Tarja is a new mother

[Traxan]

On Wednesday (November 28), former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen posted a picture on her official Facebook page in which she could be seen holding a small baby in her arms (see below). "[It] is time to go to the airport," she wrote in the accompanying message. "In few days, a new tour will start in Germany. It will be a very special one for us indeed."

Turunen's spokeswoman has since confirmed that the woman in the picture is really Tarja and that she is holding her and her husband and manager Marcelo Cabuli's first child.

"The baby is their biological child," Taija Holm told Iltalehti.

Turunen, who currently resides in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her husband, kept her pregnancy a secret until the very end.

Cabuli and his business partners last year demanded nearly 100,000 euros (approximately $135,000) in defamation damages from the parties behind "Once Upon a Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996-2006".

The book, which was published in Finnish in 2006 and in English three years later, blames Cabuli for the events leading up to Turunen's dramatic expulsion from the band in late 2005.

The court ruled that the book — which criticizes Cabuli on only a few of its 380 pages — did not detrimentally affect his work or reputation in South America. In addition, the court determined that the book's author did not maliciously portray Cabuli in a negative light.

Turunen was fired from NIGHTWISH a year before the book was published.

 

[Taimi]

Just because its a biological child does not mean she was pregnant. I'm guessing surrogacy. I haven't seen pictures of her recently, but from what I know about babies developments, the child looks to be about 4-6 months old.

 

[C.]

Doesn't make a difference to me. That's their business and they have a right to keep it under wraps if they so wish. Congrats to Tarja on her new baby.

If you've ever seen WT's The Silent Force Tour DVD, Sharon was about 3 or 4 months pregnant at the time, and if you saw any kind of bump or bulge, it was very slight. I know lots of women who have been pregnant and hardly show at all. Everyone's bodies are different.

 

[Traxan]

I wondered about that too. Tarja isn't the healthiest woman... diabetic and all. It could be she had eggs removed and Marcello donated sperm. The fact she is leaving to tour IMMEDIATELY after having this child is suspicious. But hey, she's a new mom and good for her.

 

[St Enigma]

Hold it guys... Afaik, the baby girl was born sometime in late August; she's over three months old already Her pergnancy wasn't completely a secret in Argentina as her fanclub leaders there did know about it, but obviously they had made a promise to keep it to themselves until Tarja was ready to go public with the news and her baby.

Maybe it's not such a big news in most other countries, but I can imagine that the yellow press in Finland are quite pissed off right now because they had no clue at all LOL!!!

Congrats to Tarja and Marcelo!

.

 

[C.]

Yeah, the baby looks a few months old to me and she cancelled tours as far back as, what? Spring? Early summer? That's plenty of time to bow out of the public eye before starting to show too much, and if the child is about 3 months old (as it appears in the photo it is not a newborn anyway), that sounds about right.

And you can tell from the photo that she's put on weight, and if the baby is a few months old, it stands to reason that Tarja hasn't shed all her pregnancy weight yet. I have no reason to believe she didn't carry the pregnancy to full term herself.

Jeez, do we really live in that much of a reality show world that if people want their private lives to remain private, we all must assume it's for some underhanded or freaky reason?

 

[kathleenkat]

Okay, so having a child is...

-Natural for a woman
-Does not effect the vocal chords


So even if she *just* had this child, it wouldn't prevent her from singing. I know many women, unless it was a complecated pregnancy, that were back to work three weeks after giving birth. The female body is meant to do this, and it isn't dehabilitating for months. Also, Tarja can easily work with a newborn, as her husband is her manager, and on tour with her, so they both can take care of the baby. It'll only get more difficult when the kid gets to the age where she needs to go to school. Then, maybe they'll hire a tutor to go on tour.

 

[C.]

Well, it's like Enigma said; the baby is more than a newborn so it's not like she dropped the baby from the womb and went straight to the airport afterwards (sorry for the mental picture there, folks!). But you're right, it doesn't need to take that much time after having a baby. Sharon den Adel gave birth to her first baby in (I think) December of '05 (and the baby was premature!), and she was back on the road with WT by the end of January '06 (if I recall correctly). And I think Anneke from The Gathering toured up until the 7th month of her pregnancy.

