Frida/ABBAWORLD

 Frida talks about her birth, her youth, her grandmother, her first marriage and her career.

June 19, 2010

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Bjorn Ulvaeus unsure if Abba Voyage will continue if a bandmate dies

 Asked on Times Radio if the virtual concerts will continue if a member of Abba dies, Ulvaeus told the station: “That’s a question I’ve never had before… I honestly don’t know, hadn’t thought about that.

“It’s good you raise that question – I’ll talk to the others about that as we need to decide beforehand between us if it’s OK for all four of us to go on after we’re gone.”

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Bjorn Ulvaeus unsure if Abba Voyage will continue if a bandmate dies irishnews.com — Tiempo de lectura: 1 minuto Bjorn Ulvaeus said he does not know if the Abba Voyage virtual concerts will continue if one of his band members dies. Since opening in May 2022, more than three million people have seen the show that brings to life younger versions of the Abba members through digital “Abba-tars” and a 10-piece live band in a purpose-built arena in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The influential pop group, also made up of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Faltskog and Benny Andersson, were the first Swedish winners of the Eurovision Song Contest with their hit Waterloo in Brighton in 1974. Asked on Times Radio if the virtual concerts will continue if a member of Abba dies, Ulvaeus told the station: “That’s a question I’ve never had before… I honestly don’t know, hadn’t thought about that. “It’s good you raise that question – I’ll talk to the others about that as we need to decide beforehand between us if it’s OK for all four of us to go on after we’re gone.” Faltskog and Ulvaeus married in 1971 before splitting almost a decade later, while Andersson and Lyngstad also married and divorced in 1981, a year before the band broke up. Abba had a string of chart-toppers including Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, Dancing Queen, Super Trouper, The Winner Takes It All and Mamma Mia!  Abba in Brighton where they won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with Waterloo (PA/PA) The group reunited and released their first new music in almost 40 years with Voyage, their ninth studio album, which topped the UK album charts. Their songs also inspired the musical Mamma Mia!, which began in London in 1999, and became a hit worldwide sensation. It spun off two movies, 2008’s Mamma Mia! and 2018’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

https://www.irishnews.com/entertainment/bjorn-ulvaeus-unsure-if-abba-voyage-will-continue-if-a-bandmate-dies-2VBW6V64W5PKVFFZH6DDULRYV4

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"Will Voyage continue when one of Abba dies? “That’s a very good question. That remains to be seen. We are allowed to stay in our current venue till 2029, but ticket sales might drop, you never know. But is it right to continue when someone is dead? That’s a big ethical question.” 

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/bjorn-abba-interview-younger-woman-vxmbmtphp

Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus: life at 80 and falling for a younger woman

new

With the Abba Voyage show, Bjorn Ulvaeus is keeping his younger self alive as an avatar. But the man himself is still full of energy. Michael Odell meets him

Diptych of a man and woman at a red carpet event and the same man in a leopard-print jacket.

Bjorn Ulvaeus with his third wife, Christina Sas; photographed at Chateau Denmark, London, right. Jacket, Phix. Trousers, Dolce & Gabbana

KRESTINE HAVEMANN/@BJORNULVAEUS/INSTAGRAM, TOM JACKSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE

Michael Odell

Thursday April 17 2025, 8.00pm BST, The Times

Bjorn Ulvaeus remembers it like it was yesterday. He and Abba had just won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their glam-rock stomper Waterloo. The next morning, he and his wife, Abba singer Agnetha Faltskog, flew back to their home in Stockholm. They had become overnight stars but Faltskog was suddenly something else too: a global sex symbol. Those crazy satin knickerbockers. Those sad, dreamy blue eyes. And let the record also show — these were different times, so much was made of his wife’s epoch-making booty.

No wonder Ulvaeus dropped his bags and took a long look in the mirror.

“I remember the actual full-length mirror,” he says. “And I remember making a rock-solid decision: this cannot go on. This must change immediately, because this is not what a pop star looks like.”

ABBA - Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest 1974 First Performance)

Ulvaeus thought he was too fat to be famous. On the bus to the Eurovision final at the Brighton Dome, his trousers were so tight he couldn’t sit down.

“There are many myths about Abba, but that one is true,” he says. “I nearly split my trousers and something needed to change and change it did. I began running and eating more healthily that same day.”

At least one account says Ulvaeus found it “irritating” being married to a sex symbol. Was that a part of it? Keeping up with his wife, the best assembled Swedish export since Ikea’s Billy bookcase?

“No, I don’t think I ever said I was irritated. I mean she was very… Yeah, but the reason I went on a diet wasn’t because of her. It was because pop stars were thin. And that’s what I was supposed to be. A pop star.”

Ulvaeus turns 80 in a few days and appears in remarkably good shape. That’s no surprise: we’re looking at 50 years of salad and workouts here. In the mornings back home in Sweden he sails around a lake on his surf ski (a kind of kayak), doesn’t eat until midday and in the evening works out on his cross trainer, TRX suspension cables and something called a “vibrator plate”.

photo “Ageism? At 50 people walk past you in the street. You don’t count”

TOM JACKSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE. STYLING: HANNAH ROGERS. COAT, CHARLOTTE SIMON. TROUSERS, DOLCE & GABBANA. BOOTS, ROKER

He also drinks 15-20 cups of coffee a day, which might explain why he vibrates slightly too, like there’s a small electric current passing through him. Bright-eyed with a lush wave of hair and a good beard, my only quibble are his very thin ears. Considering the crucial role they’ve played in music history, I can’t believe they’re so delicate. Almost see-through.

