MLTR has earned Gold and Platinum status for records in many countries and won many awards, including the Gold Preis Award from RSH, Germany and "The Best Performing Act of the Year" at the SEA Grammy Awards in Singapore. In addition, their song "Take Me To Your Heart" was awarded "most downloaded single of the year 2006" had 6 million or more paid downloads.[2] The band has recorded eight studio albums as well as a number of live and greatest hits albums.
During the peak of their popularity in the mid-1990s, MLTR was described by critics as being "as good (if not better) a band as any current big name group out of America or the UK."[3] According to the band's record label releases, their sound is "the perfect balance of a Scandinavian glow and the international pop song that has been instrumental in forming the compelling sound of the band",[4] although the lead singer and songwriter, Jascha Richter, disagrees with this, maintaining that the music defies geographical categorization.[1]
The beginnings — Michael Learns to Rock (1988–1992)
In 1988, singer and keyboardist Jascha Richter, with the intent of forming a band to perform his songs, asked his high school friend and drummer Kåre Wanscher in Aarhus, Denmark to perform with him. Realizing the limitations of playing as a duo, they recruited the guitarist Mikkel Lentz, who was then playing rock music with his group the Rocking Studs. On 15 March 1988, their first night of practice made them realized they needed a fourth musician, so they asked Søren Madsen, another guitarist who was into Led Zeppelin, to join in on bass guitar.[1] Although Madsen was not an obvious choice for a pop band, he was invited on the basis that he had been part of the band Hip Hop that had reached the finals of a Danish competition to nominate a song to the Eurovision Song Contest.Since Richter already had a number of original songs, eliminating the need to jam, they were able to quickly record a demo tape intending it to be sent to the 'Rock Grand Prix' competition in their hometown Aarhus, they had to hurriedly come up with a name before posting it; Richter wrote as the name of the sender 'Michael Learns to Rock', partly inspired by a line from his school English textbook and partly because they were a pop band taking part in a rock concert. In an interview, Richter admitted that it was named after Michael Jackson: "Yeah, it was like Johnny Hates Jazz and Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Sure, I've regretted calling ourselves this many times since, but we were successful so quickly, we had to stick with it and over time I got used to it."[1]
On 22 May 1988, the quartet played their first public show in Aarhus in 'Rock Grand Prix' at Aarhus's biggest venue, Ridehuset. As one of the two winning teams, MLTR performed that summer at the Aarhus Outdoor Festival on 20 June, however, only 20 people turned up. The disappointment was offset by a daily newspaper, Information, describing the unknown group as "an immensely positive surprise". On 30 July 1988, the group entered and won the city's famed annual talent shows 'We Have The Stage – Do You Have The Music?' at Aarhus Musikhus.[5]
Jens Peter (J.P.) Andersen, a member of the contest jury as well as a promoter of Danmarks Smukkeste Festival (literally, "Denmark’s Most Beautiful Festival") at Skanderborg, was impressed with the band's talent but was somewhat annoyed at their lack of professionalism, so he decided to become the band's manager, at the band's request.[5] Michael Learns to Rock continued playing live throughout Jutland and recording material in order to attract the attention of Danish record labels. One of these efforts included the band contributing four tracks for the double album Secrets, a record organised by the Danish Rock Council to create interest in four talented but 'secret' new bands. They finally signed a record deal with the Danish label Medley in January 1989.[6] However, the band did not release their first album, Michael Learns to Rock, until September 1991, backed by the American record label Impact Records and with much of the album including the first American single, "My Blue Angel", mixed and produced by the American producers Tony Peluso and Steve Barri.[7]
Although not making any headway at all in America despite airplay for "My Blue Angel", a later single (the second in Denmark after "I Still Carry On") from the album, "The Actor", topped the Danish chart and also did well in Norway, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.[5] In January 1992, the album topped the Danish charts, followed soon after by success in Asia, selling 25,000 copies and earning gold status in Indonesia alone.[6]
Michael learns to Rock will attend to shows in some place in the world.
Source : Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Learns_to_Rock
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