Bettina S show with Anette

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Bettina: We already talked about the woman that the whole Finland was talking about, when she was chosen to be the new lead singer of Nightwish. Welcome Anette Olzon.

B: I guess you already heard what we talked about earlier.

Anette: Of course. It would have been okay.

B: You could be "Honorary Concrete"

A: Sounds good.

B: You're still not all Finnish yet.

A: I do feel like a Finn quite much already.

B: What Finnish characters do you already have?

A: I was born in the mid- Sweden and I live in the southern Sweden. My birth surroundings is the same forest as in Finland. I have also always gone to sauna. I also like the fact, that you can be silent in Finland. Here you don't have to talk all the time. In Sweden we sometimes talk the whole time so that there wouldn't be an "awkward" silence. Fortunately that isn't necessary in Finland.

B: I agree.

A: That's what makes us different.

B: We like to sit together quietly.

A: That's what I like. In the band we may be really quiet sometimes.

B: Really?

A: Yes.

B: How have things gone? The pressure was quite tough on you, when you stepped into Tarja Turunen's shoes.

A: I do have other shoes. There has been a lot of stuff to do of course and the media has been very interested. Things have gone well. The band has supported me well. The boys have been really kind and helpful. It's been good.

B: What has it been like to face the audience? How has the audience responded you?

A: The response has been very positive. Last week Tuomas and I were on a gig in Switzerland where we wrote autographs. There were at least a thousand people there and everybody was screaming like crazy. I didn't feel at all that they wanted Tarja there instead of me. They were all excited and bought the Amaranth cds. The response has been positive everywhere.

B: You don't speak Finnish, but have you heard what kind of noise there was in Finland about Tarja's leaving (the band)?

A: I was very distant of the whole thing. I did read the letter. It was only in May when I realized how important Nightwish in Finland. That's when I got it. I was also shocked because some paparazzis appeared in front of my house in Sweden.

B: There were pictures of it in papers.

A: Yes. Pictures of my cat and my bad car. I do have a better car too. I went hiding in my bathroom

B: You were home at the time?

A: On the first day I was visiting a friend and my neighbours called me. The paparazzis also visited my neighbours. Then I asked for some help from my manager. He told me to hide in the bathroom. Then my neighbour called "Now they have gone".

B: I should have taken the paper with me because the article was absolutely ridiculous. One of the titles was "The new lead singer of Nightwish is a mother!". It was in big letters. Like you had been a moomintroll or something.

A: That shocked me the most. I don't know why it happened that way. Only in Finland they wrote about me being a mother. Of course some people have asked me how handle things with my family, but they made such a big thing out of it only in here. The fact that I'm a mother and "abandoning my child". It felt like I was the worst person in the world.

B: I didn't read about you "abandoning your child", but I guess they thought of it as weird that there was a mom in such a band.

A: They chose me because the band needs a mother.

B: I bet you pick up there dirty sucks.

A: I'm quite careless when I'm with the band. I am more specific at home. Of course I am somewhat a mother figure for the boys. If they do something unhealthy for example, I tell them about it. "Quit smoking". I have smoked myself but I say it anyway. I tell them to exercise. I exercise a lot myself. I'm still quite kind.

B: Let's get back to the paparazzis in front of your house. They took a picture of your cat.

A: One of my cats.

B: Has anyone translated the story for you? I read it and believed it myself. "It's quiet in Anette Olzon's home. The car is gone, only the cat is wandering around quietly..." I remember it well. The article impressed me. "Only the cat is wandering around quietly searching for its owners".

B: The impression was that the cat had been let there alone without food. The child didn't matter.

A: I couldn't believe it. Even the directions to my house were very exact. "Drive the motor way and turn after 500 meters..."

B: They had also interviewed the neighbours.

A: I had never even talked to them myself. I didn't know them at all before, but now I do. We all know who we are.

B: Have you regretted your choice after all the fuss?

A: Not at all.

B: You are still satisfied.

A: Yes I am and the situation has also calmed down. I have said that I want to have my privacy. I am not going to to show my home to the press. Unfortunately.

B: You can't come nearer than my lawn.

A: I am very precise about that. My band is my job. Just like this is your job.

B: How has your child been handling the excitement that your new job has created?

