A-ha

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

a-ha - Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)

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Berlin
Berlin ( /bɜrˈlɪn/; German pronunciation: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn] ( listen)) is the capital city of Germany and one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city and is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, it is the center of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has 5.9 million residents from over 190 nations. Located in the European Plains, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.
First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city became divided into East Berlin—the capital of East Germany—and West Berlin, a West German exclave surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of Germany, hosting 147 foreign embassies.

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Brazil
Brazil ⁱ/brəˈzɪl/ (Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.

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France
France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).
Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.

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Frogner Park
Frogner Park (Frognerparken) is a public park located in the borough of Frogner in Oslo, Norway. The park contains the world famous Vigeland Sculpture Park (Vigelandsanlegget) designed by Gustav Vigeland.
Frogner Park consists of various bridges, fountains and a well known picnic area, popular in the summer for sunbathing, games, and relaxation. It also contains both Frognerbadet and Frogner Stadium. The park is the largest park in the city and covers 32 hectares.
In the middle of the 18th century Hans Jacob Scheel, then owner of the Frogner Manor, laid out a baroque garden adjacent to his new manor house. It was expanded by the people who followed him, starting with Bernt Anker (1746–1805) who bought Frogner in 1790 and expanded the main building. Benjamin Wegner took over the property in 1836 and he transformed the garden into a romantic park around 1840. Later, most of the arable land was sold to private developers.
Around one square kilometer remained when the City of Oslo bought the property in 1896 to secure space for further urban development. The municipal government decided around 1900 to make a park for recreation and sports. Frogner Stadium was opened near the road and the area near the buildings was opened to the public in 1904. Norwegian architect Henrik Bull designed the grounds and some of the buildings erected in in the Frogner Park for the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition.

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Germany
Germany (ⁱ/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km² and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.

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Lillehammer
Lillehammer (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈlɪləˈhɑmər] (listen)) is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was 26,639 . The city centre is a late 19th century concentration of wooden houses, which enjoys a picturesque location overlooking the northern part of lake Mjøsa and the river Lågen, surrounded by mountains. Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics and will host the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics.
The municipality is named for the old timur (Old Norse: Hamarr, "rocky hill") farm, since the first church was built there. To distinguish it from the nearby town and bishopric of Hamar, it began to be called "little Hamar": Lilþlæ Hamar and Litlihamarr and finally Lillehammer.
It is also mentioned in the Old Norse sagas as Litlikaupangr ("Little Trading Place").
The coat-of-arms was granted in 1898. The arms show a birkebeiner, carrying a spear and a shield, who is skiing down a mountainside. It symbolizes the historical importance of when the Birkebeiners carried the to-be-King Haakon from Lillehammer to Rena on skis.

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London
London ⁱ/ˈlʌndən/ is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who named it Londinium. London's ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London is a leading global city, with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism and transport all contributing to its prominence. It is the world's leading financial centre alongside New York City and has the fifth-largest city GDP in the world (and the largest in Europe). London has been described as a world cultural capital. It was the world's most visited city during 2011 and London Heathrow is the world's busiest airport by number of international passengers. London's 43 universities form the largest concentration of higher education in Europe. In 2012 London will become the first city to host the modern Summer Olympic Games three times.

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Netherlands
The Netherlands (ⁱ/ˈnɛðərləndz/; Dutch: Nederland [ˈneːdə(r)lɑnt] or [ˈneɪ̯də(r)lɑnt] ( listen); West Frisian: Nederlân; Papiamento: Hulanda) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with some islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is a parliamentary democracy organised as a unitary state. The country capital is Amsterdam and the seat of government is The Hague. The Netherlands in its entirety is often referred to as Holland, although North and South Holland are actually only two of its twelve provinces (a case of pars pro toto; see terminology of "the Netherlands").

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Oslo
Oslo (English pronunciation: /ˈɒzloʊ/, OZ-loh,Norwegian pronunciation: [²ʊʃlʊ] ( listen) or [²ʊslʊ]) is the capital of and most populous city in Norway. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814 and with Sweden from 1814 to 1905 reduced its influence. After being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Castle during the reign of King Christian IV and renamed Christiania in his honour. It was established as a municipality (formannskapsdistrikt) on 1 January 1838. Following a spelling reform, it was known as Kristiania from 1877 to 1925, when its original Norwegian name was restored.
Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway. The city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to many companies within the maritime sector, some of which are amongst the world's largest shipping companies, shipbrokers and maritime insurance brokers. Oslo is a pilot city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme.

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Oslo Spektrum
Coordinates: 59°54′46.6″N 10°45′16.7″E / 59.912944°N 10.754639°E / 59.912944; 10.754639 Oslo Spektrum is an indoor multi-purpose arena in east central Oslo, Norway. It opened in December 1990. It is currently owned and operated by Norges Varemesse (Norway Trade Fairs),^{[citation needed]} who also own and operate the Norges Varemesse conference center in Lillestrøm which is Norway's largest conference center.^{[citation needed]} Oslo Spektrum is primarily known for hosting major events such as the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, Eurovision Song Contest, and concerts by artists of national and international fame.
Oslo Spektrum was part of a large-scale redevelopment of the formerly industrial Grønland/Vaterland area. It was designed by LPO Arkitektkontor AS, and its exterior walls were decorated with ceramic tiles containing fragments of prints by the artist Rolf Nesch. Since this artist died in 1975, permission was obtained from his living relatives, and the decorating was supervised by painter Guttorm Guttormsgaard and ceramic artist Søren Ubisch. In 2004 Oslo Spektrum was awarded the Oslo City Council's award for outstanding architectural achievement.^{[citation needed]} At the time of opening it was Norway's largest indoor arena, with a capacity of 9,700 at concerts and 6,500 during sporting events). It has since been expanded several times. In Greater Oslo both Valhall Arena (capacity 13,000 for concerts/4,000 for sporting events) and Telenor Arena (capacity 25,000/15,000) provide larger venues.^{[citation needed]} Oslo Spektrum was conceived as a multi-purpose arena although it was intended primarily for ice hockey. In this capacity it was intended as the home of both Vålerenga Ishockey and Furuset Ishockey, but this did not work out as expected and the venue was soon left to rely on other means of generating revenue.

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Pandora
In Greek mythology, Pandora (ancient Greek, Πανδώρα, derived from πᾶς "all" and δῶρον "gift", thus "all-gifted" or "all-giving") was allegedly the first woman, who was made out of clay. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mold her out of earth as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her "seductive gifts". Her other name, inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum, is Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts,"up implying "from below" within the earth. According to the myth, Pandora opened a jar (pithos), in modern accounts sometimes mistranslated as "Pandora's box" (see below), releasing all the evils of mankind — although the particular evils, aside from plagues and diseases, are not specified in detail by Hesiod — leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it again. She opened the jar out of simple curiosity and not as a malicious act.

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Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( /ˈriːoʊ deɪ ʒəˈnɛəroʊ/ or /ˈriːoʊ deɪ dʒəˈnɛəroʊ/; Brazilian Portuguese: [ˈʁi.u dʒi ʒaˈnejɾu],River of January), commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th largest in the Americas, and 26th in the world.
The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1815 during the Portuguese colonial era, 1815 to 1821 as the capital of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves, and 1822 to 1960 as an independent nation. Rio is nicknamed the Cidade Maravilhosa or "Marvelous City."
Rio de Janeiro represents the second largest GDP in the country (and 30th largest in the world in 2008), estimated at about R$ 343 billion (IBGE/2008) (nearly US$ 201 billion), and is the headquarters of two major Brazilian companies – Petrobras and Vale, and major oil companies and telephony in Brazil, besides the largest conglomerate of media and communications companies in Latin America, the Globo Organizations. The home of many universities and institutes, it is the second largest center of research and development in Brazil, accounting for 17% of national scientific production – according to 2005 data.

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Switzerland
Switzerland (German: die Schweiz[ˈʃvaɪts]; French: Suisse [sɥis(ə)]; Italian: Svizzera [ˈzvit͡sːɛra]; Romansh: Svizra [ˈʒviːtsrɐ] or [ˈʒviːtsʁːɐ]), in its full name the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km² (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zurich and Geneva.
The Swiss Confederation has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. It pursues, however, an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to a large number of international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area – although it is notably not a member of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area.

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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea.
The United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.

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Adam Clayton
Adam Charles Clayton (born 13 March 1960) is a musician, best known as the bassist of the Irish rock band U2. Clayton has resided in County Dublin since the time his family moved to Malahide when he was five years old in 1965. Clayton is well known for his bass playing on songs such as "New Year's Day", "Bullet the Blue Sky", "With or Without You", "Mysterious Ways", "Get on Your Boots", and "Magnificent". His work on No Line on the Horizon has been cited as his best bass playing. He has worked on several solo projects throughout his career, such as his work with fellow band member Larry Mullen Jr. on the theme of 1996's Mission: Impossible. Clayton, as a part of U2, has won 22 Grammy awards.
Clayton is the elder child of Brian and Jo Clayton, born on 13 March 1960 in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, England. When Clayton was five years old, his family moved from Oxfordshire to Malahide, County Dublin, where Clayton's brother Sebastian was born. The Clayton family became friends with the Evans family, with their sons Dik and Dave (more commonly known as The Edge), who were both in the original group, Feedback, that spawned U2.

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Alexandre Pires
Alexandre Pires do Nascimento (born January 8, 1976 in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil) is a Brazilian singer. Pires was previously the singer of group Só Pra Contrariar which he joined in the late 80s.
Pires began his career playing a new and more apelative style of samba that is known as Pagode and more romantic too that used to be known as Samba-canção and now is known as Samba Romântico. After his rhythm and melody started to become a little more romantic. He crossed the vertent known as "Pagode Romântico" and then he jumped to Samba-canção his favourite style. The Sambas-canção most famous are "Depois do Prazer" and "Tudo tem A ver" with a lot of influences of Brazilian Country Music ("Sertaneja"). The pagodes that are the most famous are "Quando é Amor", "A barata" and "Mineirinho" produced with the group Só Pra Contrariar. At that time, he received also a lot the influences of Cauby Peixoto, Ângela Maria and Agnaldo Rayol, mainly because his father was one of the best friends of Cauby Peixoto, according to a conversation with Pires at TV also edited at the internet. When he finished his last album with the group he produced also Romantic pop and Latin music.

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Anneli Drecker
Anneli Marian Drecker (born 12 February 1969) is a German-Norwegian singer and actress from the city of Tromsø. She is the vocalist for the seminal dream pop band Bel Canto. In the fall of 2006 Bel Canto celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the first album with several concerts. She has released two solo albums, and has provided vocals for various artists including Röyksopp, Jah Wobble, Ketil Bjørnstad, Simon Raymonde, Mental Overdrive, Illumination and Hector Zazou.
She often works with fellow Norwegians Röyksopp, including as the vocalist on the track "Sparks", as their live backing-vocalist (as heard on their live album Royksopp's Night Out), on three songs on their album Junior. She will perform^[when?] with Röyksopp on their forthcoming European tour. Additionally, she appeared with countrymen a-ha on their Minor Earth, Major Sky Tour and appeared on the live DVD Live from Vallhall and the following album from their European Tour, How Can I Sleep With Your Voice In My Head.
In a news item in Side-Line Magazine she stated that she had included a song written by Morten Harket on her album Frolic.