Usually I wouldn’t bang on about someone’s body. But you can with Bjorn Ulvaeus. He likes it.

You look amazing, I say.

“Thank you very much. That is nice of you,” he replies. “I can’t believe I will be 80. But I try to follow the advice of Clint Eastwood who, when asked how he stopped himself feeling old, said, ‘By never letting the old man in.’ ”

I take this as a sign I can ask Ulvaeus about having loads of sex. Again, I wouldn’t usually pry, but in an interview four years ago he grumbled that he was “only” managing sex four times a week. And then last year he got married for the third time, to Christina Sas, a music industry executive 28 years younger than him, so…

“Oh God no, that was a joke. Move on.”

Various

photo Marrying Agnetha Faltskog in 1971

REX FEATURES

Hmm, OK. That makes the last of my warm-up questions, the one about imagining your ex having an amazing orgasm with someone else, really quite difficult. Last year the writer Giles Smith published a lovely homage to Abba called My My!. He lauded Ulvaeus’s genius for using pop to explore mature subjects such as divorce (The Winner Takes It All), the jitters of a romantic ingenue (The Name of the Game), even the parental heartbreak of watching a child grow up (Slipping Through My Fingers; Ulvaeus has two children with Faltskog and two with his second wife, Lena Kallersjo).

• My My! by Giles Smith review — how Abba conquered the world

I was 16 when The Winner Takes It All came out (it was released 18 months after Ulvaeus and Faltskog split up). The heartbreaking lines, “But tell me, does she kiss/ Like I used to kiss you?” made perfect sense, but I was puzzled by, “Does it feel the same/ When she calls your name?” I wondered why someone calling your name should sound different after you’ve broken up. My older sister slightly haughtily explained to me that Ulvaeus was imagining an ex having an earth-shattering orgasm with a new lover.

“Oh, well, that’s reasonable,” he says, taking a big restorative slurp of his coffee.

But Ulvaeus is writing from the point of view of a woman. That’s the mark of a great writer, I venture, being able to imagine yourself as a woman and then imagining how she’d feel about her ex’s new girlfriend climaxing?

photo SWEDEN-MUSIC-ABBA

Abba at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

“Thank you and yes, why not? Why not indeed imagine it?” he offers, a little uncertainly. “I wrote that song very quickly while drinking whisky during my drinking days [he gave up alcohol in 2007]. I rarely wrote while intoxicated because you look at the words the next day and it’s garbage. But most of The Winner Takes It All is actually good. It’s not a personal story, but I tried to find the detail of a real human pain.”

We are sitting in the bar of the Chateau Denmark hotel in London. It’s on Denmark Street, once known as Tin Pan Alley, and it fairly throbs with pop music history. The Rolling Stones recorded their first album here. Elton John and Bernie Taupin wrote Your Song on the roof of the building next door. Bowie, Jimi Hendrix and the Small Faces used to hang out at a club on this street and the Sex Pistols once lived at No 6 (Ulvaeus is rather improbably staying in the hotel’s I Am Anarchy suite).

Ulvaeus started playing guitar after receiving one for his 11th birthday. For reference, that was in 1956, when Elvis was in the charts with Heartbreak Hotel. Now he finds himself at the nexus of extraordinary technological change.

photo Hootenanny Singers

Ulvaeus, centre, with the Swedish folk group the Hootenanny Singers, circa 1965

REDFERNS

Over in east London, the virtual Abba show Voyage has now played to more than three million fans, way more than ever saw them live in the UK. Ulvaeus and the other former Abba members don’t have to do anything. He can go out on his kayak. The money rolls in. And yet Ulvaeus is still very concerned about the impact of tech on the future of music.

As president of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers he is advocating for creators’ rights in the age of AI, trying to make sure that songwriters and musicians get fairly paid. “AI is changing all the creative industries beyond recognition,” he asserts.

• Abba stars share in £1.4 million dividend from soaring Mamma Mia! profits

Before Abba, Ulvaeus served a long apprenticeship playing in various bands and writing songs for other artists. Today that apprenticeship is more difficult. He wonders if he would even make it in today’s world.

“I mean, I’d like to believe I’d have tried hard and broken through, but who knows? I might be an Uber driver telling you about this song me and my friends are working on called Dancing Queen that you never get to hear. In the old days, you had a couple of hits and then you had access to all the national radio and TV shows. You had a career. You have to do so much more to be heard above the noise now.” TikTok and YouTube and all the “noise” are one thing, but he’s not a Luddite. Ulvaeus used AI to create the avatars for Abba Voyage. But I can’t help wondering if shows like these might become part of the problem. After all, others are soon to follow: Ulvaeus is helping US rockers Kiss launch their own avatar show in Las Vegas in 2027. And then there is the Abba stage show Mamma Mia! (it has been performed in more than 60 countries), plus the dining experience Mamma Mia! The Party (currently in London, Stockholm and Rotterdam).

Abba’s avatars

ABBA VOYAGE

Is this the future? Legacy acts dominating for ever? “That might be part of it: young people today are finding music from 1970 or 2010 or now. It’s true that when we started, we didn’t have to compete with decades of other music.”

