A-ha

A-ha (spelled "a-ha" in lower-case on their releases) were a Norwegian pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket (vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards), and Pål Waaktaar (guitars). The group initially rose to fame during the mid 1980s after being discovered by musician and producer John Ratcliff and had continued global success in the 1990s and 2000s.. A-ha is the biggest music export from Norway. The success started in 1985 and by the end of 2010 A-ha was still the biggest-selling artist from Norway. The band were in many ways pioneers. Before A-ha there was no one that had managed to be commercially successful around the world from Norway. Even though Norway has fostered several successful acts after A-ha, the band is still considered to be in a league all by its own in Norway. The band has had huge success in the USA and UK, however perhaps even more success in non English-speaking areas of the world, such as Germany, France and the countries of South America, Brazil in particular. In 1986 A-ha received 8 MTV Video Music Awards during one award show. Their music video for the song "Take On Me" is still considered to be one of the top music videos of all time together with Michael Jackson's "Thriller". In 1986 Michael Jackson was in the audience at their first US concert. He later invited the band to his Neverland Ranch, an offer the band had to decline due to work overload. In the early years their fan base consisted of a lot of teens, however with the band progress in music and songwriting capabilities the fan base has become much more diverse and now consist of fans from all age groups and genres.. The band has sold some estimated 80 million records (albums and singles). They are the only non-British/non-American performers who have written and performed a 007 James Bond official theme song with their song "The Living Daylights" from the movie with the same title. Songs by A-ha have also been included as background music in episodes of popular TV series, such as Family Guy, Baywatch, Melrose Place, South Park, Smallville , Cougar Town Chuck (TV series) and The Simpsons, as well as movies such as One Night at McCool's, Grosse Pointe Blank and Corky Romano. They have a Guinness World Record from 1991 for drawing the largest paying audience at a popconcert with 198,000 people at the Estádio do Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro. In 2006 the band was awarded the Q Awards Inspiration Award....
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