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Bertine Zetlitz
Bertine Zetlitz (born April 9, 1975) is a Norwegian pop singer. She is one of Norway's most popular performers.
Bertine Axeliane Robberstad Zetlitz began her musical journey at a young age, penning her first numbers aged just 12. After gaining a background in classical music, Zetlitz began to experiment. Her debut album Morbid Latenight Show was released in 1998 and spawned several successful singles. It was followed by the Tore Johansson produced Beautiful So Far in 2000. Her third album, Sweet Injections, was released in 2003, helmed by electronic experts Howie B, Magnus Fiennes and Richard X (Sugababes, Rachel Stevens). Lead single "Girl Like You" signalled a change of direction for the singer.
Her fourth album Rollerskating was released in late 2006. EMI describes the release as a "fascinating and unique blend of pulsing electro, classic Disco nouveaux, twisted pop melodies and good old fashioned catchy choruses. It's Bertine as you know and love her, but with a new even more addictive sting in her tail." Lead single "Fake Your Beauty" was a radio hit and reached the top spot in the Norwegian charts. Its follow-up "Ah-Ah" was remixed on release and was a sizeable hit. Zetlitz released her fifth album My Italian Greyhound in September 2006. She described the album as "like its namesake: elegant, humorous, fit and well scented - with a charming hint of neurosis."

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Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is well known by fans for his distinctive tenor voice. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
Chris Martin was born in Exeter, Devon and is the eldest of five children. His father, Anthony Martin, is a retired accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin, is a music teacher. Martin started his education at the pre-preparatory Hylton School and then went on to preparatory Exeter Cathedral School. It was at the prep school that Martin formed his first band, The Rocking Honkies, with Nick Repton & Iwan Gronow. Their debut performance was met with boos from the crowd. After Exeter Cathedral, Martin boarded at Sherborne School, a boys' independent school in Dorset. He also met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey at the school. Martin continued his studies at University College London, staying at Ramsay Hall where he read Ancient World Studies and graduated with First Class honours in Greek and Latin. It is here he met future Coldplay bandmates Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman.

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Closterkeller
Closterkeller is a Polish Gothic rock band from Warsaw. It was formed in 1988 by Przemysław Guryń, Jacek Skirucha, and the vocalist Anja Orthodox. Despite many changes in the band's line-up it has created a characteristic sound. Orthodox is the only member of the original line-up, performing continuously for over 20 years. The band is called one of the forerunners of gothic and atmospheric rock in Poland, they are also under the influence of music styles such as new and cold wave or even heavy metal. Many other groups like Delight, Moonlight or Artrosis said they took their inspirations from Closterkeller.
Source
The band has recorded and performs regularly a cover of Norwegian band a-ha's song Minor Earth Major Sky.

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Dermot O'Leary
Dermot O'Leary (born Seán Dermot Fintan O'Leary, Jr.) (born 24 May 1973) is a television and radio presenter. He established himself as a presenter of Big Brother's Little Brother on Channel 4 before moving on to The X Factor on ITV. O'Leary has also presented on the BBC and has his own radio show on BBC Radio 2. He is also notable for being the last person to introduce Michael Jackson in public before his death.
O'Leary was born in Colchester, Essex, England to Wexford-born Irish parents Sean and Marie,He is "extremely proud" of his Irish roots and he carries an Irish passport. He attended primary school in Marks Tey and later St Benedict's Catholic College in Colchester, graduating with two General Certificates of Secondary Education, and Colchester Sixth Form College.
O'Leary studied at Middlesex University, achieving a degree in Media and Television with Politics. He achieved a 2:2.^{[citation needed]} Whilst at Middlesex University he developed an interest in comedy and was involved in various gigs in the students' union. He was also a member of the university's chess society.

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Doves (band)
Doves are an English indie rock band, originating from Wilmslow, Cheshire. The band comprises twin brothers Jez Williams (guitar, vocals) and Andy Williams (drums, vocals), and Jimi Goodwin (bass, vocals, guitar). The members started working seriously together after meeting at The Haçienda in Manchester. Doves' unofficial fourth member is Martin Rebelski, who plays keyboards. To date, the band has released four critically acclaimed and commercially successful studio albums, and their first career-spanning compilation album The Places Between: The Best of Doves was released in April 2010.
The formation of Doves can be traced back to when the Williams brothers and Goodwin met at Wilmslow High School at age 15. At the time, Jimi Goodwin was playing lead guitar in a band called The Risk; the other members were Joe Roberts (vocals and Rhodes keyboard), Steve Green (rhythm guitar), Dermot Ahern (bass guitar), Jimi's cousin Pat Goodwin (drums; after Simon Pitt, the original drummer, left the band) and managed by Tim Mulryan, who was said to have also managed the infamous "Macc Lads." The Risk used to practice at Handforth Youth Club and met with some moderate success, mainly playing in Manchester pubs and at The Gallery (Peter Street), The Boardwalk (Little Peter Street), and The International (Anson Road in Rusholme). They also played at The Tunnel Club, Greenwich and at SoapAid. A 5-song demo entitled Take Five was recorded at Spirit studios in Manchester.

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George Michael
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: Γεώργιος Κυριάκος Παναγιώτου); 25 June 1963) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Michael rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley. His first solo single, "Careless Whisper", was released when he was still in the duo and sold about six million copies worldwide.
As one of the world's best-selling music artists, Michael has sold more than 100 million records worldwide as of 2010. His 1987 debut solo album, Faith, has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and made several records and achievements in the United States. Michael has garnered seven number one singles in the UK and eight number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Michael the 40th most successful artist on the Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists list.
Michael has won numerous music awards throughout his 30-year career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male twice, four MTV Video Music Awards, four Ivor Novello Awards, three American Music Awards, and two Grammy Awards from eight nominations.

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Gina Schock
Regina Ann "Gina" Schock (born August 31, 1957, Baltimore, Maryland) is best known as the drummer in the all-girl punk/pop band The Go-Go's.
Schock's career began as drummer for Edie and the Eggs, a band assembled to feature the John Waters star Edith Massey. After her stint in Edie and the Eggs, Schock relocated to Los Angeles, California, and soon joined The Go-Go's. Schock recorded and toured steadily with The Go-Go's until the group disbanded in 1985 and reformed a few years later. She had open-heart surgery before the tour supporting the band's 1984 album Talk Show. In 1985 she was occasionally seen on television appearances as the drummer of the Norwegian band a-ha . However this was just for promo on television. She was never part of the official band. She currently lives in San Francisco.
Following the dissolution of The Go-Go's, Schock continued drumming with various artists, and would also hone her singing and songwriting skills. In 1987 she and Vance DeGeneres formed House of Schock, which released one album for Capitol Records.

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Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE (born 2 February 1942) is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor voice and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock super group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer. Nash was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1997 and as a member of The Hollies in 2010.
Nash was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours for services to music and to charity.
Nash holds three honorary doctorates, the latest in Music from the University of Salford (England) in 2011.
Nash was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, in 1942, his mother having been evacuated there from the Nash's hometown of Salford, Lancashire because of the Second World War. The family subsequently returned to Salford, where Graham grew up. In the early 1960s he was co-founder with schoolfriend Allan Clarke of The Hollies. Nash was a leading 'group figurehead' member of The Hollies, one of the UK's most successful pop and "British Invasion" groups. Credited on the first album as 'Group Leader' and recognised as a key member of the group, plus their public spokesman, he occasionally took a lead vocal. Nash was featured vocally on 'Just One Look' in 1964, and sang his first lead vocal on the original Hollies song "To You My Love" on the band's second album In The Hollies Style (1964). He then progressed to often singing featured 'bridge vocals' on Hollies recordings; 'So Lonely', 'I've Been Wrong' 1965, 'Pay You Back With Interest' 1966 etc., also by 1966 Nash was providing a few solo lead vocals on Hollies albums & then from 1967 'B' sides to singles.

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Ida Maria
Ida Maria Børli Sivertsen (born 13 July 1984), is a Norwegian rock musician and songwriter known primarily by the stage name Ida Maria, (pronounced 'Ee-da'). Her first album, Fortress Round My Heart was released in 2008. In November 2010 she released her second album Katla in Norway; the album was released internationally on 7 June 2011.
Ida Maria was born and raised in the small town of Nesna in Helgeland, Norway]. She currently lives in Nesna.^{[citation needed]}
She specializes in fiercely energetic and exciting alternative pop-punk music with catchy melodies and witty lyrics. Ida taught herself to play guitar and began performing at local concerts at age fourteen.
Ida Maria gained considerable success in Norway in 2007 after winning two national competitions for unknown artists - Zoom urørt 2006 and Urørtkonkurransen 2007 - and playing successful shows at the annual Norwegian music industry festival By:Larm 2007 and 2008. Her singles "Oh My God" and "Stella" were both played regularly on Norwegian national radio station NRK P3.^{[citation needed]}

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Ivete Sangalo
Ivete María Dias de Sangalo Cady (born May 27, 1972 in Juazeiro, Bahia) is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian Axé and MPB singer, songwriter, and occasional actress and television show host. She is one of the most popular and best-selling Brazilian female singers of the present, with six albums released with "Banda Eva", and seven more albums in a solo career, with a total of over 12 million albums sold worldwide. Sangalo is most often recognized by her powerful voice, charisma and live performances. Her music is also very popular in Portugal. She has received 14 nominations for Latin Grammy Awards alongside her career.
As a child, started to sing and play violin at events, festivals and presentations of the school where she studied. Ivete Sangalo's debut show happened in Ondina Neighborhood, Salvador, in August 1992. With that show she won the Dorival Caymmi trophy, the Grammy of Bahia music. The solo singer was once part of a group called Banda Eva, and with them she recorded six CDs and sold over four million copies.

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James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks and Jeffery Deaver; a new novel, written by William Boyd, is planned for release in 2013. Additionally, Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.
The fictional British Secret Service agent has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip and video game formats as well as being used in the longest running and the second-highest grossing film franchise to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2012, there have been twenty two films in the Eon Productions series, with a twenty third, Skyfall, due for release on 26 October 2012. The film will star Daniel Craig in his third portrayal of Bond: he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films, Casino Royale, a 1967 spoof, and Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, Thunderball.

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John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founder members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Together with Paul McCartney, he formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Born and raised in Liverpool, Lennon became involved as a teenager in the skiffle craze; his first band, The Quarrymen, evolved into The Beatles in 1960. As the group disintegrated towards the end of the decade, Lennon embarked on a solo career that produced the critically acclaimed albums John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, and iconic songs such as "Give Peace a Chance" and "Imagine". After his marriage to Yoko Ono in 1969, he changed his name to John Ono Lennon. Lennon disengaged himself from the music business in 1975 to devote time to raising his infant son Sean, but re-emerged with Ono in 1980 with the new album Double Fantasy. He was murdered three weeks after its release.

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Junoon (band)
Junoon (Urdu: جنون, literal English translation: "obsession/passion") is a sufi rock band from Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, formed in 1990. The band is directed by founder, lead guitarist and songwriter, Salman Ahmad, who was soon joined by keyboardist Nusrat Hussain and vocalist Ali Azmat. Junoon is Pakistan's most successful band; the Q magazine regarded them as "One of the biggest bands in the world" and The New York Times called Junoon "the U2 of Pakistan". Since their inception, the group has released a collective total of nineteen albums: seven studio albums; one soundtrack; two live albums; four video albums; and four compilations. Junoon is also South Asia's most successful band of all time with more than 25 million records sold worldwide.
Pioneers of sufi rock, with such an original sound they achieved success during the early 1990s. Its members were signed to major record label EMI Records and afterwards released their self-titled debut album Junoon in 1991. After two years, the band recorded their second album Talaash (1993) with their new bassist Brian O'Connell after Nusrat Hussain left the band. The release of their second album began to create a cult following for the band. In 1996, Junoon released their third album Inquilaab, and it was only then that Junoon developed a nationwide fan following, with blending rock guitars and bluesy vocals with eastern elements like the use of tablas, raga-inspired melodies, traditional Pakistani folk music, and Eastern inspired poetry. The following year, the band recorded the critically acclaimed Azadi (1997), being the band's first international record deal, and making it Junoon's debut album in India. The band went on to record and release Parvaaz in 1999. The band found renewed success and popularity starting with 2001's Andaz and through 2003's Dewaar and their supporting tours.

