a-ha forced to cancel a string of concerts after singer Morten Harket gets ill
Last week Friday, May 20th, the Belga-Norwegian editorial Side-Line team was present at the a-ha concert at the Oslo Spectrum venue. During the concert we noticed that frontman Morten Harket struggled with his voice though most of the public probably didn’t notice.
But the day after the band issued a statement that a-ha’s second concert in Oslo was postponed – “(since) Morten has been diagnosed with Laryngitis and needs to rest his voice” – and later canceled since it soon became clear that there was no equipment and personnel available for a show this size on the available dates.
But now the band has also had to cancel their UK shows at London Wembley The SSE Arena on Friday 27th May and Birmingham Utilita Arena on 28th May along with the already postponed shows at Bournemouth International Centre and Liverpool M&S Bank Arena.
In statement the band says: “The band is absolutely gutted that we have had to cancel our shows in UK – our second home – this week due to continued illness. Our deepest apologies to friends and fans with whom we were hoping to celebrate. Thank you for your kind understanding and continued support!”
Scheduled in the next days and still a go are the concerts in Oslo (June 10th and 11th), Bergen (June 15th), Fredrikstad (June 17th) and Arendal (June 18th).
For more on a-ha, see Corona caused a-ha to cancel concerts on Side-Line.
About a-ha
a-ha formed in Oslo, Norway, on 14 September 1982, built from the earlier duo Bridges, by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars, vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars, vocals) and Morten Harket (lead vocals). The trio relocated to London in 1982 and signed to Warner Bros. Their debut album, “Hunting High and Low” (1985), reached number two in the UK and number fifteen in the US, powered by the global number-one single “Take On Me.” There have been no lineup changes since the band’s formation, aside from a group hiatus between 2010 and 2015.
Subsequent albums include “Scoundrel Days” (1986), “Stay on These Roads” (1988, featuring the James Bond theme “The Living Daylights”), “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” (1990) and “Memorial Beach” (1993). The band reunited for “Minor Earth Major Sky” (2000), “Lifelines” (2002), “Analogue” (2005) and “Foot of the Mountain” (2009), announced a split in 2010, then reunited again in 2015 for “Cast in Steel.” Its most recent album, “True North,” was released in 2022. a-ha has sold more than 100 million records worldwide across eleven studio albums.
Morten Harket disclosed a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis on 4 June 2025, revealing he had undergone two deep-brain-stimulation surgeries in 2024. Magne Furuholmen said future band activity would be tuned to suit Harket’s condition. Morten Harket disclosed a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis in June 2025, after undergoing two deep-brain-stimulation surgeries the previous year.
Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!
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