Mamma Mia! The Party - New Restaurant Plans - Bjorn

Hit wins the Björn Ulvaeus billion empire

The successes of Björn Ulvaeus billion empire continue.

In June, his company, Pop House, Cirkus bought at Djurgården - now plans to buy this Abba member to build a house in London where "Mamma Mia the party" will be held.

"Five minutes from Waterloo station, we will build a house that will open sometime 2019. It's a great thing," says Björn Ulvaeus.

 

The year was 1972 when Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad started giving out their music. Two years later, the group formed the name ABBA, which became one of the world's most famous bands.

And the success of ABBA ended not only because the band was playing the tournament on the shelf - on the contrary. The musical "Mamma Mia" based on the group's songs has become a world success. Also the movie with the same name.

Soon, the second "Mamma Mia" film - a project Björn Ulvaeus will be involved in.

"I'm very involved when it comes to casting. Benny has been in the studio recently, and myself I will go to London and record. It's a kidding project, says Björn Ulvaeus.

Björn Ulvaeus involved in more "Mamma Mia" projects.

In addition to the fact that Björn Ulvaeus owns properties for almost SEK 20 million and had an acquisition income of 2.4 million in 2015, there are billions in Ulvaeus companies.

He owns 70 percent of Kopparnäset AB, which in turn has 24 companies - one of them is MM! The Party AB. And "Mamma Mia" has become a huge brand, where Björn Ulvaeus gets his delicious piece of succé cake worth a million.

"I can not say how much, but some of course comes," says Ulvaeus, and continues:

"It's exciting how the brand" Mamma Mia "has grown - with both the stage music and the movies. And now, "Mamma Mia! The Party" that goes for sold out houses in Stockholm, and I'm getting to London, says Björn Ulvaeus.

He tells us that there is currently a planning process in the South Bank of London about Mamma Mia! The Party. "

"We will build a house five minutes from Waterloo station where" Mamma Mia! The Party "opens sometime 2019. And it works that's how it works everywhere I can imagine - it's a great thing, says Björn Ulvaeus.

 

Ulvaeus about Circus: "Will be fun to put your teeth on"

But the former ABBA member also has big plans at home in Sweden. In June Ulvaeus bought company, Pop House, Circus on Djurgården.

"I just do the way I think it's great fun and this with Circus fits so well into Pop House, which also owns the ABBA Museum. So I'm looking forward to working with Cirkus content with other actors and that Pop House and I produce their own stuff. It will be a joke to put your teeth in it, "concludes Björn Ulvaeus.

http://www.expressen.se/noje/hit-gar-vinsten-i-bjorn-ulvaeus-miljardimperium/

 

ABBA Win Eurovision 42 Years Ago Today ! 6th April 1974

On 6th April 1974, ABBA won the 19th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton UK with 'Waterloo'.

It was held in the seaside resort of Brighton on the south coast of the United Kingdom. The BBC agreed to stage the event after Luxembourg, having won in both 1972 and 1973, declined on the grounds of expense to host the contest for a second consecutive year.

This was Sweden's first Eurovision win and ABBA are among the few Eurovision winners to achieve international superstar status.

A two-night preview programme, Auftakt für Brighton (Prelude for Brighton), was coordinated by the German national broadcaster ARD broadcast at the end of March and was hosted by the journalist Karin Tietze-Ludwig. It was the first "preview" type programme to be broadcast in many European countries simultaneously (traditionally each national broadcaster puts together their own preview programme).

ABBA were peculiarly credited in previews as "The Abba".

There were 17 participating countries and each country had 10 jurors who could all give 1 vote to their favourite song.

"Waterloo" is the first single from Swedish pop group ABBA's second album, Waterloo, their first for Epic and Atlantic. This was also the first single to be credited as "ABBA".

The song shot to No. 1 in the UK and stayed there for two weeks, becoming the first of the band's nine UK No. 1's, and the 16th biggest selling single of the year in the UK. It also topped the charts in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, West Germany, Ireland, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland, while reaching the Top 3 in Austria, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and ABBA's native Sweden. (The tune did not reach No. 1 in their home country, its Swedish (No. 2) and English (No. 3) versions were beat out for the top spot by the Waterloo album due to Sweden having a combined Album and Singles Chart at the time.) The song also spent 11 weeks on Svensktoppen (24 March - 2 June 1974), including 7 weeks at No. 1.

Unlike other Eurovision-winning tunes, the song's appeal transcended Europe: "Waterloo" also reached the Top 10 in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Rhodesia and the United States (peaking at No. 6). The Waterloo album performed similarly well in Europe, although in the US it failed to match the success of the single.

CHARTS 1974

Australia (ARIA)	4
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)	2
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)	1
Canada (RPM)	7
Denmark (Danish Top 20)	1
Finland (Mitä Suomi soittaa)	1
France (SNEP)	4
Germany (Official German Charts)	1
Ireland (IRMA)	1
Italy (AFI)	14
Netherlands (Single Top 100)	1
New Zealand (Listener)	3
Norway (VG-lista)	1
Rhodesia	2
South Africa	1
Spain (PROMUSICAE)	3
Sweden (Topplistan)	2 (Swedish) 3 (English)
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)	1
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)	1
US Billboard Hot 100	6

EUROVISION RESULTS

Benny Andersson Reflects On Eurovision & Australia's 'Countdown'

ABBA's Benny Andersson reflects on Eurovision win and the credit he still gives to 'Countdown'

The super-group co-founder-turned movie producer reflects on the role Australia played in reviving the band's fortunes post-Eurovision.  

