It has also become a staple of high school and college pep bands for the same purpose. The song is a favourite at sporting events, often being played to rally crowds. One of the most memorable performances of the song took place in Stockholm, Sweden on 31 December 1999, as part of the Millennium celebrations, as it was the first, and to date only, Europe performance with both of the band’s lead guitarists, the original guitarist John Norum and his replacement, Kee Marcello. The song has been a regular in Europe concerts ever since its live debut on the premiere of their Final Countdown Tour in April 1986. The music video, directed by Nick Morris, contains footage from two concerts the band did at Solnahallen in Solna, Sweden on 26 and, as well as some extra footage filmed at the sound checks for those concerts. The song is also the band’s highest charting single in Australia and Canada, peaking at number 2 and number 5 respectively. The single reached number 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is the most successful song from the album on the Album Rock Tracks chart, peaking at number 18 (and charting for 20 weeks). “ The Final Countdown” became an instant success on the charts worldwide upon its release, reaching number one in 25 countries (including the UK, where it spent two weeks at the top and is Europe’s only Top 10 hit to date), and is commonly regarded as the band’s most popular and recognizable song. That was a statement on that and it sort of worked out nicely.” I wanted to make a combination of guitars and keyboards. In 2009, Tempest told the BBC’s Liam Allen, “I can trace bands like UFO in it, sort of a galloping theme like Iron Maiden had on The Number of the Beast album on quite a few songs. Nowadays, we don’t rehearse it, but when we play it live, it is still just so amazing! It does communicate so well with the audience and we really love playing it. So, I had that ‘riff’ tucked away in a drawer since my college years and I took it out, found a tempo for it, wrote lyrics, and it turned out to be a great opening for that album and for the show, as well. We were putting out our third album and we wanted a really ‘grand’ opening for the show. It was meant to be an opening for the ‘live’ show. It was over six minutes long and was never meant to be a hit or anything like that. The ironic thing, though, is that the song was actually written for the fans. Apparently it has been used a lot and it was nice to hear. Sometimes you hear it on the streets or someone has it on their mobile phone or something… it’s a nice feeling! Actually, I did an interview about a year ago with a newspaper from America and they talked about how much it’s been used in sports in America… which I didn’t know so much about. But in the end I fought hard to make sure it got used.” Tempest described their uncertainty: “ Some of the guys in the band thought it was too different for a rock band. At first, the members expressed mixed reactions to it, including guitarist John Norum who was put off by the synth intro but said that he was glad they didn’t listen to him. Tempest recorded a demo version of the song and played it for the other band members. In 1985, bassist John Levén suggested that Tempest should write a song based on that riff. The song was based on a keyboard riff which Joey Tempest had written, as early as 1981 or 1982, on a Korg Polysix keyboard which he had borrowed from keyboardist Mic Michaeli. A music video by Nick Morris was made to promote the single that features footage from the band’s two concerts at the Solnahallen in Solna, as well as extra footage of the sound checks at those concerts. In the United States, the song peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 18 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. The song reached number one in 25 countries, including the United Kingdom, and was certified gold in that country in 1986. Originally made to just be a concert opener, it is the first single and title track from the band’s third studio album. Written by Joey Tempest, it was based on a keyboard riff he made in the early 1980s, with lyrics inspired by David Bowie‘s “ Space Oddity“. “ The Final Countdown” is a song by Swedish rock band Europe, released in 1986. Download & Install The New ANE Android App To Your Device
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