Morten Harket: multifaceted musician

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Morten Harket is a famous Norwegian musician, lead singer of the world-famous band A-ha, poet, public figure. He has an incredible voice, the range of which is at least five octaves. Set a record for the longest performance of one note within twenty seconds, was recognized as one of the best vocalists around the world.

Biography

Harket Morten was born on September 14, 1959, in the Norwegian town of Konsberg. His family was large: three brothers and one sister. My father was the head physician in a hospital, my mother worked as a school teacher.

Morten's memories of school are not the most pleasant, classmates did not accept him. He enjoyed growing orchids and collecting butterflies. He discovered music only in his teens, and he was very inspired by the band Uriah Heep.

After graduating from school, Harket Morten entered the theological faculty: he dreamed of becoming a priest. After a year of training, he joined the army and in the same year he met two musicians: Paul Voctor and Magne Furuholmen. From that moment, their joint activities began.

GroupA-ha

At the beginning of his musical career, Morten sang in various bands. On Morten's twenty-third birthday, A-ha appeared, and together with Paul and Magne they went to London, trying to realize themselves as a musical group. The first time was not successful, they returned to their homeland, but later decided to try their luck again. This time, luck smiled at them, and soon they literally woke up famous.

After the public got acquainted with the video for the song Take On Me, and in 1985 the first album Hunting High and Low was released, the group became famous. From 1985 to 1994, the musicians released such albums as Scoundrel Days, Stay on These Roads, East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Memorial Beach. In those days, A-ha was a resounding success with fans, songs from each album instantly hit the top lines of the charts, concert tickets were sold out instantly. One need only look at recordings of performances to understand how popular Morten Harket was, photos of those years confirm that the concert halls were packed to overflowing with fans. And their concert in Rio gathered such a crowd that this event was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

However, Memoral Beach was not a success, some people thought it was too dark, incomprehensible or just weak. In addition, disagreements began in the group itself, and the musicians decided to take a break, which lasted about five years. At this time, everyone was engaged in their own activities, and not only musical ones.

In 1998, the group gives a concert, after which they record an albumMinor Earth Major Sky, which again beats all records in popularity. The album includes compositions composed by Morten Harket himself, songs To Let You Win and Thought That It Was You.

A-ha recorded three more albums: Lifelines, Analogue, Foot of the Mountain. In 2009, the group broke up again, their farewell tour took place in 73 countries of the world. But in 2015, the musicians teamed up again and recorded the album Cast In Steel.

Solo work

From what Morten Harket himself recorded: albums Poetenes Evangelium in 1993 in Norwegian, Wild Seed in English in 1995, Vogts Villa in Norwegian in 1996. Then the group A-ha united again, and only in 2008 Morten released the album Letter from Egypt. In 2012 and 2014, his next solo albums Out of My Hands and Brother are released. Morten also participated in the recording of the album Scorpions - MTV Unplugged.

Family

From 1989 to 1998, Morten was married to Norwegian actress Camille Malmqvist, whom he met on the set of a film. From this marriage he has three children: sons Jacob, Jonathan and daughter Tomine. A year after the divorce, Morten met Anne-Mette Undlin, and in 2003 the couple had a daughter, Henny. Soon they part as friends, the marriage was never registered.

Morten's next companion is his assistant Ines Anderson, who in 2008 gave birth to his daughter Carmen Poppy. To questions about whether he is going to get married, Morten replies that it does not matter to him the officialmarriage registration.

Interesting facts

Morten Harket is known not only as a musician, but also as a public figure. For many years he has been a fighter for the liberation of the people in East Timor. He became interested in this problem in 1993. At the same time, Canadian law professor Maureen Davis sent Morten materials that helped him familiarize himself with the case. In 1996, with his help, Carlos Belo and José Ramos-Hort received the Nobel Peace Prize, and at the same time, thanks to them, politicians around the world began to be interested in this issue.

Also, Harket Morten starred in the Norwegian film "Camilla and the Thief" (the first part was released in 1988, the second in 1989), and in 2010 he received a cameo role in the project "Johan the Wanderer". In 2017, Morten was invited to the role of a mentor in the Norwegian version of the show The Voice.