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Kaizers Orchestra
Kaizers Orchestra is a Norwegian alternative rock group formed on January 1, 2000. The two leading members, vocalist Janove Ottesen and guitarist Geir Zahl, had known each other for years, and first played together in a band called Blod, Snått & Juling (Blood, Snot & Beating) in 1989.
Kaizers Orchestra are notable for being among the first non-black metal Norwegian bands or artists singing in their native language to become popular beyond Scandinavia^{[citation needed]}. To other Norwegians, the band is instantly recognizable both because of their unique, unpredictable style, and because of vocalist Ottesen's marked Jæren dialect, shared by four of the other band members.
In 1995, childhood friends Janove Ottesen and Geir Zahl released their only album by their band gnom called Mys. Of its 1000 copies, only 500 or so were sold the first year, and they were pretty much ignored. However, they were known well in the area around Stavanger in Norway, having played as the local band Blod, snått & juling, and one of the songs they wrote after Mys called "Bastard" got good crowd response. A line from "Bastard" ("A certain Mr. Kaizer took me in/He is the proud owner of the world's heaviest siamese cat") and the song's overall crowd response became a source of inspiration for Ottesen, and after gnom dissolved after disappointing record sales, he formed Kaizers Orchestra.

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Kurt Nilsen
Kurt Erik Kleppe Nilsen (born September 29, 1978) is a Norwegian pop/country singer. He won the first season of the Norwegian version of the reality television show Pop Idol, which aired on TV 2 in May 2003. He then won a one-off international version of Pop Idol, called World Idol on January 1, 2004, featuring winners of the various national Idol shows.
Upon leaving school, Nilsen made his living as a plumber. Nilsen became the lead singer in the Norwegian band Fenrik Lane. He is a left-handed musician and plays his guitar with the strings upside down. He appeared on and won Norwegian Idol with 54% of the votes against Gaute Ormåsen. He is one of only seven contestants in the Idol (Norway) history who succeeded in staying out of “bottom three/two” places in weekly votes.
His subsequent single, "She's So High", written by Tal Bachman, went straight to number one in the Norwegian singles chart and is among the biggest-selling singles in Norway to date. His debut album was simply called I.
He subsequently won the vote for the World Idol title on January 1, 2004, singing the hit "Beautiful Day" by U2, beating competitors from ten other nations, including the more famous Idols, Britain's Will Young, and favourite Kelly Clarkson of the United States, and scoring the first place in 10 out of 11 countries eligible to vote for him (Norwegian voters being unable to vote for him).

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Lifer
Lifer is a five-piece nu metal band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The group went under various names and only released one studio album in 2001.
The band formed under the name Strangers with Candy in early 1999 and is most notable for winning MTV's Ultimate Cover Band contest, where they performed their own version of a-ha's hit song "Take On Me." They released a 7 song EP titled No Need in late March 2000. The cd quickly sold and rose to number 4 on the Northeast PA charts. To avoid any complications with the Comedy Central television series, they were forced to change their name to Driver. Under the new name Driver, the band released their rendition of "White Lines (Don't Do It)." Soon after its release, complications arose from a band called Driver in the Allentown, PA area. It seemed as if that band applied for the trademark five days before. They offered them money so that they can use it, but that band refused. They finally changed their name to Lifer and signed with Universal Music to release a self-titled album, produced by Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, on August 14, 2001. The song "Boring" had a music video released for it. One of its tracks entitled "Breathless" would be included on the Scorpion King soundtrack in March 2002.

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Magne Furuholmen
Magne 'Mags' Furuholmen (Norwegian pronunciation: [mɑŋnə fu:ɾuhɔlmən]) (born 1 November 1962) is a Norwegian musician. He is best known as the guitarist and keyboardist of the pop band A-ha.
Furuholmen has been the keyboardist with A-ha since their formation in 1982, though he also plays guitar. He has co-written many of the band's hits with Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, including "Stay On These Roads", "Manhattan Skyline", and the band's first and biggest hit "Take on Me". When A-ha went on hiatus in 1994, Furuholmen began working on other music projects. The band reconvened in 2000, though announced they would split in 2010.
Furuholmen's projects outside of A-ha include Timbersound, formed in 1994 with Kjetil Bjerkestrand, and later, Swedish singer, Freddie Wadling. Their work has been used on film soundtracks such as Ti Kniver I Hjertet (1994), "Hotel Oslo" (1997) which also featured vocals by Anneli Drecker, 1732 Høtten (1998) where the album Hermetic is featured.
Furuholmen also recorded "Past Perfect Future Tense" in 2004, with appearances from Guy Berryman and Will Champion of Coldplay, and from Andy Dunlop of the Scottish band Travis.

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Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch (born June 2, 1944) is an American composer. He is one of only eleven people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony. He is also one of only two people to have won those four prizes and also a Pulitzer Prize (the other is Richard Rodgers). Hamlisch has also won two Golden Globes.
Hamlisch was born in New York City to Viennese Jewish parents: Lilly Schachter and Max Hamlisch. His father was an accordionist and bandleader. Hamlisch was a child prodigy, and by age five he began mimicking music he heard on the radio on the piano. A few months before he turned seven, in 1951, he was accepted into what is now the Juilliard School Pre-College Division. His first job was as a rehearsal pianist for Funny Girl with Barbra Streisand. Shortly after that, he was hired by producer Sam Spiegel to play piano at Spiegel's parties. This connection led to his first film score, The Swimmer. His favorite musicals growing up were My Fair Lady, Gypsy, West Side Story, and Bye Bye Birdie.

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Matt Letley
Matt Letley (born 29 March 1961) is the drummer in the English rock band, Status Quo.
Letley's first recording were with his brother Mark's progressive rock band Sindelfingen when he was only 12; a live track including him was added to a CD reissue of their rare LP entitled 'Odgipig (he joined after the recording of that original LP). Letley attended Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School, in Rochester, Kent. As a drummer he played for a number of well-known artists, including a-ha, Bob Geldof, Vanessa Mae, Hank Marvin and Kim Wilde.
Having joined Status Quo in 2000, his first tour with the band was in Germany.
As of 2006^[update] Letley is part of Quo's Just Doin' It tour. On the picture to the right, he can be seen performing the drum solo, 'The Killer', that has frequently been included in the song Gerdundula since he joined the band. Since Gerdundula ceased to be performed in the Quo set, his solo is performed during In The Army Now.
Letley is endorseed by Noonan Custom drums, Paiste cymbals, Remo heads, Vic Firth drumsticks and Hardcases cases.

wn.com/Matt_Letley
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.

wn.com/Michael_Jackson
Mike Sturgis
Mike Sturgis is an American drummer, having played for the band 21 Guns and later with Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith in Psycho Motel, where he played on both State of Mind (1996) and Welcome to the World (1997) albums. He was also the drummer for Wishbone Ash between 1995 and 1997 and drummer for Asia between 1994 and 2001.
Sturgis began drumming at the age of ten and from 1982 to 1986 attended the University of Miami, where he received a degree in music. From 1986 to 1987, he toured with Norwegian band a-ha and played on 'The Swing Of Things', 'I've Been Losing You' and 'Soft Rains Of April' from the album 'Scoundrel Days'. During that time he was asked by Phenomena co-producer Wilfried Rimensberger to join the superstar rock project, where he played drums on the now legendary "Dream Runner" album and got to know Scott Gorham and John Wetton who both participated in that recording.
Sturgis is now the head of Drum Studies at The Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, Surrey, England where he lives with his wife and two children.

wn.com/Mike_Sturgis
Monty Norman
Monty Norman (born in London, UK on 4 April 1928) is a singer and film composer best known for composing "The James Bond Theme".
Norman was born Monty Noserovitch in Stepney in the East End of London, the only child of Jewish parents, Annie (née Berlin) and Abraham Noserovitch, on the second night of Passover in 1928. When Norman's father was young, he travelled from Latvia to England with his mother (Norman's grandmother).
As a child during World War II, Norman was evacuated from London but later returned during the Blitz. As a young man he did national service in the RAF, where he became interested in pursuing a career in singing.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, Norman was a singer for big bands such as those of Cyril Stapleton, Stanley Black, Ted Heath, and Nat Temple. He also sang in various variety shows, sharing top billing with other singers and comedy stars such as Benny Hill, Harry Secombe, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, Harry Worth, Tommy Cooper, Jimmy James, Tony Hancock, Jimmy Edwards, and Max Miller. One of his songs, "False Hearted Lover", was successful internationally.

wn.com/Monty_Norman
Morten Harket
Morten Harket (born 14 September 1959) is a Norwegian musician, best known as the lead singer of the Norwegian synthpop/rock band A-ha, which released nine studio albums and topped the charts in several countries after their breakthrough hit "Take on Me" in 1985. A-ha disbanded in 2010. Harket has also released five solo albums. Before joining A-ha in 1982, Harket appeared on the Oslo club scene as the singer for blues outfit Soldier Blue.
The trio, composed of lead vocalist Harket, guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (Pål Waaktaar until his marriage in 1991), and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, formed in 1982, and left Norway for London in order to make a career in the music business. They chose the studio of musician, producer, and soon-to-be-manager, John Ratcliff, because it had a Space Invaders machine. John Ratcliff introduced the boys to his manager, Terry Slater, and, after a few meetings, A-ha had two managers. Terry Slater and John Ratcliff together formed T.J. 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 A-ha comes from a title Paul contemplated giving to a song; he was dithering between the title "A-ha" and "A-hem". Morten was looking through Paul's notebook, and came across the name, which he liked, and immediately decided that was the right name.

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Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.
According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness. As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.

wn.com/Paul_McCartney
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (born Pål Waaktaar Gamst, 6 September 1961) is a Norwegian musician and songwriter. He is best known for his work as guitarist in the Norwegian pop band A-ha. He has written or co-written most of the band's biggest hits, including "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.", "Hunting High and Low", "Take on Me", the James Bond theme "The Living Daylights" and the ballad "Summer Moved On". In addition, Waaktaar-Savoy is also a painter.
Paul is the guitarist and main songwriter for A-ha, one of the most successful bands of the 1980s. Once "Q Magazine" named him as one of the best unknown lyricists of his generation. A-ha performed "Summer Moved On" live at the Nobel-Peace-Price-Concert. After this, they decided to record a new album and, in 2000, A-ha had the comeback of the year, followed by a sold-out tour. The A-ha album "Lifelines" was released in 2002. The following tour was documented in A-ha's second official live album, How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head, which was released in March 2003.

