news from berlin, you can find much more on our website, d, w dot com. ah, you are the same way when people grin from year to year scream with joy and can't help but dance. ah, mm mm. no matter what age they are. then the reason for that might just be about oh good. i love our buck, brilliant bough. mm hm. animal, my mom's favorite very, very good. these days you, you don't find very many who actually dislike about. but you find a lot of people who kind of like alba and a lot of people to really do. it's an amazing phenomenon. everyone loves alba,

their music and their style. no one it seems actually hates something a lot of musicians can only dream of. so how did the foreign likable swedes do it? let's find out. with where does the band stand today after their reunion and sold out concerts in london? the social media generation loves abigail. the bands own tick tock channel featuring videos from the past and present has more than 2000000 followers, which isn't bad. but the hash tag abba alone has billions of views. and alba is among the bands whose songs are most often covered by others.

youtube features can cover versions of their songs in every genre imaginable. i was see, i teach generation spawns new ab fans. so what's behind the band and during appeal in the sound, i guess especially the 2 guys voices. and maybe that's what appeals, but it's very difficult to say it's, it's really it's for other people to try and explain that challenge accepted young . we spoke to a music journalist, an opera singer, a former eurovision winner, a fashion designer, song writers, composers and producers. all of them know as a personally and live in stockholm. a 2 couples behind about benny and any freed, nita, and beyond. we're not always as well loved as they are today. in the beginning,

a lot of journalists and fellow musicians thought the band was totally uncalled. back in the seventy's, in sweden i'm, i was a no go, ah, you should definitely not listen to how by shouldn't praise them. they were always neglected by the media. while the media treated them, i was say in the beginning, especially very badly, ah, because they were so commercial and there it says they want to be, they want it to be world famous politics and anti war. and, you know, you're not supposed to make money and i know that the moose, you know, and, and in some farm land, you know, where you're supposed to be genuine and all that stuff. so yeah, so abba ly,

they were in there. they were in their writing room on their island. oh, the 2 male members of alba, who wrote all the songs were seen as being a bit too business savvy. and then there was there stage where a combination of glam rock, folklore, and disco. you can still buy some of these classic outfits, but only in costume shops, which only goes to prove how recognizable the abba look is. i think they oh little bit too much actually. but it was not sexy and it was not cool. it pushed crowd. ah, this is so crazy. yeah, it's i corner while 19 seventy's rockstar is gained in for me for trashing hotel rooms in a drunken rampage. the members of alba had a squeaky clean family friendly image, married, well behaved,

harmless scandals free. but while some mock them for that, their concerts like here in london were attended by some very famous fam, abba songs, apparently had something that appealed to their hipaa rockstar colleagues. no one really saw what happened back at wembley stadium london. 97th 8th. at backstage was joe was drummer from backlash, who was

a big abad myra and bruce, princeton was also a big fan of ama. lots of people understood very like that was like masterful talking music. do you have people like elvis costello and other pop writers going like we've always respected ab a but we couldn't say so when they were 20 when they were 22, like elvis costello was, he couldn't come out in the press and go like yeah, i've been listening to, you know, super trooper like all day, you know, that wouldn't really work. but, but they were i with that's no longer a problem. even dave throw has described his band to fighters as a cross between a punk rock band and they lung. but actually abs, coolness,

transformation didn't start until 10 years after they broke up. and it was the gay club scene that celebrated their campy nist and helped usher in a revival of others music in the 1994 australian film, the adventures of priscilla, queen of the desert. ava's joyful kitch is raised to a new level. it becomes a key to personal freedom a with

where most loyal fan base is, the gazing indefinitely. and i think that's the way our boss creates venue cbc. typical happy sad is something that isa part of like gay contouring in, in the longer the perspective and of course, all that kitchen and costumes, so, so obligation, he said extremely, in par, important for the life now. but just as important was the phil muriel's wedding, also from 994 and also from australia. the country with the most loyal alba found next to germany. here to the band itself never appears dancing to a soundtrack of the still an cool music of alba, a pair of social outcasts turned out to be the true win. ah

ah, ah, criticized for became reasons to love them. but none of that would have been possible without their pop perfection. abbe did nothing by house. they worked with only the very best musicians and from the start wanted the fullest sound for guitars instead of 2 to drum kits instead of one more of a small orchestra than just a band. songs like waterloo and dancing clean wouldn't have been possible without the wall of sound technique.

