PRIVACY   CONTACT ABBA News Archive 2019 Here are the old messages from our ABBA- News page from the year 2019. Books have been moved to the Book List and obsolete announcements for TV shows and concerts have been deleted. December 23, 2019 December 16, 2019 December 2, 2019 Agnetha's first album "Agnetha" will be re-released on CD on January 10, 2020. Special thanks to Peter Kauczor! Maite Kelly and Roland Kaiser presented their song "Klinget hell ihr Glocken" at the Adventsshow in German TV on Saturday. Björn sent in a lovely message, recorded with his mobile phone. You can watch it here. Björn said in a German interview that the two new ABBA songs will be published in 2020. Here is a newspaper article with a text released in several other papers as well. November 22, 2019 The Consulate General of Sweden and the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong arrange the event Swedish Winter Dinner at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club on December 10. Benny will make a special guest appearance and musical artist Niklas Asknergård will perform. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! November 18, 2019 Björn Ulvaeus presented a new project which premieres on 26 June 2020 at Cirkus in Stockholm - 'Pippi at Cirkus', a magnificent musical circus show based on Astrid Lindgren's beloved story about Pippi Longstocking. Lyrics are written by Björn Ulvaeus to music by Sister Luc-Gabrielle, Vasilij Solovjov-Sedoj amongst others - and previously released instrumental music by Benny Andersson! As of 25 November 2019 you can get your tickets on www.cirkus.se . More on this new project will be published in the next issue of . November 15, 2019 Mamma Mia! The Musical will return to Operettenhaus in Hamburg in October 2020 for one year. After its premiere in Hamburg on 3rd November 2002, it was a big success at Operettenhaus for 5 years with more shows running in Germany in Stuttgart, Essen, Oberhausen and Berlin. Here is an article about Björn and the company Pop House, who bought the Hasselbacken hotel on Djurgården (where amongst other great spots ABBA The Museum & the venues Circus, Skansen and Gröna Lund are located). The article is in Swedish only. November 14, 2019 This limited edition single will be released on the 6th December 2019 on 7" vinyl to celebrate New Year 2020. Featuring ABBA's "Happy New Year" and "Felicidad", and pressed on clear vinyl, numbered, with a limited run of 4000 copies! November 6, 2019 Our new ABBA Fan Club Magazine No. 88 has been printed and is on its way to all members. Look forward to 36 A4 pages in colour with exclusive photos in unique quality. As always, the issue includes all news, special reports, exclusive unpublished photos plus a great poster with an exclusive unpublished photo of ABBA from their surprise concert in Landskrona in May 1979. Contents: News Extra with all the news Special report: Es ist doch viel schöner zu zwein - 30 Years on from German Reunification Special report about ABBA's Concert in Landskrona in May 1979 with exclusive interview by photographer Eje Sjölander and many unpublished photos Reader's Story about a meeting with ABBA in Munich on October 27, 1979 BAO 2019 Concert report Mamma Mia! The Party - Opening in London 50 Years - Special Songbook with songs by Agnetha Fältskog Competition and much more! Like always, we are looking forward to your feedback in our guestbook, on Facebook and via mail.                 Thomas Johansson, legendary concert arranger at EMA Telstar and Live Nation has worked with most major Swedish and international artists for decades. He has not been willing to write a book about his career, though many, including Björn Ulvaeus, have persuaded him to do one. Now he finally surprises us with a book, Rock'n'Roll Circus, which he has written together with Expressen's Mats Olsson. The book is no traditional biography, it is about concerts and music. Johansson has kept set lists of the concerts he has produced. 25 set lists were chosen and Johansson and Olsson tell backstage stories behind them. Like how the arranger of Roxette's Paraguay concert had sold 40.000 tickets for the arena of 30.000. And how the Nobel Prize which Bob Dylan refused to accept finally got delivered to him. Thomas Johansson has not wanted to write any scandal book about artists. As Björn writes in the opening words of "Rock'n'Roll Circus", Thomas Johansson would never take up confidential things. Special thanks to Pentti Koponen! On October 23rd Björn announced at a press conference that Mamma Mia! The Party will premiere in Gothenburg at the restaurant Rondo on 28 August next year. More on the venue Rondo can be found here. It belongs to the Liseberg amusement park and is located next to the main entry. Maite Kelly & Roland Kaiser have released a German version of the song "Klinga Mina Klockor" composed by Benny with lyrics by Björn before Christmas. It is called "Klinget hell ihr Glocken". The idea to present this masterpiece