Last month at a press conference in Berlin, a-ha announced a reunion. The group has produced their 10th studio album, ‘Cast in Steel’ and will make a tour next year.
The pop group a-ha was formed in Oslo, Norway by Morten Harket (vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards) and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars) in 1982 and achieved global success in the 1990s and 2000s.
Their debut album, Hunting High and Low, from 1985 peaked at number 1 in Norway, and reached number 2 in the UK and number 15 on the U. S. Billboard album chart.
Two international number-one singles, Take On Me andThe Sun Always Shines on T. V. earned the band a Grammy Award nomination as Best New Artist in the U. K.
In 1991 a-ha played for the first time at the Rock in Rio music festival, in front of 198,000 fans at the Maracanã Stadium, a world record for a paying audience. September 27 this year the group will return to Rio and the music festival.
Now the Norwegian pop group a-ha is back!
15 concerts are scheduled for 2016 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In an interview at the Berlin press conference, when Paul was asked how the band had been in the last years, he jokingly answered, “I’ve been super busy. I mean, in the last five years, I’ve released one song.” But he immediately added that ‘when we get together we always need to step back. It seems to do our career a lot of good. We have to go away to get bigger.”
“If the band in itself has more to present, why wouldn’t we do it,” said Waaktar.
“One good thing about history is that it can’t be taken away from you…It has been a hell of a ride, I wouldn’t trade it,” said Furuholmen, and Harket concluded, “There’s magic in the music … Everything else wears you out, the music itself doesn’t.”
Tor Kjolberg