i didn't invent it, but they did make it their own. you listen to those production ideas and go like, why is everything so clear? even though i know that there are 2 or 3 different keyboards and there's a more, rambo, and there's this big piano underneath. and there's this wall of frieda anatomy. like, why does this still sound so clean? you know, as opposed to just being like this mess of glop, even though it's like a lots and lots of things. they thought it through. it's always an introduction verse. then the other story is different. ah. because those that the middle 8 is the extra rush using a chorus and into the little extra thing onto it. this ah,

typical things are now both wrong is usually for me. it's the melancholy, it's, it's, they're both sad and happy at the same time with pretty much all of them. oh, and i think it's in the music and it's playful. the songs are very playful. and they're very clear on the, if the staccato in the songs are very, are tucked up the dirt earth data. you know, it's very alba, you know, it's sort of classics meat sir, something else. but i think above is inspired by classical music from beginning, with slipping through my fingers. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. flipping through my fingers, ah,

it could be tre called sky. it could be true but true, mom could be browse. i mean it's, it's this wonderful melodies. it makes me cry every time. here. they've sold hundreds of millions of albums and released more than a 100 tracks. a mere fraction of the songs they wrote, some of them give insight into the bands private lives, with parents lyrics reflecting what was happening in the 2 couples, marriages. they were very swedish in away the songs were about for life. and we followed them into the success, into their marriages into the divorce and to their sudden end dealing with the end of his marriage and the possible end of his band. buran poured his sadness and disappointment into lyrics for his ex wife at nita to sing becoming her favorite song. few songs have taken such

a melancholy look at the meaning of relationships. ah, son, riding aside abba would be nothing without the voices of the 2 singers. not only does each have an impressive vocal range, but they also harmonized perfectly. every now and then in the history of music, voices meet up and i think in the arbor context, you know, something magical happened if i remember correctly. and they also used, you know,

they speed it up a tape recorder. so things like that when they recorded their voices and the and, and slow them down again and that's sort of created. and that the aba sound, they found in a 3rd voice. i mean, it's very high as she still is a, it's so fragile. but still very, very powerful and i think that's, that's her secret. and if you could use the alto and his even deep now her voice. huh. oh. c oh. 6 c i mean, the 3rd voice is nathan, honestly combined together, those voices singing those song. they helped make the swedish music scene, world famous sweden. it's one of the most successful at pop exporting countries in the whole wide world and utmost differently. the ones who kicked it off when

they had their big breakthrough, $974.00 at their new revision which followed the when rock sets and the ace of base and the card again, sand mandojano. but i'm, i was the 1st at act from man known english country who made it really big beyond and benny setting a tone for writing, whether people wanna acknowledge it or not. it is that it's the most out of the some writing here based at foundation, restoring a theatre is install coleman and the owning damn. and i'm trying to get, keep the music scene alive and, and help the music industry or musical industry or by doing production. shannon producing things and i think by keeping their own brand alive, they're also at the same time working on helping. yeah. swedish music industry and

general i think other certainly is very enterprising they may have seemed unassuming, back in 1972 in one of their 1st tv appearances. but behind that wasn't unwavering commitment to market. i went new mother as nieto skipped a german t v. appearance to stay with her baby, the show had to go off her friend ingo. brandon took her place, hiding behind her hair and looking less and comfortable. but no one would notice, right. but seriously, it was their videos that were truly innovative, especially for the 1970. nearly a decade before mtv revolutionized the format. these days, some of their videos have been watched hundreds of millions of times on youtube.

with ah ah, they wanted to be stars and they are, they really, you know, tried project, you know, the music and this start amendment, the clothes and they took pictures, a lots of pictures, so many pictures. if you look at abilene, i mean they, to me, i can't believe how many pictures they took all the time. i mean, it looks like they didn't do anything else than take pictures. after both couples divorced the band decided to call it quits in 1982. but every few years they

managed to land a few cruise without ever taking the stage. in 1092, they released a greatest hits album. alba, gold british pop dual eraser released an album of avar covers and it was clear habit was essential for any party with but buren and benny since there was more to be gained. now things started to happen in the ninety's. the word change dates i larva, and up of himself believe that we have so we can, we can go on. so that's very important. what happened when vera non existing band at the time then since it was all going so well and beerin and benny had been successful with other musicals, it was a no brainer to create. mamma mia, the musical. ah.

