Happy new year 2012!

A little belated, but a no less heartfelt happy new year to you all! Thank you for your visits and comments here over the past year.

a-ha may have retired as a band back in 2010, but last year there were still some a-ha milestones to celebrate! Here is a look back at 2011, and a small preview of what to expect in 2012.

In early March, a-ha received the Spellemann Award of Honor. Morten and Magne were present at the Spellemann award show at the Oslo Spektrum and accepted the award on behalf of the band. See a short video of Morten on the red carpet after the show here.

Also in March, there were two new releases: the single Summer Moved On (Live), and the much-anticipated live DVD/CD Ending On A High Note.

To celebrate the release of the live DVD, a-ha.com sponsored an official release party in Berlin on March 25. Party guests watched an advance screening of the DVD and were surprised by an appearance from Morten! Morten spent about 30 minutes at the party, signing autographs and taking photos with the fans.

When tragedy struck in Norway on July 22, a-ha was asked to participate in a national memorial service to honor the victims and survivors of the terror attacks that shocked a peaceful nation. The memorial service took place on August 21, and a-ha took the stage again and performed a moving rendition of ‘Stay On These Roads.’

On November 6, a-ha was among the first five artists to be inducted into the Norwegian Music Hall of Fame, located in Trondheim, Norway. Magne was present to accept the honor on behalf of a-ha.

During the induction ceremony, Norway’s Minister of Commerce gave a speech about a-ha’s impact on the music industry. Watch a video of the speech here, however it is in Norwegian. If someone would be willing to make a translation or summary of the speech in English for us to share with everyone here on a-ha.com, we would appreciate hearing from you. (Please let us know if you intend to help with the translation, so there aren’t multiple people working on it! Thank you in advance!)

Finally, we closed out the year with another fun fan party in Oslo on December 3! It was great to see so many of you at the party and we hope you had a good time.

The guys were also busy with their solo projects in 2011.

Paul, together with Jimmy Gnecco, released a song called Weathervane back in June. They performed the song at the 27th annual Amanda Award Ceremony, which was broadcast live on TV2 from Haugesund Concert Hall on Saturday 20 August.

In the fall, Morten announced plans for a new solo album and world tour in 2012. So far concert dates have been confirmed for Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France and England between April and May of this year, with more dates to be announced soon.

Keep an eye on mortenharket.com and Morten’s Facebook Page – and of course a-ha.com – for updates about Morten’s new solo album and new concert dates.

Magne had an incredibly busy year in 2011. In March, Apparatjik released a new single, Combat Disco Music, and had an installation and several performances at Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin. Apparatjik also performed in Moscow and Graz last year, and participated in several workshops as well.

On November 11, Apparatjik released an iPad magazine which included – among other interesting media and interactive content – a new full length album. You can download the album for free from SoundCloud.

The band is now requesting input and remixes from the fans in a collaborative music project. For more information on this project and how to participate, visit apparatjik.com.

Magne, Paul Stolper and Hugo Opdal opened a new gallery called Stolper + Friends on September 1. Initially the gallery was going to be launched with an exhibition of works by Magne called ‘Futura Plus.’ However following the terror attacks in Norway, Magne cancelled the exhibition due to the ‘potentially upsetting nature of the works.’ Works from ‘Futura Plus’ were later shown at a group exhibition Under stor press at Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg, Sweden.

On November 26, Magne’s exhibition ‘Echo’ opened at Stolper + Friends, and runs through January 15.

A preview of 2012

Both Morten and Magne have a busy spring ahead of them!

Morten’s new solo album has been recorded and will be released this spring. We expect some news about Morten’s tour and album very soon!

Apparatjik will release ‘Square Peg In A Round Hole’ on February 21, and the band is expected to announce live concert dates for 2012 as well.

As announced last fall, Magne is one of four coaches on the upcoming Norwegian television series, The Voice – Norges beste stemme. The show will premiere on January 27. Here is the first promo clip:

Coming up in the second part of the year, the long-awaited official photo book by Stian Andersen, as well as the next official international fan party. We hope to have news to share about both the book and the party in the coming weeks.