Will Voyage continue when one of Abba dies? “That’s a very good question. That remains to be seen. We are allowed to stay in our current venue till 2029, but ticket sales might drop, you never know. But is it right to continue when someone is dead? That’s a big ethical question.”

If Voyage is still playing in 100 years’ time, would it bother you personally?

“No! Did Agatha Christie have a problem with The Mousetrap? [Christie’s play has run in London since 1952 and recently celebrated its 30,000th performance.] When you’re gone, you’re gone but… my kids might appreciate it.”

The Bjorn Ulvaeus avatar performing in Voyage is modelled on him during Abba’s Seventies pomp, when he was in his thirties. It’s intriguing that while this virtual eternal youth goes out and does the work, the pensioner in front of me feels very passionately about “ageism”.

photoSandi Toksvig officiating at his wedding to Christina Sas, 2024

KRESTINE HAVEMANN/@BJORNULVAEUS/INSTAGRAM

“You reach 50 and people just walk past you in the street,” he says. “They don’t really see you. You don’t count. I think society wastes so much by discarding the skills and wisdom of the elderly. My father-in-law went from relevance to irrelevance from one day to the next.”

Is having a “for ever young” persona leaping about and performing the hits a sort of “F*** you”? “Yes, it’s the perfect rebellion,” he says, chuckling.

‘It was love at first sight’

And yet sometimes reality bites. In 2022 Ulvaeus divorced music journalist Lena Kallersjo after 41 years of marriage and very soon after began dating Christina Sas, who was working on the release of the Abba album Voyage. The age difference really troubled him.

“It was love at first sight, at least from my side,” he says. “But immediately I had severe problems with myself and the age difference. When a man or a woman meets someone much younger and falls in love they think, ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ But in the end I just gave up. I decided, ‘It’s up to her — if she wants to live with someone older and we love each other…’ Age doesn’t come between us now — we rarely even talk about it.”

Wow. Love at first sight aged nearly 80 — what does that feel like? “Oh, well, there’s this person and there’s this attraction. You think, ‘What is this?’ And then, when you see it in the other person’s eyes… It’s spectacular. It’s fantastic. But you have to be very open, with your antennas out. You have to be adventurous and ready to take a chance.”

photo SWEDEN-ROYALS-MUSIC-AWARD-ABBA

Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Faltskog and Benny Andersson receive the Royal Order of Vasa in 2024

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Ulvaeus and Sas married last September. His friend, the Danish-born comic and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig, officiated at the ceremony in Copenhagen. Sas is with him in London today. She is warm and friendly. I would say he has a type: pretty, blonde and blue-eyed.

Last night they went to see Sir Elton John and Brandi Carlile perform at the London Palladium. “Elton has a particular way of passionately hammering at the piano,” Sas tells me. “Which is remarkable for a man his age.”

• Sandi Toksvig: Why I played a part in Bjorn from Abba’s wedding

She catches herself. “You see, I’m doing it — I’m being ageist! Why shouldn’t he still play the piano as well as he always has?”

To be honest, I think there are perfectly solid gerontological reasons why: Elton John is 78 and recently told this newspaper he is almost blind. Anyhow, Sas and Ulvaeus make for a remarkably ordinary couple. No one recognised them in Waterstones where they went shopping for books this morning. No one recognises them in the bar.

But then again Ulvaeus has never been particularly starry. He embodies the Scandinavian creed known as janteloven: everyone is equal and even if you enjoy success, never get too big for your boots. According to the definitive Abba biography, Carl Magnus Palm’s Bright Lights Dark Shadows, when Abba won Eurovision in 1974, Ulvaeus was a bit snotty about English attitudes to success.

pohto

With Agnetha Faltskog, 1970

REX FEATURES

“I don’t want to become a nouveau riche like many of the English artists,” he said. “They wallow in luxury; they don’t know what to do with their money.”

But how does it work when you’ve enjoyed the sort of success Ulvaeus has? When he split from his second wife, the details of their pre-nup were published in Sweden. It stipulated there “must never” be less than 20 million kroner (about £1.6 million) in their joint bank account. These days Ulvaeus is reputedly worth close to £250 million.

I must admit I’m trying to match the guy coffee for coffee, so what I’m thinking just comes straight out of my head.

Man alive, Bjorn, what’s it like having £250 million in the bank? “Past a certain point, it [money] doesn’t matter… First of all, it’s freedom from the worries most people have — jobs, bills, the rent. That is so great. I can remember the moment I first felt, ‘I don’t have to worry about that any more.’ After that, it’s wonderful if you find a project that really needs financing. To be able to dream and let an idea develop and then actually do it — that’s what money is for. Like Mamma Mia! or Voyage [the latter employed 800-plus digital animators and cost a reputed £140 million to develop]. But these projects are not just to make money — it’s to do something worthwhile and fun.”

What is the most rock’n’roll thing Abba ever did? “I can assure you there are no hidden Abba scandals, no blemish on our image…”

Go on, there must be something. “There were instances when we didn’t leave hotel rooms in quite the order they were in when we came,” he says rather adorably. “But nothing like the Who driving a Rolls Royce into a swimming pool.”

