Former NIGHTWISH members Marko Hietala and Tarja Turunen have collaborated on a new song called “Left On Mars”
The official music video for the track can be seen below.
Inspired by a tale of love and longing, this ethereal ballad combines Marko‘s emotive lyrics and powerful riffs with Tarja‘s hauntingly beautiful vocals, creating a symphony that resonates deep within the soul.
Hietala states about “Left On Mars”: “A love song to my wife which ends up uniting two old friends. Even if the song itself sucked, I would be pleased about the result.”
Marko‘s guitarist and album producer Tuomas Wäinölä recalls hearing the song for the first time at Marko‘s place in Kuopio: “It was a strong one immediately. I think Marko had the idea of it being a duet too, straight from the beginning. After that it was just a matter of grinding and demoing it well. The fun part was taking the song to Switzerland on an USB drive, like proper agents. We had this secret meeting when we had a Pratteln outdoor gig with Tarja, both playing our own sets. And yeah, it was great to see them together on stage and finally singing the same tune again.”
Hietala was recently asked by El Planeta Del Rock if there is any chance of him and Turunen launching a new band together. He responded: “I won’t close that option off. We haven’t talked about it, putting up a group together or anything like that. But at the moment, it seems that we’ve got a different kind of connection than it was [in the] past. Because then the camps were really divided already when I stepped into [NIGHTWISH].
“And it was hard to find the truth of things, because a lot of it was like a managerial turf war where we got told certain things by one side and told certain things by the other side and lots of confusion — blah, blah, blah — and in the end, yeah, what we already realized a few years back when we were all together there doing the Christmas shows in Finland that after all the hassle has died and the noise has died and everything, you still find out that you lost a friend. And that was the main [reason] why we are basically doing this together again.”
Turunen‘s departure from NIGHTWISH at the culmination of the band’s 2005 tour was marked by a public announcement via an open letter posted on the NIGHTWISH website. In this communiqué, fellow band members expressed their regret, noting that Turunen‘s focus seemed to have shifted towards business and monetary concerns rather than the emotional essence of the music.
Tuomas Holopainen, the band’s keyboardist and primary songwriter, reflected on the decision to part ways with Turunen as one of the most challenging moments of his career. Turunen herself perceived her expulsion from the group as a betrayal, asserting that it revealed the true nature of her former colleagues’ camaraderie. She expressed a willingness to forgive in time but made it clear that the memories would not easily fade.
In 2019, Turunen addressed speculation regarding a potential reunion with NIGHTWISH, prompted by her onstage appearance alongside the band’s then-bassist/vocalist Hietala during a “Raskasta Joulua” concert in Hämeenlinna, Finland, in December 2017.
Despite fans’ hopes, Turunen dismissed the possibility, citing the considerable distance between herself and the band both physically and emotionally. While she maintained a friendship with Hietala, her relationship with Holopainen had faded with time, although sporadic communication persisted. Turunen emphasized the inevitability of the past and the potential for a different future.
The authorized biography of NIGHTWISH, titled “Once Upon a Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996-2006“, was initially published in Finnish in 2006 and later translated into English three years thereafter.
In January 2021, Hietala made the decision to depart from NIGHTWISH, citing a lack of personal fulfillment in a statement to the public. He expressed that he had been grappling with feelings of disconnection from the lifestyle for a significant period. Following his departure, session bassist Jukka Koskinen, known for his work with WINTERSUN, stepped in to fill the void. Koskinen made his inaugural live appearance with NIGHTWISH in May 2021 during the band’s two interactive events.