Floor Jansen sang a symphonic version of Metallica‘s “Nothing Else Matters” with the Royal Netherlands Navy Marine Band.
Floor Jansen spent an evening in July fronting a military orchestra on a harbour stage in Friesland. The Nightwish singer appeared as a guest vocalist with the Marine Band of the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Marinierskapel der Koninklijke Marine, and one of the pieces she took on was a symphonic arrangement of Metallica‘s “Nothing Else Matters“. Footage of the performance has now surfaced online and can be seen down below.
The show was the opening concert of Sail Harlingen, held on Thursday 2 July in the Vluchthaven at Harlingen and starting at 20:30. Jansen shared vocal duties with Melissa Pander and Wiebe van Dijk, and her set with the orchestra also took in Nightwish‘s “Ghost Love Score“.
Sail Harlingen director Lieuwe Krol described the format as a version of Amsterdam’s Prinsengracht concert relocated to an outer harbour, with the audience watching from the quayside and from boats moored alongside. Several tall ships had already arrived and formed the backdrop. The concert opened the event’s fourth edition, which ran from 3 to 6 July as a host port for the Tall Ships Races and drew crowds in the region of 300,000 — the largest public gathering in the north of the Netherlands this summer. The Marinierskapel‘s repertoire moves between classical works and show and big band material.
The Harlingen appearance sits in an unusually busy solo year. On 26 June Jansen released “Run” through Revamp Music in partnership with Warner Music, her first new solo material since her debut album Paragon in March 2023. Her husband, Sabaton drummer Hannes van Dahl, made the lyric video.
“Run” was produced by Gordon Groothedde, who last worked with Jansen on the final After Forever album before she joined Nightwish. The track is built around a compact structure, down-tuned guitars and layered vocals, and pulls back towards the metal she came from rather than the pop-leaning writing of Paragon. Its subject is liberation and refusing to shrink to fit other people’s expectations. She has since played the song at John Smith Rock Festival in Finland on 18 July, and has appeared at Wacken Open Air, Masters Of Rock, M’era Luna and Sweden Rock Festival.
Alongside the single, Jansen announced her “Hytress” tour, which takes her across Europe and South America early next year. A second solo album has not been announced, though “Run” is widely expected to appear on it.
Confirmed dates:
- Jan 14 – Trix, Antwerp, Belgium
- Jan 16 – Electric Brixton, London, United Kingdom
- Feb 13 – 013, Tilburg, Netherlands
- Apr 22 – Santiago, Chile
- Apr 24 – Bangers Open Air, São Paulo, Brazil
- Apr 25 – Buenos Aires, Argentina
The London show is the only British date on the run, and venues for the Chilean and Argentine shows have yet to be confirmed. Tickets are available through her website.
Nightwish announced in April 2023 that they would stop performing live for an indefinite period after their scheduled June dates that year, and would not tour the album that followed. That record, Yesterwynde, arrived on 20 September 2024 through Nuclear Blast without a single supporting show.
Multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley later described the break as open-ended and free of any time limit, while saying he could imagine some live work in 2027, when the band mark their 30th anniversary. Keyboardist and songwriter Tuomas Holopainen has said the reasons are personal, that there is no ill feeling within the band, and that a multi-album deal with Nuclear Blast means further records are coming. Jansen has consistently described the situation as a pause rather than an ending.
Born in Goirle in February 1981, Jansen joined After Forever at 16 in 1997 and stayed until the band folded in 2009, by which point they had released five albums between 2000 and 2007. She then formed ReVamp, who issued records in 2010 and 2013.
Her first performance with Nightwish came on 1 October 2012 at Showbox SoDo in Seattle, stepping in after the sudden departure of Anette Olzon, who had fronted the band since 2007. Jansen became a permanent member the following year. Her first studio album with them, 2015’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful, reached the top ten in several countries, and 2020’s Human. :II: Nature. followed. She also features on the live releases Showtime, Storytime, Vehicle Of Spirit and Decades: Live In Buenos Aires.
In 2019 she appeared on the Dutch television series Beste Zangers, where her duet with Henk Poort on “The Phantom Of The Opera” became a substantial hit, and she received the Dutch Popprijs that year. Her first solo tour sold out inside a day.
Jansen disclosed a breast cancer diagnosis in 2022 and confirmed that November that she was cancer free following surgery. She and Van Dahl have two daughters, Freja, born in March 2017, and Lucy, born in October 2023.
