Norwegian new-wavers a-ha have achieved remarkable worldwide fame over four decades, and for good reason. Not only are they one of the most influential synth-pop acts to come out of the early '80s, but they set a major precedent for music video innovation with their partially animated "Take On Me" visual, an MTV mainstay at the time.
The trio initially formed in the early 1980s when guitarist Pål Waaktaar-Savoy and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, formerly of Bridges, teamed up with vocalist Morten Harket. Together, the trio left for London and signed to WEA. Their debut single, "Take On Me," became a smash hit in the United Kingdom, thanks in part to Harket's octave-climbing falsetto. Over in the States, the song's rotoscoping video, which blended pencil-sketch animation with live action, earned heavy rotation on the still relatively young MTV.
A-ha circled back to the charts with their second single, "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.," which went to No. 1 in the UK and peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1986, a-ha's success culminated in a Grammy nomination in the Best New Artist category, though they lost out to Sade.
Meanwhile, a-ha's debut album, Hunting High and Low, was a bestseller, going triple platinum in the UK and platinum in the U.S. To date, it has sold 11 million copies worldwide.
In 1986, a-ha released their sophomore album, Scoundrel Days, featuring the singles "I've Been Losing You," "Cry Wolf," "Maybe, Maybe," and "Manhattan Skyline." It sold more than six million copies worldwide and peaked at No. 2 on the European Top 100 Albums chart.
A-ha followed up with their third studio album, Stay on These Roads, released in 1988. It featured the title track to the 1987 James Bond film The Living Daylights and has sold more than 4.2 million copies worldwide.
The band's fourth studio album, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, came out in 1990 and featured a cover of the Everly Brothers' "Crying in the Rain." In 1991, the band hit a Guinness World Record for biggest rock audience attendance at the Rock in Rio II festival, which drew a crowd of 198,000.
A-ha released their fifth album, Memorial Beach, in 1993, featuring the single "Dark is the Night for All," which peaked at No. 19 in the UK. At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, a-ha performed two concerts and wrote a song for the games: "Shapes That Go Together." That same year, a-ha went on hiatus, and the band members pursued individual projects.
In 1998, a-ha reunited for the Nobel Peace Prize Concert. Their reunion eventually led to the recording of a new album, 2000's Minor Earth Major Sky, plus an international tour. In 2003, a-ha released a live album from their 2002 tour, titled How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head. This was followed by a 2005 album, Analogue, which earned the band their first Top 10 hit in the UK since 1988.
After 2005's Analogue, a-ha released three more albums: 2009's Foot of the Mountain, 2015's Cast in Steel, and 2022's True North (coming in October 2022). In 2021, the documentary a-ha: The Movie premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
Though a-ha remain best known in the U.S. for their first-ever single, the trio is by far the most successful pop act to come from their home country of Norway. They have influenced numerous contemporary pop performers, most notably Chris Martin of Coldplay and Pitbull, the latter who featured a sampling of "Take On Me" in his 2013 single with Christina Aguilera, "Feel This Moment."