in a German Christmas version came from the German lyricist Rudolf Müssig, who told Björn Ulvaeus about this. Björn was so enthusiastic about this idea that he immediately wrote the first German lyrics draft. Together with Rudolf Müssig Björn finalized the version. The song is available since November 1, 2019 on the new edition of Maite Kelly's album "Die Liebe siegt sowieso – Die HERZ Edition" and on Roland Kaiser's album "Alles oder Dich" (limited Super Deluxe Edition). October 9, 2019 Björn's reflections on Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Mamma Mia! The Musical had its third premiere in Berlin on September 9 at Theater des Westens. This fantastic musical will run until February 2020. September 27, 2019 Here is an interview with Björn about Mamma Mia! The Party he gave in London for the Swedish channel TV4. The opening of Mamma Mia! The Party in London took place on September 19. Björn and Benny, both in good humour, gave many press interviews on the blue carpet. During the party Björn shortly appeared in his original outfit from the 1977 tour - greatly appreciated by the audience. At the end of the party Björn came on stage again to thank everyone - this time in a 'normal' outfit. A complete report and more photos will follow in the next issue. Photos: Micke Bayart / September 26, 2019 CHESS på svenska will be performed 10 times at the Helsingborg Arena between June 5 and July 12, 2020. Release date for tickets is October 10. Arena capacity will be about 2.000 persons. The director is Sven Strömersten Holm and the conductor is Ulf Wadenbrandt. The role of Florence will be casted at auditions in Stockholm, Malmö and Gothenburg during autumn and the full cast announcement also takes place this autumn. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! September 14, 2019 A few years ago Benny and Ludvig produced the film Cirkeln. It was directed by Levan Akin, whose new film "And then we danced" (with Ludvig as executive producer) is Sweden's entry for the Academy Awards/Oscars. Benny attended the gala premiere on September 9 in Stockholm. ABBA music is heard in the film and Akin tells in Expressen that they got to use it for free. In the morning when the interview has been done, Benny had phoned Levan Akin telling he had liked the film and wants to meet him soon to drink coffee and talk more about the film. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! Photo: TT Agnetha's album "När en vacker tanke blir en sång" will be released on CD on October 25. Thanks to Peter Kauczor! September 5, 2019 Norwegian film director Jarle Eskedal has made a 35 minutes long documentary (called Gnisten) about Janne Schaffer. Björn appears in the documentary which has its Swedish premiere on September 29 at Nalen in Stockholm. After the screening follows a concert with a bit of ABBA music. Gnistan will be shown on SVT Play during Christmas season. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! August 30, 2019 The business community Creative House in Örebro, Sweden launches the new event Creative Talks. A successful entrepreneur tells his story about his experiences. First one on October 10 is Björn Ulvaeus who will share personal stories, anecdotes and insights. Niclas Molinder, a long time friend and business partner of Björn will be asking interesting questions. The event will be filmed and then shared in the web. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! August 27, 2019 TT has interviewed Björn at O2 in London during the preparations for MAMMA MIA! THE PARTY. Björn says that in the entertainment world you are seen nowhere if you are not seen in London or New York. If The Party is a success in London it will be taken to Las Vegas for the next. Then Hamburg or Düsseldorf. It is not decided in which order the next places will follow, but on the list are cities like Sao Paul, Tokyo and Moscow and countries like South Africa, Australia, China and South Korea. About the avatars Björn says that next year they will be seen on video and it will be in connection with the new songs. About the future of the Cirkus theatre Björn tells that probably already in October there will be big news which include theatre and spectacular things outdoors. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! August 21, 2019 The New York Times had a great report about Benny and BAO. One of Sweden's biggest film hits at Christmas is expected to be "En del av mitt hjärta" with songs from the back catalogue of Tomas Ledin. The film has been presented on Monday. Ledin tells that he spoke a little about the project with Björn Ulvaeus. There will be an attempt to distribute the film also outside Sweden. Björn has written English lyrics to some of the songs while Andreas Carlsson did most of them. The film cast has recently recorded the English versions. