ABBA Together In Stockholm 5 June 2016 - With Performances !!! Major Update !!

THE STORY SO FAR .......

We have a video of Agnetha & Frida singing !!!
Check it out here:

*More photos added below

All 4 ABBA members are at Berns in Stockholm right now (5 June 2016) celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Bjorn & Benny meeting.

Berns is where ABBA filmed their performance of Hovas Vittne and is situated at Näckströmsgatan 8, 111 47 Stockholm.

Reports coming through are that Bjorn & Benny performed 'Does Your Mother Know' and Frida & Agnetha sang 'The Way Old Friends Do' !!!!

OMG !!

More details will be added as they become available - including video hopefully :)

The Party !

Bjorn at the party

Berns

Paul McCartney sent a video congratulating Bjorn & Benny.

300 guests attended the party.

Frida and Agnetha happily posed for selfies!

Ludvig Andersson and Peter Grönvall performed 'Rock Me'

Helen Sjöholm sang 'Where I Want To Be'

Peter Jöback sang 'Det kan ingen doktor hjälpa'

Svenne Hedlund sang 'Isn't It Easy To Say' 

Tommy Korberg performing the BAO mega hit "Du är min man", originally performed by Helen Sjoholm:

Tommy Korberg

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Expressen Article: 

http://www.expressen.se/noje/abba-together-on-stage-again/

ABBA on stage together again

All four members of Abba reunited on stage as Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson celebrated 50 years together as friends and musicians by throwing a private party in Stockholm Sunday night.
– It's been a great night, says Benny Andersson.

50 years ago, on June 5 1966, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson met for the very first time. The beginning of a friendship and collaboration that has come to enrich and heavily influence Swedish music history over the course of the past five decades, as well as the reason for a private party at Berns Salonger in downtown Stockholm. Some of Swedens most well known artists and musicians, including fellow Abba Members Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstand, gathered at 6.15pm and kept the party going until well after midnight.

Among those performing throughout the night were Fältskog and Lyngstad who got on stage to perform the song You and I, dedicated to Ulvaeus and Andersson, with the male songwriting duo joining in on the performance towards the end of the song thus reuniting the whole group on stage.
They talked a little bit about their history, how everything started with Abba. And then they all sang together towards the end, Guitarist Janne Schaffer tells Expressen.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad describes the celebration of Ulvaeus and Andersson as an emotional night.
– It was absolutely amazing. A lot of emotions. Weve made this journey throughout our history. Benny and Björn in particular. Its been very nostalgic.


Also joining the former members of Abba on the guest list were fellow musicians, actors and celebrities including Peter Jöback, Lasse Berghagen, Björn Skifs, Pernilla Wahlgren, Lena Philipsson, Kristina Lugn, Jerry Williams, Niklas Strömstedt, Helen Sjöholm, Tommy Körberg and Thomas and Marie Ledin. Lill-Babs was also in attendance.
– I've cried a lot tonight, she says.

Claes af Geijerstam hosted the party and had personally put together a video retelling the careers of Björn and Benny, highlighting key moments such as winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Waterloo.
– It's been a great night, Benny Anderson says.

Actors Marie Göranzon and Jan Malmsjö couldn't have been happier as they left the festivities.
– A magical night. I never could have dreamed it would become such a party. I feel like I can die happy having experienced a night like this, Göranzon says with Malmsjö chiming in:
– We got to see a kaleidoscope of people that have been present in Björn and Bennys careers.

Newlyweds Alexandra Charles and Bengt von Hofsten described it as exceptional.
– Lena Philipsson and Pernilla Wahlgren singing together, Lill-Babs performing with Peter Jöback. Helen Sjöholm singing a song from Chess, and then Tommy Körberg performing her hit song Du Är Min Man. The way they traded songs with each other, Alexandra Charles says.
And then, as the night was coming to an end, the sweet albeit very short reuniting of all four members of Abba.

