Benny Andersson om återföreningsryktet som tagit fart igen: "Alla journalister tycker att det är roligt att skriva att "Abba ska återförenas". Det där som vi sa var ett skämt. Ironi. Det är inget mer med det." Foto: Peter Kramer
Benny Andersson om Abbas återförening: "Det var ett skämt"
NEW YORK. Det har gått 27 år sedan Abba beslutade sig för att gå skilda vägar. 27 år av rykten, spekulationer och hopp om att den spandexklädda popgruppen skulle kunna tänka sig att göra det igen. Men också 27 år av "inte en chans". Så vad är skillnaden den här gången? Kanske att det faktiskt var Benny Andersson själv som sa: - Det är ingen dum idé...
Fakta
Björn Ulvaeus, 64 år
Gör i dag: Arbetar fortfarande tätt ihop med Benny Andersson, mest intensivt med "Kristina" som musikalen heter i sitt engelska utförande. Han har också skrivit debattartiklar om fildelning och är motståndare till den olagliga spridningen av musik på nätet.
Benny Andersson, 63 år
Gör i dag: Arbetar för tillfället med "Kristina från Duvemåla" som i engelsk uppsättning har premiär i London i april. En musikal som många hoppas kan plockas upp även i USA, kanske på Broadway. Han har också sin Benny Andersson Orkester.
Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, 64 år
Gör i dag: Bor i Fribourg i Schweiz och är änka efter den adlige Ruzzo Reuss, som hon gifte sig med 1992 och som gick bort 1999. Hon har gjort enstaka framträdanden, bland annat i en videosekvens i 2004 års Eurovision Song Contest - 30 år efter att Abba vann - men håller sig allt som oftast borta från rampljuset.
Agnetha Fältskog, 59 år
Gör i dag: Har som bekant levt ett avskiljt liv på Helgö, men släppte 2004 coveralbumet "If I thought you'd ever change your mind" som sålde platinum. Hon är dock den som har sagt sig avsky uppmärksamheten och flera gånger stängt dörren till att återförenas med Abba.
Innan vi går längre med det här, och innan hoppet har skenat iväg hos alla er fans, ska vi slå fast att dörren som Benny sägs ha öppnat när han intervjuades i brittiska Times, på sin höjd är på glänt.
Det var i går som den ansedda engelska tidningen rapporterade hur duon Björn Ulvaeus och Benny Andersson, under ett samtal med reportern, helt plötsligt vände upp och ned på alla sina år av intensivt förnekande och istället valde en mer öppen replik på frågan.
Den ställdes inte utifrån perspektivet av en ny världsturné - det som kvartetten en gång tackade nej till att göra för sju miljarder kronor - utan utgick från upplägget av en mindre och mer intim spelning, med en orkester och med det mognare materialet från de senare skivorna.
"Ingen dum idé"
- Vi skulle kunna sjunga "The Way old folks do", ska Björn ha sagt sedan Benny hade funderat i banorna:
- Jag vet inte om tjejerna sjunger så mycket längre? Jag vet att Frida har varit i studion.
Vidare ska Benny ha konstaterat "Det är ingen dum idé faktiskt."
Ett svar nog för att hetsa upp de mest hårdhudade fansen - dem som har hört ryktet om och om igen och alltid sett samma tomhet i förlängningen.
- Hela min Facebooksida var full när jag vaknade i morse. Jag försökte bara lugna folk med "Det där ryktet har vi hört förr." Sen såg jag att Benny faktiskt h-a-d-e sagt något, säger Anita Notenboom, grundaren av Abbas officiella fanklubb.
"Finns enorm efterfrågan"
- Det skulle bli episkt, säger Michael Endelman, en av redaktionscheferna på det amerikanska musikmagasinet Rolling Stone, när Expressen pratar med honom.
- Om de gjorde en turné igen skulle det kunna bli en av de största i världen någonsin. Se bara hur stora de har blivit här i USA med "Mamma Mia!" på Broadway och som film.
- Det finns helt klart en enorm efterfrågan, säger han.
Men det är förstås inte alls så bra som det låter i Times när vi själva får tag i Benny. Han och Björn befinner sig just nu i London för att överse repetitionerna av "Kristina från Duvemåla", eller "Kristina" som musikalen som går upp i Albert Hall i april heter på engelska.
