Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli (born August 17, 1977, in Kitee, Finland), is the former lead singer of the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish.

The brightest star of the Finnish rock scene, the soprano singer Tarja Turunen has in a short time become one of the most well-known Finnish faces in the world of music. Turunen, who was born in the city of Kitee, Finland, started her musical studies at the age of six, and moved to study classical singing at the age 18 at the Sibelius Academy of Kuopio city. At the same time Tarja's classmate Tuomas Holopainen was starting his acoustical project, and invited Turunen to join the band. Tarja said yes to the invitation, and thus Nightwish was born. The band's first demo-tape was enough to get them a recording deal with Spinefarm Records. Shortly after signing the band in 1997 Spinefarm released their debut album "Angels Fall First", a masterpiece mixing modern metal music with operatic, classical vocals. At the time, Tarja was joining the Savonlinna Opera Festival Choir where she performed Wagner and Verdi among others. It was the beginning as well for Tarja Turunen to establish a career that compromises two different kind of music and a long way to go until the audience in general has accepted this fact.