As the front woman of Nightwish, Floor Jansen is part of one of the most successful metal bands these days. The German TV audience can also experience them in the spring on the Vox show “Sing mein Song”. Now the 41-year-old reveals that she has breast cancer.
Dutch singer Floor Jansen has tweeted some disturbing news to her followers: she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
The front woman of the symphonic metal band Nightwish made her diagnosis known with a lengthy letter that she published as a tweet on Wednesday. “Life goes in waves, with ups and downs,” Jansen begins her explanation. She has already experienced many beautiful things in her life, not least the numerous concerts she was allowed to play in the course of her career.
“But now a new wave has hit me. Not a good one. I have breast cancer,” the 41-year-old finally continues. She was diagnosed a little over two weeks ago. Her surgery is now imminent.
“My prognosis is very good!” Jansen reassures her fans at the same time. Apparently it is a non-aggressive tumor that has not yet spread. “I’ll keep my chest,” she insists. She is optimistic that she will be cancer-free after the operation, even if she still has radiotherapy in three months.
“The word cancer shocks you. Everything that seemed important to you in your life before you were diagnosed is radically turned upside down in minutes. Now I just want to be healthy again. I want to see my daughter grow into a woman. I want to live !”, the singer gives a deep insight into her inner life.
The most frightening thing about the diagnosis is that she felt perfectly healthy. “I didn’t feel the cancer. I didn’t know it was there until I went for a routine screening mammogram as a woman in my 40s,” Jansen explains.
“If I hadn’t gone there, the tumor would have gone undetected. Over the next year it could have gotten much bigger. That’s why I’m sharing this story with you,” says Jansen. A mammogram can talk life. In many countries, the test is offered free of charge. But even if, unlike her, you don’t have the privilege of living in a rich western country, her urgent advice to everyone is: “Go!”
Jansen’s message ended with hope: If everything goes according to plan, she could start her planned European tour with Nightwish from November 20th. “I promise to take good care of myself,” she explains.
Born in the Netherlands in 1981, Jansen has a degree in singing. She sang in various metal bands before joining Nightwish in 2013, replacing previous frontwoman Anette Olzon. Since then, she has enjoyed great success with the formation from Finland – for example, the band’s last album to date with the unusual title “Human. :II: Nature” also landed at number one in the charts in Germany in 2020.
The German TV viewers also know Jansen for another reason. In the spring she was part of “Sing meine Song”. In the ninth season of the Vox show, she met Johannes Oerding, Elif and Clueso, among others.
Jansen is privately in a relationship with Hannes Van Dahl, drummer in the group Sabaton. She has a daughter with him, who was born in 2017.
