Nightwish part ways with vocalist Floor Jansen after 13 years

The Finnish symphonic metal band and Jansen both describe the split as "a mutual decision", announced on 15 October 2026. It comes weeks before Nightwish release a live album marking their 30th anniversary.

EILISH Editorial Team18 Oct 2026, 00:49 · Updated 22 Oct 2026, 20:38 · 2 min read · 1 source

Nightwish announced on 15 October 2026 that they have parted ways with vocalist Floor Jansen after 13 years. According to Louder / Metal Hammer, which reported the news, the band and Jansen each issued a statement describing the split as "a mutual decision".

Louder noted that at the time of writing neither the band nor Jansen was available for further comment. The source does not say what happens next for either party, and nothing has been confirmed about a successor.

A change in an anniversary year

The departure arrives as Nightwish mark three decades as a band. A live compilation, The Greatest 30 Years On Earth, is due in December to coincide with the anniversary. Louder reports that it includes several songs recorded at the band's hometown show in Kitee on 16 June 2023.

That concert, at the town's Rantakenttä baseball stadium, was the band's first in Kitee for almost 20 years. Founder and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen told Louder that he remembers playing to 11,000 people there. He regards it as the best gig the band have played.

Roots in Kitee

Louder's profile traces the group to 6 July 1996, when a 19-year-old Holopainen invited schoolmates Emppu Vuorinen and Tarja Turunen to his parents' cabin on an island in Lake Pyhäjärvi. Around a campfire he played them songs he had written during his national service in the Finnish army. The band's debut album, Angels Fall First, reached No.5 in the Finnish charts. Its follow-up, Oceanborn, gave them a first Finnish No.1 single with Sacrament Of Wilderness.

Changes at the microphone are not new for the band. Louder's coverage describes their history as including "bitter public break-ups". Holopainen has also admitted the band were blamed over the split with Turunen "for good reason". In a separate Louder piece he said he thought the group could carry on without him, adding that "Nightwish has always been more than the sum of its parts".

Louder's interview with Holopainen was recorded in Kitee earlier this summer, before the departure was announced. It looks back over the band's 30 years and what the future might hold, and Holopainen does not address the split in the material available to EILISH.

Nightwish and Jansen have not yet given further detail on the reasons for the split or on the band's plans. EILISH will update this report if either side adds to its statement.