- Alla journalister tycker att det är roligt att skriva att "Abba ska återförenas", säger Benny med viss trötthet i rösten.
- Det där som vi sa var ett skämt. Ironi. Det är inget mer med det.
Och så var vi tillbaka på ruta ett.
"Vi blir inte besvikna"
Ännu ett nederlag för den inbitna Abbasupportern som inget hellre vill än att något att ryktena, någon gång, ska ha lite grund.
- Det är klart att vi vill. Men vi blir inte besvikna. Sedan vi grundades för 24 år sedan har vi hört det här pratet och vet att vi sannolikt aldrig kommer att få se Abba på scen igen. Och det är okej, säger Notenboom.
Men det är en sak att ha upplevt det i 24 år. En helt annan att ha förälskat sig i "Mamma Mia!" och veta att ens nya idoler fortfarande är - i viss mån - aktiva och få drömmarna nedskjutna.
- Vi har många yngre fans nu och visst... De kanske tar hårdare på det här. De är väldigt aktiva på internet och gräver efter alla artiklar som möjligtvis kan innehålla något om en reunion, säger Notenboom.
Men i hennes ögon finns också risken för fiasko - att Abba kliver upp på scenen till skyhöga förväntningar och raserar den mytiska bilden som många har av dem i dag.
Just det har dock Michael Endelman svårt att se.
- Det finns inte så mycket till myt att förstöra, i alla fall inte här, säger han och småskrattar åt vad man får för sig är hans bild av Abba - den i glittrande trikåer och allt det töntiga i hur modet var på den tiden.
- Jag vet att de är större i Europa och kanske vill minnas det som så, men Abba är inte som Led Zeppelin när vi pratar om myter, säger han och fortsätter:
- Police gjorde en lyckad reunion-turné som folk tyckte lät rätt bra. Van Halen är lite annorlunda, de har haft så många sångare, men gjorde ändå en grej med David Lee Roth vilket var häftigt. Led Zeppelin gjorde comeback i London, en show, men den ville folk se mer av.
- Men, tillägger han. Jag kan inte se att det skulle hända med Abba. Vi gjorde en intervju med Benny i samband med att de de valdes in i Rock'n'roll hall of fame. Där berättade han just om att de har sagt nej till en miljard dollar. Jag ser inte att de kommer att ändra sig.
Tror inte på bröllopssång
Anita Notenboom tror heller inte på ryktet som hon hörde om att Abba påstås överväga ett privat nummer under Daniel och Victorias bröllop.
- De är ju perfektionister. De skulle ha behövt börja repa för länge sedan redan och jag tror inte att de går upp och gör ett halvdant nummer. Det är inte Abba.
You Owe Me One
"I was taken by surprise
Now both of us are in a state of confusion
Hesitation in our eyes
Something unwanted has entered our existence
I think it's better to view it from a distance
Yes I really do"
-------------------------------------------------------- Integrante de Abba desmiente su reunión: "Fue sólo una broma"
Benny Andersson debió retractarse de sus declaraciones hechas la semana pasada con respecto a un regreso del mítico cuarteto pop sueco.
DPA
Miércoles 31 de Marzo de 2010 13:46
Foto: El Mercurio
ESTOCOLMO.- El ex miembro de Abba Benny Andersson se adelantó la semana pasada a las tradicionales bromas del 1 de abril cuando planteó la posibilidad de la reunificación del legendario cuarteto sueco: "era sólo un chiste, una ironía", dijo hoy al diario "Expressen" en Estocolmo.
La semana pasada, Andersson abrió por primera vez en casi 30 años la posibilidad del regreso de Abba en una entrevista con el diario británico "The Times". "No hay en absoluto ninguna intención", asegura ahora el músico.
Andersson y los otros tres miembros de Abba (Bjrn Ulvaeus y las cantantes Agnetha Fltskog y Anni-Frid Lyngstad) siempre descartaron categóricamente regresar a los escenarios.
El cuarteto se separó en 1983, con una histórica batería de exitos de pop de la era discoteque como "Dancing Queen", "Waterloo" o "Take A Chance On Me". El matrimonio Fltskog y Ulvaeus, así como Andersson y Lyngstad emprendieron ya caminos en solitario durante los tiempos de la banda.