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Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career. His 1986 album, So, is his most commercially successful, and the album's biggest hit, "Sledgehammer", won a record nine MTV Awards at the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards, and the song is the most played music video in the history of the station.
More recently, Gabriel has focused on producing and promoting world music and pioneering digital distribution methods for music. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts. Gabriel has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1987, six Grammy Awards, thirteen MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2007 he was honoured as a BMI Icon at the 57th annual BMI London Awards for his “influence on generations of music makers.” Gabriel was also awarded the Polar Music Prize in 2009, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

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Prince (musician)
Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson; June 7, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E., Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, and his songs have been recorded by these artists and others (including Chaka Khan, The Bangles, Sinéad O'Connor, and even Kim Basinger). He also has several hundred unreleased songs in his "vault".
Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Prince developed an interest in music at an early age, writing his first song at age seven. After recording songs with his cousin's band 94 East, seventeen-year-old Prince recorded several unsuccessful demo tapes before releasing his debut album, For You, in 1978. His 1979 album, Prince, went platinum due to the success of the singles "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" and "I Wanna Be Your Lover". His next three records, Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981), and 1999 (1982) continued his success, showcasing Prince's trademark of prominently sexual lyrics and incorporation of elements of funk, dance and rock music. In 1984, he began referring to his backup band as The Revolution and released the album Purple Rain, which served as the soundtrack to his film debut of the same name.

wn.com/Prince_(musician)
Rafael Gayol
Rafael Bernardo Gayol is a drummer, percussionist, songwriter, singer and actor.
Born in Mexico City and raised in Los Angeles, California, he has worked as a drummer/percussionist/vocalist recording and touring with such diverse artists as Leonard Cohen, Doll Congress, BoDeans, Sun 60, Charlie Sexton, Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin, David Rice, Joe Ely, Kelly Willis, Bruce Robinson, Jon Dee Graham, The Flatlanders, Eliza Gilkyson, Bob Schneider, Billy Harvey, Robert Rodriguez, Patricia Vonne, Scott Gibson, Tonio K, Bascom Hill, Mason Ruffner, Trish Murphy, Michael Thomas, Maggie Walters, Robbie Robertson and A-ha.
He is also the voice of Dell Computers Online, NASCAR.com, Southwest Airlines, Kinko's, Time-Warner Cable, Nortel and Toshiba television commercials.
His debut Waiting for Buddha is set for April 2009 release.
He is married to Shannon Phillips Gayol.
Currently working with Leonard Cohen.
2010 ~ Leonard Cohen ~ Songs From The Road ~ Columbia/Sony/CD/DVD ~ Bleu Edmondson ~ The Future Ain't What It Used To Be ~ American Saint Records ~ Scott Gibson ~ Just Keep Drivin ~ Independent

wn.com/Rafael_Gayol
Ruslana
Ruslana Stepanivna Lyzhychko (Ukrainian: Руслана Степанівна Лижичко, Ruslana Stepanivna Lyžyčko; born on 24 May 1973) is a World Music Award winning and MTV Europe Music Award nominated artist, and the winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.
She is a singer, songwriter, producer, conductor, and pianist. She writes, composes and produces her own songs and music videos. Since 28 December 1995 she has been married to Oleksandr Ksenofontov, a Ukrainian record producer. Together they have run the company LuxenBourg Studio since 1993, producing radio and film trailers.
She won the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Wild Dances" receiving points from 34 of the 35 countries participating in the contest.
In 2009 she was invited as a Special Guest Star to the 6th annual Asia Song Festival, where she received two trophies. The first of them was the golden statue of The Best Artist Award of The Asia Song Festival (which was awarded to each participant), the main award of the festival and the second special award was for the contribution to the cultural exchange between Ukraine and Asia in music.

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Sarah Brightman
Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves. She sings in many languages including English, Spanish, French, Latin, German, Italian, Russian, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese.
Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, she made her West End musical theatre debut in Cats and met composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whom she married. She went on to star in several Broadway musicals, including The Phantom of the Opera, where she originated the role of Christine Daaé. The Original London Cast Album of the musical was released in CD format in 1987 and sold over 40 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling cast album of all time.
After retiring from the stage and divorcing Lloyd Webber, Brightman resumed her music career with former Enigma producer Frank Peterson, this time as a classical crossover artist. She is often credited as the creator of this genre and remains among the most prominent performers, with worldwide sales of more than 30 million records and 2 million DVDs, establishing herself as the world's best-selling soprano of all time. Her duet with the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, "Time To Say Goodbye", topped charts all over Europe and became the highest and fastest selling single of all time in Germany, where it stayed at the top of the charts for fourteen consecutive weeks and sold over 3 million copies. It subsequently became an international success selling 12 million copies worldwide. She has now collected over 180 gold and platinum sales awards in 38 different countries. In 2010 she was named by Billboard the 5th most influential and top-selling classical artist of the 2000s decade in the US.

wn.com/Sarah_Brightman
Sigurd Køhn
Sigurd Køhn (August 6, 1959 – December 26, 2004), was a Norwegian jazz saxophonist and composer. He was, along with his 16 year old son, killed in Khao Lak, Thailand by the tsunami following the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake on December 26, 2004.
Sigurd Køhn was born in Kristiansand, Norway, and started playing the violin and the clarinet at the age of 9, and begun playing the alto saxophone when he was 14.
He moved to Oslo when he was 19 years old, and became quickly a part of the city's jazz life. In the 1980s he played the saxophone with different fusion- and soul bands (Lava, Son of Sam, The heavy gentlemen and more), to return to the jazz in the 1990s. He played with the jazz quartet The Real Thing from 1992 until his death, in addition to his own Sigurd Køhn Quartet from 1994 and Køhn/Johansen Sextet from 1999. In 1996 Køhn's first record under his own name was released, More pepper, please, where he performed the music of Art Pepper.
He performed with the band a-ha on their tours between 1991–1994, and also recorded a jazz cover of their song October.

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Steve Osborne
Steve Osborne is a multi-platinum selling British record producer, living in Bath, UK. He has worked with a wide variety of musicians, such as New Order, Doves, Vanessa Carlton, U2 and KT Tunstall. During the 1990s, Osborne was half of the Perfecto Records team,^{[citation needed]} a production and remix collaboration with Paul Oakenfold; the artists they worked with included Happy Mondays and U2. He was part of the 1990s dance music act Grace, also with Oakenfold, which existed from 1994 to 1997. Osborne most recently has worked with Cat's Eyes on their critically acclaimed album, released in April 2011.
Osborne is a fan of Norwich City F.C., and he has a recording studio at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios.

wn.com/Steve_Osborne
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam ( /ˈɡɪliəm/; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), The Fisher King (1991), 12 Monkeys (1995), and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). The only "Python" not born in Britain, he took British citizenship in 1968.
Gilliam was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Beatrice (née Vance) and James Hall Gilliam, who was a traveling salesman for Folgers before becoming a carpenter. Soon after, they moved to the nearby Medicine Lake.
The family moved to Panorama City, California, in 1952. Gilliam attended Birmingham High School where he was class president and senior prom King, was voted "Most Likely to Succeed", and achieved straight A's. During high school, he began to avidly read Mad magazine, which was then edited by Harvey Kurtzman; this later influenced his work.

wn.com/Terry_Gilliam
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers, Don and Phil; born Isaac Donald "Don" Everly on February 1, 1937 and Phillip "Phil" Everly on January 19, 1939, are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing. The group was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.
Don and Phil Everly are both guitarists and use vocal harmony mostly based on parallel thirds. With this, each line can often stand on its own as a melody line. This is in contrast to classic harmony lines which, while working well alongside the melody, are not as melodic by themselves.
For most of their recordings, Don sings the lower harmony part, while Phil takes the higher. One exception is on "Devoted To You". Although Don is still low and Phil is high, they switch lead and harmony back and forth. Don almost always sings any lines that are sung solo (for example, the verses of "Bye Bye Love".) Among the exceptions to this rule is the Everlys' 1965 single "It's All Over", where Phil sings the song's solo lines.

wn.com/The_Everly_Brothers
Tori Amos
Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. Amos originally served as the lead singer of 1980s synthpop group Y Kant Tori Read, and as a solo artist was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s. She was also noteworthy early in her solo career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. Some of her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", and "A Sorta Fairytale", her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date.
As of 2005, Amos had sold 12 million albums worldwide. She has been nominated for 8 Grammy Awards. Amos was also named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1996.
Amos was born in Newton, North Carolina. When she was two, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Her scholarship was discontinued at age 11 and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music. In 1972, The Amos family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where her father, Reverend Edison Amos, became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. At the age of 13 she began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.

wn.com/Tori_Amos

A-Ha - Take On Me (OFFICIAL VIDEO)

published: 06 Jan 2010

author: RhinoEntertainment

a-ha - The Sun Always Shines On TV

published: 05 Nov 2010

author: aha

AHA STAY ON THESE ROADS

AHA STAY ON THESE ROADS...

published: 30 Sep 2009

author: Yelens82

a-ha - Lifelines (Video)

published: 11 May 2010

author: aha

a-ha - Hunting High And Low

published: 05 Nov 2010

author: aha

a-ha - Crying In The Rain

published: 05 Nov 2010

author: aha

a-ha - Summer Moved On (Video)

published: 11 May 2010

author: aha

A-ha- The Living Daylights

A proffessional music video I produced for the 17th Bond Film "The Living Daylights"....

published: 23 Sep 2007

author: mjmiko

a-ha - Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)

published: 15 Oct 2010

author: aha

a-ha - Manhattan Skyline

published: 05 Nov 2010

author: aha

a-ha - You Are The One

published: 05 Nov 2010

author: aha

a-ha - Angel In The Snow

published: 05 Nov 2010

author: aha

a-ha - Touchy!

published: 05 Nov 2010

author: aha

a-ha - Minor Earth Major Sky (Video)

published: 20 May 2010

author: aha

Seconds Of Beauty - 1st round compilation

60 seconds of beauty submitted by users to the first round of The Beauty Of A Second short...

published: 14 Nov 2011

author: The Beauty Of A Second

I LOOK & MOVE

Our work «I LOOK & MOVE» is entered to the shortlist VIMEO FESTIVAL + AWARDS 2012!!! http...

published: 02 Nov 2011

author: Constantine Konovalov

Terra Sacra Time Lapses

An around-the-world time lapse journey celebrating our Sacred Earth. Six years in the maki...

published: 26 May 2012

author: Sean F. White

Table 7 - short film

A couple on the brink of a breakup has an intimate conversation in a restaurant, unaware t...

published: 26 Jan 2011

author: Marko Slavnic

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photo: AP / Reed Saxon

FILE - In this March 8, 2012 file photo, Mexican-American singer and reality TV star Jenni Rivera poses during an interview in Los Angeles.

Singer feared dead in Mexico plane crash

Al Jazeera

10 Dec 2012

The wreckage of a small plane believed to be carrying Mexican-American singing superstar Jenni Rivera has been found in northern Mexico and there are no apparent survivors, authorities said. Transportation and Communications Minister Gerardo Ruiz Esparza said on Sunday that "everything points toward" it being the US-registered Learjet 25 carrying Rivera and six other people from Monterrey en route to Toluca, Mexico ... 192 Source . ... Share ... ....(size: 17.5Kb)

photo: USAF / Staff Sgt. Jonathan Lovelady

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. James Bates, a security force squad leader with the Farah Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT), provides security at a landing zone as his team prepares to disembark a CH-47 Chinook helicopter Sept. 26, 2012, in Pur Chaman district, Farah province, Afghanistan. The Farah PRT was composed of Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen whose mission was to provide security, support local governments and monitor reconstruction efforts throughout the province.

Are U.S. Wars and Politics Primitive?

WorldNews.com

10 Dec 2012

Article by WN.com Correspondent Dallas Darling. In the desert of central Australia still resides a primitive tribe known as the Arunta. This non-technological and stateless group, which mainly depends on hunting and gathering, had suffered several inexplicable deaths ... Therefore, they organized an atinga, or revenge group ... When the guiltless tribe learned of their approach, they sent out a delegation of young women as a token of peace....(size: 5.8Kb)

photo: AP / Todd Williamson

Jenni Rivera attends a press conference on Friday, Aug. 24, 2012, in Woodland Hills, California.

Lamentan muerte de Jenni Rivera

Yahoo Daily News

10 Dec 2012

MÉXICO, D.F., diciembre 9 (EL UNIVERSAL).- La Voz México, programa de talentos de Televisa, confirmó la muerte de la cantante Jenni Rivera, a través de su Twitter. "Que toquen fuerte las bandas, suelten por mí mariposas, apláudanme con sus palmas... “Nos entristece profundamente confirmar que nuestra querida @jennirivera ha fallecido tras desplomarse el avión en que viajaba esta madrugada", se lee en su red social ... Descanse en Paz" ... ....(size: 2.1Kb)

photo: AP / Bullit Marquez

Soldiers unload another victim of typhoon Bopha as retrieval operations continue at the hardest hit New Bataan township, Compostela Valley in southern Philippines Sunday Dec. 9, 2012. The number of missing in the wake of a typhoon that devastated parts of the southern Philippines has jumped to nearly 900 after families and fishing companies reported losing contact with more than 300 fishermen in the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, officials said Sunday.

Typhoon ‘Pablo’ toll: 714 confirmed dead, 890 missing

The Daily Tribune

11 Dec 2012

The death toll brought about by typhoon “Pablo” continued to rise with 714 persons confirmed dead by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) yesterday while those missing ballooned to 890 as massive search, retrieval and relief operations continue in the typhoon-ravaged areas in Mindanao ... 4 ... They were subsequently brought to Caraga Regional Hospital ... (NHMFC) (P100,000) ... With AFP ....(size: 5.4Kb)

photo: AP / A.M. Ahad

Police officials wield bamboo sticks to stop main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party activist during a protest in Kachpur, on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012.

