Blog: Goodbye Europe, hello America!

We have been on the road for some time again and had great shows. It’s been a wonderful leg so far and the weather has been very nice in most of the places we’ve been, with sunshine and no rain. In Russia the weather was colder, but in the end quite pleasant and no one got sick.

The second part of this tour is over now. It will still take some time before I can open my home door…it’s been already 4 months since I was in my small paradise and I am still travelling with these same 5 pieces of luggage!

Think about that and think twice if you are daydreaming of having a same kind of life than I!!!!

We really enjoyed the warm beginning in Lisbon, Portugal where I finally had my first concert ever in my solo career. Now writing this post seems an eternity ago… I was excited about it, since for many years I’ve read comments from my Portuguese fans that I should visit their country and only now I had the opportunity and it really was worth it. I truly hope my fans got what they expected!

The day off in Lisbon was beautiful and I got to do some shopping and sightseeing. Loved the city! Maybe there is a chance next time for me to have a classical concert in Portugal… I would love that. Let’s see what the future brings.



Our journey to Santiago de Compostela was quite short, but I had so many things to do on that day at the venue that I didn’t have a chance to see the city at all unfortunately. I was happy to practise my Spanish language skills during the show, even though my Castellano dialect is way different than the Spanish what people talks in Spain…I remember seeing some surprised faces in front of me, but it was fun Nice little venue with nice screaming Spanish crowd, what else I can ask for?

I’ve been several times in Madrid, but still every time it surprises me with the huge amount of people on its streets. It can get pretty chaotic in the centre of this capital and the local carnival time didn’t help There were many people very funnily dressed and some of them half naked in the minus temperatures… hrrrrr. How can they do that? Well obviously they had lots of fun.

It was a pleasure to perform for a sold out venue. The atmosphere during the concert was really touching and the people seemed to enjoy a lot our show. Some people from Madrid told me that this was very exceptional, because that kind of kindness was not normal in their own opinion. It made me very happy. The little detail that I remember having different than in other shows was the small size of the stage where we hardly fitted in…but think about our support bands! It was fun to try to move around with my high heels without stumbling into cables.

We celebrated Alex’s birthday on that night as well.



Day after the concert in Barcelona went really well and some of my lucky guys got to see even the sea and the sun! I didn’t since I was stuck at the venue with all the millions of things to prepare. Hey, check out the medusa hanging on the roof !

I was happy to meet my Winter Storm people and fans in Spain because it had been a long time since my last visit there. Thank you for the amazing support for all these years!

It was the first time for everybody of us to visit Toulouse, France. It is rather different than other French cities I’ve been with its modern architecture. I enjoyed my off day in the centre with good food and shopping. It was lovely to see many cafeterias and how people were still sitting outside enjoying the winter sun. I would not be able to do that since I am easily getting cold all the time



It was really great to see how excited my French fans were in all the shows in France. It took me as a surprise because I haven’t been able to make too many shows in France earlier, but now these 4 concerts in Toulouse, Lyon, Strasbourg and Paris were amazing all of them. My Winter Storm fan club was present in all of them, showing their love and having fun. Great experience over all with tasty caterings in every venue: all kinds of French cheeses, chocolate, cakes, red wines…the people were surely pampering us in France and we were happy to receive such pleasures. When you are long time on the road, you start to appreciate little nice things in life.



After lovely Strasbourg concert we travelled to Eindhoven, Netherlands. I went to my backstage room and saw this:

Nice welcoming surprise from the promoter and nice welcoming present from my Dutch fans; first time a sold out concert in Netherlands! Felt pretty awesome. It was really a great show and we had fun with Dutch people in a great venue.

We stayed over night outside the venue, sleeping in our comfortable bus and left to Brussels very early in the morning to spend a well earned off day. I got to stroll over the streets of the city and had a tasty hot Belgian chocolate There were many tourists in the centre. Brussels reminds me somehow of Canada with it’s multi culture that can be seen in the streets.

