"man, he took his time in the sun, had a dream to understand, a single grain of sand" such a powerful quote. our personal life isnt as important as we think it is. we should enjoy our life, get rid of our egoistic thinking and love life and learn things, even if it has almost zero impact.
It's a reference to the poem "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake. It begins with, "To see a world in a grain of sand, And a Heaven in a wildflower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour"
@@thepreviousguy Heidi saw images of oil rigs at 16:36 and said something abt "fossil fuels". This might in fact be what prompted her remark about political messages. The politics of climate alarmism. Don't think that on Heidi's part, it has much to do with US creationists. Could be wrong oc. Cheers!
@@ariramo9108The most beautiful thing of this world is that it can tolerate religious fanatics who can't tolerate anything but their own twisted and narrow minded views
Tuomas said that he used to be an absolute perfectionist when it came to their live performances, but he's learned to let go and embrace the moment. If somebody screws up a note, then it just adds a unique element to that show. There are plenty of times when somebody makes a mistake and they just laugh and keep playing with a smile, it's awesome.
The title of the issue is taken from a 2009 book by evolutionary biologist and atheist writer Richard Dawkins, about the evidence for biological evolution. Dawkins also contributes to the album. Holopainen explained to HMV in March 2015: "I wrote him a letter a little over a year ago and explained what ideas we had for this album, mainly about evolution. Since one of the songs goes straight to one of his books, it felt like a perfect match to try and recite him on the album. A few weeks later, he sent me an email accepting the invitation." "Later in 2014, we recorded his parts at Hats Off Studios, Oxford. This is a huge honour for us, as Dawkins is one of our greatest heroes and his writings have been a huge inspiration for the album."
Interesting & telling remark abt the possibility of "a good amount of politics" in this epic song. From a US perspective maybe, where just abt anything & everything has become politicized by now. So here's my 2cts from Dutchieland: ZERO politics here. Just Tuomas' take on cosmology, abiogenesis and "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life", the evolution of our species, of music all of it supported by the narration of Darwin's neo-Darwinist prophet, Richard Dawkins who also does the concluding remarks about not bewailing being born cuz of the vast army of neverborns (that last admonishment contrasting nicely with the lyrics of e.g. "Planet Hell") . Cheers from Amsterdam! 🤘
You said “she’s terrifyingly gorgeous” and it *immediately* brought to mind a scene from “The Lord of The Rings”. Lady Galadriel is tempted briefly by the one ring of power, and she says “…in place of a dark lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea, stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me, and despair.” Yup. Floor.
Nightwish is the only band that can tell a story just by playing different instruments. Adding our Valkyrie Queen voice is the sealing of the story for all eternity!🎼🌹
"Hunger for Shiny Rocks, for Giant Mushroom Clouds..." and the following Lyrics, gets me every Time and make me a Mess for the Rest of the Song especially the "We Were Here".
Floor is great.!!!!... So much talent and skill.... This lady walks on to the stage and takes over!!! Plus she just beat cancer. May GOD keep and bless her! And she is wearing a cape again!! What a voice?!!!!! AND she is a mother!! Can you imagine her as your mom???? Mind blowing............ And she rides horses!!!!! Floor is one of those singers that could sing a telephone book and make it sound great!!!!!
Marco and Floor sound incredible together in this , they really push one another vocally and Floors stamina is next level ..last song of the night and she's hitting Fs, Gs effortlessly.
The design on Floor's dress represents the double helix of DNA. Kai also has the molecule on his kick drums. The entire show is about science and is based on the works of Charles Darwin and Professor Richard Dawkins. Troy introduced Tuomas to these when he joined the band.
That what You called as outro was the same song till the very end, for lot of people that is unusually but that is how Tuomas write his songs!😊..beautiful reaction!❤
I am very sure that this will be an extremely entertaining reaction from you. Because of this, it might end up in my playlist. Greetings Kelsea / Nightwish Army Germany
Enjoyed your reaction. First the "flute" Troy is playing is an Irish Low Whistle. Floor's hair spins are called windmills, because she is after all Dutch. Song is inspired by the writings of Richard Dawkins, a famous evolutionary biologist. Song is not political but a celebration of the history of Earth, evolution, and and the rise of humanity. It is especially a celebration of life, especially the quote from Richard Dawkins spoke by him at the start of the outro. It is a reminder of how precious life it is and how each of our birth's is an incredible gift from the universe. This song and especially the outro are very inspiring to me and encourage me to go out an live my best life.
They even used the same title to refer to the story of life and the universe as Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth is a book by him that covers the basics of how we know stuff instead of his usual deal of writing about what we know or why religion sucks. I really liked that book and it is sad to see Dawkins take the old man route about sex and gender instead of living up to the scientific standards and adjusting his view when new evidence comes to light, as the pretty much the rest of Biology does. The quote at the very end (not the one you meant, I think) was not by Dawkins himself but him quoting Darwin's On the Origin of Species, btw.
Floors voice meets your heart immediately - even when i have listen to their songs many hundred times most of them. And we love her so much, because she is so humble and she can give you the feeling she is singing especially for you. this feeling is supported by her open arms and her gestures. Unmateched stage presence especially of Floor. IMO
The creation of the Earth and of life and the rise and fall of mankind in one AMAZING song! WE WERE HERE!! The greatest show on Earth? Certainly the greatest thing ever from a live concert by anyone anywhere.