Bangladesh opposition in violent protests over attacks

BBC News

11 Dec 2012

Violence has flared in many parts of Bangladesh as schools and most businesses were shut after opposition groups enforced a dawn-to-dusk strike. They called the strike to protest against attacks on their supporters during a road blockade on Sunday. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its allies have been demanding a caretaker government be put in place to oversee the next parliamentary polls ... "The situation is under control now ... ....(size: 2.2Kb)

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Chhattisgarh gets Rs 340 crore royalty from coal lease

The Times of India

12 Dec 2012

... a lease for Parsa (East) and Kantebasan coal blocks spread over the area of around 2388.52 hectares, while Prakash Industries Ltd has been leased Chotiya I and II coal blocks (1179.82 ha) in Korba district....(size: 1.1Kb)

Jingle Ball: Lots of bubble gum pop, kept short and sweet

The Washington Post

12 Dec 2012

Local radio station Hot 99.5 was hosting its first Jingle Ball, a three-hour, Christmas-tinted pop marathon that included Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Flo Rida, “Gangnam Style” rapper Psy and more. Loading... Comments Weigh In Corrections?. Recommend. Personal Post ... Ke$ha’s time on stage was the loudest in every sense ... version of “The X Factor,” flaunted just as much attitude as Ke$ha, at half the volume ... ....(size: 3.7Kb)

The top 10 songs and albums on the iTunes Store

The Wichita Eagle

12 Dec 2012

iTunes' Official Music Charts for the week ending Dec. 10, 2012. Top Songs .. 1. "Locked Out of Heaven," Bruno Mars. 2 ... 3 ... "Die Young," Ke$ha ... "Warrior," Ke$ha....(size: 0.9Kb)

NTID Specialist programs (Hockey Australia)

noodls

12 Dec 2012

(Source. Hockey Australia) News. NTID Specialist programs 12 December 2012. Over the last 2 years HA has continued to support the delivery of specialist programs for goalkeeping and drag flicking ... distributed by. This noodl was issued by Hockey Australia and was initially posted at www.hockey.org.au ... (noodl....(size: 1.9Kb)

Employment Opportunity - SASI Head Coach (Hockey Australia)

noodls

12 Dec 2012

This important position operates within the HA National Training Centre network, playing a key role in ensuring that Australia sustains their international success through a commitment to on-going talent identification, targeted ......(size: 1.5Kb)

Ravi Shankar, Grammy award-winning sitar player, dies aged 92

Digital Spy

12 Dec 2012

Ravi Shankar has died at the age of 92, his record label has confirmed. The sitar player - a three-time Grammy winner - passed away following a short illness ... "[He] had suffered from upper-respiratory and heart issues over the past year and underwent heart-valve replacement surgery last Thursday ... More to follow ... > Lenny Kravitz receives France's Legion of Honor ... More ... 'It's uncool to love James'Ke$ha ... 'The Female Boss' reviewKe$ha ... 01 ... 02....(size: 7.6Kb)

Cattle mistreated in Israeli abattoir: report

Canberra Times

12 Dec 2012

Yet another overseas abattoir that kills Australian cattle has been filmed breaching animal treatment standards. Footage captured by Israeli journalist Ronen Bar, aired on ABC TV's 7.30 on Tuesday, shows cows in Israel's largest abattoir repeatedly being stung with electric prods in the eyes, genitals and anus ... Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reports authorities there have launched a criminal investigation. AAP . ....(size: 2.4Kb)

Hawaiian Airlines had best on-time performance in October

The Business Review

12 Dec 2012

Pacific Business News. Date. Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 2.35pm HST. Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance and the fewest canceled flights in October of any U.S. carrier, according to the . Hawaiian flights were on schedule 94.8 percent of the time in October, which was 14.6 percentage points higher than the average for the 15 U.S. largest carriers. Alaska Airlines (NYSE ... HA), also ranked No ... ... ... ....(size: 7.0Kb)

photo: WN / Aaron Gilbert

Flo Rida perfoms during the 2011 Y100 Jingle Ball at the Bank Atlantic Center Sunrise, Florida - December 10, 2011

Rihanna, Flo Rida top US radio's list of most played songs of 2012

Digital Spy

12 Dec 2012

Rihanna's pop song 'We Found Love' was the most played song on US airwaves in the past year, it has been revealed. The Billboard Top 100 track - featuring Calvin Harris - was the lead single from Rihanna's 2011 album Talk That Talk. Rihanna also appeared in the list at number 19 with her song 'Where Have You Been' ... 1. Rihanna and Calvin Harris - 'We Found Love'. 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 'It's uncool to love James'Ke$ha ... 'The Female Boss' reviewKe$ha....(size: 9.3Kb)

New York Times Israel Reporter Assigned Social Media Babysitter

New York Magazine

12 Dec 2012

Jodi Rudoren, the Jerusalem bureau chief of the New York Times, will "work closely" with an editor on her social media posts from now on, public editor Margaret Sullivan announced today, after Rudoren's Facebook musings during the Gaza conflict set off a bunch of old-school bias sensors ... That is what my mission is doing the job." ... "Do Ms ... "You are wrong in describing this as 'punitive,'" said Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha....(size: 3.8Kb)

Aerosmith shows they still have plenty in their bluesy, nasty, rockin' tank

Tampabay.com

12 Dec 2012

Sean DalyTampa Bay Times In Print. Wednesday, December 12, 2012. ADVERTISEMENT. ADVERTISEMENT. Story Tools Print this story Purchase reprints Contact the editor Email Newsletters. TAMPA — There's something to be said for a 64-year-old man who can still fit into an 18-year-old's red skinny jeans ... Man, are they fun to watch ... (By comparison, Justin Bieber and Ke$ha pulled about 14,000 a couple of nights earlier.) ... [Last modified....(size: 4.3Kb)

Pro Player Health Alliance and a few of the Arizona Cardinals and NFL Greats are ...

Yahoo Daily News

12 Dec 2012

The national “Tackle Sleep Apnea” campaign with Former NFL legends to visit Phoenix elementary school. Phoenix, AZ (PRWEB) December 11, 2012 The Pro-Player Health Alliance (PPHA) and Former NFL Legends, are visiting Copper Creek Elementary School to visit and share their stories about being Pro NFL Players and the importance of health and wellness ... Gergen ... David rolled out of bed on September 12, 1981 and had his career “ah ha” moment ... ....(size: 4.0Kb)

State leaders react to right-to-work

Detroit Free Press

12 Dec 2012

"This is a major day in Michigan's history. I don't view this as anti-labor. I view this as pro-worker.". -- Gov. Rick Snyder, at a news conference after he signed right-to-work legislation into law. "I think things like this are waking a sleeping giant ... Workers and working families are tired of losing ... And I think that's going to help build the union movement." ... Tom Walsh ... Ha! The Orwellian name will surely give historians a big laugh....(size: 4.2Kb)

timeline:
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For TV show in the Philippines, see AHA!.

For other uses, see AHA.

A-ha
A-ha in concert at Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 2005
Background information
Origin	Oslo, Norway
Genres	New Wave, pop rock, synthpop
Years active	1982–1994, 1998–2010, 2011
Labels	Warner Bros. Polydor
Associated acts	Savoy Timbersound Magne F Apparatjik Junoon
Website	a-ha.com
Past members
Morten Harket Magne Furuholmen Paul Waaktaar-Savoy Gardner Cole

A-ha (spelled "a-ha" in lower-case on their releases) was a Norwegian pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket (vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards), and Pål Waaktaar (guitars). The group initially rose to fame during the mid 1980s after being discovered by musician and producer John Ratcliff and had continued global success in the 1990s and 2000s.

A-ha achieved their biggest success with their debut album, Hunting High and Low, in 1985. That album peaked at number 1 in their native Norway, number 2 in the UK and number 15 on the U.S. Billboard album chart, yielded two international number-one singles, "Take on Me" and "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.", and earned the band a Grammy Award nomination as Best New Artist. In the UK, Hunting High and Low continued its chart success into the following year, becoming one of the best-selling albums of 1986.^[1]^[2] In 1994, after their fifth studio album, Memorial Beach which failed to achieve the commercial success of their previous albums, the band went on a hiatus.^[3]

Following a performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998, the band returned to the studio and recorded their sixth album, 2000's Minor Earth Major Sky, which was another number-one in Norway and resulted in a new tour. A seventh studio album, Lifelines, was released in 2002, and an eighth album, Analogue, in 2005, was certified Silver in the UK — their most successful album there since 1990's East of the Sun, West of the Moon.^[4] Their ninth album, Foot of the Mountain, was first released on 19 June 2009 and returned the band to the UK Top 5 for the first time since 1988, being certified Silver there and Platinum in Germany.^[5] The album peaked at number 2 in Norway (their first not to reach number 1 in their home territory). On 15 October 2009, the band announced they would split after a worldwide tour in 2010, the Ending On A High Note tour.^[3]^[6] Thousands of fans from at least 40 different countries on six continents congregated to see A-ha for the last time.^[7]^[8]

The band have sold over 36 million albums and 15 million singles worldwide.^[9] In less than a year, during 2010, the band earned an estimated 500 million Norwegian Kroner on touring tickets, merchandising and release of a greatest hits album, making them one of the 40-50 largest grossing bands in the world.^[10]

1 Biography
2 Legacy and impact
3 Awards
4 Discography
5 Tours
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Biography [link]

Formation [link]

The trio—composed of lead vocalist Morten Harket; guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (previously known as Pål Waaktaar until 1994); and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen (informally known as "Mags"), formed in 1982 and left Norway for London in order to make a career in the music business.

They were trying to think of what to call themselves, focusing on Norwegian words people could say in English. They jettisoned that idea when Morten spotted a song called "A-ha" in Waaktaar's songbook. "It was a terrible song but a great name," says Morten.^[11]

They chose the studio of musician, producer, and soon-to-be-manager John Ratcliff because it had a Space Invaders machine. John Ratcliff introduced them to his manager, Terry Slater, and after a few meetings, A-ha enlisted Ratcliff as manager too. Slater and Ratcliff formed T.J. Management. Ratcliff dealt with technical and musical aspects, and Slater acted as the group's international business manager and as liaison to Warner Brothers's head office in Los Angeles.

[edit] Hunting High and Low (1984–1985)

An early version of "Take on Me" was the first song that Morten Harket heard Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar play in Asker. At that time, the song was called "The Juicy Fruit Song", and the two men were still known as Bridges. It was named "Lesson One" when it was first recorded by A-ha. After some rewriting, multiple re-recordings, and three releases, "Take on Me" became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1985 and was the second-best-selling single of 1985^[where?]. The first version of the song, released in 1984, was promoted by a now-rare video of the band performing the song in front of a blue background. The song was then re-recorded with production by Alan Tarney, but both of these released failed to chart. It was then re-released with a new, groundbreaking video which peaked at number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at number 2 on the UK Singles Chart.^[12]^[13] A-ha became the first Norwegian band to have a number 1 song in the U.S. The song's popularity earned the band a spot on the American television series Soul Train in 1985, making them one of the few white artists to appear on the black music-oriented show.

Sales were aided in the U.S. by heavy rotation on MTV of the new music video, which may have been inspired not only by the truck-chase scene from Terry Gilliam's film Brazil but also by the climactic scene from Ken Russell's film Altered States. The video used a pencil-sketch animation / live-action combination called rotoscoping, in which individual frames of live video are drawn over or colored.^[14] It became one of the most instantly recognizable and most enduringly popular music videos in the U.S., where it was nominated for eight awards at the third annual MTV Video Awards in 1986, winning six, including Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, and Viewer's Choice. "Take on Me" was also nominated for Best Video of the Year at the 1986 American Music Awards. Their six MTV Award wins for that video gave them twice as many wins as Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and more than any artist in the three years of the awards combined.

