How to Hire MICHAEL LEARNS TO ROCK For Your Event!
BOOKING FEE (booking price, booking cost).
Members:
Jascha Richter, Mikkel Lentz, Kåre Wanscher
Based in: Denmark
Hire: Michael Learns to Rock / Hire MLTR
Michael Learns to Rock (also known as MLTR) is a Danish soft rock and pop rock band formed in 1988.
The band has sold more than 11 million records over the course of their career, with the majority sold in Scandinavia and Asia. Despite being Danish, the band performs songs in English. The band has attributed its success in Asia to their drug-free, clean-living image and to singing in English as a second language.
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” with 6 million or more paid downloads.
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In total, MLTR have played in at least 21 countries and territories, which include Denmark, Nepal, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, South Africa, Switzerland, Bangladesh, UAE, Faroe Islands, Vietnam, Cambodia, Norway, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, and Sweden. They have also traveled to Hollywood to record part of their debut album, to Spain, Finland, and Germany to attend interviews, and to the UK to shoot a video. In Asia, MLTR are one of the few artists to have played more than once in a country and to have still sustained an audience turnout comparable to that of their earlier appearances.
Michael Learns to Rock infuses soft rock with ballads and follows a basic verse-chorus song-form (which is typical of most pop songs) with lyrics comprising straight forward and short-length phrasing incorporating very basic sentence constructions. The verses consist of either one or two couplets, and the chorus often contrasts the verse melodically, rhythmically, and harmonically, assuming a higher level of dynamics and activity.
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Michael Learns to Rock have cited their influences as Supertramp, Elton John, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Eagles, Billy Joel, ABBA, Bee Gees, and “all the bands that write good lyrics” (as member Mikkel Lentz puts it tongue-in-cheek).
Member, Jascha Richter, has cited Talk Talk, a-ha and Eurythmics as his influences. A-ha‘s international success, in spite of originating from the small Scandinavian country of Norway, instilled the self-belief in the MLTR members that even they, hailing from a similarly small Scandinavian country (Denmark), could carve out a career for themselves in international music.
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With global record sales of more than 11 million units since the debut in 1991, the history of Michael Learns to Rock contains not only the story of one of the biggest international successes ever to come out of Denmark, it’s also the tale of how exceptions often confirm the rule.
As opposed to so many other international names, the road to MLTR’s success has never been paved with scandals, divorces, drugs, or even extreme images of life on the edge – it’s strictly about music. It’s about the formidable talent for writing fine pop songs, about the indisputable qualities contained in the songs, and above all, about the ability to cut through all the noise with material that has earned the group a faithful following and dazzling record sales.
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MLTR’s music has been described as a Scandinavian glow that meets the international pop song, something that has been refined through the years by artists such as The Beatles, The Eagles, Elton John and Billy Joel. It’s precisely the perfect balance of the two elements described above that has been instrumental in forming the compelling sound of the band and has won Michael Learns to Rock millions of fans around the globe.
The whole saga begins quite modestly back in 1987, at a high school in Aarhus, Denmark. The singer and keyboard player, Jascha Richter (b. 1963), forms a band with drummer Kare Wanscher (b. 1969) and guitarist Mikkel Lentz (b. 1968) – a little cafe band. All three are huge music fans who were virtually fed the history of pop and rock with their mother’s milk. They decide to create a more serious band after Jascha plays them a few songs he has written.
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In the spring of ’88, Soren Madsen (b. 1967), who is otherwise a guitarist, agrees to sit in on bass during a rehearsal one evening. Michael Learns To Rock becomes a reality. The group debuts in Aarhus in May 1988, and later in the summer enters the city’s annual talent contest. MLTR scores a resounding victory.
The following two years brought an intensive period of concert touring. The group plays everywhere in Denmark, adds new and better songs to the repertoire, gets tighter and tighter as a band, fine tunes the precise harmonies that give the band its signature sound – and along the way, lands a solid record contract. With the Danish producers Jens Hofman and Oli Poulsen working the dials, MLTR spends several months in the studio preparing for the September 1991 debut of the album “Michael Learns to Rock.”
Among other tracks, the set contains the hit ballad “The Actor,” a song that in January 1992 secured MLTR the pole position on the Danish album-sales chart. The song travels much faster than the band, and without MLTR even being there, it tops the charts in Norway, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The period marks hectic times for MLTR. In 1992 they frantically tour Denmark – where they are the hottest thing going – and a number of countries in the Far East where their presence is a follow-up force to the smashing successes the debut album has already achieved. Along the way, Jascha Richter writes songs for a second album that gets a rush release in October 1993 under the title, “Colours.”
