Floor Jansen is a Dutch metal singer from Noord-Brabant, born in 1981 and originally from Goirle, Netherlands. She is best known as the lead vocalist of After Forever and later Nightwish, and she also fronts or has fronted ReVamp and Northward.

After Forever

Jansen joins After Forever in 1997, when she is sixteen, and remains with the band until their split in 2009. The group releases its first album, Prison of Desire, in 2000. After Mark Jansen leaves in 2002, she takes sole responsibility for the band’s lyrics and vocal melodies; before that, the two write together up to the Decipher album.

Training and voice

She studies music at the Dutch Rock Academy from 1999 and enters the conservatory three years later. Her studies include musical theatre and one year of opera, and she is a light lyric soprano. She also plays guitar, piano and flute, and has completed 12 years of music studies. She later teaches performing through her own course, Wanna be a Star?!.

Solo and collaborative work

Jansen appears as a guest vocalist on several projects by Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Her contributions include the Ayreon track “My House on Mars” from Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer, work on the Star One project, the role of “Ω” on Ayreon’s 01011001, and vocals on The Source and Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live. She is also a member of Lucassen’s progressive metal supergroup Star One. Outside Lucassen’s projects, she sings on French power metal band Nightmare’s 2005 album The Dominion Gate, including the title track and “A Taste of Armageddon”, and provides lead vocals on several songs from MaYan’s Quarterpast and on Avalon’s Angels of the Apocalypse.

ReVamp, Nightwish and Northward

After After Forever ends, she forms the symphonic metal band ReVamp. In 2012, Nightwish brings her in as a touring vocalist after Anette Olzon leaves; in 2013, she becomes the band’s full-time lead singer and ReVamp ends so she can focus on Nightwish. In 2018, she and Pagan’s Mind guitarist Jørn Viggo Lofstad premiere the hard rock duo Northward.

Family

Jansen is the older sister of singer Irene Jansen, who also works with Ayreon and performs “Passion” on The Human Equation.