Band History

a-ha is a Norwegian band, which appeared in 1982 and formed by vocalist Morten Harket, guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen. After its creation, the group left Norway and moved to London in search of a career in the music world.

Origem do Nome:
The "a-ha" comes from the exclamation "aha!" In the meaning of surprise or something new. The origin of the name a-ha Morten came after have read this term in a notebook of songs and other compositions of Paul. Thus, Morten suggested this name for the band: It's a great name. That's what we have to call". Later, Paul said: "At that time I did not know what Morten was speaking amid the mess of my notebooks.". Paul liked the idea because they wanted a name easy to remember and that is closest to the sound of the Norwegian language. After checking dictionaries in several languages, they found that "a-ha" was an international way of expressing recognition, with positive connotations. It was easy to say and little used.

Begining

It all started in Manglerud (district of Oslo, where Magne was born), when Magne and Pal (or Paul, in writing non-Norwegian) met in the early 70s. They had only 9 and 10 years old. They were neighbors on the street, Paul lived in Havre Route 100, while Magne lived at number 80.
Soon they began playing together. The beginning was with recorders and inexpensive instruments, to have access to an amplifier that belonged to Dali's father came. Later, Magne got the guitar that his grandfather wore.

Magne grew up with his mother, Anne Lise, her sister (Lise), two half-brothers (Thorstein and Trygve) and his stepfather, Terje Nøkleby (with whom he gets along very well), after his father died in a plane crash, on the 1st May 1969, when Mags was 6 years old. At the time, Kåre Furuholmen played trumpet and was director of Bent Sølve orchestra. They were en route to a concert when Gutenberg aircraft was called back to Norway due to bad weather, but due to lack of fuel and engine problems the plane crashed in the industrial zone of Drammen.
Morten, his father and Hakon, his brother, were returning from home of relatives in southern Norway when they saw a plane crash. The boys were sitting in the backseat of the car and saw everything. Contrary to what some think, the accident they witnessed was not the same as the Magne's father.

Pal, birth name Pal Waaktaar Gamst, grew up with parents, Gerd and Olaf Gamst, and a sister, Tonje (2 years older). His father was a pharmacist and his mother worked at a telephone company.
Pal was very shy and gave his first kiss when he was 18. Why kill many classrooms, almost failed and was known among classmates for "the guest".

Paul and Magne played in many bands together, until in 1977 they formed a band called "The Bridges" with inspiration from progressive rock and The Doors.
In 1978 The Bridges performed the song "Somebody' s going away", but with equipment failures and lack of experience, they were not successful. Morten was in the hall, and after the concert was talking to them about the great musical experience that had given him. He said that The Bridges had a glorious future.

After trying to develop a career in Norway, Magne and Paul moved to London in the spring of 1982.
After half a year, things were going so badly that the two decided to go home again. But without money to return home, they had to go ride. On the return trip were first to Hoek van Holland ferry and then to Germany, before heading to the north. In Germany, they were fined by police because they were hitchhiking along the highway. They passed Svinesund walk! That was the summer of 1982.

While still played The Bridges, Magne observed Morten Harket and their vocal skills. And Morten knew their music, after seeing them play in high school, they played in Asker (a joint concert for the victims after the Afghanistan war). Besides the presentation that they did in NM rock, where Morten was in the audience. He could think of singing the songs of Paul and Magne. Morten was already well acquainted with Magne and one night when they went home together from Arkero to Oslo, after a night at Chateau Neuf. Along the way, they discovered they had much in common, both musically and in philosophy of life. Morten also sang for The Bridges, in the Magne's basement. And both, Magne and Paul, thought he was a singer of dimensions.
So, before the trip back from London, Magne contacted Morten to see if he was interested in being a singer in his band and join them in London. And Morten was flattered but declined because he was satisfied with being the lead singer of Soul Diergaarde Blue (in season), when he felt he knew Magne and Pål too poor to join them in London.

Back in Norway, were both determined to convince Morten to join the band, and then back to London. The first time they made contact with Morten he still showed a bit of contempt, since he was skeptical about going to London so soon. He also thought he should know what he wanted with his life, in relation to education and employment. He was, after all, was a grown man of 23 years. Moreover, he had already promised a friend, Arild Fetveit, go to the Greek islands.
Paul wanted to go back London without Morten, Magne believed they should have patience and wait Morten change his mind.