But those were not A-ha's only MTV awards that year. The band's second single was "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.". In the U.S., the song peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number 17 on Radio & Records airplay chart. A remix version was a club hit, rising to number 5 on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart.^[12] The music video for the song was another popular and critical success, nominated in three categories at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards and winning two awards, for Best Cinematography and Best Editing, bringing A-ha's total to eleven nominations and eight wins. The following year, Peter Gabriel would earn thirteen nominations and win nine awards, also for two videos. In successive years, even as the award categories have expanded, only a few artsts have approached—and none has surpassed—the single-year award totals of A-ha and Gabriel.

A-ha's American success culminated in their 1986 Grammy nomination in the coveted Best New Artist category, which was eventually won by Sade. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." turned out to be A-ha's last Hot 100 Top 40 single, and to this day in the United States, A-ha is remembered by the general public almost entirely because of the singularly number one hit single, "Take on Me".^[12] As such, the band is frequently considered a one-hit wonder there, despite their two Top 40 hits. In the UK, however, the story was very different: "The Sun Always Shines on TV" was an even bigger hit among British fans than "Take on Me", peaking at number 1.^[13] In the UK, A-ha enjoyed continued success with two more hit singles from the same album—"Train Of Thought" and "Hunting High And Low" (with another innovative video) —and the band remained popular throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

The band's first album, 1985's Hunting High and Low, became a worldwide bestseller, spending most of October and November in the top 20 of Billboard's Top 200 album chart. The album and its four hit singles garnered international recognition for A-ha. Hunting High and Low earned triple platinum status in the UK, and reached platinum status in the US and Germany, while earning gold in Brazil and the Netherlands.^[4]^[15]^[16]^[17]^[18] Hunting High and Low has sold 11 million copies worldwide.^[19] The album peaked at number 15 in the U.S., according to Billboard music charts and has peaked at number 2 on the UK charts, and it spent 38 weeks in the top 10 in Norway, including 8 weeks at number 1.^[2]^[13]^[20]

Golden age (1985–1994)[link]

Magne Furuholmen in 2007

A-ha's second album, Scoundrel Days, was released in the midst of the 1986 world tour and represented a move towards alternative rock, as synthpop began to fall out of style. Although the album received favorable reviews and had three singles become international hits, the album's sales (6.4 million copies) did not match those of its predecessor (except for Switzerland, where it is A-ha's best-selling album).^[21] "Cry Wolf" would be the last A-ha single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. After the release of the album, A-ha toured in the U.S., its last appearance there for 20 years. While the album has been certified platinum in the UK, Switzerland and Brazil, it's earned gold certifications in Germany.^[4]^[17]^[18]^[22] Ned Raggett of AllMusic Guide would later write of the album, "The opening two songs alone make for one of the best one-two opening punches around: the tense edge of the title track, featuring one of Morten Harket's soaring vocals during the chorus and a crisp, pristine punch in the music, and 'The Swing of Things,' a moody, elegant number with a beautiful synth/guitar arrangement (plus some fine drumming courtesy of studio pro Michael Sturgis) and utterly lovelorn lyrical sentiments that balance on the edge of being overheated without quite going over...The '80s may be long gone, but Scoundrel Days makes clear that not everything was bad back then."

In May 1988, A-ha released their third studio album, titled Stay On These Roads, which matched the number-two chart peak of its two predecessors on the British album charts. Stay on These Roads has been certified Platinum in Brazil and France and Gold in Switzerland, Germany, UK, and the Netherlands.^[4]^[17]^[17]^[18]^[21]^[23]^[24] The album includes the title-track theme song to the James Bond film The Living Daylights. The version that appears on their album is a re-recording of the film version and single. The band has said that they are particularly proud of the title track, and all three members contributed to its writing. "Stay On These Roads" and "The Living Daylights" would remain a part of their live set throughout the rest of the band's history. After the release of the album, the band went on a 74-city world tour. The album has sold more than 4.2 million copies worldwide.^[22]

Paul Waaktaar-Savoy live at Cologne, 29 October 2005

East of the Sun, West of the Moon featured a cover version of The Everly Brothers' 1963 single, "Crying in the Rain". In the late 1980s and early 1990s, A-ha was very popular in South America, especially in Brazil, where the band sold out some of the largest stadiums in the world. At the Rock in Rio II festival in January 1991, A-ha shocked the international entertainment press by drawing an audience of 198,000 at Maracanã stadium for their top-billed evening concert—a Guinness World Record for paying audiences. In contrast, the other performers (George Michael, Prince, and Guns N' Roses) each drew less than a third of that audience, 60,000 each. In a 2009 interview in Musicweek, celebrating A-ha's upcoming 25-year anniversary, the band members revealed that the record-breaking concert and the lack of media attention they received were a devastating blow to the band. The 1991 Rock In Rio festival, which should have been the band's crowning achievement, was instead a moment of crushing disappointment. “MTV interviewed everybody except us”, remembers Waaktar-Savoy. “They were all calling their bosses and saying, ‘We must cover A-ha; it’s the only night that has sold out'. But they weren’t allowed to”. “I felt very alienated”, says Furuholmen. "It made us feel hopeless. We played to the biggest crowd in the world, and they ignored it.”^[25]

East of the Sun, West of the Moon was certified Gold in Switzerland, Brazil, and Germany, and Silver in the UK.^[4]^[17]^[18]^[21] Steven McDonald of AllMusic said of their fourth album, "This is a nicely crafted collection of songs, performed and sung beautifully, with lots of echoes and suggestions tucked into the music. While not an album one can discuss at length, it's an album that's a pleasure to listen to." The album sold 3.2 million copies worldwide.^[22]

Their last album before their hiatus was Memorial Beach, in 1993. Relative to previous releases, the album was a commercial disappointment. The only single from the album to officially chart outside Norway was "Dark Is the Night", which peaked at number 19 in the United Kingdom. Memorial Beach is notably the last official American release by A-ha to date, although their material has continued to have limited availability there as imports. Despite the commercial reception, Q magazine listed the album as one of the 50 best albums of 1993.^[26] The following February, A-ha performed two concerts during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, followed by tours of South Africa and Norway. A-ha was also chosen to compose the official song for the Winter Paralympic Games in Lillehammer, which they entitled "Shapes That Go Together".

A-ha entered a hiatus period in 1994, and band members then focused on solo projects.^[3]

Reunion (1998–2007)[link]

A-ha live at Cologne, 20 October 2005

The band was invited to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998. Paul wrote "Summer Moved On" especially for this performance.^[27] They also performed "The Sun Always Shines on TV." This performance was A-ha's comeback into the world of music, yet the band's set was controversially omitted from a programme of highlights from that concert televised in the UK. Nevertheless, the band returned to the studio. Those recording sessions resulted in 2000's Minor Earth Major Sky, an international tour, and a webcast performance of the band opening the new Vallhall Arena in Oslo on the 24 and 25 March 2001. That webcast was the third most-viewed webcast concert ever with 3.6 million hits, along with the longest average viewing time—28 minutes. Only webcasts by Madonna and Paul McCartney, also produced and filmed by Chris Frampton's international webcaster MediaWave, recorded more hits. A-ha's video for "I Wish I Cared" was one of the first fully web-based animated flash music video to be made available. (The first was Duran Duran's flash video for the 2000 song "Someone Else Not Me.") The album reached platinum sales, with sales of 2.5 million copies, and spawned four #1 hits: "Minor Earth Major Sky," "Velvet," "The Sun Never Shone That Day" and "Summer Moved On." "Summer Moved On" is notable not only for going to #1 in 17 countries, but for earning Morten Harket a world record for the longest note held in a UK hit song, at twenty seconds. With the music video for the song "Velvet," A-ha received criticism for flirting with necrophilia.^[28] Paul has said of the comeback album, "We made a demo very quickly and intuitively, and that gave us the contract. But then we were at the next stage: is it a record? There wasn't any panic, it was only about the final most difficult fractions, coming up with the finishing touch. In fact, some of the songs were untouched since New York. I think we did a good job."

A-ha made a return appearance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2001. The subsequent album, Lifelines, was released in 2002, going platinum in Norway and producing two Top 5 hits, "Forever Not Yours" and "Lifelines". Jesper Hiro directed the video for "Lifelines", based on the art film A Year Along the Abandoned Road, which was directed by Morten Skallerud in 1991. The original cut of the video was originally 12 minutes long; the video shows a whole year passing by in one shot at 50,000 times the normal speed.

A live album from their 2002 tour, titled How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head, was released in March 2003, preceded by a live single of the 1986 hit "The Sun Always Shines on TV." In 2004, a book entitled "The Swing of Things" was published, which also featured a CD of early demo material. That year A-ha celebrated their twentieth anniversary with the release of a new singles collection, The Definitive Singles Collection 1984–2004. This compilation brought them back into the UK Top 20 Album Charts, where they reached number thirteen and earned a Gold album.

On 2 July 2005, A-ha performed at the Berlin edition of Live 8, in front of an audience of nearly 200,000 people. They began with "Hunting High and Low", followed by "Take on Me", during which Morten Harket had difficulties hearing himself when his in-ear monitor failed: he requested a two-minute break, which he used to comment on the cause of Live 8. The intended two minutes became almost seven, and the third song, "Summer Moved On," became the last of their set. Although four songs had been rehearsed, the band's time had run out and the organizers told them to leave the stage.

Lead vocalist Morten Harket live at Cologne, 29 October 2005

On 12 September 2005, A-ha played a quickly-sold-out show at Irving Plaza in New York City, the band's first concert in North America since 1986 despite not having released any material there since 1993. On 27 August 2005, the band played a concert for 120,000 people in Frogner Park in Oslo, the largest concert ever in Norway.

On 4 November 2005, the band released its 8th studio album, Analogue. The UK release of the single "Analogue (All I Want)" gave A-ha their first top ten hit in the UK since 1988.^[13] The album includes a guest appearance by Graham Nash of Crosby Stills & Nash performing back-up vocals on the songs "Over the Treetops" and "Cosy Prisons". The song "Celice" became the band's ninth to go #1 on a major national chart, and its music video sparked criticism for its sexual content. The following tour included a gig at London's Shepherd's Bush on 2 February 2006, and a TV special in Africa. In 2006, A-ha recorded a cover of John Lennon's "#9 Dream" for Amnesty International. It was released in June 2007 on the album "Make Some Noise". On 30 October 2006 in London, A-ha received the prestigious Q Magazine Inspiration Award for their long contribution to music and for inspiring many of their younger colleagues in the business. On 15 September 2007, A-ha played a free outdoor concert in Kiel, Germany. The band played on a floating stage in the harbour. This concert was streamed live on the internet via MSN.

On 24 January 2009, twenty-five years after its first release, A-ha won the Norwegian Spelleman award for Hit of All Time for "Take On Me" on the 50th anniversary of the official hit list in Norway.

A new direction and farewell (2008–2010)[link]

On 20–22 May 2008, Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Paul Waaktaar-Savoy performed concerts in Oslo, Norway, to promote their respective solo material before coming together as A-ha to play "Train of Thought", "Take on Me", and two new songs, "Riding the Crest" and "Shadowside", which previewed the new A-ha album, Foot of the Mountain. These events led up to their performance at London's Royal Albert Hall on 24 May.

On April 24, 2009, A-ha surprised their fan base by releasing their new single, "Foot of the Mountain", premiering that day on Norwegian radio. The single had been completed only the night before. The song is based upon the track "The Longest Night" by Magne Furuholmen, which was released on his album A Dot of Black In The Blue Of Your Bliss. The single was released on May 22 in Germany. The band promoted the song by playing it during the final of Germany's Next Topmodel on May 21 in the Lanxess Arena, Cologne.

