The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
ABBA tribute show to hit Stocker Arts Center stage
It’s really no exaggeration to say ABBA was the Swedish Beatles.
Marie-Claire Follett — who lives in California but hails from London — is the bubbly musician who plays ABBA’s Anni-Frid Lyngstad in her ABBA tribute band, which stops by the Stocker Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14.
Quite the niche profession one might say, but it is one that is arguably necessary around these parts.
Across the country, there’s no shortage of Beatles and Elvis tribute shows, but ABBA tributes are a bit harder to come by. But in Sweden, they’re just as common as Elvis tributes here.
In a recent phone interview, Follett chatted about her journey bringing The ABBA Show to the United States.
For years Follett had played
Lyngstad, first in someone else’s ABBA tribute band and then eventually in the one she started.
Years back, during her band’s stop in Australia, she met her husband, Andy Marshall, while diving with sharks (you can’t make this stuff up).
He was a musician too and eventually quit his band to join hers where he now plays Bjorn Ulvaeus, ABBA’s guitarist.
When the couple decided to move to America in 2016, they assumed they left their ABBA days behind them.
“For the first couple of years living in this country, we didn’t do the ABBA Show,” Follett says. “My husband and I were both sort of working musicians. We were living near L.A. so there was plenty of work, and we were doing other things. But people just kept asking us about it. We thought, ‘OK,
Americans love ABBA too.’”
They eventually gave in and gave the band a shot locally.
“We booked a couple of theaters in California. Not only did they sell out, but people were calling us and saying, ‘We can’t get tickets! How are we gonna get tickets?’ We thought, ‘Wow. OK, Americans really do love ABBA.’ So, that’s really how it started.”
ABBA’s staying power is likely thanks in part to the multi-million dollar “Mamma Mia!” movie franchise that celebrates the band’s music and legacy (and, of course, is also a massively popular musical).
But the band’s music was also brought back to life in the ‘90s and early 2000s thanks to Swedish pop band A*Teens who covered ABBA’s discography.
Even living legend Cher has been in on the action. She not only made a memorable cameo in the 2018 film, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” she also covered a slew of ABBA songs and threw them together in a studio Album appropriately named “Dancing Queen,” which led to her 2018 “Here We Go Again Tour.”
Despite all the celebration and money earned from the band’s success, ABBA has never united since its 1982 break up.
“Why on earth haven’t they done a reunion show? Everybody has tried to persuade them,” Follett says.
“I heard that people have offered them ridiculous amounts of money and they’ve always said no. I’m always hoping that they’ll change their minds at some point.”
Even when the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2010, only two band members showed up for the ceremony.
Follett does have one theory about why a reunion has never happened.
“Agnetha (Fältskog) had a stalker for many years,” she says.
“She got very frightened by it and became quite reclusive because everywhere she went, he would show up. I think he was banned from coming to Sweden but if she got a flight out of Sweden and did a TV show or something, he would show up.”
Follett once brushed elbows with the opportunity to work with Lyngstad.