ABBA museum opens in Sweden

Source:Reuters Published: 2013-5-7 19:28:01

A visitor enters one of the museum's main exhibition halls. Photos: IC
A visitor enters one of the museum's main exhibition halls.
 
Puppet figures of  the band members share smiles at the ABBA museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
Puppet figures of the band members share smiles at the ABBA museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Photos: IC

The catchy tunes, outlandish costumes and shimmering boots that made ABBA a global phenomenon are all featured in a new museum dedicated to the band, but rumors the exhibition may presage a reunion by Sweden's most famous export were quickly quashed.

The permanent exhibition within a hall of fame of Swedish pop music opened in Stockholm this week and organizers hope to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually on a pop nostalgia trip.

Visitors can sing along to ABBA hits alongside life-size holograms of the group - and then download the images to their Web account.

"I would be interested, even if I hated ABBA, about how it actually happened and why," former ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus said on Monday at the museum.

Ulvaeus, now a 68-year-old grandfather, rejected suggestions the opening could coincide with the band reuniting. A British bookmaker was taking bets in April on an ABBA comeback after singer Agnetha Faltskog hinted at a possible reunion.

"As you all know we have never reunited," Ulvaeus said. "So I take this opportunity to say now we are not going to either."

ABBA, made up of Ulvaeus, Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson, shot to fame when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Waterloo."

To revive their heyday, the museum has a 1970s disco dance floor to practice your moves, audition recordings for a "fifth" member of the band and the opportunity to sit inside the famous helicopter that featured on the Arrival album cover.

Reuters

 



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