Tarja is 35 years old, and by the time the baby is old enough to go to school she'll be in her early '40s and will probably want to cut back a lot on touring by then anyway. At the very least, she'll have had a couple more albums under her belt to where she'll have the artistic/financial freedom to do what she wants and take a couple years off if she so desires. She and Marcelo have been married for over 9 years and obviously waited a long time to have a baby, so I would think they thought this through a lot and have an arrangement that works for them. Glad to see it appears that mom and baby are doing well and healthy.

 

[kathleenkat]

Wow, I did not realize that she is 35! Where has the time gone? Guess it was high time she had a child too; I hear it gets much harder to conceive into your 30s.

 

[Taimi]

Sometimes its difficult to get pregnant in your 20s. Which is what I'm dealing with. And I dispute the claim of pregnancy affecting your voice, because it does. That has been told to me by a doctorate of music performance and a voice coach that was in the Harlem Gospel Choir. It can affect your voice for up to 2 years after you stop breastfeeding.

 

[C.]

Tell that to my sister; she's 23 and already has 4 kids!

 

[kathleenkat]

@Taimi; it shouldn't effect your overall ability to sing. Everything we do effects our voice (and entire body). I have heard similar about hormonal birth control. But, doesn't stop me from singing

By the way....

http://pinterest.com/pin/94505292152138975/

 

[Taimi]

Ok, in my experience, it changes the quality of your voice.

 

[C.]

Some people might say that it changed Sharon's voice too; before The Heart of Everything (i.e., the album after the birth of her first child), she did vocals in the higher range a lot more often. It is often complained about how she doesn't do those high vocals as much anymore. Then again, voices change naturally over time anyway, so I suppose it's anyone's guess as to why.

If I remember correctly, I think Sharon even said this herself in an interview after her last child was born; that the tour had to be pushed back a couple of months because her voice was not quite the same after the birth and she had to "re-train" herself?

 

[kathleenkat]

I'm not sure what you mean by quality, but tone I can understand.

I've been singing for about, eh, 7 years, 4 or 5 of those being professionally. I can tell you that pretty much *everything* we do affects our voice. Is it raining outside? Yep. Drink too much coffee? Yep. Not get enough sleep? You know it. As a singer though, at least I was taught, to work with those changes, not fight against them. If I have a sore throat, I won't belt. Conversely, if I have throat congestion, I'll probably belt instead. I'm sure that's why Sharon avoided notes she struggled to hit due to changes in her body (the body is the singer's instrument, afterall), and sang instead lower notes.

But pregnancy, or an illness, or diet doesn't change your overal ability to sing (unless you have, er, throat cancer?). If you aren't tone-deaf, and have the training to sing properly, you can work with what you've got. Tarja has been doing excellent concerts since her elleged pregnancy. Heh, back when I was a teenager I could sing really low, into the Tenor range if I wanted to. Can't do that anymore. Body changed, I guess. Solution? I don't touch Alto/Tenor songs anymore. But I still sing

 

[C.]

I'm not a singer, so I don't know the technical jargon, I'm afraid.

 

[Stingray11214]

May God bless Marcelo and Tarja on the birth of their first born.

 

[St Enigma]

In the "Heikki & Mikko" talkshow yesterday (Dec 7.) on the Finnish TV-channel MTV3 Tarja revealed the name of her baby girl: Naomi Eerika Alexia Cabuli Turunen.

Tarja also told that the baby is "four months old", yet she didn't mention her exact date of birth.





Edit: "months" not "moths", damn my sticky keyboard!!!

 

[C.]

Interesting that the baby's name is "Cabuli-Turunen" instead of "Turunen-Cabuli". Cute name, nonetheless.

Tarja probably has her reasons for not stating the exact date of birth; the NEMS office would be swamped with birthday gifts from fans every year without fail!

 

[kathleenkat]

I have heard that in Latin America, it is tradition to give both surnames to the child, with the mother's surname last. (And the surname given from the mother/father is the first of the two surnames that they have. )