Having thought more about it, Morten was more positive about the idea of following Magne and Paul to London. On the Morten's birthday, September 14, 1982, Magne and Paul went to his house in their best clothes. Both congratulated him on arrival and told him he was the new singer of their band.
Morten said yes, on condition that the three should spend time writing songs and recording demos before crossing the North Sea again. Paul wanted to go immediately, but after a discussion, he turned to the desire to Morten.

After the trio met

Paul's parents had a summer house in the city of Nærsnes, not far from Drammen. It was the basis for the three and where they set up a studio. There they worked on new songs and old.
They save, Morten used to do a lot of plum jam and they ate. Magne worked as a substitute teacher and Morten as a nurse in hospitals (in Dikemark), while Paul focused on music.

While living in the camp house was discovered the name A-ha. Morten had the idea after looking at Paul's notebook, where the word was intended as the title of a song. Morten: "It's a great name. That's what we have to call." Paul: "At this point I didn't know that Morten was speaking amid the mess of my notebooks.
After considering the name a couple of weeks, they found the word in several dictionaries. They found that it was an international word, which meant confirmation / recognition, which had a positive tone, and it was uncommon, seen as an advantage.

After the New Year celebrations, they gathered to complete the mix demos they had intended to present to record companies in London. It took two days and two nights without sleep. When they finished, they had 8 songs on the tape.
The demonstration was made with cheap instruments, as Jupiter synth, a guitar synthesizer, and a Dr. Rhythm drum machine. The latter was used because it was cheaper to use it, than hiring a real drummer. The recordings were made in an engraving machine Teac 4 track, that Morten had.
Among the songs that were recorded "Now blow it on the ground" (or "Now we are blowing in the ground," as was called later), "The Sphinx" (later "Train Of Thought") and "Living a boy's tail Adventure. They also had songs in Norwegian, which were written at a time when they were not sure if they should turn to a Norwegian audience or an international character. They chose to sing it in Norwegian (the most os songs, not all). Until they changed their minds soon after.

Driving Success

An early version of "Take on Me" was the first song that Morten Harket heard Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar play in Asker. At that time, the song was called "The Juicy Fruit Song", and the two men were still known as Bridges. It was named "Lesson One" when it was first recorded by a-ha. After some rewriting, multiple re-recordings, and three releases, "Take on Me" became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1985 and was the second-best-selling single of 1985. The first version of the song, released in 1984, was promoted by a now-rare video of the band performing the song in front of a blue background. Both the original recording and video were failures. The song was re-recorded with production by Alan Tarney but failed to light up the charts. It was then re-released with a new, groundbreaking video and ultimately sold 1.5 million copies worldwide in one week. Eventually, the single "Take on Me" was estimated to have sold 7–9 million copies worldwide; it peaked at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. A-ha became the first Norwegian band to have a number 1 song in the U.S. Sales were aided in the U.S. by heavy rotation on MTV of the new music video, which may have been inspired not only by the truck-chase scene from Terry Gilliam's film Brazil but also by the climactic scene from Ken Russell's film Altered States. The video used a pencil-sketch animation / live-action combination called rotoscoping, in which individual frames of live video are drawn over or colored. It became one of the most instantly recognizable and most enduringly popular music videos in the U.S., 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, and Viewer's Choice. "Take on Me" was also nominated for Best Video of the Year at the 1986 American Music Awards. 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.

But those were not a-ha's only MTV awards that year. The band's second single was "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.". In the U.S., 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 5 on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. The music video for the song was another popular and critical success, nominated in three categories at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards and winning two awards, for Best Cinematography and Best Editing, bringing a-ha's total to eleven nominations and eight wins. The following year, Peter Gabriel would earn thirteen nominations and win nine awards, also for two videos. In successive years, even as the award categories have expanded, only a few artsts have approached—and none has surpassed—the single-year award totals of a-ha and Gabriel.

