Femme-Metal Friday: Tarja “Feliz Navidad”

Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe

I am back one more time with another Christmas video...I will share one more on Christmas Day, and then I promise to be done with the holiday music for the rest of the year!

The third and final Tarja video from her Christmas album From Spirits and Ghosts is her rendition of “Feliz Navidad”, known best by singer José Feliciano. Tarja also recorded a version featuring several other rock and metal singers to raise money for hurricane relief in Antigua, but I am going to write about the solo version featured on the album, because a lyric video was released for that song.

Unlike the other two videos, which showed the contrasting Light/Dark Tarja costumes, Tarja is dressed in a simple black dress in a room with a gold or beige background, with some lit candles and a comfortable-looking chair. The lyrics are in a lovely handwritten script, so that listeners can learn both the English and Spanish phrases. This is a stark contrast from the José Feliciano version: this song is known for being upbeat, cheery, and catchy. Tarja's version is subdued and dignified, as if to emphasize the solemnity of what Christmas means, and to convey that her wish to everyone for a Merry Christmas is not made lightly. It sounds almost like an entirely different song; any up-tempo elements have been completely stripped away and made into a somber, serious ballad that holds its own elegant charm and loveliness.

For more information on Tarja's Christmas album, visit the From Spirits and Ghosts website.

Season's greetings!

Femme-Metal Friday: Tarja “O Tannenbaum”

Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe

I'm back with another Christmas video from Tarja! Let's get started, shall we?

This video starts off with drawings of a busy city at Christmastime: people tramping through the streets in Santa hats, holiday lights illuminating shop windows, and a likeness of Tarja as she was dressed in the previous video  (“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”, which I reviewed last week). The camera pans out to show it is all inside the pages of a book that Tarja is reading.

This time, Tarja is wearing all black: her hair is raven-black, and the room is dark with black furniture. Tarja's face is painted white, and the small lights on the black Christmas tree give some brightness to the dark scenery. Again, the only spot of color can be found in the dark red on Tarja's lips.

As she sings the beloved Christmas carol in its native German, the drawings appear again, showing happy Nutcracker soldiers in the streets, while a lone shadowy figure approaches a cold and empty graveyard. Then the drawings dissolve to real images, returning to Tarja dressed in white. The camera alternates between her light and dark looks until the two are seen together, sitting across from one another. Now Tarja's dark side is seen in animation, approaching the graveyard as the holiday parade marches down the street. Dark Tarja looks as if she's about to start some trouble as a parade float drives by, and Light Tarja looks worried that something will happen. As the two sides draw nearer, the images flash between real and animated. Then we are left with the book closing on a drawing of the two Tarjas sitting across from each other.

For more information on Tarja or on her Christmas music, visit the official From Spirits and Ghosts website.

Femme-Metal Friday: Tarja “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe

As I promised on Wednesday, I was going to feature artists known for being particularly fond of Christmas. If you are a fan of symphonic metal, then the name Tarja already comes to mind; but she has also become known for her beautiful holiday musical renditions.

Ever since going solo, Tarja has consistently released Christmas albums and singles, and performs Christmas concerts in her home country of Finland each year. Her first solo project was a Christmas abum; counting her side project Harus, she has released 3 Christmas albums within the last decade (along with occasional holiday singles here and there). Needless to say, Tarja really knows how to get into the spirit of the season!

Her latest Christmas album, From Spirits and Ghosts, combines Tarja's love of Christmas music with her trademark dark gothic sound. The first video from the album is the one I'm reviewing today: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”.

The video itself is of Tarja performing the song amidst white, withered tree branches. She is also dressed completely in white—a white dress, a long white wig, and her face painted white—with a black backdrop, and dark circles painted around her eyes, the only touch of color being the crimson-painted lips, dramatically set against the stark white of her face. The imagery only seems dark and cheerless, but as Tarja sings and the light casts little orbs, the wintry color scheme is of little importance. At the end, the imagery switches to Tarja dressed all in black, but those dark red lips remain.

For more information on Tarja, visit her official website.