Music Review: "Take On Me" (1985) as One Hit Wonder From A-ha

I know exactly the song as it was showed on TV back then in Europe, especially in England. Yes, I was on vacation to Europe that year with my parents and sisters and... yes, this song was on the top chart at that time. Vacation to Europe? Yes, my dad worked for Cairo (Egypt) Indonesian Embassy in 1981-1986. We had vacation to Europe in 1985, to be precise in the summer. We're not rich family. We took that vacation because it was much cheaper taking vacation from Egypt than taking it from Indonesia due to further distance and flight. 

"Take On Me" was a single hit from Norwegian pop band name A-ha. It was taken from their debut studio album called Hunting High and Low (1985). A-ha band consists of three musicians: Morten Harket (lead vocal), Magne Furuholmen (Roland Juno 60 and PPG Wave synthesizers, backing vocals), and Pal Waaktaar (guitars, PPG Wave, and Yamaha DX7 synthesizers, Linndrum programming, hi-hat and cymbal, backing vocals). The video music for this song is really famous (even till today). It used a pencil sketch animation and live-action combination called rotoscoping. On 17 February 2020, the music video reached one billion (1000.000.000) views on YouTube... wow! 

The video music has romantic theme. It's about a young woman reading a comic in a cafe and then was invited by a hero of the comic to go into the comic book. The hero was apparently the winner of a motorcycle race and chased by his villains in the comic book. The hero punches one of the thug aside and retreats with the young woman into a maze of paper. Arriving at the dead end, the hero tears a hole on the paper hole so that the young woman can escape. Back in real world, the young woman was found lying beside a trash bin in the cafe. She retrieves the comic from the bin and runs home when she attempts to smooth out the creases of the crumpled page from the comic to see what happen next. 

The video for "Take On Me" won six awards at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards: Best New Artist in a Video, Best Concept Video, Most Experimental Video, Best Direction in a Video, Best Special Effects in a Video, and Viewer's Choice. It was also nominated for two others: Best Group Video and Video Of The Year. The song "Take On Me" reached number one in many countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, US Billboard Hot 100, and West Germany. It reached number two in: Canada Top Singles, Denmark, Ireland, and UK Singles. It reached number three in France and number four in Finland... wow, amazing!  

Not only that. The song "Take On Me" also received certification: Gold in Belgium (more than 100.000 units sale), Gold in Brazil (more than 30.000 units sale), Gold in France and Germany (more than 500.000 units sale in each country), Gold in Italy (more than 300.ooo units sale), Gold in Japan (more than 100.000 units sale), Gold in UK (more than 500.000 units sale). It also received Double Platinum in Denmark (more than 180.000 units sale), Double Platinum in Italy (since 2009 sales, more than 200.000 units), and Double Platinum in Spain (more than 120.000 units sale). In fact, it received 4x Platinum in UK (more than 2.400.000 units) in digital form... outstanding!

Actually, A-ha band had a few more good songs. But "Take On Me" is really the big hit one.