Morten Harket

Morten Harket, frontman for a-ha, initially came across as yet another attractive face from the MTV era of the 1980s. He entered the world in Kongsberg, Norway, on September 14, 1959. At four he began piano lessons, immersed from an early age in classical repertoire that left him unaware of rock and pop figures until he reached sixteen. Priesthood once seemed his calling, yet membership in the group Bridges forced him to abandon theological training in favor of music.

In 1983 he assembled a-ha alongside Magne Furuholmen on keyboards, harmonica, and vocals and Paal Waaktaar on bass, guitar, piano, and vocals. The American rollout of the “Take On Me” video in 1985 prompted reviewers to target Harket’s photogenic image, branding him a look-alike of Simon Le Bon. a-ha’s first full-length release, Hunting High and Low, nevertheless revealed far greater range than the single implied, letting Harket pour emotion through an elevated falsetto draped across acoustic guitars and electronics well before Thom Yorke of Radiohead earned widespread recognition for comparable techniques.

Those striking vocals earned serious respect only with the arrival of a-ha’s follow-up, Scoundrel Days, in 1986. The following year Harket’s singing appeared on the soundtrack to the James Bond film The Living Daylights, for which a-ha supplied the title track. Outside the band he has issued three solo projects: Poetenes Evangelium, Wild Seed, and Vogts Villa. Critics again took notice in 2000 when his evocative delivery on a-ha’s Minor Earth Major Sky prompted comparisons with Neil Young, the Verve, and R.E.M.