Despite bad reviews, Out Of My Hands has entered the Norwegian album chart at #2 in its first week, only beaten by Hver Gang Vi Møtes – a collection of songs from a popular TV2 show, where various artists perform cover versions of each others’ songs.
In comparison, Wild Seed and Letter From Egypt both entered the album chart at #1. Vogts Villa entered at #21, while Poetenes Evangelium did not chart.
In Germany, “Scared Of Heights” falls from #48 to #92 in its second week on the single chart.
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Tags: morten harket, out of my hands, vg lista 
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Magne and the other mentors on The Voice were guests on TV2’s talkshow Senkveld tonight, before they are off to Magne’s cabin on a mountain trip before next week’s live show.
Talking about the upcoming live shows, where the TV-audience will be able to vote for their favorites, Magne said:
“It will be interesting to see what people think, people who don’t have the same close knowledge of the talents we’ve been working with. But that’s how it is outside the show as well – people “vote” by buying someone’s album. And I think all four of us would like to see specific artists sell a lot more albums, because we like them. But they don’t get enough “votes”, or purchases on iTunes. So there’s always a certain element of competition. We’re just trying to navigate through this as best as we can, and do our best for the talents on our teams.”
When asked what it’s like working with Magne, Sondre Lerche mentioned how he’s always been a big a-ha fan:
“I’ve had quite an intense interest in Magne and a-ha, going way back, and I have defended the band through thick and thin. When I was 12 years old, in the early 90s, and all the boys in my class liked Guns N’ Roses and Metallica, I stood up for East Of The Sun and Memorial Beach – those more serious a-ha albums.”
Posted in Magne, The Voice Tags: magne furuholmen, senkveld, sondre lerche, tv2 Comments Off on Magne on Senkveld
Magne with his top five talents (l. to r.): Shaun Bartlett, Marius Beck, Marianne Pentha, Monika Blomeid and Martin Halla (Picture from TV2.no)
In tonight’s sing-off episode, three of Magne’s talents had to perform their blind audition songs again – to determine who would go to the final round, the live shows, starting next Friday.
Video clips:
Kristiania (“Viva La Vida”)
Kathrine Fugllien (“Wake Me Up When September Ends”)
Marianne Pentha (“When Love Takes Over”)
Magne ended up choosing Marianne Pentha, who joins Shaun Bartlett, Marius Beck, Monika Blomeid and Martin Halla as the final five talents on Team Magne.
Posted in Magne, The Voice Tags: kathrine fugllien, kristiania, magne furuholmen, marianne pentha, the voice Comments Off on The Voice – episode 13
Tomsk. April 19th
Morten’s tour continued at the Palace of Sport in Tomsk yesterday. The setlist was the same as in Novosibirsk, except “Scared of Heights” opened the first encore, instead of ending the main set.
Here is the setlist, with YouTube links:
1. Burn Money Burn
2. I’m The One
3. Keep The Sun Away
4. Crying In The Rain
5. Out Of Blue Comes Green
6. Move To Memphis
7. Forever Not Yours
8. When I Reached The Moon
9. Los Angeles
10. Spanish Steps
11. A Kind Of Christmas Card
12. We’re Looking For The Whales
13. Just Believe It
14. Lightning
——–
15. Scared Of Heights
16. Stay On These Roads
17. Foot Of The Mountain
——–
18. Lay Me Down Tonight
19. Take On Me
There are also some YouTube clips of Morten introducing the band and dedicating “We’re Looking For The Whales” to Paul and Magne.
The Roskilde Festival in Denmark has announced that Apparatjik will be one of the acts performing at this year’s festival, which is held between 5 – 8 July.
The exact date and stage will be revealed later, but Magne has previously mentioned that they have been invited to perform on the Orange Stage.
More info at roskilde-festival.dk.
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Novosibirsk, April 18th
Morten continued the tour today, at the Circus venue in Novosibirsk. And apparently this concert ended up being radically different from the first.
The setlist was almost completely shuffled around, compared to Krasnoyarsk. In addition, three solo songs were added; “When I Reached The Moon”, “Just Believe It” and “Lay Me Down Tonight”, plus one additional a-ha song; “We’re Looking For The Whales”.
1. Burn Money Burn
2. I’m The One
3. Keep The Sun Away
4. Crying In The Rain
5. Out Of Blue Comes Green
6. Move To Memphis
7. Forever Not Yours
8. When I Reached The Moon
9. Los Angeles
10. Spanish Steps
11. A Kind Of Christmas Card
12. We’re Looking For The Whales
13. Just Believe It
14. Lightning
15. Scared Of Heights
——–
16 Stay On These Roads
17. Foot Of The Mountain
——–
18. Lay Me Down Tonight
19. Take On Me
So in total, there were 8 a-ha songs, 7 songs from Out Of My Hands and 4 songs from Wild Seed.
Trying out different setlists at the start of a tour is something a-ha have usually done as well, before settling on the “final” setlist after a few shows.
Palace of Sport, Krasnoyarsk, April 16th
(Picture from sibnovosti.ru)
Morten opened his Out Of My Hands solo tour in Krasnoyarsk, Russia last night, backed by Karl Oluf Wennerberg, Erik Ljunggren and Dan Sunhordvik.
The stage production was rather sparse, without any video screens, but Morten appeared to be in fine vocal form – despite some false starts and forgotten lyrics.
Here is the setlist (according to setlist.fm), with links to video clips on YouTube:
1. I’m The One
2. Keep The Sun Away
3. Move To Memphis
4. Scared Of Heights
5. Forever Not Yours
6. Lightning
7. Burn Money Burn
8. Los Angeles
9. Crying In The Rain
10. Spanish Steps
11. A Kind Of Christmas Card
————————-
12. Out Of Blue Comes Green
13. Foot Of The Mountain
14. Stay On These Roads
15. Take On Me
“Out Of Blue Comes Green”, which won the fan voting on Morten’s website, was performed live for the first time since 1989.
This means there were 7 a-ha songs performed, 5 songs from Out Of My Hands and 3 songs from Wild Seed. Nothing from Letter From Egypt or other English-language solo songs.
It had been said beforehand that the tour would include “a selection of a-ha songs”. The fact that this “selection” turns out to be almost half the setlist – 7 out of 15 songs, is sure to disappoint those who had been hoping to hear mostly solo songs at his solo concerts.
Too bad he doesn’t have more confidence in his own material at the moment.
Picture gallery from the concert
Posted in Morten Tags: dan sunhordvik, erik ljunggren, karl oluf wennerberg, krasnoyarsk, morten harket Comments Off on Krasnoyarsk concert, April 16th
Doing a cover version of “Scared of Heights”, the song originally recorded by Espen Lind in 2008, was a suggestion by Morten’s manager Harald Wiik. Initially Morten didn’t like the idea, but eventually he agreed to do it.
But it was Magne who came up with the original idea of using other Norwegian hits, Morten said in an interview in VG’s paper edition on Saturday:
“Magne came up with the idea that I should pick out good, Norwegian songs and take them abroad. I like that thought, and it’s something that I will pursue on my next solo albums as well. Not just to be kind, but because these songs will be relevant and more than good enough in markets where they haven’t been released before.”
Morten’s solo tour is starting today, at Palace of Sport in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
“I haven’t toured in these areas as a solo artist before, and I don’t expect the audience to be familiar with my own material. But they do associate me strongly with a-ha, so it will feel natural to do some a-ha material as well“, Morten tells VG.
“Some of the songs feel more strange to perform than others. “Stay On These Roads” is an easy choice, as I played such a big part in creating it. But what about “Hunting High and Low”? Paul wrote it at an early stage, and for me it so clearly demonstrated our caliber. There are stories connected to it; when we were setting up to record it, Magne came up with this extremely beautiful piano part. Then he forgot what he had played. Things like that. Even if people associate that song with my voice, I’m not sure if I’ll perform it live”, he says in an extensive article in Aftenposten.
“Is the world ready for Harket without a-ha in 2012? We don’t know. Maybe we have the odds against us. But we do have a hope”, manager Harald Wiik says in the same article.
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“Morten Harket – mannen bak myten”, the 1-hour TV-special about Morten’s ten-day trip to Brazil in January, aired on TV2 in Norway last night.
Hosted by Dorthe Skappel, it featured conversations with Morten and his manager Harald Wiik in various locations around Rio de Janeiro. Morten talked about his early performances with Ten Sing choir Anthem and about the first time he saw Bridges perform. He also revealed that he was offered a role in a movie with John Hurt and Helen Mirren at one point, and that he once punched a paparazzi to the ground in the UK. Morten got emotional when talking about being bullied for years as a child. “It was a real hell, year after year”, he said.
We were also introduced to a Brazilian fan who said that Morten’s music, and in particular “A Kind Of Christmas Card”, saved her from committing suicide in the 90s.
When asked about Morten’s philosophical way of speaking, Harald Wiik made it clear that he doesn’t agree with those who feel that Morten is hard to understand:
Harald Wiik and Morten, discussing the cover design of the new album
“I don’t really understand where that notion comes from. I am actually of the exact opposite opinion; I feel he is very precise and concise. I think the reason why many people get that impression, is that he’s being precise and concise at a very high tempo. And his focus can shift very quickly. But I feel that each single statement is very to the point and fact-based. But he’s going at a high speed, so you need to pay attention. It’s not for newcomers.”
The TV-special also included instrumental mixes of songs on the new album as background music and a number of clips from private home movies from Morten’s childhood. There were also some rare pictures shown – like this publicity photo of Morten’s band Souldier Blue from the early 80s:
Souldier Blue
Paying subscribers to TV2’s web-TV can see the whole special online. It has also been uploaded to YouTube.
Posted in Morten Tags: dorthe skappel, harald wiik, morten harket, rio de janeiro, souldier blue, tv2 Comments Off on TV-special on TV2
Here are last week’s duels on Magne’s team in episode 11 of The Voice:
Kathrine Fugllien vs. Yvonne Walderhaug (performing “Erase/Rewind”)
Ruben Gundersen vs. Martin Halla (performing “Keep on Walking”)
And the duel from episode 12 yesterday:
Heidi Blåsmo Frantzen vs. Marianne Pentha (performing “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”).
In next week’s episode, Magne will need to reduce the number of talents on his team from seven to five, through a sing-off contest. And those five will then be ready for the live shows, starting on April 27th.
Posted in Magne, The Voice Tags: heidi blåsmo frantzen, kathrine fugllien, magne furuholmen, marianne pentha, martin halla, martin terefe, ruben gundersen, the voice, yvonne walderhaug Comments Off on The Voice – episode 11 and 12
