Mic Michaeli was born on November 11, 1962, in Upplands Väsby, Sweden. As Europe’s keyboardist and a songwriting partner to singer Joey Tempest, he helped shape “Carrie,” the ballad on the band’s 1986 album The Final Countdown. Michaeli played keyboards on the recording as well as sharing its writing credit.
His musical education began at home, where his mother was a professional classical singer and a piano and guitar were always available. Speaking to SFL Music Magazine in 2026, Michaeli recalled how hearing The Beatles opened up a different musical world from the one his parents listened to. Their late-period records drew him toward rock, and he kept exploring through the 1970s. He took some piano lessons at his mother’s insistence, but described himself as largely self-taught: he wanted to play rock music, while formal practice felt like another homework assignment.
By the time he played in Avalon, Michaeli had settled on keyboards. Europe’s musicians knew him from the small clubs around their shared hometown, which made him a practical choice when they needed another player. Recalling his recruitment on The Keyboard Chronicles in 2024, he explained that Tempest had recorded keyboard parts for Wings of Tomorrow but didn’t want to handle them onstage. Michaeli joined the 1984 tour initially as an extra musician, playing off to the side. After a few months, the invitation became permanent membership.
The partnership with Tempest also gave Michaeli room to develop songs. In a 2011 interview with Rushonrock, he traced “Carrie” to an idea he brought into a rehearsal and expanded through jamming with the singer. An early version served as an intermission in their shows, with a looser arrangement than the finished recording. “It was the first songwriting credit I had on a real album,” he said. He remained proud of it, even while admitting that he would change parts of the song and wanted its live performances to feel fresh.
Europe’s hiatus in 1992 took Michaeli into other recording partnerships. He contributed keyboards and backing vocals to Glenn Hughes’ studio album From Now On…, released in Sweden in 1994, and to Burning Japan Live, first issued in Japan later that year. The two records captured him working with Hughes both in the studio and onstage during the break from Europe.
When Europe discussed returning in 2003, the musicians gathered around Michaeli’s kitchen table. He told May the Rock Be with You in an interview published in 2010 that they agreed to move their writing forward, imagining how the band might have developed had it kept making records throughout the break. That decision led into Start from the Dark in 2004. By Last Look at Eden in 2009, they were bringing more of the arranging into rehearsals and working songs out together. Michaeli contrasted that approach with Secret Society, for which he and Tempest had spent long hours working in the studio.
An older idea found its place in that renewed collaboration. “New Love in Town,” included on Last Look at Eden, grew from a jam during the early-1990s Prisoners in Paradise sessions. As Michaeli recalled to Rushonrock, Tempest played drums and sang while he played keyboards, the pair imagining themselves performing to a crowd. The idea stayed with them for years before becoming part of the 2009 album.
