Hugs at greatest pop reunion EVER – but can you guess who?
CLUE: IT WASN’T AT WATERLOO!
IT was a rare opportunity for the four stars to meet up. So when the chance came for Abba members to give an impromptu rendition of one of their songs, how could they resist it?
The result was the band’s first live performance for 30 years. However, the Swedish quartet sang only one song together at the event, a private party to mark the 50th anniversary of the meeting that would lead to Abba being formed.
News of their onstage reunion on Sunday night quickly went public as images were shared on social media and went viral.
The performance began when Agnetha Faltskog, 66, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 70, took to the stage at the Berns Salonger entertainment venue in Stockholm and began singing the little-known Abba track Me And I, from the album Super Trouper, in tribute to male band members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, both 71.
Andersson, once married to Miss Lyngstad,
‘It was absolutely amazing’
and Ulvaeus, once married to Miss Faltskog, then joined in to complete the performance, before all four embraced. Miss Faltskog and Miss Lyngstad also reportedly duetted on The Way Old Friends Do.
‘It was absolutely amazing,’ Miss Lyngstad told Swedish newspaper Expressen. ‘A lot of emotions. We’ve made this journey throughout our history, Benny and Bjorn in particular. It’s been very nostalgic.’ Andersson said it was ‘a great night’. The stage reunion was unexpected given Miss Faltskog’s decision to shun the limelight and all requests for a reunion, preferring to live an isolated existence.
Since the group split in 1982 they have rarely appeared together.
Asked last year if there was any chance of the reunion tour their fans crave, Ulvaeus said: ‘We took a break in 82, and it was meant to be a break.
‘It’s still a break and will remain so. You’ll never see us on stage again. We don’t need the money, for one thing. Usually the reason bands have reunions is that one of them is destitute and the others want to help. Fortunately that has not happened to us.’
Fans across the world tweeted their excitement over the news. One wrote: ‘An ABBA reunion has made my life worth living.’ Another said: ‘Can’t believe ABBA had a reunion and I wasn’t invited!’
Since Abba split, the four have sung together only in private at friends’ parties – except for a TV appearance in 1986, when they performed an old Swedish song.
After that, they did not come together publicly again until the Swedish premiere of the film Mamma Mia!, which features their hits, in 2008.
They were back together in January this year to promote the opening of their restaurant Mamma Mia! The Party in Stockholm, but did not sing.
Sunday’s event was to mark the 50 years since Ulvaeus and Andersson met, in June 1966, and began collaborating.
They formed Abba in 1972 and rose to worldwide fame after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with Waterloo.
A string of hits followed including Mamma Mia!, Dancing Queen, SOS, Take A Chance On Me, Money Money Money, Knowing Me Knowing You and The Winner Takes It All.
They sold more than 375million records and in 1977 there were 3.5million requests for tickets for two shows at the Royal Albert Hall, enough to fill the London venue 580 times.