NIGHTWISH Vocalist ANETTE OLZON Walks Off Stage In Belo Horizonte, Concert Cut Short
November 13, 2008, 15 years ago
The following report comes to BW&BK; courtesy of MetalFromFinland.com:
"Finnish/Swedish symphonic metallers NIGHTWISH were forced to cut their November 10th concert in Belo Horizonte, Brazil short after the group's lead singer, Anette Olzon, suddenly started crying at the end of the song 'The Poet And The Pendulum' (about six tracks into the group's set) and walked off stage, leaving the rest of the band to finish the song with bassist/vocalist Marco Hietala attempting to handle some of the lead-vocal parts. The group reportedly played two more cover songs and ended the show, explaining that Anette is going through a difficult phase in her life, and that she was really sad.Olzon sent a press release to Brazilian media where she clarified the reasons behind her sudden 'collapse'. Olzon stated that the smoke on stage got on her vocal chords to make her lose her voice. She was trying to sing until she reached the point she couldn't do it anymore and therefore was 'forced' to leave the stage. Nightwish has always had a very good and close relation to their fans in Brazil and the thought of disappointing the fans was too great for Anette. The band tried to buy some time for Anette to regain her voice back but it didn't. Nightwish ended up playing 2 more songs after Anette left the stage but were forced to stop the show after that.
After the show, people stayed in the venue to get some kind of explanation to what happened. After a while, promoter Eric de Haas from Dynamo Productions came on stage to tell the fans that the concert was over and Nightwish was already back on their hotel.
It is reported that the next show Nightwish did the next day in the capital of Brazil went well and the band the song 'The Poet And The Pendulum' on their setlist."
Fan-filmed video footage of Olzon walking off can be viewed below (from two different angles).
