A-ha are a Norwegian band who was most popular in the UK and the USA during the 1980s, but continued to be globally successful in the 1990s and 2000s.

The trio, composed of lead vocalist Morten Harket, guitarist Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (known as På¬ Waaktaar until 1994) and keyboardist Magne Furuholmen, formed in 1982 and left Norway for London in order to make a career in the music business. The origin of the name a-ha comes from the title of an early song (The Juicy fruit Song).

The origin of the name A-ha comes from a title Paul contemplated giving to a song. He could not choose between the names "A-ha" and "A-men". Morten was looking through Paul's notebook and came across the name "A-ha". He liked it, and said, "That's a great name. That's what we should call ourselves." After checking dictionaries in several languages, they found out that a-ha was an international way of expressing recognition, with positive connotations. It was short, easy to say and unusual

An early version of "Take on Me" was the first song Morten Harket heard Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar play in Asker. At that time the song was called "Lesson One", and the two men were still known as Bridges. After some rewriting, multiple re-recordings and three releases, "Take on Me" became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in 1985 and was the second-best selling single of 1985.

The first version of the song, released in 1984, was promoted by a now-rare video of the band performing the song in front of a blue background. Both the original recording and video were failures. However, it was re-recorded early the following year by producer Alan Tarney and ultimately sold 1.5 million copies worldwide in one week. Eventually the single "Take on Me" was estimated to have sold 7–9 million copies worldwide; it peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number two in the UK Singles Chart.

Sales were aided in the U.S. by heavy rotation on MTV of a music video that may have been dually inspired by the truck chase scene from Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil and the climactic scene from the Ken Russell film Altered States. A-ha was the first Norwegian band to have a number 1 song in the US.

The video used a pencil-sketch animation / live action combination called Rotoscoping (where individual frames of live video are drawn over or colored). The video would become one of the most instantly recognizable and most enduringly popular in the U.S., where it was nominated for a remarkable eight awards at the third annual MTV Video Awards in 1986, winning six including "Best New Artist in a Video", "Best Concept Video", "Best Direction", "Best Special Effects" and "Viewer's Choice". "Take on Me" was also nominated for "Best Video Of The Year" at the 1986 American Music Awards. Their six MTV Award wins for that video alone gave them twice as many wins as Michael Jackson's "Thriller", and more than any artist in the three years of the awards combined.

But those were not A-ha's only MTV awards that year. The band's second single was "The Sun Always Shines on T.V.". In the U.S., the song peaked at number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number seventeen on Radio & Records airplay chart, and a remix version was a club hit, rising all the way to number five on the Hot Dance Singles Sales chart.

The music video for the song was another popular and critical success, nominated in three categories at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards and winning two awards, for Best Cinematography and Best Editing, bringing A-ha's total to eleven nominations and eight wins. The following year, Peter Gabriel would earn thirteen nominations and win nine awards, also for two videos. In successive years, even as the award categories have expanded, only a few artsts have approached—and none surpassed—the single-year award totals of A-ha and Gabriel.

A-ha's American success culminated in their 1986 Grammy nomination in a coveted Best New Artist category which was eventually won by Sade. "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." turned out to be A-ha's last Hot 100 Top 40 single, and to this day in the United States A-ha is remembered by the general public almost entirely because of the singularly huge success of "Take on Me".

As such, the band is frequently considered a one-hit wonder there. In the UK and much of the rest of the world, however, the story was very different: "The Sun Always Shines on TV" was an even bigger hit among British fans than "Take on Me", peaking at number one. In the UK, A-ha had continued success with "The Sun Always Shines on T.V." and were consistently popular throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

Hunting High and Low became a worldwide bestseller. Released in May 1985, Hunting High and Low spent most of October and November in the top 20 of Billboard's Top 200 album chart. The album and its two hit singles granted A-ha international recognition. Hunting High and Low earned Platinum status in the United States, UK and Germany, and Gold status in Brazil and the Netherlands. Hunting High and Low has sold 11 million copies worldwide.