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! August 12, 2019 The Swedish newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen have quoted an interview with Benny talking about the planned Avatar tour: "If it happens, then somewhere in 2021. The requirements have changed. I can't say much about that." He also says that the two new ABBA songs are not finally mixed. July 25, 2019 Many thanks to Anja Bruns for these photos from BAO's concert in Gothenburg! BAO's tour started in Gothenburg today. Special thanks to Mike Wellner for sending these lovely photos from BAO's rehearsal this afternoon: July 18, 2019 In a video clip from SVT Småland news Björn talks about how he sees the current situation of Visfestivalen in Västervik. It has become just what he dreamt it to be. Castle ruins are packed and there are lots of people around it, a record number of boats in the marina and people are also listening in their boats. As for the future of the festival, Björn hopes that his colleagues and friends from abroad would come to Västervik. He will do his best but he knows from experience that it is hard to get international stars to Västervik because there is no airport. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! July 8, 2019 Our new ABBA Fan Club Magazine No. 87 has been printed and is on its way to all members. Look forward to 36 A4 pages in colour with exclusive photos in unique quality. As always, the issue includes all news, special reports, exclusive unpublished photos plus a great poster with an exclusive unpublished photo of ABBA from the Voulez-Vous photo session 1979. Contents: News Extra with all the news Special report: ABBA in Concert in Zürich 1979 - Part 3 Reader's Story Exclusive Interview with Alexandra Charles: Voulez-Vous - An Undercover Story Special report: The Game Of The Name Part 5 Hans Arnold: The Most Surrealistic ABBA Album Cover: Greatest Hits The long and winding road to a proper short band name Competition 50 Years - Special Songbook with songs by Björn Ulvaeus and much more! Like always, we are looking forward to your feedback in our guestbook, on Facebook and via mail.                 July 4, 2019 Säffleoperan has announced the cast of CHESS på svenska. Anatolij: Joel Zerpe Florence: Elisabeth Rustad Freddie: Jonas Wåhlin Svetlana: Jenny Norén The Arbiter: Kaj Hagstrand Molokov: Thomas Khilström CHESS will open at Säffleoperan on October 5, 2019. Directed by Johan Hwatz (CHESS ensemble and Freddie understudy in Helsinki, Arvid in Kristina från Duvemåla in Stockholm). Already 90% of the tickets have been sold and three extra performances have been added. On July 20, Björn will be attending Move Me (Music Film Nights by the sea) in his home town Västervik talking about the late Swedish singer Ted Gärdestad. He will be joined on stage by Janne Schaffer and Hannes Holm, whose film about Ted will be shown. Benny and Lars Rudolfsson have given an interview for newspapers in the area of Eskilstuna. Special thanks to Pentti Koponen! June 21, 2019 The Swedish paper 'Aftonbladet' published a statement from Benny who denies recent rumours about an entire new ABBA album, which made the news in a British newspaper. The previously announced two new songs are likely to be released some time later during the year. We will keep you updated. Swedish newspaper 'Dagens Nyheter' revealed some more facts on 'Mamma Mia! The Party': London premiere 19 September 2019 Hamburg most likely around Easter 2020 Las Vegas most likely during autumn 2020 keeps you updated! German Heel Company has produced another wonderful ABBA Calendar for 2020. Stay tuned for ABBA No. 87. We will have a couple of calendars in our prize competition then. You may remember that we had an article on Susie Webb and her brilliant album "Bossa Loves ABBA" a couple of issues ago. Here is a wonderful video of her singing "Knowing me knowing you" in bossa style. We are happy to say that this video was produced by Ophelia Van Wijmeersch, daughter of Stany Van Wijmeersch of the great books "We all love ABBA" and "Let's talk about ABBA". We met Ophelia 10 years ago at the blue carpet of "Mamma Mia!" in Essen when she already did a lot of filming. Now she has grown up to a beautiful lady and can be proud of what she did! Well done! May 24, 2019 As announced in our last issue ABBA No. 86, our members Bé Annen (Netherlands) and Ralf Hendricks (Germany) worked together on a Dutch TV program called "Verzamelkoorts". This program will be broadcasted on Monday, May 27, 2019 at 9:30 PM. Photos © Bé Annen May 9, 2019 Mono Music AB just announced the new CD "Bästa Låtarna" by Benny Anderssons Orkester, Helen Sjöholm and Tommy Körberg. It will be released on June 14, the vinyl edition will come a bit later. Track list: 1    Cirkus Finemang 2    Lyckan kommer, lyckan går (New) 3    Vår sista dans 4    Det är vi ändå 5    Du är min man 6    Fait Accompli 7    En dag i sänder 8    Nu mår jag mycket bättre 9    Story Of A Heart 10    En natt i Köpenhamn 11    Om du var jag (New) April 25, 2019 April 24, 2019 "I Have A Dream" - Child Convention For School Levels An unique collaboration between ABBA The Museum and the