[Europe] The Final Countdown (1986)

Europe, an outstanding heavy metal band from Sweden.

 

Their representative song is The Final Countdown.

 

This song, which was also composed by Joey Tempest, who is also lead vocalist, was heavily inspired by David Bowie's Space Oddity.

Originally composed between 1981 and 1982, the song was composed with further reinforcement after receiving advice from bassists John Levin and Mick Michaeli. This song unusually showed a phenomenon that swept the charts in many countries except for the United States.

 

In fact, the introductory part in the front is so grand and the music is so cool that only the front part is used as the background sound for various sports events.

 

In any case, the song achieved good results, peaking at number 1 on the charts in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, and at number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and sold a whopping 8 million copies. .    

 

Classified as a glam metal and hard rock genre, The Final Countdown has firmly established itself as one of the top hits of 1986, and the Swedish-born European band has also firmly established itself as a global mainstream band.   

 

However, in the United States, the song did not rank high on the Billboard chart, and did not make it into the top 100 of the 1986 Year-End Chart. Ironically, the most popular song on the US charts was Carrie, released in 1987, which achieved quite good results, reaching #3 on the Weekly Billboard Chart and #56 on the Annual Chart in 1987.  

Probably, when people look up this music on YouTube, etc., everyone will say, “Oh. You will be able to recognize it easily” enough to say, “This music.”

 

It is such a famous and outstanding song, and if you watch it with the music video, you can see the wonderful performance and outstanding singing skills of Joy Tempest, a young and energetic handsome boy who is only 23 years old.    

 

They have perfect English skills, and the band name itself is the same as the name of a band formed in the US or UK, so you can get to know each other more closely.   This is because there are many cases where band names are created using existing names.   

Asia, which sang Heat of the Moment, was a British band, and all members were white.   There are Boston, which sang More Than a Feeling, and Chicago, which released gems like Hard To Say You’re Sorry or You’re the Inspiration.

Europe was formed relatively quickly considering the age of the members. Compared to Bon Jovi, Skidrow, Warrant, and Poison, the year of its formation in 1979 was very early.    

 

A boy named Rolf Magnus Larsen, who grew up in a middle-class family in Sweden in 1963, was strong enough to win the Swedish Junior Ski Competition.   

 

The band was later renamed to Joey Tempest, inspired by Shakespeare's novel The Tempest, and formed a band called Force in 1979. 

The original members were vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson, and drummer Tony Reno. Demo tapes were sent to several record companies, but the answer they got was that they should shave their heads and sing in Swedish instead of in English.

 

However, it was an unacceptable proposal to enter the larger English-speaking market. Then, in 1982, he won the Swedish Rock-SM contest and changed his name to Europe. Seven Door Hotel, announced at this time, was so popular that it entered the top 10 in the Japanese music market in 1983 the following year.   

In 1982 contest winning song In The Future To Come, Wings Of Tomorrow, Seven Door Hotel, etc., especially before 1985, their music was heavy metal that gave a feeling of being a bit unripe.   However, as shown in Wings of Tomorrow, the level of perfection was very high and it was already recognized in the Japanese market.

 

From this point on, it gradually expanded its recognition to Europe and North America. And with The Final Countdown, they hit the climax.