Formation The trio, composed of lead vocalist
Morten Harket; guitarist
Paul Waaktaar (then known as Pål 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. Early influences on A-ha included
the Doors,
Joy Division,
Echo & the Bunnymen and
Ingmar Bergman. Upon arriving in London, the band were "charmed" by the UK's synth-pop scene, drawing inspiration from acts such as
Soft Cell,
Yazoo and
OMD, as well as the more guitar-oriented
Aztec Camera.
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" (meaning a gum advertisement). 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. 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.
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 (6.4 million copies) did not match those of its predecessor (except for in Switzerland, where it remains A-ha's best-selling album). "
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 (plus some fine drumming courtesy of studio pro Michael Sturgis) 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. In contrast, the other performers (
George Michael,
Prince and
Guns N' Roses) each drew less than a third of that audience (60,000 each). 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. 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. They also performed "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." This performance was A-ha's comeback into the world of music, yet the band's set was controversially omitted from a programme of concert highlights that was televised in the UK, and even more controversially in the US by
FOX. Nevertheless, the band returned to the studio. Those recording sessions resulted in 2000's
Minor Earth Major Sky, an international tour, and a webcast performance of the band opening the new
Vallhall Arena in Oslo on 24 and 25 March 2001. A-ha's video for "I Wish I Cared" was one of the first fully web-based animated
Macromedia Flash music videos to be made available. (The first was Duran Duran's 2000 video for "
Someone Else Not Me".) The album reached platinum status, with sales of 1.5 million copies, and spawned four singles: "Summer Moved On", "Minor Earth Major Sky", "Velvet" and "The Sun Never Shone That Day". "Summer Moved On" went to number one in 17 countries. a-ha made a return appearance at the
Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2001, performing a new song, "Differences", and "
Hunting High and Low". The subsequent album,
Lifelines, was released in 2002, going platinum in Norway and producing two top-five hits there, "
Forever Not Yours" and "
Lifelines". Jesper Hiro directed the video for "Lifelines", based on the short film
A Year Along the Abandoned Road, which was directed by Morten Skallerud in 1991. The original short film was 12 minutes long; it shows a whole year elapsing in one shot at 50,000 times the normal speed. A live album from their 2002 tour, titled
How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head, was released in March 2003, preceded by a live single of the 1986 hit "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." In 2004, a book entitled
The Swing of Things was published, which also included a CD of early demo material titled
The Demo Tapes. That year, A-ha celebrated their 20th anniversary with the release of a new singles collection,
The Definitive Singles Collection 1984–2004. This compilation brought them back into the top 20 of the
UK Albums Chart, where they reached number 13 and earned a
gold album. On 2 July 2005, A-ha performed at the
Berlin edition of
Live 8 in front of an audience of nearly 200,000 people. They began with "Hunting High and Low", followed by "Take On Me", during which
Morten Harket had difficulties hearing himself when his
in-ear monitor failed: he requested a two-minute break, which he used to comment on the cause of Live 8. The intended two minutes became almost seven, and the third song, "Summer Moved On", became the last of their set. Although four songs had been rehearsed, the band's time had run out and the organisers told them to leave the stage. live at Cologne, 29 October 2005 On 12 September 2005, A-ha played a quickly sold-out show at
Irving Plaza in New York City, the band's first concert in North America since 1986, despite not having released any material there since 1993. On 27 August 2005, the band played a concert for 120,000 people in
Frogner Park in Oslo, the largest concert ever in Norway. On 4 November 2005, the band released its eighth studio album,
Analogue. The UK release of the single "
Analogue" gave A-ha their first top-ten hit in the UK since 1988.
New direction and farewell (2008–2010) On 20–22 May 2008, Harket, Furuholmen and Waaktaar performed concerts in
Oslo to promote their respective solo material before coming together as A-ha to play "
Train of Thought", "
Take On Me", and two new songs, "Riding the Crest" and "Shadowside", which previewed the new A-ha album,
Foot of the Mountain. These events led up to their performance at London's
Royal Albert Hall on 24 May. On 24 April 2009, A-ha surprised their fan base by releasing their new single, "Foot of the Mountain", premiering that day on Norwegian radio. The single had been completed only the night before. The song is based upon the track "The Longest Night" by Furuholmen, which was released on his album
A Dot of Black in the Blue of Your Bliss. The band promoted the German release of the song by playing it during the final of ''Germany's Next Topmodel'' on 21 May at
Cologne's
Lanxess Arena.
Foot of the Mountain, A-ha's ninth studio album, was released in Europe on 19 June 2009. The album's material marked a return to synth pop, similar to the band's earliest work, although the first single (and title track) was not wholly indicative of this. The band collaborated with successful producer
Steve Osborne, who has produced albums for such artists as
Suede,
New Order,
Starsailor,
Doves,
Elbow, and
U2. "What There Is", an earlier solo track by Furuholmen, was re-recorded for the album. The album entered the German album chart at number one, the UK album chart at number five and debuted on European Album Sales Chart at number eight. A new single titled "
Butterfly, Butterfly" was revealed on 14 June 2010 and released as a single on 5 July to promote the double CD compilation
25. On 6 July 2010, the albums
Hunting High and Low and
Scoundrel Days were released as deluxe editions in the US through
Rhino Records, containing remixes, B-sides, demo versions, and extensive liner notes. Available in two-disc CD and digital versions (with additional material), both albums debuted in the Top 40 Billboard Top Internet Sales Chart,
Hunting High and Low at number 34 and
Scoundrel Days at number 36. Furuholmen revealed in an interview published in
Magasinet (the magazine section of Norway's third largest newspaper,
Dagbladet) that he suffers from
atrial fibrillation. The news was picked up the same day by electronic music magazine
Side-Line. At the
2011 Spellemannprisen, Norwegian artists from various music genres including
Kaizers Orchestra,
Ida Maria and
Bertine Zetlitz, performed a cover of "
The Sun Always Shines on TV" in honour of the band. After the performance, A-ha received the Honorary Award with the words "Our Heroes – Once upon a time, now – still and forever". a-ha's final concerts in Oslo were recorded by ten HD cameras with digital,
surround sound audio.
