ABBA star Bjorn's shock admission: 'I'm battling long-term memory loss'

From Daily Mail

As a new generation of fans discovers ABBA thanks to the hit film Mamma Mia!, one of the foursome has revealed he is suffering from memory loss.

Bjorn Ulvaeus cannot even remember winning the Eurovision song contest in 1974 with one of their best-known songs, Waterloo. It was the victory at the contest in Brighton that propelled the Swedish group to international stardom.

Battle: ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus, pictured here with Anni-Frid Lyngstad at the London premiere of Mamma Mia! in London has revealed he's seeking medical help for memory loss.

 'It is like I was not even there,' said the 58-year-old father of four. Ulvaeus composed the music for the Mamma Mia! stage musical with fellow Abba star Benny Andersson and makes a brief uncredited appearance in the film, which stars Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth.

The movie has sparked an Abba revival but Ulvaeus says he simply cannot remember chunks of his life.

He has even turned to hypnosis in an attempt to find a cure.

Memorable moment: Bjorn says he can no longer recall Abba's performance at the 1974's Eurovision Song Contest

The songwriter, who divorced the band's blonde songstress Agnetha Faltskog in 1980 and is now married to Swedish music journalist Lena Kallersjo, has studied old photographs and video to try to remember his life.

Abba enjoyed a string of hits including Money, Money, Money, and Dancing Queen before splitting in the mid 1980s. They sold more than 400million records worldwide.

Mamma Mia! The Movie, has already taken more than £7.6million in the UK, more than any other musical in its opening week.

 

 

Comments

[mikespeir]

I think he's since denied it's so bad as was reported.

But here it lists him as 58. That wasn't even true at the time this item came out.

[Mark Pearce]

Funny how this article is stuffed with irrelevance. And incorrect "facts", as Mikespeir points out. Poor Bjorn.

[Ian]

How strange that this this already discredited story has resurfaced in the Daily Mail a year later.

Last September Björn said about this story:

'Oh it is wildly exaggerated. I said in a Swedish radio interview that I cannot like some people relive certain moments from the past like it just happened, but my memory is working fine. If I close my eyes it's difficult for me to remember to be on stage in 1974, but that is mostly because I was choked by stress at the time!

Don't worry I don't suffer from dementia just yet!