a-ha was founded in Oslo in 1982 by Pål Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars, keyboards), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars), and Morten Harket (vocals).

a-ha achieved their biggest success with their debut album Hunting High and Low in 1985. The album peaked at number one in their native country Norway, number 2 in the UK, and number 1 on the US Billboard album chart; yielded three international number-one singles: Take On Me, The Sun Always Shines on T.V. and Hunting High and Low. The album earned the band a Grammy Award nomination for Best New Artist.

The video for Take On Me became one of the most instantly recognisable and most enduringly popular music videos in the world, and was nominated for 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 and Best Video of the Year. Their six MTV Award wins for that video gave them twice as many wins as Michael Jackson’s Thriller and more than any artist in the three years of the awards combined.

The band released Scoundrel Days (1986), Stay on These Roads (1988) and East of the Sun, West of the Moon (1990) with hits like I´ve Been Losing You, Cry Wolf, Manhattan Skyline, The Living Daylights, Stay on These Roads, and Crying in the Rain. In 1994, after their fifth studio album, Memorial Beach (1993), failed to achieve the commercial success of their previous albums, the band went on hiatus.

Following a performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 1998, a-ha recorded their sixth album, 2000’s Minor Earth Major Sky, which was another number-one album in Norway and Germany. This album was followed by Lifelines(2002); Analogue (2005), which was certified Silver in the UK;[5] and Foot of the Mountain (2009), which was certified Silver in the UK and reached the top five in many European countries.

In 2009, the band announced they would split after the 2010 worldwide Ending on a High Note Tour. Thousands of fans from at least 40 countries on six continents congregated to see a-ha for the last leg of the tour.

At the end of 2014, a-ha officially announced its participation at Rock in Rio 2015, which celebrated 30 years for both the band and the event. In 2015, it was announced that a-ha would reunite; their tenth studio album, Cast in Steel, was released on in september, and the band toured in support of the album.

a-ha has released ten studio albums, several compilations and four live albums. The band were listed in the Guinness World Records Book for having the biggest-paying rock concert attendance; they drew an audience of 198,000 at Maracanã Stadium during the Rock in Rio festival. Their exact sales figures are somewhat controversial; according to their label, Rhino Entertainment, they have sold 55 million records, but other sources assert that they have sold more than 100 million units, albums and singles combined.