Iconic Swedish pop group ABBA may reunite next year to mark 40 years since they won the Eurovision Song Contest and were catapulted to global stardom. Agnetha Faltskog says,
“Of course it’s something we’re thinking about. There seem to be plans to do something to mark this anniversary in some way, but I can’t say at this point what will come of them.”
ABBA formed in 1972 when Faltskog met guitarist and songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus, whom she later married. Other band mates, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were also married for a while, but both couples are now divorced.
The group’s self-penned hit Waterloo won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, England, in April 1974, and immediately became a global phenomenon. They became Sweden’s biggest-ever pop act and one of the most successful pop groups in history, selling more than 380 million records worldwide.
The band never really formally broke up, but their last album, The Visitors, appeared in 1982. Since then, Faltskog and Lyngstad pursued solo careers and Andersson and Ulvaeus wrote hit musical Chess and reworked 24 ABBA hits into a the hugely successful musical, Mamma Mia. In July 2008, all four ABBA members were reunited at the Swedish premiere of the film version of Mamma Mia, only the second time all of them had appeared together in public since ’86.
At the time, Ulvaeus and Andersson said there was “simply no motivation to regroup”.
“We would like people to remember us as we were, young, exuberant and full of ambition.”
Ulvaeus made similar comments late last year when he announced plans for an ABBA museum which was opened in in Stockholm earlier this year.
In her interview with Welt am Sonntag, Faltskog, who recently released a new solo album, said she did not want to spend too much time thinking about whether a reunion would take place or not.
“That eats up too much energy. Don’t just think about it, just do it.
We’re all getting older. I can’t imagine going onto the stage on walking sticks.”
Right now the closet thing we can get is a December ABBA cover band experience in East Grinstead, England. You can get tickets here, as if.
Until further notice video will have to suffice. Here they are 40 years go, all “young & exuberant” with Mamma Mia. Watch.