Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli (born August 17, 1977, in Kitee, Finland… Read Full Bio ↴Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli (born August 17, 1977, in Kitee, Finland), better known as Tarja Turunen (while she was vocalist of Nightwish) or simply Tarja, is a Finnish singer. Tarja began to study music at age six, and moved to the city of Kuopio at 18 to study at the Sibelius Academy. She married Argentinian businessman Marcelo Cabuli in early 2003.

She is the former lead singer of the Finnish band Nightwish which she founded along with Emppu Vuorinen and Tuomas Holopainen in 1996. After being expelled from the band in October 2005, Tarja Turunen is now devoting her time to her solo career under the stage name of Tarja.

During the spring of 2005, she prepared a collaboration with Germany's Martin Kesici, the duet Leaving You for Me, also accompanied by a video. On November 8th 2006, Tarja's first solo album, Henkäys Ikuisuudesta was released as a Christmas album.

Tarja's second solo album, My Winter Storm, was released in November 2007 and achieved gold status in Finland on the day of release. The album took the number 1 spot in the Finnish charts. Tarja also sings on track In The Picture, composed by Rage guitarist Victor Smolski, on Nuclear Blast Allstars' album 'Into The Light', 2007. In 2009, Tarja released a duet with Doro Pesch, the former vocalist for heavy metal band Warlock.

Tarja's third solo album, What Lies Beneath was released in Finland on September 1, 2010. The album sold around 1,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release, landing it position 24 on the Top New Artist Albums chart. This is the first album on which Tarja is credited for composition on every original track.

Official site: www.tarjaturunen.com

Damned and Divine
Tarja Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

It won't help if you wait for me.
I'm a slave to the dark.
I know I'm not a saint, you see.
The Dawn is when it starts.

Feel the shadow of my oblivion
Hoping mercy would show her face
On the road to your own perdition

In the coal-blackened rain.

Frozen in time yearning forbidden wishes.
Damned and divine.
Scars of my broken kisses.
What will follow if tomorrow's blind?
My eternal night.

As the wind takes me away from you
Before the morning light.
My sins are fading into view
I'm so weary deep inside

Feel the shadow of my oblivion
Hoping mercy would show her face
On the road to your own perdition
I may see you again.

Frozen in time yearning forbidden wishes.
Damned and divine.
Scars of my broken kisses.
What will follow if tomorrow's blind?
My eternal night.

Every single dawn I die again.

Overall Meaning

Tarja's song "Damned And Divine" is a haunting lament about a doomed relationship. In these lyrics, the singer admits that she is a slave to the darkness and cannot be saved by waiting. She knows she is not a saint and the darkness always comes back at dawn. She is calling out to her lover to join her, but is resigned to the fact that she is on a road to her own perdition. She yearns for mercy, but feels frozen in time and trapped in her own eternal night. She is asking what will happen if tomorrow is blind, implying that she doesn't have much hope for the future.

The chorus repeats the same phrase "Damned and divine" which reflects the duality of the human condition. The scars of her broken kisses allude to past relationships that have also ended in tragedy. She sings that every dawn she dies again, perhaps indicating that she is struggling with depression or some other inner turmoil. As the wind takes her away from her lover, she feels her sins fading into view and she becomes increasingly weary. But she still holds out hope that she may see him again.

Line by Line Meaning

It won't help if you wait for me.
Waiting for me won't solve anything.

I'm a slave to the dark.
I'm a prisoner of darkness and despair.

I know I'm not a saint, you see.
I'm not perfect, as you can tell.

The Dawn is when it starts.
Each day brings new struggles.

Feel the shadow of my oblivion
Experience the darkness that consumes me.

Hoping mercy would show her face
Praying for a glimpse of compassion.

On the road to your own perdition
Trapped on the path to your own destruction.

In the coal-blackened rain.
Under the falling ashes of despair.

Frozen in time yearning forbidden wishes.
Stuck in time, desiring things that are prohibited.

Damned and divine.
Cursed and holy at the same time.

Scars of my broken kisses.
The remnants of my past relationships haunt me.