North Korean Accordionists Perform 'Take On Me' Cover
Five young North Korean accordionists are gaining attention for their rendition of still popular 80s Norwegian pop song 'Take On Me' by the group A-HA at a recent festival in Norway.
The performers were in Kirkenes, Norway for the Barents Spektakel festival for a cultural exchange set up by Norwegian artist Morten Traavik, according to BarentsObserver.com.
Traavik told Norway's TV2 in December he believes that the West has a one dimensional view of closed-off North Korea. He opposes boycotting and isolating the country but denies he's portraying a glossy picture of the country's regime. Traavik told the BBC that he met the accordionists in a visit to North Korea.
"When I was in North Korea, I lent them a CD of Take on Me on a Monday morning. By the following Wednesday morning they had mastered the song, with no annotation and no outside help. It showed incredible skill," he said.
Traavik posted a video to Youtube with their performance in a spacious well lit roomon February 1, which has garnered more than 1 million views since then.
The players are from the Kum Song School. The performance was filmed and directed by Traavik in Pyongyang in December 2011, according to a note linked to the video on Traavik's Youtube Channel.
A separate, longer rendition posted by BarentsObserver.com shows the quintent in front of a larger audience in a video posted on February 8.
Short Version:
Longer Version:
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