the production premiered in london on april 6th, 1999. i think even the crickets much like they kept so evolving and kept thinking how can we do more of that and can we? and i think they made more money from mommy of the musical than they have from the, from, from the record saves old mama, mia was such a success that hollywood came calling. the film version premiered in 2008 and featured meryl streep and pierce brosnan, singing lou abas songs carried the stars do the sun with the light heartedness that enchanted her global audience. the sweetest mentality is really fantastic because we don't care but famous people when they did erm. mamma mia, the film air with meryl streep and all these big stars, i realized that mary street was actually more starstruck them all by themselves.

the inevitable sequel followed a decade later, launching out his old hurts, back into the charts. in the meantime, the band had another plan to enshrine their legendary status, a monument to themselves. it kicked off in 2008 with the traveling exhibition. have a world feature in memorabilia and an early version of today's advertisers, which fans could join on stage. then on may 7th, 2013 above the museum opened its doors to the public in the swedish capital stock horn. and once again, the band came new young, found tourists now come from around the world to visit the museum. there been very thinking about it in their business manner. i think mostly bjorn is a very business minded man. benny is moreover, all the music all the time. and he has his own little band,

replaced polk music and but i mean he's also part of the big musical better. but bjorn, i think is the more more business minded guy seeing how bjorn deals with his investments and what he does actually with innovation and with gaming and all that other stuff . because he's created this world for himself and that be in the movies and everything. i mean, it's no, you can't be more productive than that. actually. part of that is the development of virtual reality patterns using motion capture recordings of singing and dancing standards as well as the original band members, the digital doppelganger, are not just museum ready, but stage ready as well. have announced the release of 2 new songs and 2018 for concerts to be performed by the avatars. yet another qu, there are techno artes in san francisco. building my head as we speak,

it all came together in an incredible come back in september 2021. when the band recorded a new studio album together above voyage. no one had expected it and the response was suitably sensation with whole voyage. because it's been a voyage in children. ah, the pressure was on for the 1st concert in may 2022 in london. if at all failed, the album legend would be tarnished the purpose built venue. inexpensive flop, and the avatars solis, empty reflections. but once again, other everything, right? seeing these images who still remembers the early versions of the avatars. it's not a game changer. it will be a milestone. i think in,

in music entertainment, i think. yeah, and i've never had such a good time as i'm happy now, but i, i think i'm a happier man now than i was in the seventy's. oh, whether it's song writing, marketing, or crafting their image. it all seems to have come easy for abba, yet they've always state grounded. in the end, abba stands for one thing above all, and it's perhaps the recent everyone loves them. it's the memories. when people hear abba, they think of their youth. i was on a friend when i was young, denovia was pick one of the girls and i was, i was on the fleet. i'm originally from uganda to between 71 to 79. uganda was in a very odd thomas state. if there's anything that i can remember, alba was always in the airways. i don't think there's any other group that we're playing so much than about music. and that goes for basically all the sort of top 40 stations and sweden still. and a lot of people to day cohen, c, mama,

me an i don't, i don't, maybe they don't even know what i bet it's, you know, i think it's my mommy, you know. so i think over the generations, if it's good enough it'll, it'll come through. if everybody could write a song like alber all, everybody would now not the seventy's, of course, because it wasn't cool. mere one of the most covert artist of all time. just like to beat us friday nights in the light. so it's a lucky twist of fate for ab that their songs have remained so timeless. where the play the right music in this when you come to look for king, do you agree? ah, but john himself says it best in the story about these, or people who came together by

a chance to beautiful women with fantastic voices should meet and fall in love with 2 guys who happened to be so bright and that they should follow mcgrew. and that their music would live on. i mean, what are the odds against that? that's a wonderful story. yeah. ah. ah, ah washer. i see. mm mm. with

mm ah. with awe with a 77 percent as bringing you an episode full of female power. i don't music that people love because i love me and i love people who fun both as a ranking to be more connected to the culture africa,

which also makes me inspires me. 3 women, 3 powerful messages. the 77 percent on d, w. a revolution on the street. really thinking urban environmental, european fearing to leave the way. ah, you are cars, more security careers, faces and happier, healthier people. read in 60 minutes on d, w. ah, every journey is full of surprises. we've gone all out to give you some tips with. i'm in your northern

most count, please. ah, 3 times long past, but still very much alive. fi that when you travel your guy to his official house was in germany, europe. i recognized where exactly was fun. i learned a lot arts culture history d, w, travel extremely worth a visit. ah. hello there and welcome. it's time for another edition of the 77 percent. sure. well we tackle the important issues affecting the lives of africa's youth. my name is wanda camara and as always it is such a pleasure to have you here.