Hail Heidi, greetings from UK 😁 That was a beautiful reaction, thank you 😉 It is called "The Greatest Show On Earth" because it is partly based upon a book by Richard Dawkins of the same name. He is an Oxford Proffessor and he read the spoken part after the bagpipes in the beginning. He also walked out on stage and read the post script at the Wembley Arena performance
One of the better reaction to this song. Congrats. I’ve listened to this song about 500 x especially on other peoples reactions and still get goosebumps ❤❤❤❤
They shot off that confetti at the end of the song. At nearly any venue, they are required to pay someone to pick up ALL the confetti after the concert. The message, according to Tuomas, is the positive message of life itself.
The harmonies that you enjoyed were Floor, Marco and Troy. As for it being political, I don't see what you mean? It's the story of the creation of our planet and creation and ultimate destruction of our species (enter Ratkind). You were right when you said it would be great to see this live. I saw them perform this at Wembley in November 2022 and it was the most amazing experience.
In America, sadly, the evolution theory has become political. I'm a bit envious admittedly...the Wembley show also featured Professor Dawkins at the end.
@EyesOfGehenna no it hasnt.evolution isn't political it's a fact backed by mountains of scientific evidence, unlike the idiot right wing anti science wastes of life denying reality
This is the biggest band on Earth! So many years of hard work has paid off. I respect all of them because this is a hard life to live! I don`t think I could have survived it.
Nightwish is not just a concert, they are an experience! They tell a story with every performance! I've been following Nightwish well over 20 years now and they have become my fav all-time band! such amazing talent in this band! This song takes you on an incredible journey, its very long, but very worth it! One of the best Nightwish live performances I've seen and I love them all lol! Doesn't floorgasms feel amazing and never ending lol! Floor is the Queen of Metal, she is truly one of a kind and a once in a lifetime vocalist! Last edit here, just have to say that Nightwish is only one of a few bands that can make incredibly long songs feel too short lol! You just never want it to end cause they are so awesome!
Phew... I've been saving your reaction of this song to the Xmas eve. 😊 This was so fun...! And the song is so freaking profound. The message, the story of life and humanity, words of Richard Dawkins, the band... Dear me. I've seen this performance so many times, and it never fails to captivate me 100 percent. My favourite moment of the live versions if this, is when everybody sings "We Were Here". I get so sad and humbled, and at the same time I feel so... alive, you know. Our shared story might be just a blink of an eye in the cosmic scale, but boy did we live and love and everything. Thanks again Heidi and warm Xmas greetings from snowy Finland. ❤
This song was about The Greatest Show on Earth, a book by Dawkins. The "we were here" in the end was in past tense to underline that humankind will go extinct one day.
this is no ''song'' this is a story a Masterpiece...composed by Tuomas and Marko, the creation of the planet...and next you should listen to ''MUSIC' that song fits so well after the Greatest show on Earth....thanks Heidi to listen to one of the greatest bands on this Earth🤗❤Greets from eastern Netherlands
I love Nightwish. As a finn i've known their exintence at the 90" already, but they were not my cup of tea then. Two years ago I just happened to watch them in UA-cam and they really are my cup of tea now. I love them a lot. You should do more of them and other finnish bands. And you should visit here in Finland at some summerfestival among other places to visit. But about this great song, The Greatest Show An Earth, i think you were in a hurry. I mean that this song would be better to listen and react rather later than too soon. Better to listen more of them before jumping to this. But anyway I glad you liked it. I love this, and so many other their shows.
Hi Heike Lots of people think that. Because that part of the song is called 4.6, that is roughly the age of the earth (in billions of years), not the universe, I think of the fireworks as being the chaos of asteroids hitting the earth in it's very early years. The big bang happened 13.8 billion years ago. I could be totally wrong 🙃🤣
@@markclements7767 Actually since the James Webb Telescope got online after the launch the astro physicians has got a lot of new data that suggest that the universe is older than 13.8 b years and that the big bang wasn't start of the universe. Dripping honey for the creationist. It's just the same old "God Of Gaps" shining through. Just because that we yet can't explain things then God most have made it.
Floors parents being at this show….How proud they must be to see the positive and joyous effect their daughter and this incredible band has on thousands of people must be almost overwhelming for them. Sensory overload… Nightwish style. The band that can call it “The Greatest Show on Earth” and deliver on all points including the intellectual …just an incredible adventure in songwriting and performance
The difference in harmony matching may be because this song was written with Floor in mind as the vocalist, while I want my tears back was written with Annette in mind
The voice of the narration at the end is Richard Dawkins, a famous evolutionary scientist. When they played Wembley they had him walk out and speak his lines live.
Hi Heidi, the holiday season is starting slowly and if you want more harmonies between Floor and Marko go check out Schubert's Ave Maria at the Raskasta Joulua (Heavy Christmas) show. There are recordings from different years. Another recommendation would be Oi Jouluyö (Finnish version of Mariah's O holy Night) sung by Floor at the same show in 2016.
I love rock and metal music, and normally if someone mentioned pipes in a metal band, I would laugh. But Troy just has........IT. And "it" strangely adds something magical to everyone performance. Btw, the first instrument was a low whistle. The name you were searching for, for the second instrument is the Uillean (pronounced Illyan) pipes. The other thing that amazes me is that this 20+ minute song comes at the end of a 2+ hour show. So Floor sings faultlessly for 2 hours, they Tuomas is like "oh, by the way, if you could just casually sing for another 20 minutes in an even more superhuman fashion than usual, that'd be great, thanks" And then she actually does! I mean.......Sheesh!!!!
You brought up falling asleep listening to floor sing. My 9 year old when she was a toddler would fall asleep listening to Nightwish song Elán which is one of her first as a member.
