Detail from single cover

The new (and last) a-ha single “Butterfly, Butterfly (The Last Hurrah)” is now available for listening at Warner Music Norway’s website here.

In connection with the premiere of the song, Magne was interviewed on NRK P3’s “P3 Morgen”, while Morten was interviewed on NRK P1’s “Reiseradioen”.

Here are some quotes:

Morten: “This is a new single from us, but it’s not intended to promote anything. It’s just something we wanted to release, in connection with this final year.”

Magne: “I think this is one of the best songs Paul has written in a long time, and an appropriate ending in my view.”

“The three concerts in December are sold out, but we’re doing some really big concerts in Norway this summer where it’s still possible to get tickets, as far as I know. [The August concerts] will probably be the last celebration for people in general, we hope, because during a few hours fans from all over the world managed to buy…I suspect some of them to have bought tickets for all three shows [in December]. So maybe we’ll have the same audience each night. (laughs)”

“We have had quite a loyal fanbase for a lot of years, where a-ha has become part of their lives, you know. They travel from all sorts of strange countries to see our concerts. And for them, those last shows will be special – and they will be for us as well.”

“It’s turned into something cultish, and in many ways I feel we’re doing them a favor by providing them with a proper ending, so they can get into something new instead. (laughs)”

The single is getting decent reviews in the Norwegian press. VG‘s Stein Østbø gives it a 5 out of 6 and calls it “a swan song that keeps growing with each new listen“. The reviewers from Aftenposten and Dagbladet both give the single 4 out of 6.