ABBA Super Troupers Exhibition Opens Tomorrow ! Bjorn Speaks At Press Conference

ABBA Super Troupers - The Exhibition

This awesome exhibition opens tomorrow (Thursday 14th December 2017) at Southbank Centre in London UK.

Bjorn Ulvaeus spoke at the Press Conference - hopefully I will be able to add photos and more details soon.

"It's intimate, warm and with a great sense of humour"

A review of the Exhibition from Bernadette McNulty can be read here:

https://inews.co.uk/culture/music/abba-magic-music-not-mementos/

The shop - should be online !!!

Flyer:

More information to come !!

Abba were together for only nine years, but their popularity seems undiminished three-and-a-half decades later. They are one of the few bands to hold out against reforming, creating a huge appetite around any kind of new take on their music. Abba Gold, the compilation of the band’s hits, released in 1992, a decade after they split, is one of the top-selling albums of all time. In 1999, the musical Mamma Mia! opened and has become one of the top 10 musicals playing in the West End and in Broadway. The film of the same title, which was released in 2008, is the highest grossing live action musical of all time. In 2010, the exhibition Abbaworld toured several countries with costumes and memorabilia from the band. In 2013, it found a permanent home in Stockholm at the Abba Museum. Within a year, 350,000 visitors had flocked through its doors not just to gawp at the band’s over-the-top costumes, but to try them on and sing on a stage alongside holograms of Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/culture/music/abba-magic-music-not-mementos/

Abba were together for only nine years, but their popularity seems undiminished three-and-a-half decades later. They are one of the few bands to hold out against reforming, creating a huge appetite around any kind of new take on their music. Abba Gold, the compilation of the band’s hits, released in 1992, a decade after they split, is one of the top-selling albums of all time. In 1999, the musical Mamma Mia! opened and has become one of the top 10 musicals playing in the West End and in Broadway. The film of the same title, which was released in 2008, is the highest grossing live action musical of all time. In 2010, the exhibition Abbaworld toured several countries with costumes and memorabilia from the band. In 2013, it found a permanent home in Stockholm at the Abba Museum. Within a year, 350,000 visitors had flocked through its doors not just to gawp at the band’s over-the-top costumes, but to try them on and sing on a stage alongside holograms of Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/culture/music/abba-magic-music-not-mementos/

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

ABBA Overtakes The Beatles !

Abba's greatest hits collection has overtaken The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper in the chart of the biggest selling albums in British musical history.

 

While both albums have sold over 5.1 million copies in the UK, the Swedish band's 1992 Best Of collection has now nudged ahead of The Beatles' 1967 album by nearly 15,000 copies.
An estimated one in five British households owns a copy of either Gold or Sgt Pepper's.
The announcement coincides with this year's Eurovision Song Contest being held in Abba's homeland. The group won Eurovision in 1974 with Waterloo, which became their first number one single in the UK.
Bjorn Ulvaeus, who co-wrote Abba hits including Dancing Queen, Knowing Me Knowing You and The Name Of The Game said: “It feels unreal - outselling the greatest record of all time.”
Queen's 1981 Greatest Hits album remains the UK's most popular, with 5.9 million sales.
Adele's 2011 album, 21, and Oasis' 1995 second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, complete the top 5.
This week may also mark a double celebration for Abba, with the group's former singer Agnetha Faltskog looking set to score the highest-charting solo album of her career this evening.
Her new offering, A, looks likely to break the top 10 according to mid-week sales figures, while her previous UK best, My Colouring Book, peaked at Number 12.

http://www.sundayworld.com/entertainment/showbiz/abba-pass-out-the-beatles-in-biggest-selling-album-charts#.UZgJEp3oTWI.facebook