to do.” For her part, Tarja said a few years ago the way she was kicked out of the group proved that her former bandmates were not her friends. “Maybe one day I’ll forgive, but I will never forget,” she said.

In a recent interview with Finland’s Chaoszine, NIGHTWISH keyboardist and main songwriter Tuomas Holopainen spoke about his plans to write and record new music in the coming months. He said: “ Since the release of (NIGHTWISH‘s latest album, 2024’s) ‘Yesterwynde’, it’s all been about music in my life, and I’ve absolutely loved it. First, we recorded the third AURI album (Holopainen‘s project with his wife Johanna Kurkela and NIGHTWISH multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley), ‘(III – )Candles & Beginnings’, did a tour with it. After that, I have been working with an upcoming solo album that will be released at some point next year. All the songs are done and recorded, and at the moment we are just doing the orchestrations with (English conductor, orchestrator and composer) Mr. James Shearman, and we’re gonna record them in London later this year. So the album should be ready by spring ’27. And also I have been working on the next NIGHTWISH album for the past months, and we are entering the studio next May. So we’re doing good in there as well.”

Referencing the fact that NIGHTWISH hasn’t played a single concert in more than three years, Tuomas added: “The break has really been good for us because I just feel like the songs are coming like never before. I’m really, really excited both for the next NIGHTWISH album and the solo thing. So nothing but good times.”