Foot of the Mountain, A-ha's ninth studio album, was released in Europe on June 19, 2009. The album's material marked a return to synth pop, similar to the band's earliest work, although the first single (and title track) was not wholly indicative of this.^[29] The band collaborated with successful producer Steve Osborne, who has produced albums for such artists as New Order, Starsailor, Doves, Elbow, and U2. "What There Is", an earlier solo track by Magne Furuholmen, was re-recorded for the album. Foot of the Mountain entered the German album chart at number 1,^[30] the UK album chart at number 5 and debuted on European Album Sales Chart at number 8.^[13]^[31] In January 2010, Foot of the Mountain was certified platinum in Germany.^[17]

"I feel more connected to Depeche Mode (compared with other acts of the 80s)," claimed Magne Furuholmen. A-ha performed a cover of "A Question of Lust" during a live performance for BBC Radio 2 - The Dermot O'Leary Show on 25 July 2009.^[32]

A-ha headlined the iTunes Live festival on 24 July 2009.^[33] The lineup for the festival also included Simple Minds, Oasis, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian and The Saturdays. All the performances were recorded and made available for download on the iTunes site as with the previous festivals. In the Norwegian iTunes store A-ha's release has yet to see the light of day.

On 15 October 2009, the band announced they would split after a worldwide concert tour in 2010^[34] ending in Oslo, Norway, at the Oslo Spektrum arena on 4 December 2010,^[35] with ticket sales starting the next day. The concert sold out the first day on sale.^[36] On 19 October 2009, a second farewell show was announced for December 3, 2010.^[3]

To coincide with their split, the band released The Singles: 1984 - 2004 in the USA and re-released deluxe versions of their first two albums (Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days) as well as a third and final compilation album, a new live DVD and a re-release of the book The Swing of Things by Jan Omdahl.^[37] A new single titled "Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)" was revealed on 14 June 2010 and released as a single on 5 July to promote the new, double CD compilation, 25.^[38]^[39]^[40] It was announced that this was to be A-ha's last ever recording.

On July 6, 2010, the albums Hunting High and Low and Scoundrel Days were released as deluxe editions in the USA through Rhino Records, featuring remixes, B-sides, demo versions, and extensive liner notes. Available in 2-disc CD and digital versions (with additional material), both albums debuted in the top 40 Billboard Top Internet Sales Chart, Hunting High and Low at number 34 and Scoundrel Days at number 36.^[41]

Furuholmen revealed in an interview published in Magasinet, the magazine section of Norway's third largest newspaper, Dagbladet, that he's suffering from a heart disease.^[42] The news was picked up the same day by the electronic music magazine Side-Line.

At the Spellemannprisen award show on March 5, 2011 in Oslo, Norway, various Norwegian artists from various music genres including Kaizers Orchestra, Ida Maria and Bertine Zetlitz performed a cover of one of A-ha's biggest hits, "The Sun Always Shines On TV", in honor of the band. After the performance, the band received the Spellemannprisen honorary award handed out by A-ha's Norwegian music colleagues with the words "Our Heroes - Once upon a time, now - still and forever".^[43]

A-ha's final concerts in Oslo, Norway, were recorded by 10 HD cameras with digital, surround-sound audio.^[44] Ending on a High Note Live, mixed by Toby Alington, will be available beginning April 2011 in several formats, including the band's first Blu-ray release. A single-disc live album on CD culls sixteen tracks, while twenty tracks are featured on the Blu-ray, DVD, and deluxe edition double-CD set, which comes with a DVD. A bonus documentary appears in the deluxe set and Blu-ray versions. An NTSC version will be available for the U.S. and Japan.^[45]

On April 1, 2011, A-ha released the DVD as well as the Box-set containing both the DVD and the CD of their last concert, Ending on a High Note - The Final Concert.^[46]^[47] The Blu-ray of the concert; however, was released on April 11, 2011.^[48]

A-ha played together for the very last time at Oslo Spektrum on August 21, 2011, performing the song "Stay on These Roads" for a national memorial service dedicated to the victims of the 2011 Norway attacks.^[49]

Legacy and impact [link]

A-ha is the biggest music export from Norway. The success started in 1985 and by the end of 2010 A-ha was still the biggest-selling artist from Norway. The band were in many ways pioneers. Before A-ha there was no one that had managed to be commercially successful around the world from Norway. Even though Norway has fostered several successful acts after A-ha, the band is still considered to be in a league all by its own in Norway. The band has had huge success in the USA and UK, however perhaps even more success in non English-speaking areas of the world, such as Germany, France and the countries of South America, Brazil in particular. In 1986 A-ha received 8 MTV Video Music Awards during one award show. Their music video for the song "Take On Me" is still considered to be one of the top music videos of all time together with Michael Jackson's "Thriller". In 1986 Michael Jackson was in the audience at their first US concert. He later invited the band to his Neverland Ranch, an offer the band had to decline due to work overload.^[50]^[51]^[52] In the early years their fan base consisted of a lot of teens, however with the band progress in music and songwriting capabilities the fan base has become much more diverse and now consist of fans from all age groups and genres.

The band has sold some estimated 80 million records (albums and singles).^[50]^[51]^[52] They are the only non-British/non-American performers who have written and performed a 007 James Bond official theme song with their song "The Living Daylights" from the movie with the same title. Songs by A-ha have also been included as background music in episodes of popular TV series, such as Family Guy, Baywatch, Melrose Place, South Park, Smallville, Cougar Town, Chuck (TV series) and The Simpsons, as well as movies such as One Night at McCool's, Grosse Pointe Blank and Corky Romano. They have a Guinness World Record from 1991 for drawing the largest paying audience at a popconcert with 198,000 people at the Estádio do Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro. In 2006 the band was awarded the Q Awards Inspiration Award.^[53]

A-ha has influenced bands such as Coldplay and Keane. They are just a few of A-ha's international colleagues that in later years has commented on A-ha and shared their enthusiasm for the band. Most notably perhaps is Chris Martin and Coldplay; " Everyone asks us who has inspired Coldplay, who we have stolen from, who we listened to when we grew up. Such questions remind you of what has formed you and had an impact on you. One of the first bands I loved was a-ha". "I was in Amsterdam the other day and I put on the album Hunting High and Low. I remembered right there and then how much I loved that album. It's just unbelievable songwriting."(Chris Martin, Coldplay).^[54]^[55] Other notable comments on A-ha; "They are definitely my favorites this summer. Their last CD ( Minor Earth Major Sky ) is just fantastic, and how the vocalist sings!" (Sarah Brightman in 2001).^[56] "A-ha was always kind of a misunderstood band in my ears. They were perceived as a teenage group for girls, but in reality a very creative band." (Adam Clayton, U2 - 2000).^[57] "A-ha is a great band, and the songs that I did backing vocals for ("Over the treetops" & "Cosy Prisons") is very good. Otherwise I wouldn’t have done it, because this isn’t something that I need to do. It all depends on how I feel about it. That’s how privileged I am"' (Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young).^[58]^[59]

A-ha's songs have been covered or sampled by several artists in many genres, including such varied as pop, rock, dance, electronica, country, goth rock, metal, Latin, techno, punk, jazz, folk, house, lullabies, classical-crossover and various instrumental versions. The band's songs have also been covered in various languages. A small selection and by no means complete:

Coldplay: "Hunting High and Low" and "The Living Daylights" (Performed occasionally on concerts and in live radio performances)
Madonna: "Take On Me" (Performed live on the comedy show Saturday Night Live in 1986)
Tori Amos: "Take On Me" ( Performed live in concert 2011 )
London Symphony Orchestra: "Hunting High and Low" (Recorded and released)
A1 (band): "Take On Me" (Recorded and performed live on several occasions. Released)
Kurt Nilsen: "Hunting High and Low" and "Stay On These Roads" (Performed live in concert)
Edyta Gorniak: "Hunting High and Low" (Recorded and released and also performed live in concerts)
Alexandre Pires feat. Ivete Sangalo: "Estrela Cadente" (melody of A-ha's "Hunting High and Low". Recorded, released and performed live in concerts)
Closterkeller: "Minor Earth Major Sky" (Recorded, released and performed live in concerts)
Ruslana: "Vir Meni" ("Take on Me") (Recorded, released and performed live in concerts)
Northern Kings: "Take On Me" (Recorded, released and performed live in concerts)
Jonas Brothers: "Take On Me" (Performed live in concerts)
Milk Inc: "The Sun Always Shines On TV" (Recorded, released and performed live in concerts)
Captain Jack (band): "Take on me" (Recorded and released)
Cap'n Jazz: "Take On Me" (Recorded, released, and performed live in select concerts due to the short lifespan of the band)
Emil Bulls: "Take On Me" (Recorded and released)
Lifer: "Take On Me" (Recorded and performed live in concerts)
Downright Malice: "Take On Me" (Recorded and released)
Grenouer: "Take On Me" (Recorded and released)
Japanische Kampfhörspiele: "Take On Me" (Recorded and released)
Lord Vampyr: "Take On Me" (Recorded and released)
Mago De Oz: "Take On Me" (Recorded and released)
Vision Divine: "Take On Me" (Recorded and released)
Jeffster!: "Take On Me" (Performed on the series finale of the NBC series Chuck)
Reel Big Fish"Take On Me(Recorded and released. Features on the soundtrack to Baseketball)
Sébastien Tellier: "Hunting High and Low"His song Pépito Bleu contains a piece of "Hunting High and Low" (Recorded and released)

Awards [link]

Main article: List of A-ha awards

Following the success of their debut, the band was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1986 but did not win. A-ha did win eight MTV Video Music Awards, six for "Take On Me" and two for "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.". "Take On Me" was also nominated for Favorite Pop/Rock Video at the American Music Awards of 1986. A-ha has won 10 Spellemannprisen awards, the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy awards.

Discography [link]

Main article: A-ha discography

Year	Title	Label
1985	Hunting High and Low	Warner Bros. Records
1986	Scoundrel Days
1988	Stay on These Roads
1990	East of the Sun, West of the Moon
1993	Memorial Beach
2000	Minor Earth Major Sky	Warner Music Group
2002	Lifelines	Warner Music Group
2005	Analogue	Universal Music Group
2009	Foot of the Mountain	Universal Music Group

Tours [link]

As of December 4, 2010, A-ha have held 568 concerts around the world.^[60]

Hunting High and Low Tour 1986–1987 (USA, Canada, Europe, Australia & Japan)
Stay On These Roads Tour 1988–1989 (Europe, Japan and South America)
Walk Under the Sun Dance Under the Moon Tour 1991 (South America)
East of the Sun West of the Moon Tour 1991 (Europe)
Memorial Beach Tour 1993–1994 (Europe, South Africa & Lebanon)
Minor Earth Major Sky Tour 2000–2001 (Japan, Russia & Europe)
Lifelines Tour 2002–2004 (Europe, Brazil & Russia)
Analogue Tour 2005–2007 (Europe, Russia, USA, Senegal & Chile)
Foot Of The Mountain Tour 2009 (Europe, South America and Japan)^[61]
Ending On A High Note Tour 2010 ( Europe, USA, Canada, South America, Japan and Russia)^[62]

A-ha has on tour, been backed up by various musicians, including some of the very best studio and touring musicians in Norway and Scandinavia. Most of them have also been involved in studio with A-ha.^[63]^[64]

Gina Schock - (Drums) 1986 (US TV appearances American Bandstand, Soul Train, Solid Gold)
Leif Karsten Johansen (Bass player) - 1986–1987
Mike Sturgis (Drums) - 1986–1987
Dag Kolsrud (Keyboards) - 1986–1987
Ian Wherry (keyboard) - 1988–1989
Randy Hope-Taylor (Bass) - 1988–1989
Matthew Letley (Drums) - 1988–1989
Rafael Gayol also known as Danny Gayol (Percussion) - 1988–1989
Jørun Bøgeberg (Bass) - 1991–1994
Per Hillestad (Drums) - 1991–1994
Sigurd Køhn (Saxophone) - 1991–1994
Øyvind Madsen (Bass) - Africa leg of tour 1994
Sven Lindvall (Bass)- 2000–2007
Per Lindvall (Drums)- 2000–2007
Krister Karlsson (Keyboard)- 2000–2007
Anneli Drecker (Backing vocals / Duet partner / Tambourine) - 2000–2002
May Kristin Kaspersen (Backing vocals / Duet partner) - Russian leg of tour 2003
Erin Hill (Harp) - 2008 - opening act at Royal Albert Hall
Karl-Oluf Wennerberg (Drums) - 2009-2010
Erik Ljunggren (Programming / keyboards / bass) - 2009-2010
Johnny Sjo (Bass) - On occasions between 2000–2005
Kjetil Bjerkestrand (Keyboard) - On occasions

