A-ha
A-ha are a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Magne Furuholmen, and Morten Harket, the band rose to fame during the mid-1980s.
A-ha achieved their biggest success with their debut album Hunting High and Low in 1985. The album peaked at number one in their native Norway, number two in the UK, and number 15 on the US Billboard album chart; yielded the international number-one single "Take On Me", as well as "The Sun Always Shines on T.V."; and earned the band a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist. In the UK, Hunting High and Low continued its chart success into the following year, becoming one of the best-selling albums of 1986. The band released studio albums in 1986, 1988, and 1990, with single hits including "Hunting High and Low", "The Living Daylights", "Stay on These Roads", and "Crying in the Rain". In 1994, after their fifth studio album, Memorial Beach, failed to achieve the commercial success of their previous albums, the band went on hiatus. Following a performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998, A-ha recorded their sixth album, 2000's Minor Earth Major Sky, which was another number-one album in Norway and Germany. This album was followed by Lifelines ; Analogue, which was certified Silver in the UK; and Foot of the Mountain, which was certified Silver in the UK and reached the top five in many European countries.
The band split after their 2010 worldwide Ending on a High Note Tour, but reunited in 2015 to release their tenth studio album, Cast in Steel. They toured in support of the album and participated at Rock in Rio, which celebrated 30 years for both the band and the event.
The band has released eleven studio albums, several compilations and four live albums, with their most recent album, True North, released on 21 October 2022. In less than a year, during 2010, the band earned an estimated 500 million Norwegian kroner from concert tickets, merchandise and the release of a greatest hits album, making them one of the 40–50 highest-grossing bands in the world. The band were listed in the Guinness World Records book for having the biggest-paying rock concert attendance; they drew an audience of 198,000 at Maracanã Stadium during the Rock in Rio festival. They have sold more than 100 million units, albums and singles combined.
History
Formation
The trio, composed of lead vocalist Morten Harket; guitarist Paul Waaktaar ; and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, formed in 1982, and left Norway for London in order to make a career in music. "We were trying to think of what to call themselves, focusing on Norwegian words people could say in English." They jettisoned that idea when Morten spotted a song called "A-ha" in Waaktaar's songbook. "It was a terrible song but a great name," said Morten.They chose the studio of musician and producer John Ratcliff because it had a Space Invaders machine. He introduced them to his manager, Terry Slater, and after a few meetings, A-ha enlisted both as managers. The two formed TJ Management, with Ratcliff handling technical and musical matters, while Slater handled international business and served as liaison to Warner Bros. head office in Los Angeles.
''Hunting High and Low'' (1984–1986)
An early version of "Take On Me" was the first song that Harket had heard Furuholmen and Waaktaar play in Asker. At that time, the song was called "Miss Eerie" and the two men were still known as Bridges. Harket said it sounded more like a "Juicy Fruit song". A-ha's first recorded version was called "Lesson One". The song was then re-recorded, renamed "Take on Me", and released in 1984, when it was promoted with a video of the band performing in front of a blue background. After it failed to chart, the song was re-recorded with production by Alan Tarney; it again failed to chart. Finally, the song was re-released in 1985 with a new, groundbreaking video; this time, the song peaked at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 and at number two on the UK Singles Chart.a-ha became the first Norwegian band to have a number-one hit in the U.S. The popularity of "Take on Me" earned the band a spot on the American television series Soul Train in 1985, making them one of the few white artists to appear on the black music-oriented show.
The video used a pencil-sketch animation/live-action combination called rotoscoping, in which individual frames of film are drawn over or coloured. It became one of the most instantly recognizable and most enduringly popular music videos in the US, where it was nominated for eight awards at the third annual MTV Video Awards in 1986, winning six, including Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, Viewer's Choice and Best Video of the Year. Their six MTV Award wins for that video gave them twice as many wins as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and more than any artist in the three years of the awards combined.
The band's second single worldwide was "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.", even though "Love Is Reason" was the second single in Norway. In the US, the song peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 17 on Radio & Records airplay chart. A remix version was a club hit, rising to number five on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. The music video for the song was another popular and critical success, nominated at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards in three categories and winning two, Best Cinematography and Best Editing, bringing A-ha's total to 11 nominations and eight wins. The following year, Peter Gabriel would earn 13 nominations and win nine awards, also for two separate videos. In successive years, even as the award categories expanded, only a few artists have approached—and none have surpassed the single-year award totals of A-ha and Gabriel.
a-ha's American success culminated in their 1986 Grammy nomination in the Best New Artist category, which was eventually won by Sade. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." turned out to be A-ha's last Hot 100 Top 40 single and to this day – in the United States – A-ha is remembered by the general public almost entirely because of "Take On Me". As such, the band is frequently considered a one-hit wonder there, despite their two Top 40 hits. In the UK, where "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." has been their only number one, A-ha enjoyed continued success with two more hit singles from the same album, "Train of Thought" and "Hunting High and Low", and remained popular throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.