Ending on a High Note Live, mixed by Toby Alington, is available in several formats, including the band's first
Blu-ray release. A single-disc live album comprised sixteen tracks, while the Blu-ray, DVD, and deluxe-edition double-CD set comprised twenty tracks. A bonus documentary appears in the deluxe set and Blu-ray versions. An
NTSC version was released in the US and Japan. On 1 April 2011, A-ha released the DVD as well as the box-set containing both the DVD and the CD of their last concert,
Ending on a High Note – The Final Concert. The Blu-ray of the concert was released on 11 April 2011. a-ha played at Oslo Spektrum on 21 August 2011, performing the song "
Stay on These Roads" for a national memorial service dedicated to the victims of the
2011 Norway attacks.
Post-a-ha activities and anniversary releases (2011–2014) After A-ha's break-up, Harket released two studio albums,
Out of My Hands (2012) and
Brother (2014). Waaktaar released two songs. With
New Jersey–based vocalist
Jimmy Gnecco, he presented Weathervane as a new project in June 2011. Their self-titled single was included on the soundtrack for the movie
Headhunters (based on the book
Hodejegerne by
Jo Nesbø). A second song, "Manmade Lake", had originally been planned for
Foot of the Mountain but was released to SoundCloud in 2013. In 2012, Furuholmen became a mentor on the show
The Voice – Norges beste stemme. His mentee, Martin Halla, won the contest and had his first album produced by Furuholmen himself who is also an esteemed songwriter/producer for other artists. In 2014, Furuholmen agreed to compose the songs and supervise the recordings for the Norwegian film
Beatles.
Second comeback (2015–2016) During an A-ha fan convention in Oslo in October 2014, manager Harald Wilk announced plans to re-release A-ha's first five albums on vinyl and albums three through five as deluxe editions. In 2015, the band reunited to perform in
Rock in Rio. A-ha in fact reunited for a two-year period and was writing new material. A-ha's tenth studio album,
Cast in Steel, was released on 4 September 2015. The album was promoted with a European tour from March through May 2016. In March, they played a live concert that was broadcast on
BBC Red Button and BBC Radio 2 as part of its "In Concert" series. a-ha also performed at the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. In
Oslo Spektrum on 3 May 2016, A-ha collaborated with Void, a
Norwegian computational computational design studio. The project resulted in a concert with advanced
scenography using 360
virtual reality technology. The stereoscopic VR experience was made available for
Android users directly through a
YouTube app and for iPhone users and other platforms. The concept involved several
motion detectors that reacted to the band's movements, voices and instruments.
3D cameras, 20,000 lines of code, 1,000 square meters of projection film and massive projectors were set up as a visual show that turned the Spektrum arena in
Oslo into a light installation and visual experience that unfolded live for the audience instead of a pre-programmed sequence.
MTV Unplugged and tours (2017–2021) An album and film from a series of acoustic performances, slated for June 2017, was scheduled for November 2017. In mid-June 2017, they recorded an
MTV Unplugged special in the remote Norwegian island of
Giske under close secrecy, with no phones or recording equipment allowed in the studio. In October 2017, an acoustic album titled
Summer Solstice was released. It and included two new songs, "This Is Our Home" and "A Break in the Clouds". The video for "This Is Our Home" was released in September 2017, followed by the
Unplugged versions of "The Sun Always Shines on T.V", "The Living Daylights" and "Take On Me", the last of which received widespread acclaim for re-imagining the pop classic. In early 2018, A-ha went on a European acoustic tour, which was first titled "An Acoustic Evening with A-ha" but then renamed "
MTV Unplugged Tour 2018". The acoustic version of "Take On Me" was included in the movie
Deadpool 2, released in May 2018, and in episode 13, season 4 of the American TV series
The Magicians. On 29 October 2019, A-ha started their Hunting High and Low tour in
Dublin,
Ireland, in which they played the whole of their debut album, in addition to other songs. The tour, scheduled to run through 2020, was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Concerts were scheduled for many European countries, South Africa,
Japan,
Australia,
New Zealand,
Peru,
Chile,
Argentina,
Brazil,
Mexico and the United States. On the tour, the band presented the new song "Digital River". On 13 June 2021, the documentary
a-ha: The Movie premiered at the
Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The movie tells the story of the band and deals with both their success and the problems, such as personal rifts between members. Director
Thomas Robsahm followed the band for four years. It was released in countries worldwide. The acoustic studio version of "Take On Me" was included in the American TV sitcom
The Goldbergs on episode 16, season 8.
Touring and True North (2022–present) In March 2022, A-ha resumed the Hunting High and Low tour after postponements due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. A new film and an album, both called
True North, were released on 21 October 2022 on the
Sony Music/
RCA Records label. The recording was completed in November 2021 with the
Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra in
Bodø,
Norway. It is a filmed live performance and will also include scenic clips from Norway's nature, set in landscapes of northern Norway. The album's lead single, "I'm In", was released on 8 July 2022. a-ha performed two of the album's songs on their 2022 tour: "Forest for the Trees" and "You Have What It Takes". A demo of "I'm In" and "You Have What It Takes" was previously posted on social media by Magne. The album's second single, "You Have What It Takes", was released on 16 September 2022. In 2023, in celebration of 65 years of the Hot 100,
Billboard staff listed the 500 Best Pop Songs of All Time that graced the chart since 1958, with "Take on Me" at No. 26. ==Legacy==