Hoping for the next A-ha experience Let's see if Morten can also blow me away live

When I was young, they were one of my favorite bands: A-ha. My four greatest A-ha moments with the Norwegian trio, who I have never seen live on stage - until tonight.

Finally. The wait is over.

Today, for the first time, I'll be seeing A-ha live on stage. And at a legendary venue: the Auditorium Strawinsky in Montreux.

Which teenager in the 80s and 90s didn't succumb to the Norwegian band's charm?

Michael von der Heide was even a bit in love with the singer Morten, as he told me:

'I thought A-ha's music was wonderful too. While my friends, at least in my memory, thought the "boys from Norway" were more visually appealing than musically.

I'll just say: Norwegian sweaters.

So I'm wondering all the more why I've never seen the band live on stage in the last 40 years - momoll, that's how long A-ha have been around, including several breaks?

I've seenTina Turner live ten times. Sting once. The Cure too. Dire Straits and Prince too. I've also seen Kim Wilde (once), Grace Jones (twice) and Madonna (three times) live. Coldplay too.

Maybe I've just always been in the wrong place at the wrong time, that it hasn't worked out with A-ha so far.

Well, Pål Waaktaar, Magne Furuholmen and Morten Harket are not the easiest names to come by if you want to make it big internationally as a band.

Is that why the three Norwegians called their band, which they founded in 1982, "A-ha"?

One thing is for sure: The name is understandable in many languages and has certainly caused many an A-ha effect.

The trio's first A-ha moment came with their very first record. It was released in 1985, called "Hunting High and Low", and immediately brought them their international breakthrough.

What sounds so simple, however, takes several attempts.

After the first two attempts with the single "Take On Me" flopped, those responsible at the record company went back to the drawing board and made a video in which singer Harket found his love in an animated comic world.

Suddenly the music world is thrilled. So am I.

The then almost omnipotent TV station MTV showed the clip in a continuous loop and shortly afterwards the song flew up the charts. Even in the USA, "Take On Me" made it to number one.

As a result, the wave of success carried A-ha further and further, with one hit following the next. "The Sun Always Shines on TV", "Hunting High And Low", "Stay On These Roads" and so on.

But it gets even better.

A-ha gave me my second A-ha experience in 1987 with their James Bond anthem "The Living Daylights". Two years earlier, Duran Duran, another favorite band from days gone by, had already given the Bond film "A View To A Kill" a wavey theme song. A-ha took a similar approach.

Die Zeit describes the Norwegian trio's song as a "collage of Cold War orchestral soundtrack and the synth-pop of the perestroika era, fully in tune with the times".

As good as the title song is, I didn't enjoy James Bond, played for the first time by Timothy Dalton. But that's another story.

The third A-ha experience for me is the number of comebacks. There were three, no, four, no ... it's best to start from the beginning: In the 90s, the band's success diminishes. When the album "Memorial Beach" flopped and the tour was rather poorly attended, the three musicians took their first break.

They continued to make music, but in other ways: Waaktaar founded the band Savoy, Furuholmen wrote soundtracks and Harket released several solo albums in Norwegian.

In 1998, the trio performed together on stage again at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. Many fans (including me) ask themselves:

Time for new music?

Two years later, the answer comes: the album "Minor Earth, Major Sky" makes a great comeback. The three teen pop stars have become a pop band that inspires with a lot of musical talent. Even Coldplay regularly covered A-ha songs on stage.

Ten years later, the next goodbye: 25 years are enough, the band thinks, and goes on a big farewell tour. The tour ends with four concerts in Oslo, which are all sold out twelve months in advance.

After that, Harket, Furuholmen and Waaktaar kept pretty quiet before inviting the audience to a press conference in Berlin in 2015: "A-ha has something to say " was the motto.

And indeed: the next comeback. And not just on stage, a new album has already been recorded.

The band's first concerts after reuniting are unplugged shows. One critic notes: "This undistorted and reduced sound shows the musical substance of the A-ha songs, many of which have long since become classics, and gives the audience goosebumps."

A-ha initially had to put further tour plans on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. But now the band is back.

And of course, when I see A-ha live on a concert stage for the very first time tonight at the Montreux Jazz Festival, I'm hoping for a fourth A-ha experience.

PS 1: The song "Take On Me" was recently added to the exclusive club of videos that have been viewed more than a billion times on YouTube. Only five songs from the 20th century have ever achieved this.

PS 2: After almost seven years, A-ha are planning to launch a new album entitled "True North" next fall. It is a live performance with ten new tracks, which will also be released as a movie.

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