Hi from Finland! The Greatest Show on Earth from Nightwish is about the most important milestones and musical acts in music history, which helps modern people understand themselves and the world (especially the Tampere version is wonderful). I'm glad you found it for the reaction. I am sure you loved the epic playing and singing.
I don´t think I would go that far either. I look at the milestones in music histroy as thing like forinstance.... the invention of the viola or guitarr.... inventing a new music genre... standardising a music tempo.... Don´t get me wrong, this song is probably one of my favo songs, but at best I would say it´s a mixure of a few different music genres together with some maybe history and mythological lyrics....
This song isn't about the milestones of music history. It's about the evolution/milestones of earth. It does have a small snippit about how music evolved though. If you want a song from Nightwish about the evolution of music then listen to their song called Music!
Nice, but we already know what the song is about. The discussion was more about if this song is "the most important milestone in musical history" and I think it isn't. As great as it is. @@optimusakc
I think you all miss the point of the post. I read "is about the most important milestones and musical acts in music history" referring to the history of music contained within the song, which it is. It isn't claiming that this song is the most important 😉 I think the post is referring to what the song is about
I see it all as more of a celebration of life, of having actually being lucky to have been born at all, than a political statement. It both pointed out man's flaws and strengths, and reminded us that we were just lucky to be born. Like every other species of plant or animal, we will evolve and yes one day be extinct. Celebrate life, and don't just take it all for granted.
Awesome reaction. I definitely recommend checking out the Wembley version, on your own time if not for a video. It has quite a treat from Troy (I believe) accompanying Tuomas at the very start
Richard Dawkins is the narrator and in the Wembley version, he appears onstage at the end to recite the closing passage from the last paragraph of Darwin's "Origin of Species". BTW, did anyone notice that Troy was wearing a t-shirt with Darwin's image on it?
Yup, saw it. Hiding behind the chat at 20:21 Funny thing is that only because Heidi pauzed there to praise Emppu, did I notice it for the 1st time. So the patron saint of the modern synthesis got a t-shirt. Cool. Reminiscent of the Che merch.
You're right, Floor's range is immense. Some of the best examples of this can be seen in her appearances in the Dutch? show Beste Zangers. Singers from all genres come together to perform for each other, and Floor absolutely nails every genre she attempts. Would recommend Phantom of the opera with Henk Poort, her cover of Lady Gaga's Shallow, and Winner written by one of the other performers. (14:10)
If you like this production and are at all interested in the Earth, its history and evolution, then maybe you should read the book that it is based around. Richard Dawkins (whose voice is doing the narrating) wrote "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" a great book. The very last piece of narration as the firework display plays out, is actually Dawkins quoting from something written by Charles Darwin, the last sentence of his book "The Origin of Species"
Hi Heidi, question / remark: If you like Floor (Nightwish) and Simone (Epica) Than I have something for you ! Check Ayreon !!! Begin with: Ayreon - The Day That The World Breaks Down - The Source (2017) song / composition 13min (sort) with 11 main singers also Floor and Simone ! After that Check Ayreon - Everybody Dies (Ayreon Universe) LIVE also with Floor ! I'm very, very, very sure you will like and love it ! And there much form Ayreon. It's Prog/ metal / rock of the highest level. all songs are a story line. So when you dive in not the order of the song ! If you want to see and hear the composer / creator, Arjen Anthony Lucassen then check the song: Ayreon - Garden of Emotions (Electric Castle Live And Other Tales) LIVE ! The first singer is Arjen ! If you want to see Marko (from Nigtwish) Check Ayreon River of time (Universe)
You have no idea how much work it took to pull this off. Bands work so hard to get it right. This band was a nightmare to be in. I know because I used to do live shows and this is not an easy thing to pull off. So much planning and hard work went into this. You have no idea. This is not an easy life! You can relax but bands never sleep or relax. We have to be the best and that takes sleepless nights and ideas to get to this level of performance.
Toumas Holopainen is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated artists of this time. He deserves much more attention. His solo album is also really good. But that's just my opinion.
12:58 If you want to hear floor at her most "angelic", watch the video to Sabaton's "Christmas Truce". Floor does the vocals over the "credits" at the end.
IncognitoAlpaca called the ending "bleak" in the chat. Richard Dawkins' words and that last few minutes of the song are what I want played at my funeral. The message being "don't mourn the fact that I'm gone, celebrate the fact that I was here". I think the ending is very uplifting rather than bleak.
One day in the far away future, students will be in class learning of Mozart, Sebastian Bach and Tuomas Holopainen. This man is a genius and a shining star of our generation.
When we perform live we are in the zone. We are not worried about the crowd, we are in the music. It is a blind effort at that point. The crowd does not exist. We just focus. That is what you must do do play live.
I totally love it when Richard Dawkins is speaking. And the existential meaning of "we were here" always gets me. It is after all not about attending the concert, but beating the odds that are against one to even exist (listen to what Richard Dawkins says).
The odds of being you are 1 in 70.4 trillion, roughly the same as winning the lottery jackpot over 80 thousand weeks in a row playing the same numbers. So yeah, you were very lucky!
As a guitarist who has been on the road and worked hard, I can say that I could not survive being in this band. The work load would kill me. Literally!
First i love your reaction to the greatest show on earth , there is an Nightwish song called the islander and Marco is doing it solo , its absoluut different but beautiful you will love it , greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
Floor Jansen is a soprano, with an ambitus of more than three octaves (C3 to F6). Her singing style varies from opera and clean singing to screaming and grunting. She usually sings in English, but she has also sung songs in Dutch, German, Spanish, Finnish, Latin, Italian and Swedish.