The darker side of fame

Abba were always as wholesome as a herring picnic in a Scandi forest. That’s what the various Abba shows celebrate: their manifest innocence. But in the background, there was some dark stuff.

A 2023 Prime Video documentary, Take a Chance, tackled Agnetha Faltskog’s scarcely believable interactions with her Dutch stalker, Gert van der Graaf, a porky water-pump factory worker who drove 1,000 miles from Holland to Faltskog’s home in Sweden in the late Nineties. After van der Graaf bombarded her with gifts and letters he moved to be near her and the pair ended up having a two-year relationship. Eventually realising her mistake, Faltskog called the police, who discovered van der Graaf living in an unplumbed cottage with a bucket full of excrement and a dead turtle.

• I still miss Abba’s Agnetha, stalker claims in Amazon documentary

Similarly bonkers is the story of the “dark-haired one”, Anni-Frid Lyngstad. She is the daughter of a Nazi sergeant, Alfred Haase, who had a relationship with her mother, Synni, while stationed in Norway during the Second World War. After the German defeat, Haase disappeared and, aged two, Lyngstad was effectively orphaned when her 21-year-old mother died of kidney failure. Raised by her grandmother, Lyngstad moved to Sweden, became a jazz singer and eventually joined Abba.

“I don’t like to compare us to the Beatles — to me they were three of the greatest songwriters ever who just happened to be alive in the same place at the same time. But yes, in our own way, the slim chance of us getting together still amazes me.”

Ulvaeus says they all keep in contact privately (he and Andersson still work together), but he looks a little forlorn telling me they may have met for the last time as a quartet.

That was last year when they were awarded Sweden’s Royal Order of Vasa for “very outstanding efforts in Swedish and international music life”. It’s a bit like being knighted. Importantly, though, the honour is bestowed by public vote.

“If I started out now, I might be an Uber driver writing songs”

TOM JACKSON FOR THE TIMES MAGAZINE. GROOMING: LUCIE PEMBERTON USING HOURGLASS. SUIT, LOUIS VUITTON. SHOES, DIOR

“And that felt so good, considering the initial reaction to us was not good,” Ulvaeus says, smiling.

Yes, after they won Eurovision, Abba were derided in Sweden as uncool, a bit too successful. “It was uncool to admit liking Abba,” he recalls. “Sweden was going very left, very socialist in the early Seventies and Abba was Mammon. During that time you were supposed to take a stand in your lyrics and I refused. I thought it was more interesting to explore relationships. I was uninterested in putting party politics in the lyrics. How boring!”

Ulvaeus is definitely a political animal now. That’s one of the reasons he wanted to do this interview. “I am really very worried about Europe and democracy and the rise of the autocrat,” he says.

I mention that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is supposedly a fan (he reportedly booked the Abba tribute act Bjorn Again for a private show at the Kremlin).

“I didn’t know that. I can imagine the scene with him dancing around the Kremlin,” he says, laughing, partly delighted and partly appalled. Actually, no, mostly appalled. And you can see why.

Late last year, every Swedish household received a 32-page leaflet, If Crisis or War Comes, warning them to prepare for a possible armed conflict. “Military threat levels are increasing,” it announced. “We must be prepared for the worst-case scenario — an armed attack on Sweden.” Tips included stocking up on non-perishable food and water, keeping cash in hand and growing fruit and vegetables.

“Can you believe it? We must mentally prepare for war,” Ulvaeus marvels. “I remember during my teenage years and my early twenties, during the Cold War, I asked myself, ‘Will I live under a dictator? Will I adjust or join the resistance and risk my life?’ And I thought, ‘I would rather die than live under a dictator.’ Of course, I was a young man. But already again I’m thinking, ‘How would I react?’ ”

But it’s not just autocrats that are bothering him; it’s what he calls the self-censorship of liberal democracies too.

ABBA Voyage, only at the ABBA Arena, London, UK | ABBA Voyage

“It really bothers me you cannot make Monty Python’s Life of Brian [the 1979 spoof of the Bible story] in a Muslim context for fear of violence. I find it demeaning to not be able to say this or that. Free speech is in danger. And I really feel, with autocrats on the rise, even in America, Europe needs to step up and unite.”

As a teenager, Ulvaeus did national service. He thinks it might be time for that again. “I am a proud European,” he says. “And now it seems we are the last bastion of liberal democracy. Let’s face it: we are alone and I think we should build a European defence force.”

By now, I’m so wildly caffeinated that I’m scarcely able to believe I am discussing military strategy with a quarter of Abba.

Ulvaeus says he wants to use his platform to educate kids about democracy. Bear in mind, this is the guy who turned down $1 billion for Abba to perform in 2000. Now he’s offering to tour school gyms to speak up for Europe, democracy and free speech. He literally has a “Euro vision”.

“I really wish the UK didn’t leave the EU,” he says. “Although I think you guys are still kind of European. And this is so important I feel I have to help. In Sweden, I made a democracy education programme for schools which will be launched in June. I want children to realise this thing that we breathe every day — freedom, respect for institutions — is at threat. Imagine the world these dictators want: you lose your job because you complain about the government. You pay taxes but they are stolen or you can’t get justice because the law has become an untrustworthy institution. We are closer to this than we know.”

photo"Mamma Mia! The Party" 5th Anniversary Gala – Arrivals

Ulvaeus and Sas, 2024

GETTY IMAGES

If all that sounds a little sombre, well, that’s because it is. Mostly, though, Ulvaeus is grateful and amazed at all the luck he has enjoyed in life. He originally intended to be a civil engineer and only pursued music because his mum secretly entered him into a competition just as he was about to quit his band the West Bay Singers and go to college (his entry won and he met mentor and manager Stig Anderson as a result).