Görel steps into the fray! ABBA reunion is never going to happen
March 26, 2010
After The Times and then the rest of the world's press got all caught up with Benny's casual remark about an ABBA reunion, Görel Hanser ABBA's super-woman behind the scenes steps in and publicly admits to telling Benny off and quashes the rumour.
UK Telegraph piece by Murray Wardrop: Fans of the Swedish pop quartet were offered a glimmer of hope when former band member Benny Andersson said they could reunite for a one-off show.
However, the group has now apologised for raising fans’ expectations and admitted that the comment had been nothing more than a “joke”.
Speculation over a comeback mounted after Andersson and former band mate Bjorn Ulvaeus were asked if they would consider a one-off ABBA performance that could be beamed around the world.
Despite having previously turned down a raft of lucrative offers to reunite, including a £600 million tour deal, Andersson replied: “Yeah, why not?”
During the interview with a newspaper, he continued: "I don't know if the girls sing anything any more. I know Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad) was in the studio," adding: "It's not a bad idea, actually."
Referring to the last song on the group's Super Trouper album, The Way Old Friends Do, Ulvaeus quipped: "We could sing The Way Old Folks Do."
But in a blow to millions of Mamma Mia! devotees, the band have swiftly backtracked on the idea.
Görel Hanser, the group’s manager, said: “It’s simply not true.
“It was a passing comment Benny made, almost as a joke – nothing more than that.
“I’ve spoken to Benny and given him a stern telling off. I have told him not to make such ridiculous suggestions anymore.
“There is no prospect of ABBA getting back together – it’s never going to happen. I think the fans know that deep down but we’re sorry if we got anyone’s hopes up.
“It was great in the good old days but we should remember them as they were.”
The band, who split in 1982, previously dismissed any suggestion of a reunion, insisting they would never take to the stage again.
In 2000 they rejected a $1 billion (£600 million) offer to play a 100-date world tour.
At the time Ulvaeus, 64, said: “This is the budget of a small country so we had to give it some thought.
“In the end we decided that, whatever offer was on the table, it would be stupid to re-form and utterly ludicrous to change the images people all over the world have of us.”
And two years ago Ulvaeus said: “We will never appear on stage again. There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were — young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition.
“I remember Robert Plant saying Led Zeppelin were a cover band now because they cover all their own stuff. I think that hit the nail on the head.”
Andersson has also previously dismissed talk of a reunion, saying: “We’d need a good reason to re-form and I just don’t see one. We could never recreate the old days. I’d rather be remembered for the way we were 30 years ago."
The group, whose hits include Dancing Queen, Take a Chance on Me and Money, Money, Money, has sold 370 million records.
Famed for the spandex costumes, they have enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, helped by the success of the film version of Mamma Mia!, the musical based on their songs.
However, it remains to be seen whether former female band mates Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog would support the idea of a reunion.
Lyngstad, 64, who married a German nobleman, said in an interview in 2005 that she had no interest in returning to a music career.
Fältskog, 59, has enjoyed a solo pop career since ABBA split but has not hinted at a reunion. Staffan Linde, her spokesman, said that Fältskog was not aware of Andersson recent reunion suggestion.
Andersson and Ulvaeus are promoting their new musical Kristina which opens at London's Royal Albert Hall on April 14.
You Owe Me One
"I was taken by surprise
Now both of us are in a state of confusion
Hesitation in our eyes
Something unwanted has entered our existence
I think it's better to view it from a distance
Yes I really do"
March 26, 2010
Abba to re-form? ‘Yeah, why not?’
Abba
Abba in their heyday
Pete Paphides
A reunion? Don’t talk to Abba about a reunion. Except, of course, that it’s hard not to. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus are aware of the protocol. “Don’t worry, I know you have to ask,” says Andersson, a baby-faced 64, when he sees me edging towards the question. The last time I edged uneasily towards the question, in May 2002, Ulvaeus said flatly: “There’s no amount of money in the world that could persuade me to do that.”
Since then they’ve regularly been politely rebutting requests to re-form , not only from fans who weren’t born when Abba imploded, but from promoters who, according to Ulvaeus, offered “crazy” sums for a farewell tour — in one case $1 billion (£600 million). Every time the thought of “the looks on the faces in the audience as they realised we had grown old” meant that Abba had long faced their Waterloo.
Eight years later there’s no reason to believe that Ulvaeus and his songwriting foil of four decades might react any differently. And yet, for one extraordinary moment at the end of our encounter, a realisation stirs into life that there may be a way to turn the longed-for reunion into a reality.
