Morten Harket

Morten Harket born 14 September 1959 is a Norwegian singer who is the lead vocalist of the synthpop band Aha Aha has released 11 studio albums as of 2024 and topped the charts internationally with their hit Take On Me in 1985 Harket has also released six solo albums Before joining Aha in 1982 Harket appeared on the Oslo club scene as the singer for blues outfit Souldier Blue Harket was named a Knight First Class of the Order of St Olav by King Harald for his services to Norwegian music and his international success The son of Reidar a chief physician at a hospital and Henny an economics teacher and brother to Gunvald Håkon Ingunn and Kjetil Morten grew up in Asker in southern Norway His early musical influences included Uriah Heep Jimi Hendrix Queen Johnny Cash Simon and Garfunkel David Bowie and James Brown Mortens father had contemplated becoming a classical pianist Morten also took piano lessons for a while but lacked the discipline to practice At the age of 4 he started writing music and playing piano The trio comprising lead vocalist Harket guitarist Paul WaaktaarSavoy Pål Waaktaar until his marriage in 1994 and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen formed on 14 September 1982 and left Norway for London to make a career in the music business They chose the studio of musician producer and soontobemanager John Ratcliff because it had a Space Invaders machine Ratcliff introduced the band to his manager Terry Slater and after a few meetings Aha had two managers Slater and Ratcliff together formed TJ Management Ratcliff dealt with all the technical and musical aspects Slater was the international business manager and liaison to Warner Brothers head office The band says the name Aha comes from a title Paul contemplated giving to a song he was dithering between the titles Aha and Ahem Morten was looking through Pauls notebook and came across the name which he liked and immediately decided that it was the right name In 1984 Aha released their first single Take On Me which became a hit only on the third attempt in 1985 after it had been rerecorded and accompanied by a music video directed by Steve Barron The singles international success helped Ahas debut album Hunting High and Low to sell over 10 million copies worldwide Their second studio album was Scoundrel Days followed by Stay on These Roads and East of the Sun West of the Moon The band then issued the commercially disappointing Memorial Beach after which the band went on hiatus Harket rejoined his colleagues in Aha in 19987 to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize concert Since 1998 Aha has released four studio albums and several compilations Their eighth studio album Analogue was released in 2005 and became a big hit worldwide achieving Platinum certification in the UK The bands last studio album before their split Foot of the Mountain was released in the spring of 2009 Source Article Morten Harket from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA