A-Ha in Concert from Rio de Janeiro – March 10, 1989 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
A-Ha in concert this weekend. During their career, which has had three incarnations, the New-Wave/Synth-pop/Alt-Rock trio from Oslo have performed some 610 concerts around the world, inspired dozens of artists from Pet Shop Boys to Michael Jackson and have a vast number of covers done of some of their most memorable hits. As of 2009, the band had sold in excess of 100 million albums worldwide.
And even though their popularity has been largely confined to the 1980s and early 90s, they are still performing and recording and still being talked about.
Getting started in 1982 and achieving an enormous success via their 1985 debut album, A-Ha were the perfect band for MTV. Their videos alone have been inspirations for other film makers to follow. Take On Me, directed by Steve Barron has been cited as a major stepping off point for music videos throughout the 80s and 90s, and featured one of the first and most innovative uses of combined live-action and animation in a music video.
This concert, broadcast live from Rio de Janeiro on March 10, 1989 features the band during their peak. They would eventually go on hiatus in 1994, shortly after the release of their fifth, and probably least successful album up to that point. The hiatus lasted until 1998 when they reunited for a sixth album, which returned them to the top-10. They would continued for the next several years before announcing a split in 2009 to take place after their world tour in 2010. But again, the split up was only temporary, and after an announced reunion in 2014 for an appearance at the 2015 Rock in Rio Festival, they stayed pretty much together since then, releasing an acoustic album in September 2017 from their MTV unplugged performance earlier in the year.
But as a reminder of A-Ha in the 80s – here they are in concert, as it was broadcast on March 10,1989.
a-ha no Brasil em 1989. Eu estive lá. Foi no estádio Palestra Itália, atual Alienz Park em São Paulo.
Até hoje acompanho esta banda. Fui em todos os shows deles no Brasil, que aconteceram na minha cidade. Foi ima conexão inesperada entre nós brasileiros e estes artistas nórdicos da Noruega. Foi inesquecível.
Translation (via Google): a-ha in Brazil in 1989. I’ve been there. It was at the Palestra Italia stadium, currently the Alienz Park in São Paulo.
To this day I accompany this band. I went to all their shows in Brazil, which happened in my city. It was an unexpected connection between us Brazilians and these Nordic artists from Norway. It was unforgettable.
Many thanks!