However, obliging as they are when it comes to talking about their pop star years, that’s not the reason they are here. Andersson and Ulvaeus are in London overseeing rehearsals for the UK premiere of their most ambitious project. Abba fans might want to take a raincheck on Kristina when it comes to the Albert Hall next month. On the face of it, Vilhelm Moberg’s 2,000-page epic about Swedish emigrants in the 19th century isn’t the most obvious of contenders for musical theatre treatment. Nevertheless, in 1995, when Kristina opened in Malmö, Swedish reviewers greeted it with a fervour that eclipsed anything that Andersson and Ulvaeus had achieved with Abba.
Quite what British audiences will make of it is another matter. “We’ve cut the play down from three hours to two,” Ulvaeus says. “And I approached Herbert Kretzmer, who did Les Misérables, to translate the lyrics into English.”
Kretzmer obliged — although even he couldn’t do justice to one of the few gags in the original version, a bilingual joke predicated on the similarity of the word “speed” and the Swedish term for breaking wind. “It’s probably for the best,” says Ulvaeus, his 65-year-old frame a slip of what it was when he squeezed into that satin jump suit on the night of Abba’s Eurovision triumph. “We wouldn’t dream of making a fart joke at the Albert Hall.”
Be that as it may, newly retitled highlights such as Burial at Sea, I Am Reconciled to My Fate and Miscarriage confirm that Mamma Mia 2 is very much not on the cards. To Andersson it’s a chance to show a British audience what he and Ulvaeus have been up to. “One reason we never cared about breaking America,” he says, “is that the English people treated us like their own.” Ulvaeus adds, though, that “it did make us spoilt. With Top of the Pops you could reach all of Britain. But in America you reached a tiny audience doing silly TV shows we didn’t want to do anyway.”
I suggest that some members of the group showed their reluctance a little more readily than others. Anyone who persists in believing that blondes have more fun might care to read Agnetha Fältskog’s 1997 autobiography As I Am. “No one who has experienced facing a screaming, boiling, hysterical crowd,” she wrote, “could avoid feeling shivers up and down their spine. It’s a thin line between ecstatic celebration and menace.”
Was it really that bad? As her ex-husband and father to her two children, you’d think Ulvaeus would know, but he sounds unsure. “She didn’t seem unhappy at the time. It’s strange the way that history sometimes becomes rewritten and it becomes the truth.”
He’s not just talking about Fältskog here. Such revisionism, he feels, also extends to the place Abba hold in the collective memory. “It’s not just people wanting to hear the songs. It has more to do with people wanting to be in some kind of mood that is fictitious. A mood of ‘the Seventies’ that Abba represents but is not rooted in reality. For instance, we never thought in our wildest dreams that we would be gay icons.”
I put it to him that Fältskog might have had something to do with the whole gay icons thing. “But why?” Ulvaeus counters. “She’s a very heterosexual woman. I know.”
That’s not how it works, I tell him. “How does it work, then?” he asks. Well, it all goes back to her not looking happy. You could tell that she was suffering inside, but she carried on in the name of showbiz. Ulvaeus remains unsure: “Hmm. It could be the outfits and the Eurovision.”
At times, Ulvaeus’s perspective on Abba’s legacy is so unknowing that it’s a struggle not to leap across the coffee table, where his fishcakes have just been delivered, and hug him. How could he and Andersson have written Hi-NRG hymns to physical desire such as Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight) and Lay All Your Love on Me and not think it might play out well with their gay fanbase? “We didn’t realise it. We were just releasing another song, that’s all." Play Abba’s albums in chronological order and the effect is something akin to having your emotional dimmer switch turned slowly down. With the bulk of 1980’s Super Trouper album written after Ulvaeus and Fältskog’s divorce, the group’s music changed to mirror their personal situations. The Winner Takes it All was written in a red wine-abetted stupor of self-pity. “Usually it’s not a good idea to write when you’re drunk,” Ulvaeus says, “but it all came out on that one. By the time I wrote ‘The gods may throw their dice’ the bottle was empty.”
By the time they recorded their last song together, The Day Before You Came, “we were really in the dark”, Andersson says. Abba’s swansong seems to harbour a pop mystery as enduring as the identity of the subject of Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain. What happened after this guy “came”? Ulvaeus smiles enigmatically, but he’s not saying. “You’ve spotted it, haven’t you? The music is hinting at it. You can tell in that song that we were straining towards musical theatre.