“Again, such luck,” he says. “And then to meet Benny and for us to meet these incredible ladies with the perfect voices.”

Ulvaeus is about to fly to Mallorca with 20 members of his extended family to mark his big birthday. But on the actual day itself he has no special plans. “No, no party with speeches. I don’t like that. I find it very difficult to sit and listen to people praising you. I’m too shy for that.”

When we finish talking, he’ll fly home with his wife. They’ll have a quiet evening. He thinks they’ll have salmon for supper. Then he might do his evening workout in the gym watching an action movie. Meanwhile, his young avatar will be on stage in London keeping the music alive.

“I would like to speak to the man I was at that age and tell him the things he worried about were not worth worrying about,” he says. “I was so insecure — what a waste of time! Relationships with other humans are the only thing that really matter.”

And what do you think your avatar would say to you?

“Hey, old man,” he says, laughing, “how come you get to sit at home while I have to do all the work?”

Bjorn Ulvaeus will be speaking at SXSW London (June 2-7; sxswlondon.com)

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/bjorn-abba-interview-younger-woman-vxmbmtphp

on abbaregistro blog: https://abbaregistro.blogspot.com/2025/04/abbas-bjorn-ulvaeus-life-at-80-

and.html

Björn Ulvaeus in an interview with Times Radio

 Bjorn in an interview with Times Radio... / full interview ( only audio) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzrLyQjzHSQ

part of the interview ( video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC_nxgUKBOA

13 07 2025

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SXSW London 2025 / The Future of Entertainment...

 

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https://www.instagram.com/p/DKhXkzstp9C/

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Abba singer Björn Ulvaeus teases fans in London with AI-assisted musical

Songwriter tells audience at SXSW he is ‘three-quarters’ through writing and says technology is ‘very bad at lyrics’

Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent

Wed 4 Jun 2025 18.45 BST

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After bringing a blockbuster hologram version of Abba to a purpose-built venue in east London, Björn Ulvaeus’s next technological exploration is a musical that he’s written with the help of artificial intelligence.

Ulvaeus told an audience at SXSW London that he was “three-quarters” of the way through writing a new musical which he has created with assistance from AI songwriting tools.

He did admit the technology had limitations when it comes to songwriting, saying it was “lousy at [writing a whole song]” and “very bad at lyrics” but was helpful whenever the 80-year-old songwriter reached a creative impasse.

“You can prompt a lyric you have written about something, and you’re stuck maybe, and you want this song to be in a certain style,” Ulvaeus said.

From left: Bjorn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog and Benny Andersson pose for a photo in a large hallway

Thank you for the music: Abba members get Swedish knighthoods

Read more

“You can ask it, how would you extend? Where would you go from here? It usually comes out with garbage, but sometimes there is something in it that gives you another idea.”

The use of AI is a hugely contentious issue in the music industry.

This year, Dua Lipa and Paul McCartney were among hundreds of artists who signed an open letter urging the prime minister to protect artists’ copyright and not “give our work away” to big tech.

Ulvaeus said AI isn’t the creative threat but rather a collaborator. “It’s fantastic. It is such a great tool,” he added. “It is like having another songwriter in the room with a huge reference frame. It is really an extension of your mind. You have access to things that you didn’t think of before.”

The musical is far from Ulvaeus’s first flirtation with technology.

Abba Voyage, the concert which launched three years ago in a purpose-built arena that featured digital avatars of the band, has been a huge success and was described as a “dazzling retro-futurist extravaganza” by the Guardian.

It was a risky venture as Pophouse Entertainment, the company behind the project needed to bring in £140m in order to break even.

He told the audience at SXSW London that he embraced experimental approaches to songwriting and studio technology much earlier in his career.

This experimental approach is characteristic of Ulvaeus’s career-long fascination with technological innovation.

During his time in Abba, he along with bandmate Benny Andersson “always wanted the latest thing”, and were among the first to use the Mini Moog synthesizer and use digital recording machines in their studio.

“We were always on the lookout for, you know, you would hear a sound on the record. How was that done? And then you get that stuff,” said.

The Abba songwriter told the audience that he sees AI as the latest evolution in his career rather than a threat which is how it is perceived by many.

“I actually wake up curious every morning,” Ulvaeus said, explaining the drive that has kept him creating decades after Abba’s peak. “Everything’s really after our wanting to try new things.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jun/04/abba-bjorn-ulvaeus-ai-musical-london

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https://variety.com/2025/music/news/abba-bjorn-ulvaeus-new-musical-ai-1236417771/

ABBA‘s Björn Ulvaeus is proving that curiosity doesn’t diminish with age. At 80, the Swedish songwriter behind some of pop music’s most enduring hits is pioneering a new frontier in musical theater: creating a musical with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

“Right now I’m writing a musical, assisted by AI,” Ulvaeus revealed during a talk at SXSW London on Wednesday, describing himself as “three-quarters” through the creative process. The project represents his latest experiment in pushing musical boundaries, following the massive success of ABBA’s groundbreaking avatar show “Voyage.”

