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Artist
Joey Tempest
12+ albums
hard rockrockswedishsinger-songwriterIncredible voice
about
Joey Tempest (born Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson, August 19, 1963, Stockholm, Sweden) is the vocalist and main songwriter in the Swedish hard rock band Europe. He has written hits like "The Final Countdown", "Rock the Night" and "Superstitious". Like many of the other Europe members, he grew up in Stockholm suburb Upplands Väsby. His biggest idols were Thin Lizzy and Led Zeppelin. During his teens, he played in a number of bands such as Made in Hong Kong and Roxanne. At that time he alternated between playing rhythm guitar and bass, in addition to lead vocals. In 1979 he formed the band Force, together with guitarist John Norum, drummer Tony Reno and bassist Peter Olsson. Three years later, Force changed its name to Europe and won the national talent contest Rock-SM. The reward was a record deal with Hot Records. Tempest played the keyboards on the first two Europe albums before the band decided to recruit keyboardist Mic Michaeli in April 1984. A couple of years earlier, Tempest had borrowed a keyboard from Michaeli and used it to compose the main keyboard riff in the song "The Final Countdown". After a jam session in 1985, Michaeli and Tempest co-wrote the ballad "Carrie". Later that year, Tempest wrote the soundtrack for the Swedish film On the Loose, as well as the song "Give A Helping Hand" for the benefit project Swedish Metal Aid. The song was produced by future Europe bandmate Kee Marcello. In 1986 Tempest wrote and produced the album One of a Kind for Tone Norum, John
