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