Just so you know, there is a video of Floor doing a radio interview where they hand her a phone book and she literally sings the first couple of yellow pages, and it is beautiful.
A FEW REMARKLE WORDS IN THE SONG. But first FLOOR'S DRESS: The double helix of the human DNA ***** THE TAPESTRY OF CHEMISTRY: The periodic table of the chemical elements. GAEA: As originally conceived the 'Gaia' concept envisages the Earth as a super-organism that operates to regulate its own environment, principally temperature, to keep it habitable for the biosphere OPUS PERFECTUM the perfect work, the perfect creation AEON: Used in reference to a period of a thousand million years (especially in geology, cosmology and astronomy), its more common usage is for any long, indefinite period THE GARDEN: The earth. THE GOLDILOCKS ZONES: refers to the habitable zone around a star. It's the zone that has just the right temperatures for ( intelligent) life to develop. LUCA: It's the acronym for the Last Universal Common Ancestor, a key concept in the study of early evolution and life's origin that has been tracked by scientists for years. ENTER SANDMAN: Song of the group Metallica LUCY OF THE AFAR Collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone representing 40 percent of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus AFARENSIS In Ethiopia, Why was Lucy so important? In 1974, Lucy showed that human ancestors were up and walking around long before the earliest stone tools were made or brains got bigger, and subsequent fossil finds of much earlier bipedal hominids have confirmed that conclusion. Bipedalism, it seems, was the first step towards becoming human. DEVONION SEA: The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60.3 million years ..., called after the place Devon in the UK where rockes of that period were first studied. ********
Very sad I didn't catch this one live. It most certainly is the best song of nightwish. The voiceover in fact is Richard Dawkins. Reading text from his book from 2009 with the same title about evidence of evolution. I personally like the 2015 Wembley Arena live version better as he did the end part live on stage. And, little FYI, they included the whole end of the concert because it is part of the live-version of this song. Not just some extra background-music for ending the concert. So I was a little sad you did some jup-cuts in there. I hope I catch you on twitch again when you're reacting to awesome stuff like this again. You're amazing (Edited to get my facts right)
One song you might want to listen/react to is christmas truce the musical video by sabaton. Its a true story. And floors husband is the drummer if that band. You will even get for floorgasmen for the day in it😅
Mandatory "you have to watch Floor Jansen and Henk Poort sing Phantom of the Opera". Henk Poort is a renowned opera singer and Floor is a trained opera singer, so it is amazing. Definitely watch her performance on Beste Zangers. A show where singers sing each others songs, which is great. The reaction from the other singers on the big couch says it all.
Loved the reactions! I just whish you watched the other version where Richard Dawkins recites the last sentences. He's an evolutionary biologist and it's always jaw dropping to watch thousands of metalheads listen to him in awe.😂
"man, he took his time in the sun, had a dream to understand, a single grain of sand" such a powerful quote. our personal life isnt as important as we think it is. we should enjoy our life, get rid of our egoistic thinking and love life and learn things, even if it has almost zero impact.
It's a reference to the poem "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake. It begins with,
"To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a Heaven in a wildflower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour"
There is no politics in this song. It is literally just a summary of the creation of the universe and life.
You forget how politically charged that topic is in the US... What a bunch of wacky weirdos.
@@thepreviousguy Heidi saw images of oil rigs at 16:36 and said something abt "fossil fuels". This might in fact be what prompted her remark about political messages. The politics of climate alarmism.
Don't think that on Heidi's part, it has much to do with US creationists. Could be wrong oc. Cheers!
Created by the biggest creator of all,God.
@@ariramo9108 As the song "Last Ride Of The Day" says..."What's God, if not, the spark that started life..." 😉
@@ariramo9108The most beautiful thing of this world is that it can tolerate religious fanatics who can't tolerate anything but their own twisted and narrow minded views
Dont get me wrong, this is a great song no matter what, but knowing what it's about makes it just SO much more epic and powerfull!
The most profound impact on me than anything else I've heard.
Yeah. I also thought, when she wondered if she should turn the closed captions on: "YES, YES YOU DEFINITELY SHOULD!!! ... Oh no, she won't"
There more truth in the song, than all than the religious in the world
Tuomas said that he used to be an absolute perfectionist when it came to their live performances, but he's learned to let go and embrace the moment. If somebody screws up a note, then it just adds a unique element to that show. There are plenty of times when somebody makes a mistake and they just laugh and keep playing with a smile, it's awesome.
The title of the issue is taken from a 2009 book by evolutionary biologist and atheist writer Richard Dawkins, about the evidence for biological evolution. Dawkins also contributes to the album. Holopainen explained to HMV in March 2015: "I wrote him a letter a little over a year ago and explained what ideas we had for this album, mainly about evolution. Since one of the songs goes straight to one of his books, it felt like a perfect match to try and recite him on the album. A few weeks later, he sent me an email accepting the invitation."
"Later in 2014, we recorded his parts at Hats Off Studios, Oxford. This is a huge honour for us, as Dawkins is one of our greatest heroes and his writings have been a huge inspiration for the album."
Interesting & telling remark abt the possibility of "a good amount of politics" in this epic song. From a US perspective maybe, where just abt anything & everything has become politicized by now.