The show went well and Belgian crowd was outstanding. I checked that those people have seen me every year since I started my solo career, so there has been always a good reason to return! Nice!

In Zurich I took a tramp to the city centre and wondered with my husband how long time it has been since we travelled by a tramp? Funnily, a long time. I have always liked Zurich and this time the sun was shining for us. We had an excellent Italian lunch and did some good shopping too. As I also told the people during the concert in Zurich, I am always excited to come to perform in Switzerland. I can feel the fans honest care during my performances. Nor that it wouldn’t be like that in any place else, but somehow I felt it again in Zurich. I’ll wait for the next time anxiously to come.

After Zurich we drove over to Milan where we said goodbye to our “home” on wheels. Our lovely and caring driver Mino started his journey back to Germany and we all stared the back of the bus sadly when it left. It was a great home for several weeks, truly. And there is no better driver than Mino in this world! He made me feel like a queen every day. Thank you dear! You will be missed.

In Milan we had a special venue this time, since it was a theatre instead of a rock club or a big hall. We really enjoyed this place. I always prefer performing in theatres because it gives immediately a different flavour to the show. There are many things you can do different production wise than in an ordinary rock stage. I wish all my shows could be in theatres in the future, then I would be able to come with many crazy ideas for the stage.

The audience got “pretty excited” when I decided to have my walk through them singing! Wow. You all should have been there to witness that. In one point I couldn’t hear any of the music, because someone disconnect my in ear monitor system while other people were stepping on my dress. But I had fun! Actually, I just loved it. So many people truly glad and happy to see me so close by reminded me how amazing it is to be able to do what I want.

From Milan we flew over to Minsk, Belarus and I was not at all prepared for the TV cameras at the airport at the arrival! Oh my God. Think of me with my jogging/travelling clothes and without any make up saying hello to the cameras! God it was embarrassing. Anyway, the fans were everywhere and very excited about my return. I was happy to receive that love. I had missed these people. The show was excellent, I really must say that this time WAY better than on my last visit in Minsk! The audience was loud and you could see the wave of thousands of people moving up and down like crazy. I received quite extraordinary gift: A metal sculpture made from railways. It was so heavy that I couldn’t even move it alone.



Thank you Belarus WS for the gifts like the credit card with fan love as currency!! What a fantastic idea.

I didn’t remember the last time I was in a night train, but confirmed again that when the ground is moving and there are noises around, I cannot sleep. I spent all 10 hours from Minsk to Moscow awake, listening all the other guys happily snoring…

I was very glad finally to arrive to Moscow and find a proper bed in a very comfortable hotel room. I slept like a baby during the whole afternoon!

My first real Russian tour experience was good. I had 6 concerts in Russia and all the places were whether sold out or completely packed. The people showed their passion and love to me, so it was overwhelming feeling really. I am sure that it won’t be my last time to make proper Russian tours and I am dreaming to be able to organize some classical concerts over there too. Some of the venues we performed this time were really nice theatres, so it would be fun to see how the acoustics of these places work with different kind of music.

In Russia we experienced different ways of travelling; the Russian train, flying and even a minibus that took us from Krasnodar to Rostov-on-Don.





In general in all the cities we visited, I received many flowers from the audience, but in Novgorod it was impossible! I couldn’t carry them all with me so we took some pictures for you to see the beautiful amount. Lovely, isn’t it?



Amazing surprise was also the one in Rostov where the people in the first 5-6 rows were all holding a sign where it said: I love you. It was very touching.



So I said goodbye to Europe and hello to America. We already performed in Mexico and Costa Rica, but about that I will write in my next post.

With all my love, Tarja

P.S: Many of my fans told me already how much they are going to miss me when I will be gone for a while working on my new album. I will keep you all posted what is going on, so even if I am not on the tour, you’ll be with me always. I won’t disappear anywhere. I promise.