For the first time in almost 50 years, royal orders for exceptional members of the Swedish public has been awarded to all members of ABBA.
Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Reuss have all been awarded the royal Order of Vasa as “Commander of the First Class” during a ceremony at the Royal Palace. The order has been given to all four members for their “longevity and successful engagement within the performing arts”
The Beatles Story Museum, Liverpool, were honoured and excited to welcome ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus to their exhibition at The Albert Dock yesterday afternoon.
update jun5th, 2025
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Björn recently visited @lipaliverpool where @paulmccartney is lead patron, for a fun and lively Q&A with the students. He was also treated to a tour through the highly recommendable @beatlesstory museum
The Beatles Story Museum, Liverpool, were honoured and excited to welcome ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus to their exhibition at The Albert Dock yesterday afternoon.
The Swedish musician and producer, best known for being a member of ABBA, was in Liverpool conducting a masterclass for 500 students at LIPA, a university-level performing arts school established by Mark Featherstone-Witty and Paul McCartney.
During his short visit to the city, Björn enjoyed a tour of LIPA, a bespoke tour of The Beatles Story Museum and a look-out at the famous River Mersey.
The musician shares similar roots with The Beatles, having started his career in a rock’n’roll skiffle group called the West Bay Singers and later the Hootenanny Singers, one of Sweden’s most popular groups of the Sixties.
Björn made sure to greet his fans and take photos with Beatles Story team members before continuing his UK trip and heading to London.
LIPA H.E. welcomed ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus to the Paul McCartney Auditorium on Tuesday last week, for a Q&A session with their students followed by a tour of the Institute, and some of our Music Performance & Production students were lucky enough to be invited along.
During his 90-minute session with students Björn described the band’s recording process as one of “a constant evolution of ideas in the studio” as he and Benny perfected the musical backing. He also discussed the contributions of singers Agnetha Fältskog and Frida Lyngstad and how they would work for days or even weeks experimenting with vocal harmonies and arrangements. “That sound came very much from them.”
Legendary ABBA songwriter Björn Ulvaeus took part in a masterclass Q&A with students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. During the 90 minute session he admitted that the band's lasting appeal was a mystery to him.
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Members of Abba have revealed their proudest moments, which include a range of pivotal achievements from winning Eurovision to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As the Swedish pop supergroup celebrate the two-year anniversary of Abba Voyage, their London-based immersive experience that sees digital Abba-tars perform their greatest hits in a stadium setting, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson reflected on the defining moments of their careers.
Björn, 79, admitted that the moment where it all began – Eurovision – was his proudest, because it established the band as a household name. It was 50 years ago when the quartet rrived on the stage at Brighton Dome and won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their winning track “Waterloo” and soared to international pop stardom.
“The feeling afterwards that now the whole world knew about us and that we could now concentrate on the writing. It was absolutely fantastic,” said Björn of their Eurovision win, at a Q&A event with 3,000 fans in the audience, to celebrate the Abba Voyage anniversary.
Andersson, 77, said that his most fulfilling moment was being invited into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“Those are a few moments when you know that you’ve written a good tune. It doesn’t happen often, its maybe happened ten times in the last 40 years,” he said.
The two-year anniversary comes the same year as the band celebrate 50 years since their Eurovision win.
Some fans had hoped that the band would mark the occasion by reuniting on the Eurovision stage earlier this month, for the first time since 1982.
The hosts of Eurovision added fuel to the fire by ruthlessly teasing a potential surprise performance from an iconic band beginning with “A”.
However, many fans were left disappointed when the band’s virtual “Abbatars” performed instead.
Hosts Malin Åkerman and Petra Mede teased a performance from a Swedish super pop group “beginning with an A”, before introducing the popular pop trio Alcazar, who performed their hit “Crying at the Discoteque”. Fans instantly complained that they were duped by the gag, especially since Abba themselves had posted a TikTok just days before teasing a potential Eurovision performance.
The projection saw group members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad perform their hit “Waterloo”, which they performed when they won the same competition 50 years ago.
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Photo Credit: Brian Roberts