So here's my 2cts from Dutchieland: ZERO politics here. Just Tuomas' take on cosmology, abiogenesis and "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life", the evolution of our species, of music all of it supported by the narration of Darwin's neo-Darwinist prophet, Richard Dawkins who also does the concluding remarks about not bewailing being born cuz of the vast army of neverborns (that last admonishment contrasting nicely with the lyrics of e.g. "Planet Hell") . Cheers from Amsterdam! 🤘
You said “she’s terrifyingly gorgeous” and it *immediately* brought to mind a scene from “The Lord of The Rings”. Lady Galadriel is tempted briefly by the one ring of power, and she says “…in place of a dark lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea, stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me, and despair.”
Yup. Floor.
most people forget that Troy also sings along.🎶🎶🤟🏻🤟🏻
Nightwish is the only band that can tell a story just by playing different instruments. Adding our Valkyrie Queen voice is the sealing of the story for all eternity!🎼🌹
nonsense
@@Dr.Ian-Plect opinions vary.
"Hunger for Shiny Rocks, for Giant Mushroom Clouds..." and the following Lyrics, gets me every Time and make me a Mess for the Rest of the Song especially the "We Were Here".
Floor is great.!!!!... So much talent and skill.... This lady walks on to the stage and takes over!!! Plus she just beat cancer. May GOD keep and bless her! And she is wearing a cape again!! What a voice?!!!!! AND she is a mother!! Can you imagine her as your mom???? Mind blowing............ And she rides horses!!!!!
Floor is one of those singers that could sing a telephone book and make it sound great!!!!!
And gave birth to... a second children while in battling with cancer...
Marco and Floor sound incredible together in this , they really push one another vocally and Floors stamina is next level ..last song of the night and she's hitting Fs, Gs effortlessly.
Don't forget on this Troy is also singing harmonies ...
I loved to see this pointed out in Julia Nilon's reaction 😁
"The Greatest Show on Earth" indeed. The greatest performance of the greatest rock composition. 👍🤘🤟
I prefer Wembley version.
Floor Jansen best LIVE singer of the World .
Great! The most epic Tampere version. Unfortunately l have to work at that time. But have a good time all. ⛄👍
The design on Floor's dress represents the double helix of DNA. Kai also has the molecule on his kick drums. The entire show is about science and is based on the works of Charles Darwin and Professor Richard Dawkins. Troy introduced Tuomas to these when he joined the band.
That what You called as outro was the same song till the very end, for lot of people that is unusually but that is how Tuomas write his songs!😊..beautiful reaction!❤
I am very sure that this will be an extremely entertaining reaction from you. Because of this, it might end up in my playlist. Greetings Kelsea / Nightwish Army Germany
Enjoyed your reaction. First the "flute" Troy is playing is an Irish Low Whistle. Floor's hair spins are called windmills, because she is after all Dutch. Song is inspired by the writings of Richard Dawkins, a famous evolutionary biologist. Song is not political but a celebration of the history of Earth, evolution, and and the rise of humanity. It is especially a celebration of life, especially the quote from Richard Dawkins spoke by him at the start of the outro. It is a reminder of how precious life it is and how each of our birth's is an incredible gift from the universe. This song and especially the outro are very inspiring to me and encourage me to go out an live my best life.
They even used the same title to refer to the story of life and the universe as Dawkins: The Greatest Show on Earth is a book by him that covers the basics of how we know stuff instead of his usual deal of writing about what we know or why religion sucks.
I really liked that book and it is sad to see Dawkins take the old man route about sex and gender instead of living up to the scientific standards and adjusting his view when new evidence comes to light, as the pretty much the rest of Biology does.
The quote at the very end (not the one you meant, I think) was not by Dawkins himself but him quoting Darwin's On the Origin of Species, btw.
@@BeOtterMyFriend Correct. I meant the Dawkins quote at the start of the outro, not the Darwin quote at the very end of the video.
If you like Floor and Marcos harmonies, you'll have to see their performance of Seven days to the wolves live..it is so great
Floors voice meets your heart immediately - even when i have listen to their songs many hundred times most of them. And we love her so much, because she is so humble and she can give you the feeling she is singing especially for you. this feeling is supported by her open arms and her gestures. Unmateched stage presence especially of Floor. IMO
Song is about how life it self is Greatest Show on Earth, with how it constantly evolves and creates new and has endless possiblities.
The creation of the Earth and of life and the rise and fall of mankind in one AMAZING song! WE WERE HERE!! The greatest show on Earth? Certainly the greatest thing ever from a live concert by anyone anywhere.
Hail Heidi, greetings from UK 😁
That was a beautiful reaction, thank you 😉
It is called "The Greatest Show On Earth" because it is partly based upon a book by Richard Dawkins of the same name. He is an Oxford Proffessor and he read the spoken part after the bagpipes in the beginning. He also walked out on stage and read the post script at the Wembley Arena performance
One of the better reaction to this song. Congrats. I’ve listened to this song about 500 x especially on other peoples reactions and still get goosebumps ❤❤❤❤
Just a correction to Romulan_Republican_Force in your chat. Floor is married to Hannes Van Dahl, which is Sabaton's drummer, not vocalist :)
They shot off that confetti at the end of the song. At nearly any venue, they are required to pay someone to pick up ALL the confetti after the concert. The message, according to Tuomas, is the positive message of life itself.
The harmonies that you enjoyed were Floor, Marco and Troy.
As for it being political, I don't see what you mean? It's the story of the creation of our planet and creation and ultimate destruction of our species (enter Ratkind).
You were right when you said it would be great to see this live. I saw them perform this at Wembley in November 2022 and it was the most amazing experience.