“We got Agnetha to act the part of the person in that song. In retrospect, it might have been too much of a change for a lot of Abba fans. The energy had gone.”
For the remainder of the 1980s, Ulvaeus felt that “our music had fallen so out [of fashion] that people looked down on it”. In the early 1990s, when tribute bands such as Björn Again popped up, they merely compounded the uneasy feeling in Ulvaeus’s mind that people were laughing at Abba. “I heard that they spoke with a Swedish accent between the songs, which made me pissed off. But then I spoke to people who went to the shows. They said that it’s a happy feeling and that people are enjoying themselves immensely.”
Years later, of course, we know that irony is merely the first step on the way to critical and commercial rehabilitation. It isn’t irony that has sold 28 million copies of Abba Gold and — thanks to Mamma Mia!’s passage from Broadway to Hollywood — that finally broken them in America.
When Brian Higgins — the producer-writer behind Girls Aloud — set up his Xenomania hit factory, he said that “SOS was the benchmark song we aspired to reach melodically”. “Funnily enough,” Ulvaeus says, “that was also the song that Pete Townshend mentioned when he came up to me in a restaurant one time. He said he thought it was the best pop song ever written.”
If challenged to do so, could Andersson and Ulvaeus sit down and write a song like that now? “I’m not sure,” Ulvaeus says. “Look at the hookline of Poker Face by Lady Gaga. That could have been written in the Seventies, but the way the song is put together is different. Do I like it? I love it.”
“I haven’t heard it,” Andersson says.
“Oh, it’s fantastic!” Ulvaeus says. “You’re the only one.”
In 2010, our sense of what a great pop song should be tallies more with the qualities found in Abba’s music than any other group. If someone doesn’t “get” Abba they seem to be rooted in a less enlightened era. A few years ago, I suggested to Roger Waters that Pink Floyd’s Animals bore certain thematic similarities to Abba’s final album The Visitors. Taking umbrage at the notion, Waters sniffed: “From the first ‘my’ on Waterloo I was an ex-listener.”
“Well, he missed a lot of the good stuff,” Andersson says. “At least he knows it starts with ‘my’ — that’s something. Dark Side of the Moon is not bad. They made some wonderful records.” Ulvaeus seems rather more put out by Waters’s comment. “It’s a bit pretentious, isn’t it? That attitude of: ‘I wouldn’t stoop so low.’ ”
Over at Earls Court, a mile from here, the presence of Abba World confirms that the imperious former Floyd frontman finds himself in a shrinking minority. Such is the love for Abba that thousands of fans a week are paying £21 each to see an exhibition that, among the karaoke opportunities and replica Arrival helicopter, seems to revel in the defiantly workaday environs — the re-creation of their manager’s office springs to mind — that spawned deathless pop such as Dancing Queen and Take a Chance on Me. “It was a chance to clear out some stuff from the attic,” Andersson says. “Have I been to see it? No. I lived it the first time.”
No point then in asking if he would want to live it again. Probably not. But footage of Fältskog at Abba World, talking with surprising affection about her contribution to the group’s biggest hits, is fresh in my mind. Reunions can take all sorts of different forms. A lucrative world tour might be out of the question, but what about something more low-key? I float the idea of an intimate, one-off performance for invited guests and families, perhaps with a small orchestra, focusing on some of the more “mature” material from the later albums. The whole thing could be filmed and the rights licensed out to TV stations around the world.
Alluding to Super Trouper’s final song The Way Old Friends Do, Ulvaeus’s first response is seemingly in jest: “We could sing The Way Old Folks Do!” Andersson, by contrast, seems deeper in thought. “Yeah, why not?” he nods. As if working through the logistics, he adds: “I don’t know if the girls sing anything any more. I know Frida [Anni-Frid Lyngstad] was [recently] in the studio.”
And on her most recent solo album, five years ago, Fältskog was in fine voice. “If you can sing, you can sing,” he concurs. Then, a little later, “It’s not a bad idea, actually.”
Alas, though, as the door to a reunion appears to open ever so slightly, so does another one. Andersson and Ulvaeus have to rush back to the Albert Hall, where rehearsals are under way. In two weeks, Kristina has its premiere. And then what? Like the song goes: “If you change your mind . . .”
