A-ha frontman Morten Harket, best known for the band’s ’80s hit “Take On Me,” has revealed that he has Parkinson’s disease.
The news was shared in an article posted to the band’s website, with Harket explaining, “I’ve got no problem accepting the diagnosis. With time I’ve taken to heart my 94-year-old father’s attitude to the way the organism gradually surrenders: ‘I use whatever works.'”
Harket says it was his “need for peace and quiet to work” that stopped him from revealing his diagnosis earlier.
“I’m trying the best I can to prevent my entire system from going into decline,” he says. “It’s a difficult balancing act between taking the medication and managing its side effects. There’s so much to weigh up when you’re emulating the masterful way the body handles every complex movement, or social matters and invitations, or day-to-day life in general.”
While Harket had procedures in 2024 to lessen his symptoms, he acknowledges that his condition has affected his voice, noting, “The problems with my voice are one of many grounds for uncertainty about my creative future.”
Asked whether he can currently sing at all, he replied, “I don’t really know. I don’t feel like singing, and for me that’s a sign.”
“The question is whether I can express myself with my voice,” he adds. “As things stand now, that’s out of the question. But I don’t know whether I’ll be able to manage it at some point in the future.”
As for why he’s revealing his diagnosis now, Harket shares, “It used to bother me to think about my sickness becoming public knowledge. In the long run it bothers me more to have to protect something that is strictly a private matter by treating it as a secret.”
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