If you say "creation" you mean a god? For me it's just about evolution.😉🤘
In America, sadly, the evolution theory has become political. I'm a bit envious admittedly...the Wembley show also featured Professor Dawkins at the end.
@EyesOfGehenna no it hasnt.evolution isn't political it's a fact backed by mountains of scientific evidence, unlike the idiot right wing anti science wastes of life denying reality
"Hair-twirling". You are too cute.
Windmilling
This is the biggest band on Earth! So many years of hard work has paid off. I respect all of them because this is a hard life to live! I don`t think I could have survived it.
Nightwish is not just a concert, they are an experience! They tell a story with every performance! I've been following Nightwish well over 20 years now and they have become my fav all-time band! such amazing talent in this band! This song takes you on an incredible journey, its very long, but very worth it! One of the best Nightwish live performances I've seen and I love them all lol! Doesn't floorgasms feel amazing and never ending lol! Floor is the Queen of Metal, she is truly one of a kind and a once in a lifetime vocalist! Last edit here, just have to say that Nightwish is only one of a few bands that can make incredibly long songs feel too short lol! You just never want it to end cause they are so awesome!
This is a true masterpiece telling the story of life on earth. When they sing "we were here" at the end always makes me cry. It is so powerful
Phew... I've been saving your reaction of this song to the Xmas eve. 😊 This was so fun...! And the song is so freaking profound. The message, the story of life and humanity, words of Richard Dawkins, the band... Dear me. I've seen this performance so many times, and it never fails to captivate me 100 percent.
My favourite moment of the live versions if this, is when everybody sings "We Were Here". I get so sad and humbled, and at the same time I feel so... alive, you know. Our shared story might be just a blink of an eye in the cosmic scale, but boy did we live and love and everything.
Thanks again Heidi and warm Xmas greetings from snowy Finland. ❤
This song was about The Greatest Show on Earth, a book by Dawkins. The "we were here" in the end was in past tense to underline that humankind will go extinct one day.
this is no ''song'' this is a story a Masterpiece...composed by Tuomas and Marko, the creation of the planet...and next you should listen to ''MUSIC'
that song fits so well after the Greatest show on Earth....thanks Heidi to listen to one of the greatest bands on this Earth🤗❤Greets from eastern Netherlands
I love Nightwish. As a finn i've known their exintence at the 90" already, but they were not my cup of tea then. Two years ago I just happened to watch them in UA-cam and they really are my cup of tea now. I love them a lot.
You should do more of them and other finnish bands. And you should visit here in Finland at some summerfestival among other places to visit.
But about this great song, The Greatest Show An Earth, i think you were in a hurry. I mean that this song would be better to listen and react rather later than too soon. Better to listen more of them before jumping to this.
But anyway I glad you liked it. I love this, and so many other their shows.
This piece is absolutely exceptional. Nothing is comparable to this wonder.
The Firework is the Big Bang
Hi Heike Lots of people think that.
Because that part of the song is called 4.6, that is roughly the age of the earth (in billions of years), not the universe, I think of the fireworks as being the chaos of asteroids hitting the earth in it's very early years. The big bang happened 13.8 billion years ago. I could be totally wrong 🙃🤣
@@markclements7767 The first Bang is def the Big Bang, then the fast ones are asteroids, then the fire are the Vulcanos shaping the continents
@@markclements7767 Actually since the James Webb Telescope got online after the launch the astro physicians has got a lot of new data that suggest that the universe is older than 13.8 b years and that the big bang wasn't start of the universe. Dripping honey for the creationist. It's just the same old "God Of Gaps" shining through. Just because that we yet can't explain things then God most have made it.
That song was about the evolution of the Earth from beginning to end until the destruction of humanity. We were here.
Uranium pipe😂.It's Uillean pipes and Troy also played the low tin wistle in this song
Floors parents being at this show….How proud they must be to see the positive and joyous effect their daughter and this incredible band has on thousands of people must be almost overwhelming for them.
Sensory overload… Nightwish style.
The band that can call it “The Greatest Show on Earth” and deliver on all points including the intellectual …just an incredible adventure in songwriting and performance
If you enjoyed this one you would would really like their live performance of Weak Fantasy from the same show.
The difference in harmony matching may be because this song was written with Floor in mind as the vocalist, while I want my tears back was written with Annette in mind
The voice of the narration at the end is Richard Dawkins, a famous evolutionary scientist. When they played Wembley they had him walk out and speak his lines live.
Hi Heidi, the holiday season is starting slowly and if you want more harmonies between Floor and Marko go check out Schubert's Ave Maria at the Raskasta Joulua (Heavy Christmas) show. There are recordings from different years.
Another recommendation would be Oi Jouluyö (Finnish version of Mariah's O holy Night) sung by Floor at the same show in 2016.
I love rock and metal music, and normally if someone mentioned pipes in a metal band, I would laugh. But Troy just has........IT. And "it" strangely adds something magical to everyone performance.
Btw, the first instrument was a low whistle. The name you were searching for, for the second instrument is the Uillean (pronounced Illyan) pipes.
The other thing that amazes me is that this 20+ minute song comes at the end of a 2+ hour show. So Floor sings faultlessly for 2 hours, they Tuomas is like "oh, by the way, if you could just casually sing for another 20 minutes in an even more superhuman fashion than usual, that'd be great, thanks"
And then she actually does! I mean.......Sheesh!!!!
You brought up falling asleep listening to floor sing. My 9 year old when she was a toddler would fall asleep listening to Nightwish song Elán which is one of her first as a member.
I think it's fascitating to see, how the topics of their songs have turned from fantasy stories to science. I love that even better.
