Joey Tempest

Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson (born 19 August 1963), known professionally as Joey Tempest, is a Swedish singer based in England.

He is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Europe.

He has written the band's great hits such as "The Final Countdown", "Rock the Night", "Cherokee" and "Carrie".

Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson was born in Stockholm, Sweden on 19 August 1963.

When he was eight years old, he would sit in front of the television or radio with a tape recorder and try to capture songs from the UK or US that he liked and listen to them over and over again.

He learned how to play the piano and a friend of his father's taught him three chords (A, D and E) on his sister's acoustic guitar.

Larsson played football and ice hockey and competed in go-cart racing; he once came in fourth place in the Junior Cart Race, a Swedish championship.

Like many of the other Europe members, Larsson grew up in Stockholm suburb Upplands Väsby.

His biggest influences were Thin Lizzy and Led Zeppelin.

During his teens, Larsson played in a number of bands such as Jet, Blazer, Made in Hong Kong and Roxanne.

At that time, Larsson alternated between playing rhythm guitar and bass, in addition to lead vocals.

He started performing in 1979.

In 1979, Larsson settled in with a self-created stage name, "Joey Tempest", inspired by William Shakespeare's tragicomedy The Tempest as well as the song "Sparks of the Tempest" by US prog rock band Kansas.

He formed the band Force with guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno.

Force immediately began building a reputation and a fanbase in the suburbs of Stockholm.

In 1982, they changed their name to Europe and won the music competition Rock-SM.

The first prize was a record deal with Hot Records.

With Tempest as the frontman, Europe released its self-titled debut studio album in 1983 and Wings of Tomorrow in 1984.

During the years with Europe, Tempest wrote numerous international big hits.

"The Final Countdown" was the biggest; it topped the sales chart in 26 countries, sold 15 million copies, was played at the closing ceremony of the 1987 EuroBasket and 1988 Summer Olympics, became the musical theme of the millennium celebrations and a ringtone in hundreds of thousands of mobile phones across the world.

After The Final Countdown, Europe released two more studio albums, namely Out of This World (1988) and Prisoners in Paradise (1991), before their final concert in March 1992.

In 1995, Tempest's solo debut album, A Place to Call Home, was released.

He recalled it his "singer/songwriter album".

The album, which was produced by Dan Sundquist, was recorded in Stockholm and London using Swedish musicians.

Europe bandmate John Norum guest-starred on one of the tracks.

Tempest also played guitar on the album.

A Place to Call Home went platinum in Sweden and sold well internationally.

Later the same year, he commenced his first European tour as a solo artist.

The following year, he was nominated for a "Best Swedish Artist" Grammy.

Four singles were taken from the album, "A Place to Call Home", "Under the Influence", "We Come Alive" and "Don't Go Changing On Me".

Tempest's second solo album, Azalea Place, was released in 1997.

The next solo album was recorded in Nashville by producer Richard Dodd, known for producing artists such as The Traveling Wilburys and Tom Petty.

Where A Place To Call Home had Tempest writing all the material, the new album was written together with others.

Among these were Chris Difford from Squeeze and Will Jennings.

"Azalea Place was mostly written in the studio and was therefore more improvised and experimental", Tempest commented on the production.

"The Match", "The One In The Glass" and "If I'd Only Known" were released as singles.

"The Match" became one of the most played songs on Swedish radio and the album achieved gold status.

Europe ended their final tour in Portsmouth and did not perform together again until New Year's Eve, 1999 to 2000.

In the autumn of 2002, Tempest released his third solo album named after himself.

The production team behind the album was "DeadMono", consisting of Malcolm Pardon and Fredrik Rinman.