Europe is a Swedish rock band formed in Upplands Väsby, Stockholm in 1979 under the name Force by vocalist Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist Peter Olsson and drummer Tony Reno. Since its formation, Europe has released ten studio albums, three live albums, three compilations and nineteen videos. Europe rose to international fame in the 1980s with its third album, 1986's The Final Countdown, which sold over three million copies in the Uni ... See more [+] ted States. Europe sold over 23 million albums worldwide. The band has achieved two top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart (The Final Countdown and Out of This World) and two top 10 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart ("The Final Countdown" 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 five albums, Start from the Dark (2004), Secret Society (2006), Last Look at Eden (2009), Bag of Bones (2012) and War of Kings (2015). The band's current line-up, which comprises Joey Tempest, John Norum, bassist John Levén, keyboardist Mic Michaeli and drummer Ian Haugland, is the same line-up that recorded The Final Countdown. 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, Kiss, UFO and Michael Schenker Group.
