By Merlin Alderslade (Metal Hammer) 

December 21, 2020

Published in Metal Hammer #336

Nightwish’s Floor Jansen: “The way that things are now aren’t the way things are for life”

The gospel according to Nightwish singer Floor Jansen

It’s been eight years since Floor Jansen joined Nightwish, and in that time her already considerable star has only risen further. In 2020, she remains one of the most recognisable women in metal: a supreme talent and fascinating personality who has helped Nightwish into their most successful years ever. An unlikely career path for someone who originally just wanted to be a biologist and hang out with a ton of animals…

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I never stood still as a child

“My dad was an ambitious man, so if there was a business opportunity, a better job to get, he would move. Let’s not forget that in those days there were no cellphones; it’s not like you could stay in touch through that, so if you moved you basically would never see [your friends] again. I don’t know what it would be like to grow up in one place and make friends there that you keep for life. I’m married to a man who has had that. Today he had one of his best friends over that he knows from primary school – now we have kids, they have kids of the same age and that kind of stuff. I think that’s romantic to me. But maybe because I moved too much, it was easy for me to emigrate [away from the Netherlands later in life]. I still miss people, but it’s easy for me to adapt to places, and put a value on actual friends that last.”

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