Overview (1)

Nickname "The U2 of Norway"

Mini Bio (1)

Norwegian pop group formed in 1985 comprised of: Morten Harket, lead singer and song writer; Magne Furuholmen (("Mags"), keyboards, piano, vocals and song writer, and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (Pål Waaktaar), guitars, vocals and song writer.



Achieved a major breakthrough in 1985 with the hit "Take On Me." Has since then had following hits with "The Sun Always Shines On TV," "Hunting High and Low," "Manhattan Skyline," "I've Been Losing You," "The Living Daylights," "Stay on These Roads," "Crying in the Rain," "Summer Moved On," "Forever Not Yours," and recently "Analogue - All I Want" to name a few.



Has sold over 70 millions records worldwide.



Made the theme song for the 1987 James Bond movie The Living Daylights (1987).



Made a comeback in the year 2000 after a seven year split with the album "Minor Earth Major Sky."



Released the first fully web-based animated flash music video to be made available (with the song A-ha: I Wish I Cared (2000)). Madonna was a close second.



In August of 2005 they attracted the largest number of people (120,000) ever to attend a concert in Norway.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Peter Rosengren

Trivia (14)

In 1991, A-Ha set a Guinness Book World Record by playing for the largest paying audience in the world: 198,000 people at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.





An A-Ha poster can be seen on the wall during the Seinfeld (1989) episode "The Pez Dispenser," which was aired in 1992.



In 2005, the video for A-Ha: Take on Me (1985) was parodied in an episode of a Family Guy (1999) cartoon where Chris is pulled into the pencil sketched world of the video with A-Ha singer, Morten Harket . The scene contains re-drawn footage copied from the "Take On Me" video, but with Chris instead of "The Girl".



In 1999, songwriter Paul Waaktaar-Savoy ( Pål Waaktaar ) received an award: A-Ha had been played 2,000,000 times on US radio-stations since 1985.



A-Ha has performed at two Nobel Peace Prize concerts, the most prestigious award show in the world. A-Ha performed in 1998 and 2001. ( Morten Harket has also performed solo twice.) The 1998 performance was A-Ha's comeback into the world of music.



In 1994, A-Ha performed the official song for the Winter Paralympics of 1994 at Lillehammer in Norway. The name of the song was A-ha: Shapes That Go Together (1994).

A-Ha sales (with albums, singles and EP's) is around 70 million copies.





The very first version of "Take On Me" was called "The Juicyfruit Song" and was recorded during a rehearsal in 1981 by Bridges, Paul Waaktaar-Savoy ( Pål Waaktaar ) and Magne Furuholmen 's former band.



A-Ha is responsible for the "ripped jeans" fashion trend of 1985. Lead singer Morten Harket was the originator of this trend due to a slight mishap, he mistakenly tore the front of his jeans on a Marshall amplifier while rushing to the stage during a performance. Afterwards, he remarked "Ouch!I just didn't see those". In future performances he used razor blades to achieve the same effect.

On the 30th of October 2006 in London, A-Ha received the prestigious Q Inspiration Award for their long contribution to music and for inspiring many of their younger colleagues in the business.



Currently in studio, working on a new album. Possible release, spring 2009. Following tour is planned. [September 2008]



Will tour Russia and Norway shortly, before beginning on their next studio album. Release date probably sometime in 2007. [August 2006]

