"Storytime" is a song from the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish's seventh studio album Imaginaerum, as well as the first single from the album. It was released on November 9, 2011, twenty days prior to the album, along with a music video. The song premiered on Radio Rock, a Finnish radio station at 9.00 GMT +2 on November 7, 2011, two days before its commercial release.

Composer and band leader Tuomas Holopainen has said of Storytime that it "is a single that pretty well represents the whole album", and that it give a better picture of the album than "Eva" and "Amaranth" did as the first two singles to the 2007 album Dark Passion Play.

The song was revealed as the first single and music video on September 2, 2011, with the release date set to November 11. A week later, the band released the Imaginaerum cover, track list and commentary on each song written by Holopainen, including the first clues concerning the song, hinting on references to yuletide and The Snowman. On October 26, the first content from the song and video was released in a 50-second teaser video on YouTube.

The single was released as a CD, download and as a video through YouTube on November 9, and the day after, Holopainen featured in a YouTube video talking about the video and the background of the song. After a mere week, the band announced that the single was topping the Finnish single chart. On November 18, the lyrics to the song were released in a YouTube video and on the band's website.

Composer and lyricist of the song, Tuomas Holopainen has said that "Storytime" is inspired by the 1982 movie The Snowman, the theme of which was previously covered by Nightwish for their Oceanborn album. The idea for the music of "Storytime" was born when Holopainen wondered why no-one had made a remake of the film, and pondered on what his version of the score to the scene in which "Walking in the Air" plays would sound like.

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Wikipedia