a-ha's American success culminated in their 1986 Grammy nomination in the coveted 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 the singularly huge success of "Take on Me".[12] As such, the band is frequently considered a one-hit wonder there, despite their two Top 40 hits. In the UK, however, the story was very different: "The Sun Always Shines on TV" was an even bigger hit among British fans than "Take on Me", peaking at number 1.[13] In the UK, a-ha enjoyed continued success with two more hit singles from the same album—"Train Of Thought" and "Hunting High And Low" (with another innovative video)—and the band 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 platinum status in the United States, UK, and Germany and earned gold status in Brazil and the Netherlands. Hunting High and Low has sold 11 million copies worldwide. The album peaked at number 15 in the U.S., according to Billboard music charts, and has sold about 1.8 million copies in the U.S. It peaked at number 2 on the UK charts, and it spent 38 weeks in the top 10 in Norway, including 8 weeks at number 1.

Firth Phase (1986-1994)
Scoundrel Days, a-ha's second album, 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 favorable reviews and sent three singles to become international radio hits, the album's sales did not match those of its predecessor (except for Switzerland, where it is 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 went to tour in the U.S., its last appearance there for 20 years. The album has sold 6.4 million copies worldwide, has been certified platinum in the UK and Switzerland, and has been certified gold in Germany and Brazil. 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-2 chart peak of its two predecessors on the British album charts. Stay on These Roads became a big hit and is now the best-selling a-ha album in Brazil, where it is certified platinum. The album has been certified gold in Switzerland, Germany, 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 a re-recording of the film version and single. The band has said that they are particularly proud of the title track, and all three members contributed to its writing. To this day, "Stay On These Roads" and "The Living Daylights" are a part of their live set. 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 featured a cover version of The Everly Brothers' 1963 single, "Crying in the Rain". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a-ha was very popular in South America, especially in Brazil, where the band sold out some of the largest stadiums in the world. At the Rock in Rio II festival in January 1991, 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 paying audiences. In contrast, George Michael, Prince, and Guns N' Roses drew only 60,000 each. In a recent interview in Musicweek, celebrating a-ha's upcoming 25-year anniversary, the band members revealed that the record-breaking concert and the lack of media attention they received were a devastating blow to the band. The 1991 Rock In Rio festival, which should have been the band's crowning achievement was, instead, a moment of crushing disappointment. The nine-day event featured mega-headliners including Guns N’ Roses, George Michael and Prince, but it was a-ha's show at the Maracaña Stadium that drew the Guinness World Record–breaking crowd of 198,000—the largest paying audience ever. “MTV interviewed everybody except us”, remembers Waaktar-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 was certified 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.

The compilation album Headlines and Deadlines sold more than 2 million copies worldwide.

Their last album before their hiatus was Memorial Beach in 1993. The album was a commercial failure, with sales of 1.2 million copies. The only single to officially chart outside Norway was "Dark Is the Night", which went top 20 in the United Kingdom. Ironically, given the lack of attention to their later work in the U.S., "Dark Is the Night" nearly charted on the U.S. Hot 100, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart, a position often construed as being #111 in reference to the Hot 100. Memorial Beach is the last official American release by a-ha to date, though their material has continued to have (limited) availability there as imports. In February 1994, a-ha performed two concerts during the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, followed by tours of South Africa and Norway. a-ha was also chosen to compose the official song for the Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer, which they entitled "Shapes That Go Together". Because of apparent internal conflicts between the band members and conflicts with the record label at the time, a-ha took a break in 1994, and the members started focusing on solo projects

Solo Careers
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy has released six albums Mary Is Coming (1996), Lackluster Me (1997), Mountains Of Time (1999), Reasons To Stay Indoors (2001), Savoy (2004) and Savoy Songbook Volume 1 (2007), with its wife Lauren Savoy's band Savoy.
Morten Harket has released so far 4 solo albums: Poetenes Evangelium (1993), Wild Seed (1995), Vogts Villa (1996) and Letter From Egypt launched in May 2008. Wild Seed sold about 200,000 copies in Norway and 500,000 overall. It is the solo project of the most successful among the members of A-ha so far.
Magne Furuholmen built a reputation as a sculptor, painter, and composed songs for movies and television. In 2004 he released his first solo album, Past Perfect Future Tense, backed by members of the band Coldplay, who are big fans of a-ha.

