ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus Supports Euthanasia

Former ABBA singer Bjorn Ulvaeus has revealed he supports euthanasia and would choose to end his own life rather than endure a long painful death.

Bang Showbiz
May 23, 2015

ABBA legend singer Bjorn Ulvaeus would rather be euthanised than live in constant pain with an illness.
The 70-year-old Swedish star - a co-founder of the pop super-group - has become a supporter of assisted suicide after watching his parents and mother-in-laws prolonged and agonising deaths.
He is quoted by the Daily Mirror newspaper as saying: "It's the thought of the endless pain and suffering that I am afraid of. This should not be necessary. I have seen this misery up close. My parents lived long but would have preferred a more painless and dignified ending.
"The same goes for the parents of my wife. My mother-in-law has lived for a long time but she could not express her feelings.
"That was where I thought, 'I don't want this'. It is my life. Why can't I control how it should end?"
The 'SOS' hitmaker also came to the conclusion he would choose euthanasia as a way to end his life when he had a panic attack on a flight from Paris to Stockholm after one of the plane's engines died.
Bjorn said: "I tried to remind myself that the plane could easily land with only one engine - but I got a full-on panic attack.
"Later, I realised the fear stemmed from the fact that I had no control over my own death. That was a scary realisation. Now I've begun to think, 'Maybe I will not see many more summers.' "
Bjorn is still in touch with his old ABBA band members and still collaborates with Benny Andersson.
In an interview with The Guardian today (22.05.15) he said he doesn't think he'll be watching the Eurovision Song Contest - the show that catapulted the band to fame - because: "there are too many countries in the competition and I'd be more interested in a contest where the emphasis was on the quality of the song".

https://au.entertainment.yahoo.com/celebrity/news/a/28199266/abbas-bjorn-ulvaeus-supports-euthanasia/

ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus On Stockholm

Stockholm has everything New York or London has but without the people and the traffic. Because it is built on islands and surrounded by water, you get this enormous sense of freedom. People don’t bother me at all, so I can walk around without any problem.

Naturally, I would recommend a visit to Abba the Museum. When they told me that it should be in Stockholm, that’s when it dawned on me – it’s going to be in a very prominent place that I will pass many times a year, with my children and grandchildren, and with friends. It had to be great, because I wouldn’t be able to escape it. That’s why I got involved. It’s a very hi-tech museum, but it also has warmth and humour. My favourite exhibit would have to be the homemade double bass from my first-ever group.

Stockholm is the most beautiful capital in the world. Visitors should take one of the sightseeing boats and see it from the water. They should also visit the Vasa Museum. It’s absolutely magnificent – a large 17th-century ship housed within a museum.

The Stockholm archipelago is unique, with tens of thousands of islands. It’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. I’ll often take my boat to Sandhamn, an island outside of Stockholm. There’s a restaurant there called Monrad’s where I like to have lunch. Actually, I’ll be going there soon with the new lady in my life. I’ve called her Dancing Queen and she’s a Princess 64 Flybridge yacht.

There are lots of outfits in the museum. I’m proud to say that most of my Abba costumes still fit me. I don’t have a favourite, but if I had to choose one it would be something from the later years. There’s a photo of me in a kind of Superman outfit from early on and I cry in pain every time I see it. It shows a level of bad taste unsurpassed by any other pop star.

I love the city’s food hall markets. Two of the best are Östermalmshallen and Hötorgshallen. My favourite restaurant is at Hotel Skeppsholmen, but the food I couldn’t do without is sashimi. I go to a great Japanese restaurant in the centre called Seikoen. There’s also a marina called Bullandö, just outside Stockholm, where I go to eat the best ice-cream in Europe – it’s called Bullandö Glassfabrik.

My favourite thing about Stockholm, and Sweden in general, is that it’s not overcrowded. There are only nine million of us Swedes, so we’re not overpopulated in the way many areas of Europe are.

People in Stockholm are quicker to adapt to change than in the rest of the country. It has become a very creative city – for music, fashion and computer games. It is a lot more cosmopolitan than it used to be, but I wouldn’t want it to grow much bigger.

When I get time off, I love to relax with my grandchildren – sailing, kayaking, reading, and watching movies and documentaries. I love to take them all on holiday with me.

Benny comes to Stockholm regularly so I see him quite a bit, especially since we still work together from time to time. Agnetha and I have children and grandchildren together, so I see her at birthday parties and such. Frida comes to Stockholm from her home in Switzerland every now and then, and she’ll say hello.

There are some great Swedish musicians around at the moment. I’ve been listening a lot to the Swedish band First Aid Kit. Their roots are in folk music and the same goes for me.

I don’t think I’ll be watching Eurovision this weekend. I rarely watch it these days. Not because it was better in the old days (it wasn’t), but because there are too many countries in the competition. And as a songwriter, I’d be more interested in a contest where the emphasis was on the quality of the song.

I love churches and there are a couple in the old city, such as the Storkyrkan, which I’d recommend visiting.

Another special exhibit at the Abba Museum is an award we were given which I had at home for years. It’s a hideously ugly German music award, a figurine in the form of Hiawatha called Silberne Otto. It was awarded to us by the German magazine Bravo and I kept it on my windowsill. Over time I grew rather fond of it and it was with a heavy heart that I gave it to the museum. Come to think of it, I miss my Silberne Otto.

During the Abba years, we did some television work in East Berlin. People there loved us but it was so depressing. I remember we were paid in whatever currency they had – East German marks or whatever – which you couldn’t change when you got to the west. Nobody would take it. I had one day to get rid of it, so I bought everyone in the bar a drink!

I only book holidays in winter. Why? Try a cold, windy and damp November day in Stockholm and you’ll know why!

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/may/22/bjorn-ulvaeus-abba-stockholm-sweden-travel

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

Australia To Compete At The Eurovision Song Contest 2015 !!

Australia to compete in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest !

 

Geneva, Switzerland -

Yes, you read that right! After a prominent place in the interval act of last year’s Eurovision Song Contest, Australia will compete in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest, to take place on 19, 21 and 23rd of May in Vienna, Austria. Just for once, and for many good reasons!

This year, the Eurovision Song Contest celebrates its 60th anniversary. To give the anniversary celebrations an extra dimension and to walk the talk on this year’s theme Building Bridges, the EBU and host broadcaster ORF invited Australia to compete in the Grand Final of the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. This brings the total amount of represented countries to 40.

The contest’s governing body, the Reference Group, and the EBU’s Television Committee accepted the proposal.

“It’s a daring and at the same time incredibly exciting move. It is our way of saying; let’s celebrate this party together!” says Jon Ola Sand, Executive Supervisor of the contest on behalf of the EBU.
Michael Ebeid, Managing Director of broadcaster SBS, says: "We are very excited to have secured this historic opportunity for Australia to be represented on the world’s biggest stage at the 60th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest and are honoured that the European Broadcasting Union has supported us to achieve this ambition. SBS has been broadcasting Eurovision for over 30 years and we have seen how Australians’ love of the song contest has grown during those years."
ORF Director General Dr. Alexander Wrabetz says: "The song contest has developed in its history to become the biggest TV entertainment event in the world. With the participation of Australia, together with our partners at the EBU and SBS, we have succeeded to lift it to a new global level and to build another bridge for the 60th anniversary. A bridge that spans the globe, starting from the heart of Europe."
Australia will be allowed to vote in both Semi-Finals, as well as the Grand Final. Along a professional jury, possibilities are currently being explored to allow the public to have a 50 percent stake in the Australian vote via televoting.

http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=australia_to_participate_in_the_2015_eurovision_song_contest