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Storys - Frida / 2017

2017-08-03 15:32



El parque de la ciudad de Eskilstuna en 1965. Anni-Frid Lyngstad junto con Ragnar Fredriksson al bajo y Gunnar Sandevärn al piano.

Foto: Privada

Gunnar y ABBA-Frida se reúnen en Torshälla el sábado

El sábado, Gunnar Sandevärn subirá a un escenario en Torshälla junto con la estrella de ABBA Anni-Frid Lyngstad. No es exactamente la primera vez. A mediados de los años 60 subían al escenario ocho veces por semana. ¡Siete noches y luego un concierto extra!

2017-08-03 15:32

Eva Axelsson

‒Había baile por todas partes y todos los restaurantes querían una orquesta. En aquella época, para un músico había todo el trabajo posible.

Junto con Anni-Frid Lyngstad y su primer marido Ragnar Fredriksson, Gunnar Sandevärn condujo a Mälardalen en un viejo Volvo Duet. El coche pertenecía a la empresa de alfombras que dirigía la familia de Ragnar y Gunnar recuerda las frías noches de invierno en el asiento trasero del dúo cuando regresaba a casa después de sus últimos conciertos.

‒Cabalgamos en el escenario con ropa, camisa fina, chaqueta y pantalón, sin importar la temporada. Y siempre era Anni-Frid quien conducía. Ragnar y yo medio dormidos en el asiento trasero, cansados después del concierto y después de arrastrar instrumentos y altavoces de un lado a otro del coche. Además del ruido del motor y el traqueteo de los amuletos de la pulsera de Anni-Frid cuando cambió de marcha, el coche estaba en completo silencio.

Pero lo tomamos desde el principio: cuando Gunnar Sandevärn fundó su orquesta, llamada orquesta de Gunnar Sandevärn, ya tenía mucho control sobre el pájaro cantor de Torshälla.

‒Mi padre era cantor y maestro de escuela y me había dicho que sus lecciones de manejo a menudo terminaban con la clase sugiriendo: "Deja que Anni-Frid cante". Yo mismo la escuché por primera vez en 1960 en el gimnasio de la institución educativa de Eskilstuna. Tenía sólo 15 años en ese momento, pero ya era una cantante de pleno derecho.

Fundó su orquesta en 1964, el mismo año en que Ragnar Fredriksson y Anni-Frid Lyngstad se casaron.

‒Cuando se fueron de luna de miel, tuve que pedir prestado el coche de Ragge y detuve a Sörmland y conseguí un trabajo. Cuando llegaron a casa desde Canarias, ya teníamos todo reservado. Tocamos en veladas de baile en Eskilstuna, Enköping, Köping, Västerås y Estocolmo.

Gunnar Sandevärn mantuvo un libro adecuado tanto de conciertos como de indicadores y todavía tiene todos los contratos en sus escondites. Así, después de algunas búsquedas, se puede deducir que la broma para una velada de entretenimiento en el restaurante Lido en Eskilstuna el 18 de abril de 1966 era de 75 coronas suecas por miembro de la orquesta. El propio Gunnar Sandevärn recibió cinco coronas extra como director.

Los tres tenían otros trabajos que atender y también niños pequeños en casa. Fueron años de perros reales que requirieron tanto energía como mucho cuidado de niños. Las muchas tardes que pasaba desde casa también consumían la boda, recuerda Gunnar Sandevärn, que tenía sólo 19 años cuando se casó por primera vez.

Pero no se pudo ocultar la música y, aunque el trío del dúo finalmente se disolvió, el trabajo irresistiblemente divertido frente a los micrófonos los había unido de por vida.

‒No tuvimos tiempo de salir con tantas personas aparte de los demás. Para nosotros, la fiesta y la relajación consistía en sentarnos algún día después de un concierto y compartir juntos, a altas horas de la noche, la tentación de Jansson.

Su vida musical compartida terminó cuando Gunnar Sandevärn recibió una oferta que no pudo rechazar. La Norwegian American Line necesitaba un pianista y durante un par de años tocó de ida y vuelta a través del Atlántico entre Oslo y Nueva York.

‒Pero hemos seguido manteniéndonos en contacto. Cuando jugué con Ingmar Nordströms en Hamburger Börs, pude tomar prestado el primero de Frida y Benny en Estocolmo. Era un lujo, porque en ese momento Ingmar y yo dormíamos con los pies irritados en una pequeña habitación en Drottningholm. La gente apenas lo cree cuando lo cuentas ahora. Pero así era antes de que finalmente nos cambiáramos a Esso Motorhotel...

‒Y hace unos años, cuando falleció mi esposa Pia, Anni-Frid me apoyó con correos electrónicos reflexivos. Después de todo, ella misma ha pasado por cosas difíciles, el divorcio y la muerte, y ha mencionado cosas que afectan a quienes se quedan solos.

¿Cómo se han preparado usted y Anni-Frid Lyngstad para el sábado?

‒No mucho. Ella lo quiere espontáneamente. Pero he escrito una serie de puntos que planeamos abordar: las canciones que ella cantaba, los chistes que recibíamos, cómo pasábamos el rato en familia y pastoreábamos a los hijos de los demás. Luego reproduciremos los discos que Anni-Frid ha querido. "Juega tanto ABBA como quieras, porque entonces la gente será feliz", ha orado. (Spela hur mycket ABBA som helst, för då blir folk glada )Además, habrá algunos de sus primeros sencillos. "En ledig dag, "Du är så underbart rar" och "Simsalabim".

