a look behind the scenes of what is probably the most famous band in the world. parks 21 next on d w. how about taking out the race? you could even take a chance on was rearing to, ah, don't expect a happy ending. literature list a 100 german oh, same way when people grinned from ear to ear, screamed with joy and can't help but dance. with no matter what age they are. then the reason for that might just be about

oh, very good. i love buffy brilliant bump. and my mom's favorite very, very good these days are you, you don't find very many who actually dislike about, but you find a lot of people who kind of like a lot of people to really do. it's an amazing phenomenon. every one loves abba, their music and their style. no one it seems actually hates. something a lot of musicians can only dream of. so how did the 4 likable swedes do it? let's find out. with where does the fans stand today? after their reunion and sold out concerts in london?

the social media generation loves about the balance on tick tock channel featuring videos from the past and present has more than 2000000 followers. which isn't bad. but the hash tag about loan has billions of views and alba is among the bands whose songs are most often covered by others. you tube features countless cover ver, of their songs in every genre imaginable. i see that, oh, once that c g been dancing with each generation, spawns new ab fans. so what's behind the bands and during appeal, 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 you're a vision winner, a fashion designer, song writers, composers and producers. all of them know ab, personally, and live in stockholm. a 2 couples behind about benny and any freed, anita, 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, and no go, ah, you should definitely not listen to her by. i shouldn't praise them. they were always neglected by the media. while the media treated them, i would say in the beginning, especially very badly because

they were so commercial and their since they wanted to be, they want it to be world famous politics and anti war. and, you know, you're not supposed to make money with the, 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 alba, like they were in there. they were in their riding 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're all

her little bit too much actually. but it was not sexy and it was not cool. it was probably, ah, this is so crazy. yeah, it's a 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 in london, 97th 8th. at backstage was jo strohmer from backlash, who was a big albert, myra and bruce springsteen was also a big fan of alba. lots of people understood very like, but this is like mos diesel, poke music. do you have people like elvis costello and other pop writers going like we've always respected apple 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 that's no longer a problem. even dave grow has described his band to fighters as a cross between a punk rock band and they love. 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 kitchen is raised to a new level. it becomes a key to personal freedom. ah ah

ah, with where most loyal fan base is the gazing definitely and i think that's the way abbas create them. you see the typical happy, sad is something that he said parked of like gay contouring in, in the longer the perspective and of course, all that kitchen and costumes, so, so of again, he said extremely empower important for the life of albert. just as

important was the film muriel's wedding, also from 1994 and also from australia. the country with the most loyal ab fans next to germany. here to the band itself never appears dancing to a sound track of the still uncool music of alba. a pair of social outcasts turned out to be the true win. ah ah, criticized for became reasons to love them. but none of that would have been

possible without their pop perfection. abba did nothing by haps, 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. abba didn't invent it, but they did make it their own. you listen to those production ideas and color hi as everything so clear, even though i know that, you know, there are 2 or 3 different keyboards and there's a miranda and there's a big piano underneath. and there's this wall of frieda and acne at us like why does this still sound so clean? you know, as opposed to just being like this massive glop, even though it's like a lots and lots of things. they thought it through. it's always an introduction

verse. then the, our story is different. ah. because does the middle 8? there's the extra rush using a course and into the little extra thing on to it this ah, typical things for 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. i 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. and if the staccato in the songs are very ther tucked up the 3rd 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, sleeping through my fingers. ah, it could be called ski, it could be true, but true monk could be brahms. i mean it's, it's this one for melodies. it makes me cry every time i hear 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 a way the songs were about for life. and we followed them into the success, into their marriages, into the divorce and to their southern 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 like 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 harmonize perfectly. every

now and then in the history of music, voices meet up and i think in the upper context, you know, something magical happened. if i remember correctly, they also used, you know, they speed it up a tape recorder. so things like that when they recorded their voices on the and and slow them down again. and that sort of created a, that the aba sound they found in a 3rd voice. i mean, it is 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. unofficial qualities, the alto and she is even deeper now her voice.

