Tarja Turunen reveals Annie Lennox inspiration

Tarja Turunen says she came up with the album title The Shadow Self after the phrase was coined by Annie Lennox in an old interview.

The former Nightwish singer admits this was the first time in her career that she didn’t have the album title from the beginning – but she knew she wanted to explore her darker side on her upcoming record.

She says: “I came across an Annie Lennox interview some time ago on the internet, and I was reading about her speaking about ‘the shadow self,’ about a darker side of us all.

“Everybody has a darker side, and we should probably just appreciate that it exists, but especially we artists. We get a lot of inspiration from our darker side. We don’t probably even understand where all the darkness comes from.

“For many years I realised that I have a darker side, even though I still believe I’m a very positive person. But there is still darkness that makes me write music and create in general, and it affects everything that I do. I believe it’s a beautiful darkness.”

Turunen continues: “Even before I decided to call it The Shadow Self, I had the working title as Black. That was the colour in my mind – it was the purity of black.

“This was the first time in my career that I didn’t have the title since the beginning when I was writing songs. I was struggling to find the perfect title.

“I found this interview of Annie, and it was very inspiring. She was just telling about our dark side, calling it as a ‘shadow self,’ and I said, ‘What a great title for an album. That’s it. That’s my album title.’ That is where everything comes from.”

The Shadow Self will be released on August 4. It can be pre-ordered via Amazon and iTunes.

Tarja Turunen The Shadow Self tracklist

Innocence
Demons In You
No Bitter End
Love To Hate
Supremacy
The Living End
Diva
Eagle Eye
Undertaker
Calling From The Wild
Too Many

Tarja tour 2016

Jul 16: Kostryn Nad Odra Woodstock Festival, Poland
Jul 25: Taipei Att Showbox, Taiwan
Jul 28: Shinjuku Reny, Japan
Jul 16: Przystanek Woodstock Festival, Poland
Jul 17: Zlin Masters Of Rock Cafe, Czech Republic
Jul 21: Nordholz Deichbrand, Germany
Aug 07: Saint Maurice De Gourdans Sylak Open Air, France
Oct 08: Hamburg Docks, Germany
Oct 10: Berlin Huxleys Neue Welt, Germany
Oct 11: Cologne Live Music Hall, Germany

Tarja Turunen's Guide To Life

Artists

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.