Europe

Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby in 1979, by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson, and drummer Tony Reno. They got a major breakthrough in Sweden in 1982 by winning the televised competition "Rock-SM" (Swedish Rock Championships): it was the first time this competition was held, and Europe became a larger success than the competition itself. Since their formation, Europe has released eleven studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and twenty-four music videos. Europe rose to international fame in the 1980s with their third album, 1986's The Final Countdown, which has sold over 3 million copies in the United States and 15 million copies worldwide (including album and single). Europe have sold over 25 million records worldwide. The band has had two top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart (The Final Countdown and Out of This World) and three top 30 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart ("The Final Countdown", "Rock the Night" and "Carrie").Europe went on hiatus in 1992, reunited temporarily for a one-off performance in Stockholm on New Year's Eve 1999 and announced an official reunion in 2003. Since then the band has released six albums, Start from the Dark (2004), Secret Society (2006), Last Look at Eden (2009), Bag of Bones (2012), War of Kings (2015) and Walk the Earth (2017). Europe has achieved new attention in the US due to being featured in a GEICO Insurance cable television commercial campaign viewed for many months across the US in 2015–16. The band is mainly influenced by Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore, UFO and Michael Schenker Group.