One of the Most Powerful Live Performances Ever? Yes. Yes it is.

Iron Maiden. Metallica. The Beastie Boys. So far, the performances that I’ve written about in the pieces under my ‘best live clips of all time’ umbrella have—naturally—been from some of my all-time favourite artists; those groups that I listen to all the time, to the extent where I have such intimate, consummate knowledge of the studio recordings that I seek out live versions to bring a new angle on things.

This time, that’s emphatically not the case. Today’s band is Finnish symphonic metal group Nightwish. As a metalhead, I’ve always been aware of Nightwish’s existence—I couldn’t not be; they’re the most successful Finnish band ever, selling more than ten million records and hitting number 1 on the charts with multiple singles and albums. But despite all that, I think I properly know only about four or five of the band’s songs. Symphonic metal isn’t really my thing a lot of the time, so they have largely passed me by for the most part.

But there is one thing so very special about Nightwish, something that transcends genre and preference, and that’s their singer. Her name is Floor Jansen, and she is an insanely skilled and versatile vocalist from the Netherlands. Nightwish have been around since 1996, but Jansen didn’t join the band until the tail end of 2012. The winding and drama-filled journey as to how Jansen came to be the band’s frontwoman is a tale for another piece, but suffice it to say, the boots she was filling weren’t small: Their first singer, and the one with whom they reached superstardom, Tarja Turunen, was an iconic component of the band’s identity, her operatic vocals making them instantly recognisable.

One of Nightwish’s most well regarded songs is ‘Ghost Love Score’, an epic, 10-minute number from their multi-million selling 2004 album, ‘Once’. It’s epic from the ground up, its structure and composition rising and building relentlessly but gradually and patiently to a soaring conclusion, with Turunen giving a career-best performance. In other words, it’s not exactly a song that a replacement singer might consider a walk in the park. If I were coming in to replace the band’s original singer, I might even hope that love ‘Ghost Love Score’ was dropped from the setlist entirely.

But that’s because I’m not Floor Jansen.

As if having a song like ‘Ghost Love Score’ to confront wasn’t enough, Jansen joined the band while they were on tour. The original intention was to just plug a gap. Instead, in short order she became a permanent member of band, and has—to put it politely and without any disrespect meant to anyone—proven to be not just the most impressive vocalist and frontwoman that Nightwish ever had, but has made a serious case for being one of the best frontwomen that any band has ever had.

Pretty much any live clip of ‘Ghost Love Score’ with Jansen demonstrates why that is, but there’s something very special about this particular instance, from a show in Buenos Aires in late 2012. To many (perhaps most) audience members in attendance, this would have been the first time they were seeing Jansen with the band. She hadn’t recorded anything with them yet, and had only just stepped in to play live with the band, mid-tour, a short while earlier. Some fans there may well have seen the Nightwish earlier on that tour, but without Jansen—that’s how fresh and unproven she was at this point.

The recorded version of ‘Ghost Love Score’ culminates with a soaring vocal climax from Turunen. It builds and builds for ten minutes, and the payoff more than justifies that run time. It’s epic, emotive, and perfect. You wouldn’t change a note. But then Floor Jansen got hold of it. So now imagine you’re in that crowd in Buenos Aires. It’s your first time seeing Nightwish with this new singer that you might have not heard ever before. To be fair to her, it was immediately apparent in the concert that she had the chops, but you might have still not got over the version of the band that used to exist.

Then ‘Ghost Love Score’ kicks in.

You stare, slack-jawed and completely entranced, as Jansen makes the song completely her own, seemingly without effort. Like wrestling with a tiger or a bear without breaking a sweat, she makes the impossible seem easy. By the time the song is reaching its conclusion and Jansen’s voice is soaring at its climax, you’re ready to follow her into battle and glorious death.

And then, inexplicably, she doesn’t stop! Where in the original version Turunen fades out, Jansen takes a quick breath and rips a hole in the very fabric of space-time itself, and the mere mortals in the crowd in Buenos Aires all spontaneously find a brand new religion.

As Jansen herself says in a comment underneath the video of the occasion:

My favorite song to sing live! On my first tour with Nightwish I started to sing the ending differently, to add something to it. Then there was a concert DVD [2013’s Showtime, Storytime] showing this, and everyone wanted to keep hearing the new ending. It suddenly became a ‘thing’ - there was expectation, so it became special for me. Thank you everyone! <3

At that point there’s really nothing else to say except, ‘Here, enjoy’ (Jansen’s new ending starts at around 9 minutes and 10 seconds):

The band’s reaction the moment sums it all up: