Mikory's ABBA-blog

ABBA - The Museum opens in Stockholm 2008

Finally! An ABBA-museum will open in Stockholm!

The legendary pop group ABBA is getting its own museum in Stockholm. The pair behind this initiative are entrepreneurs Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and Ulf Westman. "It's great that someone feels like taking on our musical history and making it accessible" Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Reuss said in a joint statement. "We have a lot of confidence in Ewa and Ulf and we hope and believe that it will be a fun and groovy museum to visit."

ABBA the Museum will be a modern museum filled with ABBA's music, original clothes, history, images, instruments and much more that captures the group's heyday in the 70's and 80's. It will also be an interactive experience where visitors can participate with all their senses.

"This will be quite a tourist attraction - a real international magnet. We're counting on 500.000 visitors annually after opening in 2008", says Westman.

Ewa and Ulf got the idea for ABBA the Museum when they visited the Beatles Museum in Liverpool a few years ago. Ewa initially brought up the idea with Benny Andersson, with whom she had worked previously. But it took time for her to convince the whole group. ABBA has approved the project and will make material available for the museum, but is otherwise not involved.

"ABBA is one our largest contemporary cultural treasures" says Wigenheim-Westman. "With 370 million records sold, only Elvis and the Beatles have had larger sales in musical history. Today, 25 years after ABBA retired, the group still sells a couple of million albums a year. This makes Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid living legends and speaks volumes about how many fans they still have around the world."

The first step will be to find a suitable location in central Stockholm of about 3000-4000 square metres. At this early stage, Ewa and Ulf are also seeking sponsors for this once-in-a-lifetime project.

"ABBA is one of the strongest brands in the music world and I am convinced that there are many companies that would like to participate in this investment", says Westman. "We have already have the full support of the City of Stockholm and the Stockholm Visitors Board has a very positive view of the effects an attraction like this will have for the city's tourism."

Read more at the museum's homepage here.

More champagne! Agnetha out partying.

Good to see Agnetha out partying again! Good for her. Expressen reports the following:

ABBA-Agnetha's happy champagneparty last night.

Agnetha Fältskog was partying early this morning at princess Madeleine's favourite hangout The Plaza Club.
     - I have never seen Agnetha so happy and content, an eyewitness reports.

Agnetha Fältskog very seldom appears in the Stockholm night life. But this morning the ABBA-star made an exception. Just before 1.00 am Agnetha Fältskog and her group of friends arrived at The Plaza Club located on Birger Jarlsgatan in Stockholm. It's not the first time Agnetha has been there. This is the same place were she has been seen before with the king's friend Bertil Nordström.

THE WHOLE VIP-SECTION
This morning she had reserved the whole VIP-section of the popular club, the same place were princess Madeleine frequently goes to party.
     There was champagne, vodka and Agnetha Fältskog laughed when other curious guests approached her.
     - She really had a good time, a person present reports. She was really outgoing. That's not something you are used to seeing.

EVERYONE WERE PROUD
Robert Hållstrand, the owner of The Plaza Club and a close friend of the royal children, took care of Agnetha personally this evening.
     - He and the others at the club are very proud that she chooses to come back to their night club, a source says.

1978 ABBA attacks the French market harder

This article is from Vecko-Revyn, issue 45, 8 November 1978.

One TV-show every day!

No super group is that big that it hasn't to be extra promoted sometimes. ABBA are no exception. The first attack was against America this spring, the second against the Soviet Union - and last week it was France's turn.
     Even though Europe is more or less a safe market now for ABBA, France was honoured by a personal visit. Agnetha, Anni-Frid, Björn and Benny flew to Paris on the Wednesday the other week to record TV-performances during two days. The working schedule was comprised and it was just pure luck that the whole project didn't go to waste. As soon as ABBA had finished miming a strike broke out at French TV. The French strikes takes no consideration.
     ABBA are already big in France - really big. The French record market is by tradition tough and patriotic. Admittedly John Travolta and George Rafferty are topping the French hit list, but the bigger reason for ABBA to get the French TV-audience to notice them.

We are talking about really strong promotion. Every night for a week (!) ABBA will enter the French homes via TV on primetime. They get five minutes on the "Guy Lux Show" at 7.30pm just before the news, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. One song each night, among them "Waterloo", "Fernando" (click here to watch the clip!), "Take A Chance On Me" and of course their latest hit, "Summer Night City". The whole works.
     But that's not enough. The five minute shows are culminating with a supershow called "Top Club" on the Sunday. It is one of the most popular TV-shows in France and ABBA get to perform no less than four songs!
     Six shows in two days. That explains the different costumes in the pictures. Shiny and glittery... don't they look a little Parisienne?

What else then? Well, before ABBA left Paris they were invited to dinner by the French singer Mireille Mathieu (France's equivalent to Lasse Lönndahl) and her manager, at the restaurant "Grand Vefour".
     - The best meal we have ever had, according to Björn.
     And after dinner Björn and Benny decided to act as strikebreakers in the Paris night. The garbage collector of Paris happened to be on strike and lately the streets are filled with garbage. Something that happens almost every fall.
     But Paris is a fantastic city, ABBA says. The love the atmosphere.

After they came back to Sweden again they have locked themselves into the recording studio into to the early hours of morning. More than half of the new album is recorded, but there will not be a new album released before Christmas. TV-shows and travelling prevents that.
     In the middle of November it's time for Los Angeles again with an appearnce on the "Dick Clark Show". The USA-promotion tour this spring paid off. For the first time ABBA has received a diamond record for both "The Album" and "Greatest Hits".
     Straight from Los Angeles they will go to Tokyo for an intense week of promotion with radio, newspapers and a one hour TV-special. In Japan, the second largest music market, ABBA have no less than three albums on the Top 50-chart.
     Finally we can report that "Summer Night City" probably won't be released as a single in the US. Stikkan Anderson is there right now negotiating which song it will be. In the European market it hasn't been as successfull as earlier singles. In England, for example, it only reached number 6 and in Sweden it only sold 50.000 copies, which is far less than "The Name Of The Game" (150.000 copies).
     It's because of the disco- and Travolta fever right now, Polar Music believes.

The divorce gave me a push - now I finally dare to live life to the fullest

This article comes from Svensk Damtidning, issue 40, 1984.

On the TV-show Glädjehuset we got to see a new Frida - happier, cooler, more striking.

The divorce from Benny gave me push - now I finally dare to live my life to the fullest.

      The years in London has been very good to Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 39. She radiates an inner security and is happier than she has been for years. The divorce from Benny Andersson has healed and she has established a distance to that difficult time, which meant she for the first time in her life was totally on her own.
     - When I moved to London I wanted to liberate myself from the routinley life I had been living, Frida said to Expressen's reporter Måns Invarsson. And as "a bonus" I got a push from the divorce from Benny. Natuarlly I was depressed, how do you think one feels going through a divorce from a man you love. I knew that if I stayed in Sweden I would slowly suffocate to death, because I felt that there was nothing more holding me back here.

LOVE IS IMPORTANT
Something Frida has been very protective of since the divorce is her private life. The same year that the break-up between her and Benny was a fact she told an English paper that she had met a new lifepartner. Here in Sweden the speculations started immediately and the businessman Bertil "Bobbo" Hjert  was pointed out as Frida's new man. Frida herself were and still are very secretive about who is the love of her life. But she doesn't mind talking about love, how important love is to her, but that it has hurt her many times.
     - Love is the most important thing in my life, I'm happy with the love I have, Frida said in an interview with a Danish reporter Kirsten Jacobsen who writes for Ekstra-Bladet. My music is all about feelings. In a way they can also be a work for mourning. For example, it took me a long time to get over a relationship I had.
    - Lucky love, doesn't exist, according to me. Love is just a struggle and happiness is something you can only get to feel for fraction of a second.
So what does she think it's the most important in a man?
     - He has to have warmth in his eyes and an open mind. His looks are not important, the main thing is that we can talk and discuss,
     - I know I can have almost any man I want, that's why I'm so careful. I'm terribly afraid a man might only be interested in my money.
     Since Frida sold her shares in ABBA's company she is now a very wealthy lady. She manages her finances herself and enjoys being financially independent.

     - The money makes me independant, I can live without checking every price tag, but I wouldn't agree that money makes you happy. Money can also bring a lot of troubles.

     But they can also mean freedom for Frida to buy clothes from the most exclusive fashion houses, expensive jewelery and trips all around the world. A fur coat for only SEK 150.000 Frida considers "a bargain" when "you think of how much one of these really cost."

     Yes, Frida has the means to enjoy her life and she does. In London and in Paris, where she also lives every now and then, she can lead an independent, wonderful life.

     - Since I don't have any small children I'm able to sleep in in the mornings, she has said. Then I write alot, watch TV and listen to the radio.

And of course she travels alot. Having her daughter Lotta, 17, in the US and her son Hans, 22 in Sweden it adds up to several long trips every year, Not to mention all the other friends she has around the world.
     - I enjoy living now, I make the most of every minute for as long as I can, because you never know what tomorrow brings.

     On her new LP "Shine" [released on 9/11 1984...] we get the proof that she has found a new sense of
security. One song for example "Slowly" is written by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, something she would never had agreed to have on her first solo album just after ABBA split up, two years ago.
     Back then she said:
     - You might think that it's hard for me to work together with Benny because of our divorce, but that is not the case. But at the same time she wanted to prove to the rest of the world that she could make it on her own.
     - I'm happy I don't have a Björn and Benny song on this first album, I don't want reviewers writing that she couldn't make an interesting record without the help of her former band members' help.
     Today, it's a different matter, she can indulge herself with adding a Björn and Benny song to her new LP.
     - It took time to get used to working on your own, Frida admitted in an interview not long ago. But now I have found myself again and I feel strong.

I Would like to thank my dear friend Sarah Russel for the two pictures of Frida performing songs from Shine 7 September 1984.Sarah Russel has the fatanstic ABBA On TV-site.

It was just a rumour!

The last couple of days a rumour has been spread around the world about Frida and Agnetha recording new material  with Madonna.
     ABBA's spokeswoman Görel Hanser has now, once and for all, put that rumour to rest:
     In a pressrelease on 12 November 2006 Görel says: the ABBA stars were to reunite - together with Madonna. Now the rumours are denied by ABBA. On last Saturday (12 November 2006) the English newspaper The Sun reported that Madonna was about to start a collaberation with Agnetha Fältskog, 56 and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 60. But according to ABBA's spokeswoman Görel Hanser the story is made up.
     - I have just spoken to Frida, and the rumours are not true, she says.