Morten Harket cites Queen and Freddie Mercury as big influence

A-ha frontman in an interview feature in the London Times 'Play' magazine (18th-24th July 2009)'Guest List' feature cites Queen twice as a major influence:

Vocalists: Freddie Mercury. "A great range, and also a great approach to singing. He knew how to use the media - not by taking it seriously, by understanding how unimportant it really was. I think he was a deeply honest man. I never met him properly but he was a good friend of my former manager, who always loved him".

Albums: A Night at the Opera - Queen. "This was a real climax, although I loved some of the earlier Seventies stuff too. What strikes me more than anything else about Queen is character. Technical singing is secondary to flamboyance doesn't mean much to me. Character is everything."

Ed: A-ha are one of my favorite bands!!!

Great quotes. A-ha is the band that did [i]Take on Me[/i], right? Did they do anything else worth noting? Not knocking the group, but I don't know much else about them other than they seem like a perfect one hit wonder.

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[b]doxonrox wrote: [/b]

Great quotes. A-ha is the band that did [i]Take on Me[/i], right? Did they do anything else worth noting? Not knocking the group, but I don't know much else about them other than they seem like a perfect one hit wonder.[/QUOTE]
I'm not an expert on A-ha but it's surely not the case that they're a one hit wonder. They have several hits(google them and you'll probably recognise more titles) and albums. They even made it to the Guiness book of records for playing to the largest paying audience, fot what that is worth of course:-)

I'm myself coming from Norway, and this came as no suprise to me. Morten Harket has been a long-time Queen fan, he even performed Bohemian Rhapsody in the late seventies, in full costume in homage to them, long before he became famous with Aha. You will notice this influence and respect in the following performance of "Love of My Life":



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXbzlrqcyvg



- In my opinion the best cover version of Love of My Life ever captured.



Morten Harket also performed "Killer Queen" and "Love of my life" on another occasion when "Kunstnerenes Hus" (The Artist's house) opened in 2004-2005(?), but a recording has never appeared. 



Aha is Norway's biggest band, and their latest album recently released is by many ranked as maybe their best. They are indeed not a one-hit-wonder band, as they have worked together for over twenty-five years, and released a bunch of successfull singles including: "Hunting High and Love", "The Sun Always Shines on Tv", "Stay on these Roads", "Summer Moved On" and "Forever not Yours", and the list goes on.



As for Morten Harket as a singer, he is brilliant, one of the best in today's music business. On a personal level, at least from the media's point of view, he is seen as a nutcase. He is probably a nightmare as an interview object, he never sticks to the case, always ending up with philosofical ramblings and existencial, over-the-top opinions. Some of the interviews are quite sick.. :)

Aha Norway's biggest band Thomas?!!

What about Secret Garden?

Cheers.

Hehe... Secret Garden are huge, and I respect them and what they have achieved. But it depends on how one defines the term "biggest band". I'm afraid I have to make a generalization, and argue that I think that Aha is considered to be Norway's most sucessfull band in terms of recordsales, adulation, fans and wide reach worldwide. It's not the correct way to measure bands like this, just my opinion :)

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[b]Thomas Tønnesen wrote: [/b]

Hehe... Secret Garden are huge, and I respect them and what they have achieved. But it depends on how one defines the term "biggest band". I'm afraid I have to make a generalization, and argue that I think that Aha is considered to be Norway's most sucessfull band in terms of recordsales, adulation, fans and wide reach worldwide. It's not the correct way to measure bands like this, just my opinion :)[/QUOTE]
I agree, Thomas

I live in Spain, and A-ha has been always "present" here while Secret Garden had their time many years ago ... in fact I didn´t remember them until they´ve been mentioned in this thread.

So, by the standards you wrote and I´m quoting above .. yes, A-ha is considered, at least in my country, the biggest band in Norway

My fav a-ha song is Minor Earth Major Sky.

I've always loved Morten Harket's voice. His version of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is amazing... Maybe even better than Frankie Valli's.

A-Ha are a fantastic group, didn't they have quite a decent tour of the UK last year?

A-ha...what a great band!
I think Morten is one of the greatest singers on Earth.

[i]I used to listen to A-HA some time ago,you forgot to mention some good songs too:the cover "Crying in the rain" "I call your name" "Early Morning" " Move to Memphis"[/i]

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[b]Thomas Tønnesen wrote: [/b]



I'm myself coming from Norway, and this came as no suprise to me. Morten Harket has been a long-time Queen fan, he even performed Bohemian Rhapsody in the late seventies, in full costume in homage to them, long before he became famous with Aha. You will notice this influence and respect in the following performance of "Love of My Life":

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Thank you very much for this information. I believe that A-ha is a great band and Morten is a great singer. Though their most well-known song certainly is Take On Me, they`ve made a lot of other wonderful songs.
And do you mean that Morten as a person is just weird and eccentric, crazy, or rather nasty?

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[b]Van Basten 9 wrote: [/b]

A-Ha are a fantastic group, didn't they have quite a decent tour of the UK last year?
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A-ha are coming to Moscow in November. Could you give me advice. Should I go to their concert? Are their concerts worth it? (or a bit monotonous?)

[i]I´ve seen them once,if I were you I would go for sure.[/i]