References [link]

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^ "A-ha synger inn en halv milliard (A-ha sings half a billion)". Dagens Næringsliv. 2010-09-20. http://www.dn.no/forsiden/etterBors/article1978300.ece. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
^ Rolling Stone magazine circa 1986. "The Icemen Cometh" by David Fricke, page 18.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Allmusic: A-ha (Singles)". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/a-ha-p3491/charts-awards/billboard-singles. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e "British Album Chart". UK Top 40. Archived from the original on 7 March 2008. http://www.everyhit.com/. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
^ "Much Music Retro Video Spotlight". Much Music. Archived from the original on 20 April 2008. http://blog.muchmusic.com/archives/2008/02/video_spotlight_4.php. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
^ "RIAA Certifications". RIAA. http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=&artist=A-ha&format=&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2008&sort=Artist&perPage=25. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
^ "A-Ha - Hunting high and low". NVPI A-ha. http://www.nvpi.nl/nvpi/pagina.asp?pagkey=61112&documentid=1236306&zoekform=60463&formposted=yes. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (A-ha)" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie. http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank/?action=suche&strTitel=&strInterpret=A-ha&strTtArt=alle&strAwards=checked. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "ABPD Certifications for A-ha". ABPD. http://www.abpd.org.br/certificados_interna.asp?sArtista=a-ha. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ "Kampen mot A-ha-produsentene (Norwegian)". Puls. http://www.puls.no/1049.html. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
^ "Norwegian Album Chart". VG-lista. http://norwegiancharts.com/search.asp?cat=a&search=A-ha. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Swiss Certifications". Swiss Hitparade. http://hitparade.ch/search_certifications.asp?search=A-ha. Retrieved 2008-03-07.
^ ^a ^b ^c "A-ha biography". Pandora. http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/12093/20031013-0000/www.ssn.flinders.edu.au/scanlink/nornotes/vol4/articles/A-ha.htm. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
^ "Certifications Albums Platine - année 2001" (in French). Disque en France. http://www.disqueenfrance.com/fr/page-259165.xml?year=2001&type=12. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ "A-Ha - Stay on these roads". NVPI A-ha. http://www.nvpi.nl/nvpi/pagina.asp?pagkey=61112&documentid=1234927&zoekform=60463&formposted=yes. Retrieved 2011-03-25.
^ MusicWeek 28 September 2009
^ Rocklist.net...Q magazine Recordings Of The Year
^ interview on "A-ha live at valhall homecoming" DVD, 2001
^ Admin. "Sex, Sadomasochism and Rock'N'Roll". a-ha.com. http://a-ha.com/news/articles/sex-sadomasochism-and-rocknroll/. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
^ "A-ha returns to synthpop with new album 'Foot of the Mountain'". Side-line.com. http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=43118_0_2_0_C. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
^ "Chartverfolgung/A-Ha/Longplay". Musicline.de. http://www.musicline.de/de/chartverfolgung_summary/artist/A-Ha/?type=longplay. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
^ "European albums: Week of July 04, 2009". Billboard magazine. Archived from the original on 26 March 2011. http://www.billboard.com/#/charts/european-albums?chartDate=2009-07-04. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
^ Dermot O'Leary: 25 July 2009 BBC iPlayer
^ "A-ha to headline iTunes Live festival on 24 July". Side-line.com. 2009-07-06. http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=43201_0_2_0_C. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
^ "A-ha to break up after 25 years". BBC. 2009-10-15. Archived from the original on 17 October 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8308829.stm. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
^ Official website Retrieved 15 Oct 2009
^ "Billettservice: A-ha: OSLO SPEKTRUM". Billettservice. 2009-10-15. Archived from the original on 3 November 2009. http://www.billettservice.no/html/connect.htmI?l=NO&EVNT=OSP04121&STAGE=1&C=. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
^ "A-ha to release expanded editions...". Side-line music magazine. 16 March 2010. Archived from the original on 25 March 2010. http://www.side-line.com/news_comments.php?id=44349_0_2_0_C. Retrieved 8 April 2010.
^ "A-ha fan cafe: New A-ha song ?". Ahafancafe.blogspot.com. 2010-05-30. http://ahafancafe.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-ha-song.html. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
^ "A-ha-live.com". A-ha-live.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2010. http://www.A-ha-live.com/. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
^ "Worldwide premiere for A-ha’s new single! | The Official Website of A-ha". A-ha.com. Archived from the original on 23 September 2010. http://A-ha.com/news/articles/worldwide-premiere-for-A-has-new-single/. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
^ "Deluxe albums enter US Billboard charts | The Official Website of A-ha". A-ha.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2010. http://A-ha.com/news/articles/deluxe-albums-enter-us-billboard-charts/. Retrieved 2010-10-04.
^ A-ha member Magne Furuholmen struck with heart disease - The real reason behind the end of A-ha? - A-ha Facebook news at SIDE-LINE.COM
^ A-ha ble tildelt æresprisen på «Spellemann» | God Kveld Norge - TV 2 Underholdning
^ "Lawo digital recording for A-Ha's first (and last) live DVD". lawo.de. 2010-12-10. Archived from the original on 4 May 2011. http://ca.lawo.de/en/lawo-ag/company/up-to-date/news/a-ha.html. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
^ "Ending on a High Note Live DVD; The Official Website of A-ha". A-ha.com. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. http://a-ha.com/news/articles/ending-on-a-high-note-live-dvd/. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
^ "Amazon.de: Ending on a High Note: Final Concert [DVD (2010)"]. Amazon.de. http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004LZRSDM. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
^ "Amazon.de: Ending on a High Note - The Final Concert - Live at Oslo Spektrum (Deluxe Edition) [CD+DVD, Box-Set (2010)"]. Amazon.de. http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004LZRRRE. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
^ "Amazon.de: Ending on a High Note: Final Concert [Blu-ray (2010)"]. Amazon.de. http://www.amazon.de/dp/B004LZRSBY. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
^ "a-ha.com: a-ha will perform as part of a national memorial service". a-ha.com. http://a-ha.com/news/articles/a-ha-participates-in-a-national-memorial-service. Retrieved 2011--08-10.
^ ^a ^b Klar for take-off / MASSIV.no
^ ^a ^b Stjerne. Punktum. / MASSIV.no
^ ^a ^b Et slags monster / MASSIV.no
^ Q Awards: The Q Inspiration Award - News - QTheMusic.com
^ Coldplay hyllet A-ha - adressa.no
^ Coldplay - Martin: 'I'm A Big Fan Of A-Ha' - Contactmusic News
^ A-ha - Sarah Brightmans favoritter - VG Nett om a-ha
^ U2: - Skummelt likt a-ha - Musikk - Dagbladet.no
^ Synger for a-ha - Musikk - NRK
^ Graham Nash at AllExperts
^ Tour | The Official Website of a-ha
^ [1]^{[dead link]}
^ www.A-ha.com
^ "A-ha - Tours". Memorialbeach.com. http://www.memorialbeach.com/tours.html. Retrieved 2010-10-04. ^{[dead link]}
^ [2]^{[dead link]}

External links [link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: A-ha

A-ha – official site
A-ha discography at Discogs

v t e A-ha

Magne Furuholmen Morten Harket Paul Waaktaar-Savoy

Studio albums	Hunting High and Low Scoundrel Days Stay on These Roads East of the Sun, West of the Moon Memorial Beach Minor Earth Major Sky Lifelines Analogue Foot of the Mountain

Compilation albums	Headlines and Deadlines – The Hits of A-ha The Definitive Singles Collection 1984–2004 25

Live albums	A-ha Live at Vallhall – Homecoming How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head Ending on a High Note – The Final Concert

EPs	45 R.P.M. Club Twelve Inch Club Scoundrel Club Road Club

Box sets	Minor Earth Major Box

Tours	List of A-ha tours Ending on a High Note Tour

Related articles	Discography Awards Tours Savoy Apparatjik We Are Here Square Peg In A Round Hole

Book Category

v t e a-ha singles

Hunting High and Low	"Take on Me" "Love Is Reason" "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." "Train of Thought" "Hunting High and Low"

Scoundrel Days	"I've Been Losing You" "Cry Wolf" "Maybe, Maybe" "Manhattan Skyline"

Stay on These Roads	"The Living Daylights" "Stay on These Roads" "The Blood That Moves the Body" "Touchy!" "You Are the One" "There's Never a Forever Thing"

East of the Sun, West of the Moon	"Crying in the Rain" "I Call Your Name" "Early Morning" "Waiting For Her"

Headlines and Deadlines – The Hits of A-ha	"Move to Memphis" "The Blood That Moves the Body '92"

Memorial Beach	"Dark Is the Night" "Angel in the Snow" "Lie Down in Darkness"

Minor Earth Major Sky	"Summer Moved On" "Minor Earth Major Sky" "Velvet" "The Sun Never Shone That Day" "I Wish I Cared"

Lifelines	"Forever Not Yours" "Lifelines" "Did Anyone Approach You?"

How Can I Sleep with Your Voice in My Head	"The Sun Always Shines on TV (Live)"

Analogue	"Celice" "Birthright" "Analogue (All I Want)" "Cosy Prisons"

Foot of the Mountain	"Foot of the Mountain" "Nothing Is Keeping You Here" "Shadowside"

25	"Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)"

Ending on a High Note	"Summer Moved On (Live)"

Non-album Singles	"Shapes That Go Together"

Book Category

v t e James Bond music

Themes	"James Bond Theme" (Monty Norman) "James Bond Is Back/From Russia with Love" (John Barry) "007 Theme" (John Barry) "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (John Barry) "Bond 77" (Marvin Hamlisch)

Soundtracks	Dr. No From Russia with Love Goldfinger Thunderball You Only Live Twice On Her Majesty's Secret Service Diamonds Are Forever Live and Let Die The Man with the Golden Gun The Spy Who Loved Me Moonraker For Your Eyes Only Octopussy A View to a Kill The Living Daylights Licence to Kill GoldenEye Tomorrow Never Dies The World Is Not Enough Die Another Day Casino Royale Quantum of Solace

Eon films themes	"Kingston Calypso" "From Russia with Love" "Goldfinger" "Thunderball" "You Only Live Twice" "We Have All the Time in the World" "Diamonds Are Forever" "Live and Let Die" "The Man with the Golden Gun" "Nobody Does It Better" "Moonraker" "For Your Eyes Only" "All Time High" "A View to a Kill" "The Living Daylights" "Where Has Everybody Gone?" "Licence To Kill" "If You Asked Me To" "GoldenEye" "Tomorrow Never Dies" "The World Is Not Enough" "Die Another Day" "You Know My Name" "Another Way to Die"

Non-Eon films themes	"Casino Royale" "The Look of Love" "Never Say Never Again"

Compilations	Shaken and Stirred The Incredible World of James Bond The Best of Bond...James Bond

Related articles	Official secondary songs "If You Asked Me To" "Where Has Everybody Gone?"

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A-Ha Filmography

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Contents

Biography [link]

Formation [link]

[edit] Hunting High and Low (1984–1985)

Golden age (1985–1994)[link]

Reunion (1998–2007)[link]

A new direction and farewell (2008–2010)[link]

Legacy and impact [link]

Awards [link]

Discography [link]

Tours [link]

See also [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

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