a-ha, Norway's most famous and enduringly popular pop band, will reunite on 21 August to take part in a concert, part of a national memorial service in tribute to last month's attacks on the country's capital and Utoeya Island by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik. when 77 people were killed in total
The ceremony will take place at Oslo's Spektrum Concert Hall. It will be the first time the musical trio - vocalist Morten Harket, keyboardist Magne Furuholmen (Mags) and guitarist Pal Waaktaar-Savoy - have performed together in public since their most recent split in 2010.
The Norwegian trio enjoyed massive success in 1985 with their debut single Take On Me, and went on to worldwide fame over the following decade with songs including Hunting High And Low, The Sun Always Shines On TV and the soundtrack to the Bond film The Living Daylights.
The band first split in the 1990s, instead concentrating on solo projects, before their performance at the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize concert persuaded them to reunite in 2000.
The band said in a statement on their official website:
On 22 July, we, like everyone else in Norway and the rest of the world, were shaken to the soul by these actions of cruelty and violent provocation against everything we stand for. We are also very proud to belong to a small country where people, politicians and the royal family worked together and showed solidarity in the face of such tragedy, and we are grateful to be asked to participate in the memorial ceremony.
We do this to honor those who have been torn away, to show appreciation to everyone who made an effort to help on July 22, and to express our sympathy to the survivors who now are left in sorrow.
Following the attacks, many of our fans posted messages of concern and support on our Facebook page, and we are touched as always that members of the worldwide fan community feel such a strong tie with Norway.