Advertisement

Video: A-ha's 'Take on Me' gets North Korean treatment

The Local Norway
The Local Norway - [email protected]
Video: A-ha's 'Take on Me' gets North Korean treatment
YouTube Screenshot

Five North Korean accordion players have breathed new life into A-ha’s classic 1980’s hit ‘Take On Me’ with a video version recorded just two days after they heard the song for the first time.

Advertisement

The man behind the video, Norwegian artist Morten Traavik, said the musicians from the hermetically sealed totalitarian state were not previously acquainted with Norway’s foremost pop stars, who scored a massive international hit in 1985 with their breakthrough single. 

“It didn’t seem like they had heard the song before, but they were extremely effective. They got the CD on Monday afternoon and the clip was recorded on Wednesday morning,” Traavik told newspaper Verdens Gang.

The musicians performed the song at the Kum Song School in Pyongyang, where Traavik says they have also been practising other Norwegian classics.  

The North Korean accordionists form part of the artist’s ‘Promised Land’ project. They will join him next week for the opening of the Barents Spectacle festival in Kirkenes in the far north of Norway.



More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also