Blessed with the voice and the face of an angel, Morten Harket was the lead singer Norwegian group A-ha, who topped the charts internationally with their massive hit ‘Take on Me’.
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Below we present 12 fascinating facts about this gorgeous 80s heartthrob…
1. He Started Writing Music At A Very Young Age
Harket started writing his own music at the tender age of 4.
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He also started learning the piano at the same age, but lacked the discipline to practice regularly so eventually gave it up.
2. He Has A Number Of Musical Influences
Morten’s musical influences as a youngster are reported to have included Queen, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Simon and Garfunkel and James Brown.
3. He Decided On The Name A-ha
The name ‘A-ha’ was originally one that guitarist Paul Waaktaar thought about giving to a song he had written.
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Morten came across the name in Paul’s notebook and immediately decided that is was the perfect name for their band.
4. He Has A Unique Voice…
Harket is well known for his unique voice, which some have claimed has a vocal range that spans 5 octaves. However, Morten himself has been quoted as saying that “I’ve never counted, quite honestly”.
5…Which Some Claim Is The Greatest Ever
Sylvia Patterson from the (now defunct) trendy music magazine NME once claimed that Morten has “the greatest falsetto in the history of pop music ever”.
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That’s quite a thing to say about somebody!
6. Take On Me Was Not Originally A Hit
Unbelievably, A-ha’s classic single Take On Me only became a hit on its 3rd attempt. This was after the band re-recorded it and the now legendary animated music video was created.
7. He Broke A World Record
In 2000 Morten broke the world record for the man who could hold the longest single note in a song.
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The record was previously held by Bill Withers, who held a note for 18 seconds in the song ‘Lovely Day’. Harket beat that in 2000 by holding a note for 20.2 seconds in his song ‘Summer Moved On’.
8. He’s A Norwegian Knight
All 3 members of A-ha have been appointed ‘Knights of the 1st Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav’ for their contribution to Norwegian music.
9. He Has Released A Number Of Solo Albums
Since A-ha went on ‘hiatus’ in 1994, Morten has released 6 albums.
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2 of these were sung in Norwegian, but he did have decent success with album Wild Seed, which he sung in English.
10. He Has Five Children From Three Different Mothers
Harket has 2 boys and 1 girl with his now ex-wife Camilla Malmqvist Harket, to whom he was married for nearly 10 years. He also has a daughter with ex-girlfriend Mette Undlien, and another daughter with Inez Andersson.
11. He Supports Stoke City FC
Morten, as well as fellow A-ha band member Magne Furuholmen, are reputed to support the English football club Stoke City!
12. A-ha Still Perform To This Day
A-ha had a ‘farewell tour’ in 2010, but still occasionally perform together.
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In 2015 they reunited for the ‘Rock in Rio’ festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which also led to another reunion tour and the a further album. And in 2017 they performed for ‘MTV Unplugged’ in Norway.
