Someday in March 2018 it would be exactly 30 years ago, since Michael Learns To Rock met in a worn out and abandoned freezer room by then used as rehearsal room and formed a band. Shortly after they played their first-ever gig in Aarhus in Denmark, the hometown of the band.
Since then, lots of classic songs have been rotated on radio stations and streaming platorms around the world. Hundreds of concerts have been played and millions of albums have been sold all over the globe. Noteworthy and worth celebrating: Michael Learns To Rock still continues to write and record these characteristic and melodic songs, that keep them on the road and on air some 30 years since the beginning.
With a global record sale of 11 million physical albums since the debut album in 1991, more than a billion paid downloads, estimated 200 million video views on YouTube and more than 300 million streams on Spotify, the Michael Learns To Rock story is not only one of the most successful to ever come out of Denmark, but also a story of an exception: their way to success has never been about scandals, divorce, drugs or any extreme way of living. It has always been about the music! The secret about Michael Learns To Rock is simply their incredible gift to write, record and play great pop songs and get them through to people all over the world.
Michael Learns To Rock was formed in the spring of 1988 by singer and keyboard player JASCHA RICHTER (born 1963), drummer KÅRE WANSCHER (born 1969), guitarist MIKKEL LENTZ (born 1968) and bassist SØREN MADSEN (born 1967). In that summer the band won a local talent competition and started out on a nearly-two-years-long tour around Denmark. Playing wherever possible, winning an ever-growing audience and having both talent and musical skills, the songs sharpened along the way. After months of hard work in the studio, the band released their self-titled debut album in September 1991. Among the fine songs on the album is the smash hit “The Actor” that got wall-to-wall airplay from Danish radio stations and helped the album reach the top of the Danish sales chart in January 1992. Later that year “The Actor” wemt #1 on the charts in Norway, Sweden, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The next year, the band toured intensively in Denmark and visited new friends in Asia. Along the way, Jascha Richter wrote songs for their second album “Colours”, released in October 1993. Great ballads like “Sleeping Child” and “25 Minutes” are the main singles that secured combined albums sales passing the 1 million mark.
Michael Learns To Rock toured Europe and Asia in the next couple of years and in 1995, their third album “Played On Pepper”, is released all over Scandinavia and in Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, France, Italy, Brazil, South Africa, Japan, the United Arab Emirates and 11 countries in Southeast Asia. October of that same year saw the band on a huge Asian tour, with 25 concerts in 10 countries. “That´s Why (You Go Away)” and “Someday” were new hits and “Played On Pepper” ended up selling more than 1,2 million albums. In 1996, “Paint My Love” was released. It was a greatest hits album exclusive for South East Asia. The album ended up selling more than 3,4 million copies – and made the band one of the biggest international acts ever in countries like South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, The Philippines and Malaysia. The up-tempo hit “Something You Should Know” led the way for the fourth studio album “Nothing To Lose” which was released in 1997. The album turned the band into superstars in South Africa. When Michael Learns To Rock played in Johannesburg and Pretoria in January 1998, the critics wrote: “This is as good (if not better!) a band as any current big name group out of America or the UK.”
In 1999 Søren Madsen left MLTR. Kåre, Jascha and Mikkel decided to continue as a trio, releasing their fifth studio album “Blue Night” in 2000.
In 2004, the sixth studio album was released. Originally titled “Michael Learns To Rock” and later released in Asia as “Take Me To Your Heart”. The latter title was taken from the album’s lead single, a re-make of popular Chinese singer Jacky Cheung´s “Goodbye Kiss”. 2005 saw the band back in Asia, playing concerts in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and China (a gig in the pit during the Formula 1 race in Shanghai). Michael Learns To Rock also returned to India for the first time since 1996, with shows in Bangalore, Mumbai and Shillong. “Take Me To Your Heart” became another huge hit – and by the end of 2006 it was rewarded with the prize in China of “Most-downloaded song of 2006” The physical sales of the album exceeded 275.000 in China alone making it the best selling international album ever in China. As of today “Take Me To Your Heart” has achieved more than 1.3 billion streams worldwide.
In 2007 MLTR released “The Live Adventures of Michael Learns to Rock” – a tour de force of hit singles played and recorded at the unforgettable live-concert in Shillong, India. The seventh studio album “Eternity” was out in 2008, the first album with Mikkel Lentz being the sole producer. The album included the Thailand #1 single “Sweetest Surprise” and the more surprising Asian hit “It´s Gonna Make Sense”, getting very popular when used in Philippine reality show “Pinoy Big Brother”. To mark their northern roots, studio album number eight is titled “Scandinavia”. Released in 2012 it comes with new potential classics as “Renovate My Life” and “Any Way You Want It” (with the video shot in Kathmandu, Nepal).
As a celebration of the band’s 25 anniversary in the music business a tribute to the fans was released in 2014 in form of a multiset album for Asia entitled “25” including the two new single hits “Silent Times” and “Call on Love”. Further as a part of the 25-campaign new remastered versions of the first 5 studio albums (“Michael Learns To Rock”, “Colours”, “Played on Pepper”, “Nothing to Lose” and “Blue Night”) was released all including several outtakes or demos of some of their classic hit songs making the remastered albums true collector’s items. The EP “With Love” followed in 2016 making the song “I’ll Wait For You” a hit single in several Asian territories.
Over the last 10 years Michael Learns to Rock have played numerous concerts in Indonesia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, China, India, Dubai, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore. And more than 20 years into their career, new markets are still opening for the band, with first time concerts in Nepal (2011), Mongolia (2012), Bangladesh (2012), Myanmar (2013) and Papua New Guinea (2015).
The total number of concerts have far exceeded 800 – and there is no sign of them stopping…
In March 2018 MLTR’s 9th studio album was released including the singles “Everything You Need”, “Hold On A Minute and the big classic MLTR ballad “Hiding Away From Life”.
The latest release from MLTR is the single Children Of Tomorrow (Utopia) released in November 2021.
