Remember the song Dancing Queen?
Posted on 12/06/2007 12:36:48 AM PST by Gamecock
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - The world's first museum dedicated to the legendary Swedish disco group ABBA will open its doors in Stockholm in June 2009, the initiators of the project said on Wednesday
We're going to open the ABBA museum from June 3 to 7, it will be an inaugural week," Ulf Westman, the mastermind behind the plan with his wife Ewa Wigenheim-Westman, told reporters.
"It will be an international museum with a lot of technological and multimedia aspects," he said, explaining that visitors would be invited to take part in various forms of activities related to the group's heyday in the 1970s.
Visitors will, for example, be able to take the microphone and record their own version of "Waterloo" or "Dancing Queen" in a model of the Polar Studio in Stockholm where the quartet recorded their hits.
They will also be able to show off their moves in a disco room, according to the first drawings of the building presented on Wednesday.
In the wardrobe room, the group's bodyhugging pantsuits, sequined bellbottoms and platform boots that so defined ABBA's image will be on display.
The years 1976 to 1978 will "naturally be given a large space since it's during this period they took the world by storm," Wigenheim-Westman said.
"ABBA the Museum", first announced a year ago, will be located on the island of Soedermalm, in a waterfront building that was once an old customs hall, a short walk from the city centre.
The exhibition will fill three floors and more than 4,000 square metres (43,000 square feet) of material related to the super group. It will also be able to host events and house a cafe and a museum shop.
The old customs building -- Tullhuset -- is a protected heritage site on the banks of the Baltic Sea, not far from another popular tourist attraction, the Old Town.
In peak tourist season, visitors will pay 245 kronor (26 euros, 38 dollars) to visit the museum.
All four members of ABBA have given their backing to the project and will provide clothes, instruments and music.
Despite having broken up a quarter of a century ago, the group still sells between two and three million albums a year. To date they have sold 360 million records, with only Elvis and the Beatles selling more.
The four ABBA members, Bjoern Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faeltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad enjoyed worldwide success with hits such as "Money, Money, Money", "Waterloo", "Fernando" and "Dancing Queen".
Remember the song Dancing Queen?
ABBA, another gift of the Swedes to the world!! I always liked their music for the fun peppy beats etc. although I confess I could not listen to them much or I’d find it nauseating. Didn’t hate them like some people, but couldn’t make them a musical diet either. I did enjoy “Mama Mia” on Broadway when it first came out.....
btw, their song “Waterloo” says that Napoleon “did surrender” which is a gross historical inaccuracy - of course it was his critical defeat, but he did not actually “surrender” until around 3 weeks later after he had fled to Paris and explored trying to rally his forces or escape France, etc. Don’t they teach young budding pop stars any HISTORY in Sweden?? :^)
For a while there, when ABBA’s fame was at it’s peak, the amount of money they were raking in practically WAS the GNP of Sweden!
Another interesting, if useless fact: Within the last 3 years. all four members of the group have been offered a BILLION (that’s right, BILLION) dollars if they would re-unite for a tour. They collectively refused.
So I guess it ain’t all about the money.
That's a good way of describing their music.
I live in Germany and while watching TV the other day I stumbled across an all day ABBA fest on VH!. My teenage daughters really liked them. I wound up leaving the room after their 3rd music video.
I must see this place before I die.
Then
Jan 2007
But I MUCH preferred Frida
Then
Now
I have to admit I wasn't an ABBA fan until a few years ago when I came across the Chiciquita "snowman" video. For a while I got wrapped up in the music and started tracking down links on the web. But then, without getting into details, the more I read about the group, the less I came to like the members. Music si...members, no.
Not to hijack the thread, but if you were a fan of the BEach Boys DO NOT listen to Brian Wilson's rap song...Smart Girls. It made my ears bleed. BTW I hope someone posts THE Agnetha picture if it hasn't been posted already. I started this reply a while ago but i'm at work and ...duty called...sigh
prisoner6
I seen ABBA at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It was free, “Don Kirschners Friday night Rock Concert” They always needed a full crowd for the camera so admission was always free every week. ABBA looked good but lip synched totally.
The other bands were Janice Ian and a small English band named Black Sabbath.
Regards
But "The Winner Takes it All" was a fitting goodbye song for them.
You have an ABBA alert to attend to here
I may be wrong about this, but aren’t they second only to the Beatles as the best selling pop group in history? A lot of Americans don’t realize how big they were. They were big here, but they were ENORMOUS in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. There’s a grad student in my department who’s a little younger than me (he’s about forty-three) and he’s from Brazil. He brought an ABBA CD in to work with him one day. He was about ten when they hit it big worldwide, including Brazil, and he’s been a fan of them ever since.
http://www.agnetha-forever.de/Pics/Gallery2/a78.jpg
Of course there are lots more including the famous animated gif of her from behind. It can be found here.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nytorp/anim.htm
prisoner6
When I was in the US Navy in the seventies, go into nearly any disco in Europe, and all you would hear was the Bee Gees and Abba.
I enjoy listening to both of those groups now, and that is fueled nearly completely by nostalgia.
Just hearing that distinctive music brings me back about thirty years...funny how music can do that...:)
Has anyone noticed that you can spell ABBA backwards and it comes out the same? How many other rock or pop groups can make that claim?
Of course they deserve a museum.
I listened to their greatest hits just two days ago. About twenty distinct and timeless classics - only the Beatles had a greater output of hits.
One of my favorite groups. Thanks for the info. Found many clips on youtube to enjoy.
"My fav!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