– We witnessed a piece of music history tonight, Janne Schaffer says.
Translation: Anders Sandqvist

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Helen & Tommy with BAO perform a number from CHESS

Agnetha with journalist Mats Olsson

The lighting done by Stage & Eventlight:

BAO Rehearsing

From 'icethesite':

http://www.icethesite.com/2016/06/benny-and-bjorn-celebrate-50-years-of-musical-collaboration-and-friendship/

Sunday 5 June 2016 marked the 50th anniversary of the day that Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus first met.
One of the world’s most successful and enduring musical collaborations was celebrated in grand style a private party at Berns Salinger in Stockholm.
The party was attended by 350 guests, all of whom Benny and Björn have worked with during their career, including Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Görel Hanser, Michael B Tretow, Tommy Körberg, Helen Sjöholm and BAO, Tim Rice, Elaine Paige and Murray Head, Judy Cramer, Peter Jöback, Thomas and Marie Ledin, Lill-Babs, Kristina Lugn, Björn Skifs and Janne Schaffer, to name but a few!
Sir Paul McCartney (Björn and Benny have often acknowledged the massive influence The Beatles made upon their early careers) sent a video message conveying his congratulations.
The celebrations commenced at 18.15 (a reference to the year of the Battle of Waterloo) with a champagne reception during which Benny and Björn both made short welcoming speeches.
While the guests enjoyed dinner, a video of old photographs and interviews from the 1960s played on a big screen.
Some of the guests took to the stage in musical tribute: Benny’s sons Ludvig and Peter performed Rock Me, Helen Sjöholm sang Where I Want To Be, Peter Jöback  Det kan ingen doctor hjälpa and Svenne Hedlund Isn’t It Easy To Say. There were also performances from Lill-Babs, Lena Philipsson and Pernilla Dahlgren.
Benny said that most of the entertainment was as much a surprise for him and Björn as it was for the invited guests, having been planned in secret by a committee consisting of Ludvig, Görel, Lars Rudolfsson and the evening’s toast-master Claes af Geijerstam.
“When we started talking about throwing a party about a year back, Ludvig suggested that maybe they should do something that we didn’t know about,” Benny told us. “It is incredible that so many people wanted to participate. We had such a great time and I think they did too,” he said.
Later in the evening Benny’s band, BAO (Benny Anderssons Orkester), entertained with an hour long set of songs old and new, including their hit Du är min man, which was sung with a comic inference that Benny and Björn’s relationship was like that of a couple.
However, for many, the highlight of the night was undoubtedly when Agnetha and Frida joined Benny and Björn on stage for the second time in just a few months. And this time they sang!
The female half of ABBA performed a moving duet of The Way Old Friends Do, from ABBA’s 1980 album Super Trouper and…it seems that Benny and Björn couldn’t resist the temptation to join in with a couple of lines.
Does Your Mother Know is another classic from the ABBA catalogue that was performed, this time as an instrumental by Benny and Björn.
Afterwards, Frida said that it had been a very special occasion: “It was absolutely amazing. A lot of emotions. It’s been very nostalgic,” she told journalists.
Benny told icethesite that he had no idea that Agnetha and Frida were going to sing. “I think it was just so wonderful that they did that for us. I think they were really brave!” he said.

Here are Agnetha and Frida with Lena Philipsson & Pernilla Wahlgren who performed Hole In Your Soul and then back up for The Way Old Friends Do !

Pernilla writes: "Yesterday I & @lenaphilipsson sing for, among others, these two beautiful legends: Frida & Agneta!
I fortf in the euphoria after yesterday's incredible celebration of Björn & Benny's 50 years in the industry! All of us in any way over the years has worked with Björn and Benny were invited. Sooo fun to meet industry professionals and old musicians that you have not seen for many many years!
I & Lena had the honor to surprise with driving Abbas rocking "Hole in Your Soul," and it was like pulling the audience stood up during the whole song!
Though nothing topped the finish in the evening when Agneta & Frida went up and sang beautiful ABBA song "The Way Old Friends Do" and we girls had the honor to run behind. Then, when Björn and Benny came on stage and joined there were not many who could not hold back the tears ..! The most powerful I have experienced in all my years in the industry."

Benny with Jan Bengston from BAO

With Lill-Babs

Sir Tim Rice, Murray Head and many others

Ingemarie Halling, Judy Cramer, Tomas Ledin and many others

The first hard copy newspaper article to appear:

Other online reports:

Sydney Morning Herald Australia

A special monument has been inaugurated in the city of Linköping to commemorate Björn and Benny's very first meeting on June 5th 1966. It's a bench with their mirrored initials in gold in the castle park opposite the Rally Hotel (Best Western) on Storgatan where they played songs together on that memorable summer night once upon a long ago...

Aussie newspapers - pretty boring actually:

Herald Sun:

Gold Coast Bulletin:

Daily Telegraph:

Jerry Williams

Tomas Ledin & Anders Glenmark

Pernilla & Harpo

Tomas Ledin with Görel Hanser and Clabbe who together had done a fantastic job of organising the night

Pernilla and Rolf Skoglund

Pernilla, Helen & Lena

Pernilla, Peter Joback and Oscar