Swedish singer-songwriter and musician Joey Tempest was born 61 years ago as Rolf Magnus Joakim Larsson, in the capital city of Stockholm, is married and has 2 sons.
At the age of 8, he used to record songs he liked from the radio or TV and listened to them repeatedly. He also learnt the piano and 3 chords of the acoustic guitar. As a teenager, he was inspired by Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy. He joined several bands, singing and playing the rhythm guitar and bass.
In 1979, he created the rock group ‘Force’, which began getting popular locally. Three years later, the group’s name was changed to ‘Europe’. During the next decade, the band released 5 albums and had various hits, the major one being ‘The Final Countdown’ released in 1986 written by Tempest himself. It was a worldwide hit and reached number one on many music charts as well as sold 15 million copies. Some other famous hits include ‘Rock the Night’, ‘Carrie’, ‘Cherokee’, ‘Prisoners in Paradise’ and ‘I’ll cry for You’.
In 1992, the band split up and 3 years later Joey pursued a solo career. In the course of 7 years, 3 albums were issued which were all very successful. These included songs like ‘A Place to call Home’, ‘The Match’ and ‘Sometimes’.
After almost 12 years from splitting up, ‘Europe’ reunited and went on to release 6 more albums until 2017. They continued performing since and last year marked their 40th anniversary and embarked on a world tour, starting in September and end last February.
Together with the rest of ‘Europe’ members, as a group they won 11 awards including 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze Bravo Otto (Germany) and 2 Rockbjornen Sweden, and in 2018 they were inducted in the Swedish Music Hall of Fame.
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