A: He is really proud. Almost too proud. He might ask me in the store "Mom, can I call you Nightwish-Anette?" Of course his wearing a Nightwish t-shirt. It's embarrassing but also funny. He would like to tell everyone that his mother is the lead singer of Nightwish. He would also like to be seen in the papers and I have to slow him down. I bet he would like to be with Lordi on their gig.

B: He is still very young. What age is he?

A: Six years old.

B: You are protecting him for his own good. You have already been a bit in the limelight in Finland. You have also published an album. Have your expectations come true?

A: Mostly. Surprises do come up sometimes. There are also a lot of stuff to do besides singing.

B: What about musically?

A: It has gone really well. I am very glad and proud to be on this album. We practise together very much and it feels really good.

B: your musical background is totally different though.

A: I have still sung mostly rock. This feels very much like my own thing and Nightwish doesn't represent the heaviest metal there is. For example I like Finntroll a lot. It's pretty heavy. And so is Amorphis. This feels very good.

B: I read somewhere that your uncle is in a band called Vikingarna.

A: Yes. I come from a dance orchestra family.

B: That's quite amusing.

A: Yes, a bit. On the other hand, I understand how this has happened. I have lived with my mother in a tourbus, slept behind stage and listened to dance music all my life. I wouldn't want to sing it.

B: Maybe not even listen to it?

A: No.

B: How have your dance orchestra family responded to your new job?

A: Well. My uncle in Vikingarna is really proud. He thinks that Nightwish is a fine band. My mother is also very excited. She was recently on a metal festival with my sister and listens to metal often now. Metal just hasn't been in our repertoire. We used to listen to jazz, blues and dance music, because most of them play for their profession.

B: Many people are probably thinking how does a girl with a history of dance music apply to a band like Nightwish.

A: It was a twist of fate. That's exactly how I saw it. I didn't plan it or even knew the band. I had heard the name and I had heard the music a couple of months earlier because my niece kept talking about the band all the time. I had heard the band on a collection album. Then one familiar sound man suggested that I should apply to be the lead singer of Nightwish because the band had fired Turunen. "Who? Me?" I asked. "Do I sing opera and classical?" "Maybe they want something different". I thought about it and decided to try it. I had been hoping for years that I would get a chance to sing that kind of music. I recorded Ever Dream and sent it to the band.

B: Did you record it at a studio?

A: Me and my previous band already had our own studio. I asked them to record the tracks again. The guitarist did the solos and I recorded my own part. I listened to the song only twice before the recording. I wasn't very prepared, which is pretty typical of me. I recorded the song, sent it and that was it. The response came after a week. Tuomas praise my demo very much. That's when I realized something.

B: Did he call or did he e-mail you?

A: I got an e-mail.

B: In what language?

A: English.

B: What language do you speak in the band?

A: A weird mixture of English, Finnish and Swedish.

B: Does Tuomas speak Swedish?

A: Very well. The best of all. At first he resisted Swedish the most. "Sweden and Swedes, Yuck!" Now he asks me in the morning "How are you?" in Swedish. He writes almost flawless Swedish.

B: That's really great. We are going to invite the whole band here.

A: There probably going to kill me now.

B: I hope that doesn't happen.

A: Tuomas needs to be nice.

B: A two year's tour is very long. Now comes an obligatory question. How can you be away from your family? Well, if you were a man... No wait a minute. I asked the same thing from a male artist last week.

A: It's hard on all of us who have children, Marco, Jukka and me the same way. My own husband has been away so I know what it's like to take care of a child alone. My husband also knows what it's like to be away from home. Of course it is the hardest on my son. It is easier for me because I can concentrate on working. My son thinks it's sometimes lame when I'm away. Not every day though. Sometimes he cries to me on the phone "Another whole week?" It tears my heart but I'm still trying to explain to him that he is the most important and the dearest person to me in the world. I say that mother would still be quite unhappy without her job. This is a big dream of mine.

B: Let's hope that everything goes well.

A: I'm sure it will.

B: Thank you very much Anette. You must feel the same thing as I do. Anette is quite Finnish, isn't she?

A: A tiny bit.

B: There's something Finnish about you.

A: Perhaps the cheeks.

B: Maybe the thoughtful way that you speak.

A: Maybe that's it.

B: We have a fly in the studio.

A: It wants to be Finnish too.

B: Thank you Anette.