The band's first album, 1985's Hunting High and Low, became a worldwide bestseller, spending most of October and November in the top 20 of Billboard's Top 200 album chart. The album and its four hit singles garnered international recognition for A-ha. Hunting High and Low earned triple platinum status in the UK and reached platinum status in the US and Germany, while earning gold in Brazil and the Netherlands. Hunting High and Low has sold 11 million copies worldwide. The album peaked at number 15 on the US on the Billboard 200 albums chart and at number two on the UK Albums Chart; it spent 38 weeks in the top 10 in Norway, including eight weeks at number one.
Golden age (1987–1994)
a-ha's second album, Scoundrel Days, was released in the midst of the 1986 world tour and represented a move towards alternative rock, as synthpop began to fall out of style. Although the album received favourable reviews and had three singles become international hits, sales did not match those of its predecessor. "Cry Wolf" would be the last A-ha single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. After the release of the album, A-ha toured in the US, its last appearance there for 20 years. The album has been certified platinum in the UK, Switzerland and Brazil, and has earned gold certification in Germany.Ned Raggett of AllMusic Guide would later write of the album, "The opening two songs alone make for one of the best one-two opening punches around: the tense edge of the title track, featuring one of Morten Harket's soaring vocals during the chorus and a crisp, pristine punch in the music, and 'The Swing of Things,' a moody, elegant number with a beautiful synth/guitar arrangement and utterly lovelorn lyrical sentiments that balance on the edge of being overheated without quite going over...The '80s may be long gone, but Scoundrel Days makes clear that not everything was bad back then."
In May 1988, A-ha released their third studio album, titled Stay on These Roads, which matched the number-two chart peak of its two predecessors on the British album charts. Stay on These Roads has been certified platinum in Brazil and France, and gold in Switzerland, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands.
The album includes the title-track theme song to the James Bond film The Living Daylights. The version that appears on their album is the original version of the song. The band has said that they are particularly proud of the title track, and all three members contributed to its writing. "Stay on These Roads" and "The Living Daylights" would remain part of their live set throughout the rest of the band's history. After the release of the album, the band went on a 74-city world tour. The album has sold more than 4.2 million copies worldwide.
East of the Sun, West of the Moon contained a cover version of The Everly Brothers' 1963 single "Crying in the Rain". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, A-ha were very popular in South America, especially in Brazil, where the band sold out some of the largest stadiums in the world. At the January 1991 Rock in Rio II festival, A-ha shocked the international entertainment press by drawing an audience of 198,000 at Maracanã stadium for their top-billed evening concert—a Guinness World Record for biggest rock concert attendance. In contrast, the other performers each drew less than a third of that audience. In a 2009 interview from Cody Eide in Music Week, celebrating A-ha's up-and-coming 25-year anniversary, the members revealed that the record-breaking concert and the lack of media attention they received were a devastating blow to the band. The festival, which should have been the band's crowning achievement, was instead a moment of crushing disappointment. "MTV interviewed everybody except us", remembers Waaktaar-Savoy. "They were all calling their bosses and saying, 'We must cover A-ha; it's the only night that has sold out.' But they weren't allowed to." "I felt very alienated," says Furuholmen. "It made us feel hopeless. We played to the biggest crowd in the world and they ignored it."
East of the Sun, West of the Moon was certified gold in Switzerland, Brazil, and Germany and silver in the UK. Steven McDonald of AllMusic said of their fourth album, "This is a nicely crafted collection of songs, performed and sung beautifully, with lots of echoes and suggestions tucked into the music. While not an album one can discuss at length, it's an album that's a pleasure to listen to." The album sold 3.2 million copies worldwide.
Their last album before their hiatus was Memorial Beach, in 1993. Relative to previous releases, the album was a commercial disappointment. The only single from the album to chart officially outside of Norway was "Dark Is the Night", which peaked at number 19 in the United Kingdom. Despite the commercial reception, Q magazine listed the album as one of the 50 best albums of 1993. The following February, A-ha performed two concerts during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, followed by tours in South Africa and Norway. A-ha were also chosen to compose the official song for the Winter Paralympic Games in Lillehammer, which they entitled "Shapes That Go Together".
In 1994, the band unofficially entered a hiatus, during which band members focused on solo projects.