national school project Make Music Matter will give students throughout the country in Sweden the opportunity to learn about Swedish music history and their own rights at the same time. The collaboration is in 2019-2020 and has the name "Make Music Matter! I Have A Dream". This year, the ABBA song "I Have a Dream" fills 40 years (album Voulez Vous, release 23 / 4-1979) while the Convention on the Rights of the Child celebrates 30 years. Through the collaboration "Make Music Matter! I Have A Dream", students in the school inspired by the Convention on the Rights of the Child express their dreams by creating their own songwriter to the song "I Have A Dream". During the Children's Convention Day, November 20, 2019, at ABBA The Museum, students will then be presented with their musical interpretations of the song. All four ABBA members support this collaboration. - It is a fantastic opportunity to do this together with ABBA The Museum 2019-2020. Make Music Matter! I Have A Dream "focuses on children's dreams and rights, while musical creativity, entrepreneurship and digitality are central areas of knowledge in the project. Through the project, the students also develop their knowledge of ABBA, a group whose music has been and still is very important for Swedish music around the world", says Göran Nikolausson, project manager for Make Music Matter! I Have A Dream, Linnaeus University. The school project Make Music Matter! I Have A Dream starts in early September 2019 and continues until 2020. Photo © ABBA The Museum BBC Radio 2 broadcasted a programme called "Let's ABBA Party" yesterday. BBC Radio 2's special programme Let's ABBA Party (12pm-2pm), presented by Nicki Chapman, revealed that ABBA's 1976 album Arrival, which features hit songs such as Dancing Queen, Knowing Me Knowing You and Money, Money, Money is the band's best-selling studio album in the UK to date. The programme, which also featured brand new interviews with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, revealed a specially commissioned chart, ranking the UK sales of ABBA's eight studio albums, from Waterloo to The Visitors. Speaking on the programme, ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus said: "I have to say when I learned that Arrival was the best-selling ABBA album – apart from ABBA Gold of course - I was quite surprised. I didn't think it would be that one. But on the other hand it is the first complete album we did, I think, after winning Eurovision. We suddenly had complete artistic freedom. And on Arrival, as with the albums that came after, every single song was written for that particular album... The Arrival album is definitely one of the best. The sleeve is photographed in an airfield very close to Stockholm. I don't know if we ever took off in that helicopter or not!" Listen to the programme here. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, ABBA's Voulez-Vous will be reissued as a multi-format release on June 14th! Watch the trailer here. April 6, 2019 ABBA On Record – Packaged Promoted Reviewed by Carl Magnus Palm widens the scope of the author's most recent book, the critically acclaimed and award-winning "ABBA – The Complete Recording Sessions", by taking a look at what happened with ABBA's music once it had left the recording studio: single by single, album by album. It will present the stories behind the iconic album sleeves, explore how the record companies worked with ABBA releases in presenting them to the record-buying public, show what kind of success – or lack thereof – they enjoyed, and present a selection of review excerpts to give a flavour of how the singles and albums were received by the media at the time. The book also features supplementary sections. Perhaps the most exciting of these examines the contents of several hours of tapes from the archives of Michael B. Tretow, ABBA's trusted sound engineer. Tretow's on-the-side tapes captured in real time what was going on during a recording session, and these revelatory tapes also feature alternate versions of familiar songs, along with previously unheard tunes that were never recorded properly. To learn more and to order your copy, please visit abbaonrecord.com. Thanks to Carl Magnus Palm! "Om du var jag" is the first single from the upcoming album "Bästa låtarna" by Benny Anderssons Orkester. Release date: April 5 Singer: Helen Sjöholm Music: Benny Andersson, lyrics: Björn Ulvaeus Producer: Benny Andersson A Mono Music production - MMCD S-148 You can listen to it on Spotify. April 5, 2019 April 3, 2019 Björn said in an interview for Danish newspaper "Ekstra Bladet" that the new ABBA songs will be released in autumn. It took them a lot of time to work on the video with avatars of the four for the song. See also German articles about it here and here. Special thanks to Michael Düring and Martin Schneider! March 24, 2019 Björn has given an interview to MTF-Director Andrew Dubber. He talked about his career, music production gear, digital avatars, the