That song you’ve heard a million times at sporting events, in GEICO commercials and on the Just Dance video game has just reached a major milestone. Europe‘s 1986 kitsch rock classic “The Final Countdown” hit 1 billion views on YouTube this week and the group could not be more psyched to enter such rarified hair metal company.
“Unbelievable! One Billion Views! Thanks so much to everyone out there who has enjoys the song and video!” the band wrote on Instagram. “I’m sure we have annoyed a few people along the way as well with this song : )” Currently on a European tour with Whitesnake, the Swedish rockers — singer (and the song’s writer) Joey Tempest, guitarist John Norum, bassist John Levén, keyboardist Mic Michaeli and drummer Ian Haughland — said they planned to celebrate with fans at shows.
The band broke through in 1986 with the keyboard-dominated, anthemic song — the title track to their third studio album — which finally broke the band internationally, hitting the top of the charts in the UK, France, Germany and more than a dozen other countries.
The Nick Morris-directed video is a compilation of live footage of the band performing the song in concert in the Swedish cities of Solnahallen and Solna as lipsticked and teased-hair singer Tempest struts and bounces around as he croons the space-focused lyrics, “We’re headin’ for Venus (Venus)/ And still we stand tall/ ‘Cause maybe they’ve seen us/ And welcome us all, yeah/ With so many light years to go/ And things to be found (to be found)/ I’m sure that we all miss her so… It’s the final countdown/ The final countdown.”
Check out Europe’s post and the official video below.