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Once again, it is the knack for creating the classic ballad that generates success. “Sleeping Child” is the title of the song that sparks MLTR-mania. In the course of the next 18 months, the frenzy launches the band on a journey to many parts of the world and generates album sales far beyond the one-million mark. “Colours” is released in most of Europe and throughout the Far East, while “Sleeping Child” and the singles that follow, “25 Minutes” and “Out of The Blue”, land MLTR top slots on countless hit lists and earns the lads innumerable gold and platinum records. Fans in Thailand go berserk when the band arrives in Bangkok in November to perform for 12,000 followers at the Phoebus Concert Hall. And, as the jubilant finale to a golden year, Michael Learns to Rock is given the prestigious RSH Award in Germany, and at the SEA Grammy Awards in Singapore, the band is named “The Best Performing Act of the Year.”
The year 1995 sees the release of MLTR’s third album, “Played on Pepper.”
The number of international territories MLTR has conquered grows, putting the band on top-priority lists in faraway places such as Brazil, South Africa, the United Emirates Republic, and no fewer than 11 countries in the Far East. It goes without saying that Scandinavia is on the bandwagon along with other European countries, including Germany, Italy, France, and Switzerland, where the album is released. In October of the same year, MLTR embarks on their biggest tour of the Far East – with 25 shows in 10 countries – where new hits, like “That’s Why (You Go Away)” and “Someday”, become pearls on the string of hits that make up the set list.
“Played on Pepper” sells more than 1.2 million units, while in efforts to curb pirate copying of MLTR material, the band releases the best-of album, “Paint My Love.” The album is released exclusively in the Far East. The title track – and the accompanying video, which touches the edges of censorship laws in some territories reinforce MLTR’s enormous popularity and indisputably make the band the biggest name in countries such as Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia.
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Down by the opposite pole, MLTR’s popularity explodes in South Africa. Following a hectic four-day promo tour in July 1997, the band lands at the top of the country’s hit lists. “Paint My Love” sells a whopping 3.4 million units worldwide. MLTR is chosen as headliner for the Celebrate Hong Kong Concert on 6 July 1997, the climax to festivities marking the transfer of Hong Kong to China.
While promoting “Paint My Love” on the international highways, Michael Learns to Rock squeezes in some time to record a fourth studio album, “Nothing to Lose.” The set is released in September 1997, while MLTR still has a firm foothold atop hit lists in the Far East as well as South Africa. The rocker, “Something You Should Know,” helps pave the way for yet another success by the band. “Nothing to Lose” logs sales of more than one million units, and when the band heads off in January 1998 for a tour of South Africa to play sell-outs in Johannesburg and Pretoria, the critics write: “This is as good (if not better) a band as any current big-name group out of America or the UK.”
Nine turbulent years take their toll on the four musicians, who decide to take a break from each other and from the world of pop music. But shortly thereafter, in the autumn of 1998, Jascha Richter has some new songs written. The single, “Strange Foreign Beauty,” is chosen as the trump card for a new retrospective album released under the fitting title, “Greatest Hits.” The set contains a selection of top hits from the four previous albums, but the tracks have either been remixed, re-recorded, or fine-tuned in some way or another. Upon the album’s 1999 release, MLTR once again lands at the summit of the Danish hit list and opens the ears of music fans in new, untapped areas such as Portugal. Another million seller is added to the band’s discography, and the success was achieved without any promotional work done in MLTR’s main markets in the Far East.
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When Michael Learns to Rock begins initial work for studio album number five in the spring of 2000, Soren Madsen decides to leave the group to try his hand at a solo career. Richter, Lentz, and Wanscher opt to continue as a trio, and that summer they head for the studio. As it has been for previous albums, the band decides once again not to hire a costly international star producer, but allies itself with the incredibly talented Danish musician, arranger, and producer Boe Larsen. Uniting with the band, he and MLTR find a new musical direction and set some new challenges for themselves. The outcome is “Blue Night“– MLTR in the year 2000. A dozen new, sharply profiled, quality pop songs. The new tracks are a fine extension of what is already an impressive repertoire that may be postmarked in Denmark, but surely demonstrate how the most remote corner of the world is no more than a good song away.
“Blue Night” becomes another huge success for MLTR – sales come close to the platinum level at home and score successfully on Asian hit lists as well as the group’s newfound market in Sweden. In 2001, the band sets out on a five-week-long tour with stops in Dubai, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and China. Just before the tour kicks off, the compilation, “19 Love Songs” – including the not previously released track “Ghost of You,” – is released in Southeast Asia. (Danish release, 2002). Before setting off on the tour, the boys agree they will take a long break upon completion of the tour. The break allows Richter, Lentz, and Wanscher a chance to pursue individual projects, one of which leads to Richter’s solo album, “Planet Blue.”
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