Photo: Tore Sætre / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
For me Magne Furuholmen will always be the quieter architect behind A-ha's biggest songs. People remember the soaring vocal on Take On Me, but he's the keyboardist and co-writer whose fingerprints are on that whole catalog, Stay on These Roads, Manhattan Skyline, Foot of the Mountain. What I find genuinely interesting is that he never settled for being a pop musician. He's also a serious visual artist, and Norway named him a Knight of the Order of St. Olav. That dual life, hit songwriter and gallery painter, suggests a restless creative mind that never wanted to be pinned to one identity.
Overview
Magne Furuholmen (born 1 November 1962) is a Norwegian musician and visual artist. Also known by his stage name Mags, he is the keyboardist of the synth-pop band A-ha and co-wrote hits such as "Take On Me", "Stay on These Roads", "Manhattan Skyline", "Cry Wolf", "Forever Not Yours", "Analogue (All I Want)", "Minor Earth Major Sky", "Touchy!", "You Are the One", "Move To Memphis" and "Foot of the Mountain".
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Magne Furuholmen
- Name (Japanese)
- マグネ・フルホルメン
- Reading
- まぐね・ふるほるめん
- Born
- November 1, 1962 (age 63)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Scorpio / Tiger
- Origin
- Oslo, Norway
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- record producer / composer / guitarist / pianist / songwriter
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- Knight First Class of the Order of St. Olav
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Record producer — see all → · Composer — see all → · More people from Norway →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.