They do both frequently and always have
Hi from Finland! The Greatest Show on Earth from Nightwish is about the most important milestones and musical acts in music history, which helps modern people understand themselves and the world (especially the Tampere version is wonderful). I'm glad you found it for the reaction. I am sure you loved the epic playing and singing.
I wouldn't go that far... there are more important milestones in music history, like the first Black Sabbath album, the first metal album in history.
I don´t think I would go that far either. I look at the milestones in music histroy as thing like forinstance.... the invention of the viola or guitarr.... inventing a new music genre... standardising a music tempo.... Don´t get me wrong, this song is probably one of my favo songs, but at best I would say it´s a mixure of a few different music genres together with some maybe history and mythological lyrics....
This song isn't about the milestones of music history. It's about the evolution/milestones of earth. It does have a small snippit about how music evolved though. If you want a song from Nightwish about the evolution of music then listen to their song called Music!
Nice, but we already know what the song is about. The discussion was more about if this song is "the most important milestone in musical history" and I think it isn't. As great as it is. @@optimusakc
I think you all miss the point of the post. I read "is about the most important milestones and musical acts in music history" referring to the history of music contained within the song, which it is. It isn't claiming that this song is the most important 😉
I think the post is referring to what the song is about
What an emotional song about evolution. Simply a masterpiece👌🏻🤟🏻💪🏻🫶🏻
It was much fun to watch this with you. Great video. I saw Nightwish in Tampere 2022....My home town when i was a little child. Cheers from Sweden.👍👍👍
Singers sing what they can, Floor sings what she wants ❤ she sang the phonebook in a Duch program ❤
I see it all as more of a celebration of life, of having actually being lucky to have been born at all, than a political statement. It both pointed out man's flaws and strengths, and reminded us that we were just lucky to be born. Like every other species of plant or animal, we will evolve and yes one day be extinct. Celebrate life, and don't just take it all for granted.
Awesome, thanks for reacting to NW!
If I was in that audience, I would lose my voice screaming “We were here!”
Awesome reaction. I definitely recommend checking out the Wembley version, on your own time if not for a video. It has quite a treat from Troy (I believe) accompanying Tuomas at the very start
People it is NOT a bag pipe, it is Irish Pipes, yes there is a difference.
Richard Dawkins is the narrator and in the Wembley version, he appears onstage at the end to recite the closing passage from the last paragraph of Darwin's "Origin of Species". BTW, did anyone notice that Troy was wearing a t-shirt with Darwin's image on it?
Yup, saw it. Hiding behind the chat at 20:21 Funny thing is that only because Heidi pauzed there to praise Emppu, did I notice it for the 1st time. So the patron saint of the modern synthesis got a t-shirt. Cool. Reminiscent of the Che merch.
She was so right with her statement, that EVERY genre was in this song 😂
Awesome song!
You're right, Floor's range is immense. Some of the best examples of this can be seen in her appearances in the Dutch? show Beste Zangers. Singers from all genres come together to perform for each other, and Floor absolutely nails every genre she attempts. Would recommend Phantom of the opera with Henk Poort, her cover of Lady Gaga's Shallow, and Winner written by one of the other performers. (14:10)
she can sing the phone book
If you like this production and are at all interested in the Earth, its history and evolution, then maybe you should read the book that it is based around. Richard Dawkins (whose voice is doing the narrating) wrote "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" a great book. The very last piece of narration as the firework display plays out, is actually Dawkins quoting from something written by Charles Darwin, the last sentence of his book "The Origin of Species"
I feel the song is about our single word we wrote in the huge book , that represents the history of our universe.
Hi Heidi, question / remark: If you like Floor (Nightwish) and Simone (Epica) Than I have something for you ! Check Ayreon !!! Begin with: Ayreon - The Day That The World Breaks Down - The Source (2017) song / composition 13min (sort) with 11 main singers also Floor and Simone ! After that Check Ayreon - Everybody Dies (Ayreon Universe) LIVE also with Floor ! I'm very, very, very sure you will like and love it ! And there much form Ayreon. It's Prog/ metal / rock of the highest level. all songs are a story line. So when you dive in not the order of the song ! If you want to see and hear the composer / creator, Arjen Anthony Lucassen then check the song: Ayreon - Garden of Emotions (Electric Castle Live And Other Tales) LIVE ! The first singer is Arjen !
If you want to see Marko (from Nigtwish) Check Ayreon River of time (Universe)
And Floor's sister Irene is in some videos too 😊
I was at their concert this year 17th of June. They played this song last song. And I tell you if you ever have a chance seeing them live go!
Thanks for reacting to this masterpiece! 👏
You have no idea how much work it took to pull this off. Bands work so hard to get it right. This band was a nightmare to be in. I know because I used to do live shows and this is not an easy thing to pull off. So much planning and hard work went into this. You have no idea. This is not an easy life! You can relax but bands never sleep or relax. We have to be the best and that takes sleepless nights and ideas to get to this level of performance.
Toumas Holopainen is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated artists of this time. He deserves much more attention. His solo album is also really good. But that's just my opinion.
12:58
If you want to hear floor at her most "angelic", watch the video to Sabaton's "Christmas Truce".
Floor does the vocals over the "credits" at the end.
10:13 "Why is it so perfect?". That's because it is just from the sake of it.
IncognitoAlpaca called the ending "bleak" in the chat. Richard Dawkins' words and that last few minutes of the song are what I want played at my funeral. The message being "don't mourn the fact that I'm gone, celebrate the fact that I was here". I think the ending is very uplifting rather than bleak.
