Posted on February 11, 2012

So many people in Europe have suffered horrific weather conditions. Looks like the whole Europe turned out to a real winter disaster.

We survived the snowstorm even though at some point it looked pretty hopeless. We had to fly over to Sofia in order to make the show happen next day with a rental gear.

I knew that everything would be fine with the show because I could trust my great crew. We were totally delayed with everything, since only our flight arrived at 16:00 in the afternoon to Sofia and there was no time to get everything ready. We hadn’t even finished our sound check yet when the local promoter wanted to open the doors for the freezing thousands of people outside. Our apologies for the delay and what it caused. I am very happy though that finally the show could happen.

Next time Sofia will see me with Beauty and the Beat in 2013 with a big orchestra and choir.

Our amazing bus driver Mino needed to invent his way to Sofia on his own in a storm with all our gear. We were praying that he would make it in the next 24 hours because if not, our following shows in Greece would have been in danger to be cancelled. Miracle happened and finally at 06:00 in the morning we saw the bus arriving! Oh man, everyone was happy to see the bus.

It was not snowing in Greece, but it was really cold anyway. Half of my crew and band members were already getting sick and I was praying not to get the same virus. It is very hard, when you are travelling with people in a bus and sharing the same little rooms at the venues, not to get sick.

The shows in Greece were nice and the people in Thessaloniki and Athens showed their love. In Thessaloniki we played in an old venue as their last band. They are going to move to a nicer place in the city. Maybe we play next time there?

We said goodbye to our bus and flew over to Tallinn, Estonia. Hrr…damn it was cold there. I started to feel really sick and lost my speaking voice. I was praying I could sing at night and somehow the people in Estonia made me do it even though my fever was high and everything was funnily moving in my head. But I was happy to perform in Tallinn for the first time ever.

The cold weather was following us all way down to Kiev as well.

Two doctors came to see me and just told me to take it easy, not to speak. I was worried about the show, but thanking at the same time that this flu attacked me only in the last days of this part of the tour and not in the beginning. I knew that after the Kiev concert I could finally relax and try to get better. When I run to the stage I saw many winterstorm people in front of me, they really did their very best to make me feel better. I arranged with one of them that she would be translating my whispered words to the people that night.

The last concert was a beautiful ending for this tour and everybody in the band was very happy with it (and with their presents).

Now we have still few more days to relax under the sun before the next long leg starts. I try to regain back all my energies.

With love, Tarja