Kristina is at the Albert Hall, London SW7 (020-7589 8212), on April 14
------------------------------------------------- 2010-03-26 ”ABBA kan återförenas”
”Ingen dålig idé” Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid
”Ingen dålig idé” Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Reuss och Agnetha Fältskog har bara sjungit en gång sedan ABBA officiellt splittrades 1983.
Foto: AP
Benny Andersson gillar idén.
Benny öppnar för ett nytt framträdande
LONDON. Fans över hela världen drömmer om ett återförenat Abba.
För första gången öppnar nu Björn och Benny för tanken.
– Det är faktiskt ingen dålig idé, säger Benny Andersson.
År 2000 tackade ABBA nej till en miljard dollar för en återföreningsturné med 100 spelningar över världen.
Enda gången Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Reuss och Agnetha Fältskog sjungit tillsammans sedan gruppens splittring ska ha varit på mångåriga medarbetaren Görel Hansers 50-årsdag 2003.
Svaret på den eviga frågan om en återförening har ständigt varit nej. Tills i dag.
Den brittiska tidningen Times får svaret som ger en liten glimma hopp till fansen.
”Frida var i studion nyligen”
På frågan om man inte skulle kunna tänka sig ett intimt engångsframträdande, kanske tillsammans med en orkester, en spelning som skulle kunna tv-sändas över hela världen, kommer det oväntade svaret.
– Ja, varför inte? Jag vet inte om tjejerna sjunger längre. Jag vet att Frida var i studion nyligen, säger Benny Andersson till Times.
Invigde ABBA World
Lite senare under intervjun ska Benny Andersson också ha lagt till:
– Det är faktiskt ingen dålig idé.
När Aftonbladet träffade Björn Ulvaeus och Anni-Frid Reuss under invigningen av ABBA World-utställningen i London i januari förnekade båda att det fanns några planer på en återförening.
Torbjörn Ek
Ex integrantes no descartan reencuentro del grupo Abba
08:53 AM Estocolmo/Londres.- Después de 27 años, Abba cambia de tono ante la posibilidad de una reunificación: "Sí, ¿por qué no? No sería mala idea", dijo Benny Andersson, ex miembro del legendario cuarteto sueco, citado hoy por el diario británico "The Times".
Hasta ahora, Andersson y los otros tres miembros de Abba (Björn Ulvaeus y las cantantes Agnetha Fältskog y Anni-Frid Lyngstad) siempre descartaron categóricamente regresar a los escenarios.
El cuarteto se separó en 1983, tras éxitos como "Dancing Queen", "Waterloo" o "Take A Chance On Me". El matrimonio Fältskog y Ulvaeus y Andersson y Lyngstad emprendieron ya caminos en solitario durante los tiempso de la banda, destacó DPA.
------------------------------------------ RTVE.es/REUTERS - MADRID 26.03.2010 - 12:45hEn 2000 una jugosísima oferta de 1.000 millones de dólares (746 millones de euros) no fue capaz de reunir a los componentes de ABBA para una gira mundial.
Diez años después y el continuo aumento del mito gracias al éxito del musical Mamma mia!, los cuatro artistas suecos podrían volver a juntarse para tocar tras casi 30 años separados.
"Sí, ¿por qué no?", fue la respuesta de Benny Andersson, uno de los dos componentes masculinos del cuarteto, cuando fue interrogado sobre la posibilidad de una gira con una orquesta en una entrevista para The Times, con motivo de la promoción del musical Kristina, que se estrena el Londres el 14 de abril.
"No sé si las chicas [en referencia a "Frida" Lyngstad y Agnetha Fältskog] siguen cantando. Sé que Frida estuvo grabando", añadió el músico. "Realmente no es una mala idea", subrayó.
Björn Ulvaeus, por su parte y en la misma entrevista, hizo un guiño a la idea al afirmar que "podríamos cantar como en los viejos tiempos ("The Way Old Folks Do", dijo)", en referencia a la canción del álbum Super Trouper.
Los expertos han considerado siempre que hay demasiados obstáculos para ese posible reencuentro, entre otros la vida de ermitaña que lleva Agnetha Faltskog.
Frida Lyngstad estaría dispuesta
Sin embargo, los seguidores de ABBA pueden albergar aunque sea una brizna de esperanza. También Andersson and Ulvaeus se negaron a reunir el grupo anteriormente.
