Happy 50th ABBAversary!
THERE was something in the air when Bjorn Ulvaeus led the 50th anniversary celebration of ABBA winning the Eurovision Song Contest.
Bjorn, 78, joined Mamma Mia! in the West End – itself marking 25 years – on Saturday night to reminisce about the 1974 contest in Brighton when the UK gave his group nil points. He said: “Despite that, we won and by the thinnest margin in Eurovision history. If we hadn’t won, I most probably wouldn’t be standing here today.
“And this wonderful adventure, which we call Mamma Mia!, would not have happened and I wouldn’t have met with all these wonderful people that I’ve worked with through the years and that would have been so sad.”
Bjorn, who was flanked by Catherine Johnson and Judy Craymer, who created the musical in 1999, added: “Somehow ABBA has managed to touch so many millions of lives around the world, generation after generation. People ask me ‘How does it feel for you to know that?’ It’s more to do with gratitude and with humility than pride. Because it humbles you to know that so many people have listened to something you’ve created, and that they’ve been made happy by it or sad, and that it has meant so much for them.
“And it’s very, very difficult to fully emotionally grasp that, at least for me.”
Bjorn spoke at the Novello Theatre while in East London the double anniversary was also celebrated with DJ sets at ABBA Voyage. The digital concerts featuring avatars of Bjorn, Benny Andersson, 77, Agnetha Faltskog, 74, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 78, opened in 2022. Bjorn said: “I might not be here for the next big anniversary, but my avatar will.”