I was thinking the same thing...not bleak, hopeful!
The most scientific good song ever written ❤
One day in the far away future, students will be in class learning of Mozart, Sebastian Bach and Tuomas Holopainen. This man is a genius and a shining star of our generation.
So nice to see you again Heidi 🤗 I was wondering when you would get around to doing this song. As always, much love from the NW army New York!
When we perform live we are in the zone. We are not worried about the crowd, we are in the music. It is a blind effort at that point. The crowd does not exist. We just focus. That is what you must do do play live.
🤩👌💥💯🎼
*OPUS PERFECTUM*
🤘😎 🇫🇮 💙
I totally love it when Richard Dawkins is speaking. And the existential meaning of "we were here" always gets me. It is after all not about attending the concert, but beating the odds that are against one to even exist (listen to what Richard Dawkins says).
The odds of being you are 1 in 70.4 trillion, roughly the same as winning the lottery jackpot over 80 thousand weeks in a row playing the same numbers. So yeah, you were very lucky!
I recommend Yours is an empty hope as the next Nightwish song, guaranteed to blow your mind to Mars and back 😇😉
As a guitarist who has been on the road and worked hard, I can say that I could not survive being in this band. The work load would kill me. Literally!
This was a great reaction thanks, the look on your face was fun to see lol. The Jack Sparrow chap is the one that creates there play list.
I have seen a dozen first responses to this song and I find it interesting that not one time has anyone caught Empo's hat tip to Metalica.....
Troy initially plays a low whistle and the the Uilleann pipes. Plus he is the third singer here.
First i love your reaction to the greatest show on earth , there is an Nightwish song called the islander and Marco is doing it solo , its absoluut different but beautiful you will love it , greetings from the Netherlands 🇳🇱
Floor Jansen is a soprano, with an ambitus of more than three octaves (C3 to F6). Her singing style varies from opera and clean singing to screaming and grunting. She usually sings in English, but she has also sung songs in Dutch, German, Spanish, Finnish, Latin, Italian and Swedish.
Greetings from the Nightwishland a.k.a Finland 🇫🇮
Just so you know, there is a video of Floor doing a radio interview where they hand her a phone book and she literally sings the first couple of yellow pages, and it is beautiful.
Lol that's amazing!
A FEW REMARKLE WORDS IN THE SONG.
But first
FLOOR'S DRESS:
The double helix of the human DNA
*****
THE TAPESTRY OF CHEMISTRY:
The periodic table of the chemical elements.
GAEA:
As originally conceived the 'Gaia' concept envisages the Earth as a super-organism that operates to regulate its own environment, principally temperature, to keep it habitable for the biosphere
OPUS PERFECTUM
the perfect work, the perfect creation
AEON:
Used in reference to a period of a thousand million years (especially in geology, cosmology and astronomy), its more common usage is for any long, indefinite period
THE GARDEN:
The earth.
THE GOLDILOCKS ZONES:
refers to the habitable zone around a star. It's the zone that has just the right temperatures for ( intelligent) life to develop.
LUCA:
It's the acronym for the Last Universal Common Ancestor, a key concept in the study of early evolution and life's origin that has been tracked by scientists for years.
ENTER SANDMAN:
Song of the group Metallica
LUCY OF THE AFAR
Collection of several hundred pieces of fossilized bone representing 40 percent of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus AFARENSIS In Ethiopia,
Why was Lucy so important?
In 1974, Lucy showed that human ancestors were up and walking around long before the earliest stone tools were made or brains got bigger, and subsequent fossil finds of much earlier bipedal hominids have confirmed that conclusion. Bipedalism, it seems, was the first step towards becoming human.
DEVONION SEA:
The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic, spanning 60.3 million years ..., called after the place Devon in the UK where rockes of that period were first studied.
********
You found the superior version from Tampere, congrats!
Floor's headbanging is called windmilling
Very sad I didn't catch this one live. It most certainly is the best song of nightwish. The voiceover in fact is Richard Dawkins. Reading text from his book from 2009 with the same title about evidence of evolution. I personally like the 2015 Wembley Arena live version better as he did the end part live on stage.
And, little FYI, they included the whole end of the concert because it is part of the live-version of this song. Not just some extra background-music for ending the concert. So I was a little sad you did some jup-cuts in there.
I hope I catch you on twitch again when you're reacting to awesome stuff like this again. You're amazing
(Edited to get my facts right)
End of the show : sticks `n picks. throwing some memorabealia into the audiance for a thank you
the hair twirling is called windmilling...which is rather appropriate considering Floor is Dutch 😉
One song you might want to listen/react to is christmas truce the musical video by sabaton. Its a true story. And floors husband is the drummer if that band. You will even get for floorgasmen for the day in it😅
Oooo sounds like a plan. LOL
Nice, my hometown ..
Greets from Finland
Mandatory "you have to watch Floor Jansen and Henk Poort sing Phantom of the Opera".
Henk Poort is a renowned opera singer and Floor is a trained opera singer, so it is amazing. Definitely watch her performance on Beste Zangers. A show where singers sing each others songs, which is great. The reaction from the other singers on the big couch says it all.
Emppu is lovingly nicknamed "the smiling man"... For obvious reasons.
Loved the reactions! I just whish you watched the other version where Richard Dawkins recites the last sentences. He's an evolutionary biologist and it's always jaw dropping to watch thousands of metalheads listen to him in awe.😂
Love it !! Great song. Great reaction !!
The islander with marco is also amazing