Tuomas Holopainen was born in Kitee, Finland and is the youngest in his family. His musicality and skill in text expression showed early in school, especially when he took piano lessons at age seven and studied jazz and classical music styles for over 10 years at a music college. Holopainen joined his first bands in 1993. He played in several bands, including recording keyboards for three albums with black metal band Darkwoods My Betrothed and playing with Dismal Silence, Nattvindens Gråt and Sethian. In July 1996, Holopainen began thinking of starting a band of his own, for which he would write the music and play keyboards. This was the birth of Nightwish, around a camp fire. He asked Emppu Vuorinen (guitar) and classmate Tarja Turunen (vocals) to join what was then an acoustic project. After hearing Turunen's strong voice, and because of the metal influences of Vuorinen and drummer Jukka Nevalainen, Tuomas decided to turn Nightwish into a metal act. He and Nightwish didn't break through until they released their second album, Oceanborn. During the Century Child era, Holopainen decided to make music changes and added orchestral music to his work, from Century Child, Once and Dark Passion Play. Once became the ultimate breakthrough in the USA. In 2005, the lead singer, Tarja Turunen was fired after the last concert at the Hartwell Arena in Finland by a letter written by Tuomas and signed by the band. In 2006, Holopainen went through a dark period filled with anxiety and depression, made worse by rumors about himself and Nightwish in the tabloids every day. These events also inspired him in the writing of Dark Passion Play, Nightwish's latest album, which may be considered their darkest album yet. In 2007, the new vocalist, Anette Olzon was announced. In the late August in 2007, Dark Passion Play was released, which makes Nightwish's most successful album yet.