In 2005 the public voted ABBA’s 1974 Eurovision entry Waterloo as their favourite Eurovision song winner ever and the long disbanded group, which existed from 1972 till 1982, has never ceased to amaze in the subsequent years. Mamma Mia! the musical, built around 24 ABBA songs, went on to become a 2008 cinematic blockbuster, the most successful movie musical of all time. The band famously declined a $1 billion offer to reform, saying pop music is a young person’s game. (Also, the deal would have come with strings attached, such as committing them to 250 live performances).
Now, after 360 million album and singles sales, they give credit where it is due. And together with Eurovision a lot of the credit goes to us ABBA-loving Aussies.
Whether Guy Sebastian can take the contest by storm remains to be seen, but hey, we at least are in there with a chance.
The fact was not lost on ABBA’s Benny Andersson in our recent Berlin Festival interview.
“You’re in The Eurovision Song Contest all of a sudden I just read,” he enthuses offering support. The well-preserved, determinedly down-to-earth 68 year-old, who seems leaner than in his early years, clearly loves Australians—and our senses of humour—and hearing the words : “G’day”.
“I hear where you are from,” he exclaims, emitting a big grin when we first met.
I tell him how Swedish colleagues say he’s the more intellectual of the two ABBA men.
“Oh come on, none of us are!” he responds definitively.
At first in our interview this self-effacing prodigious talent, who together with Björn Ulvaeus had painstakingly written and arranged ABBA’s anthems, resists talking too much about ABBA and Eurovision as he is here to promote a Swedish-language teen fantasy movie, The Circle, which he has personally financed and produced together with his 33 year-old son, Ludvig. (Ludvig’s mother is Andersson’s second and current wife, Swedish TV presenter Mona Nörklit, whom he married in 1981 just after his divorce from fellow ABBA member Anni-Frid Lyngstad.) Yet once Andersson hears the Australian twang I can't stop him.


Of course he already knows about Countdown’s 40th anniversary as it came hot on the heels of ABBA’s 40^th anniversary of their Eurovision win, which was widely celebrated with a book, an exhibition and a Wembley concert DVD compilation culled from six of ABBA’s 1979 Wembley shows and put together by Ludvig, who is also a musician.
“Countdown was essential to us,” Andersson admits. “That's when it really started to happen. After we won the Eurovision Song Contest and had a big hit with Waterloo all over the world, then nothing happened, like often is the way with Eurovision Song Contest contenders. We worked in England and they said, ‘Well not to worry,” he grumbles at the memory. “So from sending us big limousines in the Waterloo period, the cars got smaller and smaller and we had a Volkswagen bus by the end!

“But then we met Lasse Hallström, who made three videos for 'I Do, I Do, I Do', 'SOS' and 'Mamma Mia' for K25,000 [around $4000] which is not much for three videos and they were sent around the world for us, so we weren’t having to travel that much. [ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog had young children with Ulvaeus and also had a fear of flying.] Then Countdown started to show the videos and it took off. When it started in Australia the different labels around the world realised they were maybe missing something and we started to work again.”
The limousines got bigger?
“Yes they did!”
Anderson recalls that when ABBA came to tour Australia in 1977, the biggest surprise was the merchandising.
“There were ABBA soaps, ABBA towels, ABBA pillows, ABBA everything. There was soap everywhere! I don't know how that happened because we never agreed to anything commercial.”

http://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2015/05/20/abbas-benny-andersson-reflects-eurovision-win-and-credit-he-still-gives-countdown

ABBA Bass Player Rutger Gunnarsson Has Passed Away

Swedish musician Rutger Gunnarsson, known for his bass playing on ABBA records and tours, has died at the age of 69, Universal records announced Friday. 


 He died at his home in Stockholm, but the cause and date of his death were not revealed.
"Rutger was most known for his long and close collaboration with Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and ABBA, having worked on all their albums, singles,  tours, films and musicals," Universal said in a statement.
Bass fans are particularly fond of his contributions to hits like "Dancing Queen", "Knowing Me Knowing You" and "Money, Money, Money".
The four members of ABBA, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 69, Agnetha Fältskog, 65, Ulvaeus, 70, Andersson, 68, have not played music together since 1986.

http://www.thelocal.se/20150508/abba-bass-player-rutger-gunnarsson-dies



Musician Rutger Gunnarsson, best known as ABBA's bassist, has died.
He was 69 years old.
Rutger Gunnarsson , 69, has had a lengthy career and has also made music with Sheeba , Magnus Uggla and Ted Gärdestad .
He is best known, however, as ABBA 's bassist and he participated in all the albums.
According to a press release from Universal Music has Rutger Gunnarsson died suddenly at his home in Stockholm. The cause of death is not clear.
Rutger Gunnarsson has also appeared in several musicals such as "Chess," "Rhapsody in Rock" and "Mamma Mia!".
In addition, he arranged strings and winds to artists like Westlife , Celine Dion and Elton John as well as the feature film "Spiderman 2".
Rutger Gunnarsson mourned the closest of his three children Richard, Minnie and Joanna.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/article20762692.ab

"He was a very creative musician. We sat and played in the studio, trying to find how the songs would be. Rutger always very creative. What he does is amazing. He was of course a legend in the world because of many of these recordings" Björn Ulvaeus says to Swedish Radio.