downsides of fame, the role of technology in creativity etc. Listen to the interview here. Photo © musictechfest.net March 23, 2019 The tribute band AbbaMania The Show performed on Friday at the Gerry Weber Stadium. You had an excellent view from absolutely every seat of this fantastic show. Special highlights were the "Acoustic Medley", the "Symphonic Medley", and especially "I'm A Marionette", a real goosebump moment. Saxophone player Ulf Andersson and guitarist Janne Schaffer (both performing on some original ABBA recordings) were announced as highlights, but the true stars of the evening were the singers Maria Höglund ("Frida") and Ulrika Maria Gustafson ("Agnetha") with their wonderful voices and performances. Jonas Gideon ("Björn") showed his effort while Andreas Maurer ("Benny") somehow seemed not to be present. The audience was enthusiastic and the second act was full of well-deserved standing ovations! The band is now touring until March 24, 2019 and will return to Germany, Austria and Switzerland in May 2020. Photos: ABBA Fan Club Josefin and Marie Nilsson's Hej och hå, kan du älska mej ändå will be released as a digital single by Mono Music in the end of March. The song was written for the sisters' last show together, SYSTRARNA SISTERS, in 2015. In the press release Marie Nilsson tells that they have performed the 1990 classic Älska Mej (written by Benny and Marie) at countless weddings, funerals and christenings during the years. When working with SYSTRARNA SISTERS the Nilsson sisters felt that maybe they should write a kind of Älska Mej 2. Their dear friend Benny wrote a melody that suited perfectly for Marie and Josefin. Marie writes that Benny has stood for Josefin and her all the time, even during their very hardest times in life. Recording of "Hej och hå, kan du älska mej ändå" took place at Mono Music Studio in February 2015, a week before the premiere of the show. Josefin sang lead vocals, Benny and Marie the backing vocals and Bernard Löhr recorded. The session felt fun and easy. SYSTRARNA SISTERS was played 54 times at a sold out regional theatre of Visby. Josefin Nilsson passed away on February 29, 2016. Swedish TV's "K Special" has made a documentary about the life of Josefin Nilsson. "Hej och hå, kan du älska mej ändå" will be heard in the programme. "K Special" comes to SVT Play on Friday 22 when Josefin would have become 50 years old, and will be seen on TV on March 29. You can download a PDF from Mono Music. Thanks to Pentti Koponen! March 7, 2019 Special thanks to Görel Hanser, ABBA's management, who told us that they have no comments about Björn mentioning to Dan Wootton that he and Benny are writing new songs for ABBA. Görel told us that the release info will be posted on ABBA's social media in due course. March 1, 2019 Our new ABBA Fan Club Magazine No. 86 has been printed and is on its way to all members. Look forward to 36 A4 pages in colour with exclusive photos in unique quality. As always, the issue includes all news, special reports, exclusive unpublished photos plus a great poster with an exclusive unpublished photo of ABBA from March 1980 in Tokio, Japan. Contents: News Extra with all the news Competition Special report about the 1973 tour Special report about the press kits from the 1974 tour Special report/Reader's story about the 1977 tour Special report: The Game Of The Name Part 4 Special report: ABBA in Concert in Zürich 1979 - Part 2 50 Years - Special Songbook with songs by Anni-Frid Lyngstad and much more! Like always, we are looking forward to your feedback in our guestbook, on Facebook and via mail.             February 20, 2019 Agnetha's album "Som jag är" will be released on CD on March 15, 2019. Thanks to Peter Kauczor! February 4, 2019 As reported in our ABBA Fan Club magazine No. 85 (autumn 2018), the release of the two new ABBA songs will be delayed. "I still have faith in you" and "Don't shut me down" will probably be published in autumn 2019. The avatar project is more difficult than expected and may eventually start in 2020! BAO will do a summer tour in 2019 again. Tickets can be purchased online from www.blixten.se/bao as well as www.eventim.se. 25 July – Gothenburg, Trädgårdsföreningen 26 July – Helsingborg, Sofiero 27 July – Kalmar, Skälby Gård 28 July – Linköping, Bergs slussar 31 July – Leksand, Sammilsdalsgropen 1 August – Eskilstuna, Sundbyholms slott 2 August – Stockholm, Skansen 3 August – Trosa, Tullgarns slott ABBA The Museum has a announced a new temporary exhibition which opens on 6 April, 2019, taking you behind the scenes of the Mamma Mia! movies. Tuesday saw the opening of Watson's Bar at Benny Andersson’s Hotel Rival in Stockholm. Photo: cawamedia We have deleted some old messages. If you found this page by a search engine, don't miss the whole site! You will find the old messages from the last years in our News Archive 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005 and 2004.

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