Por cierto, este último tiene como letrista a Gunnar Sandevärn.

Gunnar Sandevärn, por el contrario, no tendrá ningún piano en el escenario.

‒No, Anni-Frid es una profesional. Ella sabe lo que se necesita. No queremos correr el riesgo de que nadie se sienta tentado a pedir un número de canción.

¿Por qué pasaron 40 años antes de que Anni-Frid recibiera el premio de música del municipio de Eskilstuna?

‒Quizás porque vivió mucho tiempo en el extranjero. Quizás porque ella no se promocionó de la misma manera que nosotros que nos quedamos aquí todo el tiempo. Quizás porque es un poco tímida. Quizás el Jantelagen también haya jugado un cierto papel.

¿Por qué aceptó venir a Torshälla el sábado?

‒Tampoco puedo dar una respuesta directa a eso.

¿Había venido sin tu participación?

Gunnar Sandevärn se ríe avergonzado y dice:

‒Suena demasiado jactancioso, pero somos buenos viejos amigos y probablemente ella dijo que no iría aquí a menos que yo también quisiera estar en el escenario.

Así que el sábado vuelven a estar allí, el cantante y el pianista. Dos zorros escénicos experimentados con Torshälla, cientos de conciertos y un dúo relajado como denominador común.

El sábado, Gunnar Sandevärn es entrevistado junto con su viejo amigo y compañero músico Anni-Frid Lyngstad en el escenario al aire libre de Krusgårdsparken en Torshälla.

Foto: ¡Fotógrafo desaparecido!

Gunnar Sandevärn

Es: Profesor jubilado de sueco y música.

No es: Retirado de la música. Toca en el Superduo y en el Storbandet de Lilla y toca música en residencias de ancianos de la parroquia de Torshälla. "Estoy muy agradecido a mi papá que me enseñó a tocar el piano"

Año: 75.

Made: Músico a tiempo completo en Ingmar Nordström. Espectáculos de taberna en Hamburger Börs, Berna y el Príncipe Heredero. Touring folk parks, tocado con Hasse & Tage, lanzó 12 LP, siete de los cuales fueron oro y platino. Escribió alrededor de 100 letras. La lista es aún más larga, pero no todo encaja aquí...

Actualidad: Entrevistado junto con Anni-Frid Lyngstad en un escenario al aire libre en Torshälla el sábado 19 de agosto. 2017

https://www.ekuriren.se/nyheter/ovrigt/artikel/gunnar-och-abba-frida-aterforenas-i-torshalla-pa-lordag/r4o4ekoj

Gunnar och ABBA-Frida återförenas i Torshälla på lördag

På lördag kliver Gunnar Sandevärn upp på en scen i Torshälla tillsammans med ABBA-stjärnan Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Det är inte första gången precis. I mitten av 1960-talet hände det att de intog scenen åtta gånger i veckan. Sju kvällar och så en extraspelning!



Stadsparken i Eskilstuna 1965. Anni-Frid Lyngstad tillsammans med Ragnar Fredriksson på bas och Gunnar Sandevärn på piano.

Foto: Privat

Övrigt

2017-08-03 15:32

Eva Axelsson

‒Det dansades överallt och varenda restaurang ville ha en orkester. På den tiden fanns hur mycket jobb som helst för en musiker.

Tillsammans med Anni-Frid Lyngstad och hennes förste man Ragnar Fredriksson kuskade Gunnar Sandevärn Mälardalen runt i en gammal Volvo Duett. Bilen tillhörde mattfirman som Ragnars familj drev och Gunnar minns kalla vinternätter i duettens baksäte på väg hem från sena spelningar.

‒Vi åkte i scenkläderna, tunn skjorta, kavaj och byxor, oavsett årstid. Och det var alltid Anni-Frid som körde. Jag och Ragnar halvsov i baksätet, trötta efter spelningen och efter att ha släpat instrument och högtalare fram och tillbaka från bilen. Förutom motorljudet och skramlet från berlockerna på Anni-Frids armband när hon växlade, var det knäpptyst i bilen.

Men vi tar det från början: När Gunnar Sandevärn startade sin orkester - döpt just till Gunnar Sandevärns orkester - hade han redan en hel del koll på sångfågeln från Torshälla.

‒Min pappa var kantor och skollärare och hade berättat om att hans körlektioner ofta avslutades med att klassen föreslog: "Låt Anni-Frid sjunga". Själv hörde jag henne första gången 1960 i läroverkets gymnastiksal inne i Eskilstuna. Hon var bara 15 år då, men redan en fullfjädrad sångerska.

Han startade sin orkester 1964, samma år som Ragnar Fredriksson och Anni-Frid Lyngstad gift sig.

‒När de åkte på smekmånad fick jag låna Ragges bil och drog Sörmland runt och fixade jobb. När de kom hem från Kanarieöarna var vi helt fullbokade. Vi spelade på danskvällar i Eskilstuna, Enköping, Köping, Västerås och Stockholm.

