a-ha

a-ha are a Norwegian synth-pop trio formed in Oslo in 1982 by Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy. Furuholmen recruited Harket, then singing with the blues-soul outfit Soldier Blue, to front the band, and the group's name came from a song title Waaktaar had jotted in a notebook. Their 1985 debut album Hunting High and Low, and especially its re-recorded lead single «Take on Me», turned them into global stars, powered in large part by the song's groundbreaking pencil-sketch animation music video.

Built around Harket's soaring, distinctive vocal range, Furuholmen's atmospheric keyboard work and Waaktaar-Savoy's songwriting and guitar, a-ha's sound fused polished synth-pop production with melodic, often melancholic songwriting that set them apart from many of their new wave peers. Songs like «Hunting High and Low», «The Sun Always Shines on T.V.» and «Stay on These Roads» reinforced their run of European chart success through the mid-to-late 1980s.

The band also contributed the theme song to the James Bond film The Living Daylights in 1987, further cementing their international profile. Despite lineup activity, splits and reunions over the decades, all three original members were later honoured with knighthoods in Norway for their contribution to music, and a-ha remain one of the best-selling and most enduring Norwegian pop acts of all time.