Hace dos años, Ulvaeus aseguró que "nunca nos subiremos a un escenario otra vez; no hay motivos para reunirse. El dinero no es un factor y nos gustaría que la gente nos recordase como éramos: jóvenes, exuberantes, llenos de energía y ambición".
Lyngstad se casó con un príncipe alemán y vive en los Alpes suizos. Se cree que estaría relativamente bien dispuesta al reencuentro, según The Times.
La última vez que el cuarteto se juntó públicamente fue en 2008, en el estreno en Estocolmo de la película Mamma mia!, basada en el musical del mismo nombre.
------------------------------------ Mama mía, ¿vuelve Abba?
Redacción
BBC Mundo
Bjorn Ulvaeus, Annifrid Frida Lyngstad, Agnetha Faltskog and Benny Andersson luego de ganar el concurso Eurovisión en 1974
El grupo sueco Abba ingresó al Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll a mediados de marzo.
¿Qué fan de Abba no sueña con vestirse como en los años 70 y acudir a un último concierto del grupo para cantar "Chiquitita" o "Mama Mía"? Treinta años después de que la exitosa banda sueca se separara el grupo podría reunirse de nuevo.
Pese a que sus componentes siempre negaron la posibilidad de reagruparse después de la ruptura, las últimas declaraciones de dos de sus integrantes -Benny Andersson y Bjorn Ulvaeus- en el diario británico The Times han proyectado un pequeño rayo de esperanza para todos los seguidores de Abba.
Cuando se les preguntó sobre la posibilidad de hacer un último espectáculo que pudiera retransmitirse a nivel mundial, Andersson respondió, "sí, ¿por qué no?".
Andersson aseguró, sin embargo, que no sabía si las chicas del grupo seguían cantando y que "de hecho, no sería una mala idea" hacer un concierto juntos. Incluso, Ulvaeus propuso, "podríamos cantar The Way Old Folks Do", haciendo referencia a una de las canciones de su disco Super Trouper y que quiere decir algo así como "a la manera de los ancianos" .
Las declaraciones de los chicos de Abba no han dejado indiferente a nadie, sobre todo porque en el pasado siempre habían contestado negativa y rotundamente frente a esta posibilidad.
"Nunca apareceremos en los escenarios otra vez. No hay motivación para reagruparse. El dinero no es un factor y nos gustaría que la gente nos recordara como lo que fuimos: jóvenes, exuberantes, llenos de energía y con ambición", explicó Ulvaeus hace dos años.
Aunque algunos creen que las declaraciones de Andersson van más dirigidas a hacer publicidad y promoción, Mark Beaumont -periodista especializado en música- le dijo a la BBC: "No me sorprendería para nada que se reunieran. La gran mayoría del público lo pide tras el musical y la película de Mama Mía. Abba nunca había estado tan presente".
El fenómeno Abba
Benny Andersson y Ann-Frid Lyngstad durante la ceremonia de ingreso al Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll
Los hombres del grupo Abba no descartaron un regreso a los escenarios.
La posibilidad de una vuelta a los escenarios está en el aire pero los más fieles seguidores del grupo siempre han pensado que hay demasiadas barreras para que la banda vuelva a tocar junta. Entre ellas el estilo de vida de reclusión que lleva Agnetha Faltskog, la cantante rubia de Abba.
El cuarteto estaba compuesto por las dos parejas sentimentales que formaban Ann-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad con Benny Andersson y Agnetha Faltskog con Bjorn Ulvaeus.
Abba se catapultó a la fama después de ganar el Festival de Eurovisión en 1974 con el tema "Waterloo". Tras una década llena de éxitos profesionales el grupo se disolvió debido a la ruptura de ambos matrimonios.
Vendieron 370 millones de discos y dejaron temas que han dado la vuelta al mundo como "Dancing Queen", "Take a chance on me" o "Money, Money, Money".
Actualmente, "Frida" está casada con un príncipe alemán y vive en los Alpes Suizos. Según apunta el diario inglés, estaría relativamente de acuerdo con volver a reunir al grupo.
Por su parte, Ulvaeus y Andersson están promocionando su último musical "Kristina", que se estrenará en Londres el próximo 14 de abril.
Y mientras se disipan las dudas de un posible regreso a los escenarios, los dejamos con una muestra del trabajo de Abba.
