ABBA

ABBA (1972?1983) was a Swedish pop music group. They remain the most successful Swedish music act and were one of the most popular groups in the world. Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no reliable source for this information) which could make them the second most successful band of all time after The Beatles.

After ABBA

Björn and Benny wrote the music for the West End show Chess (1984) with lyricist Tim Rice. Chess ran for three years in London. The show also opened on Broadway in the US (1988) but the song order, lyrics and storyline had been tampered with and the show closed within weeks.

Related Topics:
West End - Chess - 1984 - Tim Rice - Broadway - 1988

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Björn and Benny, inspired by the successes of Rice and his former collaborator Andrew Lloyd-Webber, had long expressed their desire to write a musical. Their first attempt had been a "mini-musical", The Girl with The Golden Hair, performed by the group during their 1977 tour of Europe and Australia. Excerpts were included in ABBA - The Movie and ABBA - The Album. Björn and Benny followed Chess with Kristina från Duvemåla (1995), directed for the stage by Lars Rudolfsson and based on the Emigrants tetralogy by Swedish novelist Vilhelm Moberg. Mamma Mia!, a musical built around ABBA's songs, had its London premier in 1999. In 2003 their first musical was given new life in a Swedish-language version, Chess På Svenska.

Related Topics:
Andrew Lloyd-Webber - Kristina från Duvemåla - 1995 - Lars Rudolfsson - Tetralogy - Vilhelm Moberg - Mamma Mia! - 1999 - 2003

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Agnetha and Frida each had some moderate solo success after ABBA split. In 1982, Frida released her successful Phil Collins-produced album Something's Going On (with hit single "I Know There's Something Going On"), and Agnetha followed in 1983 with Wrap Your Arms Around Me. Both had further releases during the 1980s but eventually retired.

Related Topics:
1982 - Phil Collins - Something's Going On - 1983

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After I Stand Alone in 1987 Agnetha withdrew from public life and refused to give interviews. In April 2004 she emerged to release a disc of cover songs called "My Colouring Book" which had a mediocre reception but debuted at number one in Sweden and number six in Germany. The album went gold in Finland and sold enough in Great Britain to get a silver disc award.

Related Topics:
1987 - 2004

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Frida released Shine (produced by Steve Lillywhite) in 1984 but it was not until 1996 that she released her last album to date, the Swedish-language Djupa Andetag which had great success in Sweden but went unknown internationally. In September 2004 Frida recorded "The Sun Will Shine Again" with former Deep Purple member Jon Lord for his latest album, making some rare appearances on German television.

Related Topics:
Steve Lillywhite - 1984 - 1996 - 2004 - Jon Lord

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After being largely forgotten throughout most of the 1980s ABBA experienced a resurgence. The attention was often ironic, along the lines of "they were so they were good," yet others recognised that while ABBA was often panned by critics and sneered at by punk and New Wave musicians they were masters of their art, the three minute pop song. Björn and Benny were finally recognised in 2001 with an Ivor Novello Award for their songwriting. Many former punk and New Wave artistes later admitted to levels of fondness and respect for ABBA they were unwilling to own up to in their early years.

Related Topics:
Punk - New Wave - 2001 - Ivor Novello Award

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During the 1990s many ABBA tracks were rediscovered and covered by other artists, such as Erasure, Ash and the A-Teens, among others. The avant-garde band Blancmange had also covered The Day Before You Came in the mid-1980s, one of the first bands to cover an ABBA track.

Related Topics:
1990s - Erasure - Ash - A-Teens - Blancmange

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On April 6th 2004 three former ABBA members (Björn, Benny and Frida) showed up together in London for the 30th anniversary of their Eurovison Song Contest win in 1974, appearing on stage after the fifth anniversary performance of Mamma Mia!. In a November 2004 interview with the German magazine Bunte Björn said a reunion would not satisfy ABBA's many fans, even though there are legions of them around the world often clamouring for one. In February 2005 all four members of ABBA appeared together in public for the first time since 1986 at the gala opening of Mamma Mia! in Stockholm.

Related Topics:
April 6 - 2004 - Bunte - February 2005

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