c c 6 c c i mean, the 3rd voice is agnes and unofficial combined. together those voices singing those songs. they helped make the swedish music scene. world famous sweden is one of our most successful ab pop exporting countries in the whole wide world. and abner was definitely the ones who kicked it all off when via had very big breakthrough, 1974 at the eurovision, which followed the whim rock set. then there a surveys and the card again. the sender mondo, the owl. but i'm, i was the 1st air act for a man, non 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 that most out of the

song writing here. these that foundation, restoring a theatre is install coleman and the owning damn. and i'm trying to get kept a music scene alive and, 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 in general, i think about 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 marketing, i went new mother as nato skipped a german t. v. appearance to stay with her baby. the show had to go off her friend ingle

rwandan, took her place, hiding behind her hair and looking less uncomfortable. but no one would notice right, but seriously, it was their videos that were truly innovative, especially for the 1970s. 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

they wanted to be stars. and they are, they really, you know, try to project in all the music and this start amendment the clothes and they took pictures, a lots of pictures. so many pictures. if you look at the album 0 may, i mean they put me, i can't believe how many pictures they took all the time. i mean, it looks like they didn't do anything else and 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 koos without ever taking the stage. in 1992 they released a greatest hits album. alba, gold. with british pop, doyle eraser released an album of avar covers and it was clear about was essential for any party with but buran 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 by themselves, believe that we have so we can, we can go on. so that's very important. what happened when of ira non existing band at the time? sounds since it was all going so well. and beerin and benny had been successful with other musicals. it was a no brainer to create. mama mia the musical. ah . the production premiered in london on april 6th, 1999. i think even the critics, most of like, they kept saw evolving and kept thinking how can we do more of that and i can we and i think they made more money from my mommy or the music golden. they have from the, from, from the records they've sold. mama, mia was such a success that hollywood came calling. the film version premiered in 2008, and featured meryl streep and pierce brosnan singing. ah

abas songs carried the stars the film 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 m. mamma mia, the film or with meryl streep and all these big stars, i realized that mary street was actually more starstruck about 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 memorabilia. and an early version of today's advertise, which fans could join on stage. then on may 7th, 2013. how about the museum?

opened its doors to the public in the swedish capital stock horn, and once again, the band came new young fans. tourists now come from around the world to visit the museum. there been very thinking about it in their business manner. i think mostly yawn is a very business minded man. benny is moreover, all the music all the time. and he has his own little band replace polk music and, but i mean, he's also part of the big musicals. 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 this we, we 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 stand ins, as well as the original band members. the digital dapple gainers 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 coo, there are tech. no artists 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. how about voyage? no one had expected it and the response was suitably sensationally. a 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 avatar solis empty reflections. but once again, other everything, right? seeing these images who still remembers the early versions of the avatars. ah, it's not a game changer. it will be a milestone. i think, in, in music entertainment. i think. sure, and i've never had such a good time as i'm happy now. but and i think i'm a happier man now than i was in the seventy's. ah, whether it's song writing, marketing, or crafting their image. it all seems to have come easy for ever yet. they've always stayed grounded in the end. abby stands for one thing above all, and it's perhaps the reason everyone loves them. it's the memory. when people hear alba, they think of their you the, i was unafraid when i was young, you know,

real was pick one of the girls and i was, i was honestly, i'm originally from uganda 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 played shall, 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 colon see mama me on. i don't, i don't feel 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. we're one of the most covert artist of all time. just like for beat us friday nights in the latch. oh it's a lucky twist of fate for ab that their songs have remained so timeless. oh. where

the play the ride music in this when you come to look for king, do do, do you? oh, yes sir. grey ah, but beyond himself says it best in the story about these or people who came together by chance. 2 beautiful women width and thirsty voices should meet and fall in love with 2 guys who happened to be so bright and that they should fall mcgrew, and that the music would live on. i mean, what are the odds against that? that's a wonderful story. ah ah

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