Gunnar Sandevärn förde ordentlig bok över både spelningar och gage och har fortfarande samtliga kontrakt kvar i sina gömmor. Således går det efter lite bläddrande att utläsa att gaget för en kvälls underhållning på restaurang Lido i Eskilstuna den 18 april 1966 var 75 kronor per orkestermedlem. Själv fick Gunnar Sandevärn fem kronor extra såsom varande kapellmästare.

Alla tre hade andra jobb att sköta och dessutom små barn därhemma. Det var riktiga hundår som krävde både energi och en hel del barnvakt. De många kvällarna hemifrån tärde dessutom på äktenskapet minns Gunnar Sandevärn som bara var 19 år när han gifte sig första gången.

Men musiken gick inte att hålla sig ifrån och trots att trion i Duetten så småningom upplöstes så hade det oemotståndligt roliga slitet framför mikrofonerna svetsat dem samman för livet.

‒Vi hade inte tid att umgås med så många andra än varandra. Fest och avkoppling för oss var att någon gång sitta ned efter en spelning och sent på natten dela på en Janssons frestelse tillsammans.

Deras gemensamma musikerliv tog slut när Gunnar Sandevärn fick ett erbjudande han inte kunde tacka nej till. Norska Amerikalinjen behövde en pianist och under ett par år spelade han sig fram och tillbaka över Atlanten mellan Oslo och New York.

‒Men vi har fortsatt att hålla kontakten. När jag spelade med Ingmar Nordströms på Hamburger Börs fick jag låna Frida och Bennys etta i Stockholm. Det var lyx, för just då sov jag och Ingmar skavfötters i ett litet rum ute i Drottningholm. Det tror ju folk knappt på när man berättar det nu. Men så var det innan vi så småningom bytte upp oss till Esso motorhotell...

‒Och för några år sedan, när min fru Pia gick bort, stöttade Anni-Frid med genomtänkta mejl. Hon har ju själv gått igenom svåra saker, skilsmässa och dödsfall, och tog upp saker som drabbar den som blir ensam.

Hur har du och Anni-Frid Lyngstad förberett er inför lördagen?

‒Inte mycket. Hon vill ha det spontant. Men jag har skrivit ned ett antal punkter som vi planerar att ta upp: Sångerna hon sjöng, gagerna vi fick, hur vi umgicks familjevis och vallade varandras barn. Sedan ska vi spela skivor som Anni-Frid har önskat sig. "Spela hur mycket ABBA som helst, för då blir folk glada" har hon bett. Dessutom blir det några av hennes tidiga singlar. "En ledig dag", "Du är så underbart rar" och "Simsalabim".

Den sistnämnda har för övrigt Gunnar Sandevärn som textförfattare.

Något piano kommer Gunnar Sandevärn däremot inte att ha med sig upp på scenen.

‒Nej, Anni-Frid är proffs. Hon vet vad som krävs. Vi vill inte riskera att någon lockas att fråga efter ett sångnummer.

Varför dröjde det 40 år innan Anni-Frid fick Eskilstuna kommuns musikpris?

‒Kanske för att hon bott utomlands länge. Kanske för att hon inte marknadsfört sig på samma sätt som vi som funnits kvar här hela tiden. Kanske för att hon är lite blyg. Kanske har även Jantelagen spelat en viss roll.

Hur kommer det sig att hon tackat ja till att komma till Torshälla på lördag?

‒Det kan jag inte heller ge något rakt svar på.

Hade hon kommit utan din medverkan?

Gunnar Sandevärn skrattar generat och säger:

‒Det låter alldeles för skrytigt, men vi är ju gamla goda vänner och hon har nog faktiskt sagt att hon inte skulle åka hit om inte jag också ville vara med på scenen.

Så på lördag står de där igen, sångerskan och pianisten. Två rutinerade scenrävar med Torshälla, hundratals spelningar och en utkyld duett som gemensam nämnare.

På lördag intervjuas Gunnar Sandevärn tillsammans med sin gamla vän och musikerkollega Anni-Frid Lyngstad på utomhusscenen i Krusgårdsparken i Torshälla.

Foto: Fotograf saknas!

Gunnar Sandevärn

Är: Pensionerad lärare i svenska och musik.

Är inte: Pensionerad från musiken. Spelar i Superduon och Lilla storbandet samt musicerar på äldreboenden via Torshälla församling. "Jag är jättetacksam mot min pappa som lärde mig att spela piano"

År: 75.

Gjort: Heltidsmusiker hos Ingmar Nordström. Krogshower på Hamburger Börs, Berns och Kronprinsen. Turnerat i folkparker, spelat med Hasse & Tage, gett ut 12 LP-skivor, varav sju guld och platina. Skrivit ett 100-tal låttexter. Listan är ännu längre, men allt får inte plats här...

Aktuell: Intervjuas tillsammans med Anni-Frid Lyngstad på en utomhusscen i Torshälla på lördag, den 19 augusti.

Björn Ulvaeus in an interview l Spiegel

 

https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/musik/abba-star-bjoern-ulvaeus-pop-groesse-spricht-ueber-scheidungen-und-friedrich-merz-a-4c9c74a6-b6ef-4c52-a2e2-a228d57dcf57?sara_ref=re-so-app-sh

link to the article: https://abbaregistrobox.blogspot.com/2025/04/star-bjorn-ulvaeus.htm

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