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YouTube clip leads to arrest of Swedish teen

A 16-year-old boy from Köping in central Sweden was detained on Wednesday for violating Sweden’s weapons laws and endangering others after police were tipped off that the teen had uploaded a suspicious video clip on YouTube.

Published: 25 September 2008 07:33 CEST

Following the tip, police carried out several home searches, leading to the arrest.

“It’s actually three people who have been questioned during the afternoon. Two of them, a 37-year-old and a 42-year-old, have been released. A 16-year-old has been detained,” said Håkan Nöjd of the Västmanland police to the TT news agency.

Police searched homes at three addresses in Köping on Wednesday and confiscated several weapons. Nöjd could not comment on exactly how many weapons or of what type, but confirmed that the weapons required licences.

“I haven’t seen the video clip, but the police have launched an investigation into illegal weapons possession,” he said.

Inspector Per Strömbäck of the Västmanland police told the Vestmanlands Läns Tidning newspaper the two of the men, including the 16-year-old, can be seen in the YouTube clip.

“In the film the 16-year-old makes statements which led to him being arrested. I haven’t seen the clip myself and can’t say whether he poses with a weapon,” he told the newspaper.

Strömbäck is also uncertain if there is a connection to the recent school shooting in Kauhajoki, Finland in which 22-year-old Matti Saari shot ten people and then took his own life.

'Take On Me' tops a billion YouTube views: What makes 80s Norwegian hit so enduring?

A-Ha performing in 2015. Photo: AFP

The song combines synthpop with acoustic guitars, keyboards and drums and is indisputably the band’s signature tune and one of the most evocative pop songs of the decade.

That is complemented by a memorable music video which combined live action sequences with black-and-white pencil sketch animated overlays, in what was then an innovative technique called rotoscoping. It won six awards at the 1986 MTV Music Video Awards.

Perhaps the combination of both music and visuals has driven Take On Me into the realms of YouTube royalty. The official video, originally released in 1985, was recently restored and upgraded to 4K resolution to improve visual quality, Warner Music Norway wrote in a press statement.

In any case, A-ha now join a small list of artists with music videos that have tipped the 10-figure mark for total views on the social media website.

While South Korean rapper Psy’s 2012 hit Gangnam Style and Despacito by Luis Fonsi (2017) have famously garnered monstrous numbers of YouTube views, it’s arguably harder for songs which pre-date widespread use of the Internet to rack up those kind of figures.

Take On Me joins two Guns N’ Roses songs (November Rain, Sweet Child o’ Mine), Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit in an elite club of just five songs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s with over a billion views.

Numb by Linkin Park was the first pre-YouTube video from the 2000s to reach a billion views.

“Obviously the video is unique and it has some features that stand up and stand the test of time,” he shared. “It’s hand drawn which makes it what it is,” A-ha guitarist Magne Furuholmen told Billboard last year.

“The song also seems to resonate with people across time. It’s just very fortunate to have such a big song in our catalogue,” Furuholmen said.

“We probably spent a few years talking it down, trying to get people to focus on new stuff we’re doing. At this point, certainly speaking for myself, I’m just surprised and proud that the song has done so well and still finds an audience,” he added.

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