ABBA Says ‘No’ to Reunion – at Any Price
LONDON (Reuters) – Nothing — not even $2 billion — could tempt ABBA back together again. After 30 years, the Swedish supergroup might even have trouble remembering the words of its pop classics.
The sight of the group’s outrageous stage outfits is enough to make its 58-year-old songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus cringe nowadays.
Thirty years to the day after ABBA won the Eurovision song contest with “Waterloo,” the bearded Ulvaeus is fiercely proud of its music — but the group will never strut its stuff again.
Four years ago, ABBA was offered $1 billion to reunite. The answer was ‘No.’ But what if that figure doubled?
“No, not even if you did that,” Ulvaeus told Reuters.
“It is never going to happen again. I think it is a bit too long now. We split up in 1981. People haven’t seen us as a group since then and it would come as such a disappointment to them.”
As for the spangly jumpsuits, Ulvaeus said: “I haven’t squeezed into them for years. I still had a couple of them in the wardrobe and would get into them on a Saturday evening — but not any more. They are in a museum now.”
Tuesday marked another ABBA milestone — the musical “Mamma Mia,” which is based on their hit songs, celebrated five years playing to packed houses in London.
ABBA songs may be staple fare in karaoke bars around the world but songwriter Ulvaeus would need prompting.
“I cannot remember a whole lyric of any that I have written,” he confessed.
“I am translating them into Swedish now for the first time because we are doing a production in Sweden at the beginning of next year. I find that I don’t know them by heart — not one of them.”
ABBA once ranked alongside Volvo as Sweden’s most famous export. The “Mamma Mia” show could prove even more profitable than the 350 million ABBA albums sold around the world.
“It’s possible,” Ulvaeus said.” “‘Mamma Mia’ is going to run for a longer time than ABBA did. So who knows? We will see.”
With 11 productions running and six more in the pipeline, it has grossed over $750 million worldwide and has been seen by more than 10 million people.
The musical weaves in ABBA music to tell the story of a single mother living on a Greek island with her daughter, who is getting married.
Reading her mother’s diary, she finds any one of her mother’s three lovers could be her father. All get invited to the wedding.
Ulvaeus reckoned the timing was perfect.
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“I think the world perhaps was ready for something happy, a comedy. The big musicals in the ’80s and the beginning of the ’90s were rather somber – like “Phantom of the Opera” and “Les Miserables” — wonderful musicals but of a different kind.”
Ulvaeus still shakes his head in wonderment.
“I am fiercely proud, amazed and astonished. I thought this would be a little show running for perhaps a year in a small theater in London.”
The two couples who made up the group’s acronym — Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid — have long since divorced but all is sweetness and light between them now.
“We do indeed stay in touch,” he said. “I met Agnetha last week. We have a grandchild who is 3. We meet much more often these days than we did perhaps 10 years ago.”
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