Secund Phase (1998 to present)
The band was invited to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998. Paul wrote "Summer Moved On" especially for this performance.They also performed "The Sun Always Shines on TV." This performance was a-ha's comeback into the world of music, yet the band's set was controversially omitted from a programme of highlights from that concert televised in the UK. 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 the 24 and 25 March 2001. The webcast was the third most-viewed webcast concert ever with 3.6 million hits, along with the longest average viewing time—28 minutes. Only webcasts by Madonna and Paul McCartney recorded more hits. a-ha's video for "I Wish I Cared" was the first fully web-based animated flash music video to be made available. The album reached platinum sales, with sales of 2.5 million copies and spawned four #1 hits: "Minor Earth Major Sky," "Velvet," "The Sun Never Shone That Day" and "Summer Moved On." "Summer Moved On" is notable not only for going to #1 in 17 countries, but for earning Morten Harket a world record for the longest note held in a UK hit song, at twenty seconds. With the music video for the song "Velvet," a-ha received criticism for flirting with necrophilia. Paul has said of the comeback album, "We made a demo very quickly and intuitively, and that gave us the contract. But then we were at the next stage: is it a record? There wasn't any panic, it was only about the final most difficult fractions, coming up with the finishing touch. In fact, some of the songs were untouched since New York. I think we did a good job."

a-ha made a return appearance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2001. The subsequent album "Lifelines", which was released in 2002, went platinum in Norway and produced two Top 5 hits, "Forever Not Yours" and "Lifelines". Jesper Hiro directed the video for "Lifelines" which was originally 12 minutes long. The end result shows a whole year passing by in one shot at 50 000 times the normal speed. The art film on which it was based, "A Year along the Abandoned Road," was directed by Morten Skallerud in 1991.

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 TV." In 2004, a book entitled "The Swing of Things" was published, which also featured a CD of early demo material. That year a-ha celebrated their twentieth anniversary with the release of a new singles collection, "The Definitive Singles Collection 1984–2004". This compilation brought them back into the UK Top 20 Album Charts, where they reached number thirteen 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", however Morten Harket had difficulties hearing himself and 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 organizers told them to leave the stage.

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. The band has not returned to North America since, nor have they released anything 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 8th studio album, Analogue. The UK release of the single "Analogue (All I Want)" gave a-ha their first top ten hit in the UK since 1988.[13] The album includes a guest appearance by Graham Nash of Crosby Stills & Nash performing back-up vocals on the songs "Over the treetops" and "Cosy Prisons". The video for the song "Celice" sparked criticism for its sexual content. The following tour included performances at a gig at London's Shepherd's Bush on 2 February 2006, and a TV special in Africa. In 2006, a-ha recorded a cover of John Lennon's "#9 Dream" for Amnesty International. It was released in June 2007 on the album "Make Some Noise." On 30 October 2006 in London, a-ha received the prestigious Q Magazine Inspiration Award for their long contribution to music and for inspiring many of their younger colleagues in the business. On 15 September 2007, a-ha played a free outdoor concert in Kiel, Germany. The band played on a floating stage in the harbour. This concert was streamed live on the internet via MSN.

On 24 January 2009, a-ha won the Norwegian Spelleman award for Hit of All Time for Take On Me on the 50th anniversary of the official hit list in Norway.

During the month of August 2007 the band suggested a probable change of direction, a third phase, which could take a break of three years, returning only in 2010. However, some shows have been performed with the inclusion of the # 9 Dream Setlist. And fortunately there was a change of plans, with new shows in 2008 and plans to record a new album, and even released some new songs at recent shows.

In 2009, the A-ha did shows in Brazil and Chile in late March. In Brazil, the shows in Sao Paulo and in Rio de Janeiro had a full house. The concerts brought much of the repertoire of 80 years, but also has news and A-ha surprises the audience by presenting songs that were released on an album only in the summer.

Also in 2009, the A-ha launches Foot of the Mountain, his latest album. A few months later, in September, the A-ha announces its end.

In 2010 the A-ha will make his farewell tour, including Brazil in the agenda. Less than a year after the last shows in the country, A-ha return to performing in seven cities in Brazil (Bauru, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, the capital Brasilia, Recife and Fortaleza).