Archive for January, 2010

Movie awards / Brussels concert / Edinburgh opening

a-ha on stage inside the Prinzregententheater in Munich yesterday evening

a-ha on stage inside the Prinzregententheater in Munich yesterday evening

a-ha made their first appearance this year when they did a playback performance of “Nothing Is Keeping You Here” at the Bavarian movie awards in Munich last night.

Even though it was only playback, they were joined by Karl and Erik on drums and bass. The performance can be seen on YouTube here.

 

The official site has now confirmed a concert in Brussels, Belgium on 11 October. The four remaining concerts in Brazil were also finally confirmed. Visit a-ha.com for ticket details.

 

Magne’s “Alpha Beta” exhibition is opening at the Edinburgh Printmakers gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland today.

According to the gallery’s website, Magne will be present for an “artist talk” between 4.30-5.30pm, where he will discuss his artworks with Paul Stolper. And between 6-8pm people can “join Magne F for an exclusive reception to celebrate his exhibition”.

Update (Jan. 20): Although the exhibition opened on January 16th, the “artist talk” and “exclusive reception” with Magne won’t happen before February 17th. A PDF flyer for this event can be seen here.

 

Tonight is the second semi-final of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix (Eurovision Song Contest), where Morten’s daughter Tomine will perform the song “Be Good To Me”.

Because of a-ha’s trip to Germany, Morten won’t be able to be part of the audience in Bodø, where the show is held. And that is one of the reasons why Tomine wants to make it to the final. “I have to make it to the next round so my father gets a chance to see me on stage“, Tomine told VG a few days ago.

Tomine can be proud of the beautiful song she will be performing. And Grand Prix is a great arena in which to present it“, Morten says in today’s VG.

The show can be seen live on NRK’s web-TV here, starting at 19.55. “Be Good To Me” can already be heard here.

Update: Tomine did a good performance, but did not get enough votes to go to the final.

Possible concert in Kristiansand

There is a good chance that a-ha may do a concert in Kristiansand, Norway this summer, the newspaper Fædrelandsvennen reports today.

Sør Arena in Kristiansand

Sør Arena in Kristiansand

I can confirm that this is being worked on and that we really want to make it happen. a-ha want to do a concert in Kristiansand, but the band has a rather tight tour schedule and so the concert date and some other issues are yet to be decided“, a-ha manager Harald Wiik tells Fædrelandsvennen.

Wiik doesn’t want to say where the concert would be held, but the football club Start’s home stadium called Sør Arena would be a good candidate. The stadium has a capacity of around 20 000 people for concerts.

Cathrine Aanensen at Start’s event company Start Event confirms that they are currently in a dialogue with a-ha’s management.

a-ha have only done one concert in Kristiansand before, when they played for 4400 people at Gimlehallen on 30 January 1987.

Two more confirmed dates

The official site has now confirmed the October 10th concert in Amsterdam – again…
Tickets will go on sale this Saturday, January 16th at LiveNation.nl.

The March 14th concert in Belo Horizonte has also finally been confirmed. Ticket sales for this show started, uh… last year. But a-ha.com claims there are still tickets available.

However, still no official word on the four remaining Brazilian dates in Bauru, Brasilia, Recife and Fortaleza.

Norwegian concerts in late summer

As previously reported, concert organizers in Bodø, Norway have been in contact with a-ha Network about getting a possible date on the Farewell Tour.

The concert would have been held as part of the Aspmyra Live mini-festival, but it seems that the plans didn’t work out.

As it stands now this won’t happen, unfortunately“, a-ha manager Harald Wiik tells local newspaper Avisa Nordland today.

According to the newspaper, a-ha will be doing concerts in Norway between August 20th and September 12th.

There was a weekend during that period when we could have arranged Aspmyra Live, but that wasn’t a good time for the band. Aspmyra Live is usually held in June, but it wasn’t possible for a-ha to come here [that month]“, Gøran Aamodt of the event company Tag Productions tells Avisa Nordland.

As for which Norwegian cities that will get a visit from a-ha in late summer, there have been rumours about both Stavanger and Bergen.

Paris date

On January 6th, a-ha.com announced a date in Paris, France on October 12th. And the previously known date in Santiago, Chile on March 6th was officially confirmed.

The following day, a concert in Amsterdam, Holland on October 10th was also announced by a-ha.com. But that date has since been removed from the official site, because all the details weren’t ready yet.

Festival at Flø

Magne and Hugo Opdal at Flø, February 2008

Magne and Hugo Opdal at Flø, February 2008

The first “Go with the Flø” art and music festival will be held at Flø in Norway on 5 – 6 June. The festival was supposed to be held in June 2009, but had to be postponed to 2010 instead.

In addition to exhibiting some new artworks, Magne will be performing at the festival – provided there is enough time between a-ha dates.

Magne is touring Europe with a-ha around that time, but he will try to be here if it’s possible. And then he will take part in the festival both as a musician and an artist“, festival organizer Hugo Opdal tells local newspaper Vikebladet’s paper edition.

2009 charts / Ljunggren interview

The 2009 statistics of the official Norwegian album chart shows that Foot Of The Mountain was the 8th bestselling Norwegian album of 2009 and the 15th bestselling when international albums are included. The whole list can be seen on Farojournalen’s website.

On NRK P1, Norway’s largest radio station, “Foot Of The Mountain” was the 2nd most played song in 2009, only beaten by Beyonce’s “Halo”. The 15 most played songs can be seen on NRK.no.

And on Hit 40, the official Norwegian radio chart, “Foot Of The Mountain” was the 4th most played Norwegian song in 2009 and 7th overall. The top 100 songs are listed here.

 

In Germany, Foot Of The Mountain ended up at number 22 on the list of the bestselling albums of 2009, which is available here. The album is actually still in the German album chart, currently at number 52 after 29 weeks.

 

a-ha’s backing musician Erik Ljunggren was recently interviewed by the German magazine Keyboards. Scans of the interview has been posted on the German forum by Elanur.

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