JANUARY 26 : SPECIAL ABBAWORLD PAGE..
has been opened here
JANUARY 22 : JUDY CRAYMER
Judy Craymer will produce a new musical, VIVA FOREVER based on music of Spice Girls. Let´s see how succesful it turns out to be.
JANUARY 21 : KRISTINA IN LONDON
KRISTINA will be performed at Royal Albert Hall in London on April 14.
Benny says in Swedish media that he hopes that the 5.000 tickets will sell well, otherwise there will be no concert. He says that there are two reasons for the concert date. The 160th anniversary of UTVANDRARNA characters departure from Sweden, and that the live CD from New York will be released. In addition B&B want to show that they have done other things apart from ABBA and MAMMA MIA!
Benny is mixing the CD full time at present. Some single parts of the original score have been removed. But according to Benny those who have the original 3CD set will recognize the English version.
When asked about rumours he and Björn planning a new musical, Benny says
-Jaha, That´s something that i don´t know about.
JANUARY 16 : GRAMMIS
As expected, BAO did not win a Grammis this year as their nominated international album consisted mainly of old music.
JANUARY 16 : BROADWAY
MAMMA MIA! is now 12th longest running show onBroadway! It will soon reach position11, wgich is held by 42nd STREET. Reaching Top 10 takes time, MISS SAIGON has been performed 600 times more than MM!
DECEMBER 29: ZERMATT UNPLUGGED
Zermatt Unplugged festival which Frida sponsors, returns next year after having break in 2009.
DECEMBER 24: BENNY´S NEW INSTRUMENT
Benny has decided to learn to play a new istrument, nyckelharpa. Last winter he mailed to nyckelharpa maker Sören Åhker asking for an instrument. The mail was signed as Benny Andersson. Särensen was not sure who this person was, but after couple of mails a message was signed as "Benny Andersson, accordion player" and Sören began to realize who he was mailing with.
A few days before Xmas it was time to deliver the nyckelharpa for Benny at Mono Music. Benny said it was exciting, brain needs new things to learn. At age of 60+ he felt violin would be too hard instrument to start wuth.
The istrument is built mainly of fir tree from Lappland.
Cecilia Österholm, lady in the left on the photo, will teach Benny to play nyckelharpa.
DECEMBER 21: MORE FRIDA
DECEMBER 15: MORE FRIDA
DECEMBER 15: ARCHIVES
DECEMBER 14: FRIDA
DECEMBER 13: JON LORD
In a new interview Jon Lord speaks about Frida:
Some years ago you went on stage with Frida, the singer of ABBA. How did you come to write your song ‘The Sun Will Shine Again’ interpreted by Frida?
I met her here in Zermatt. We became friends. She had just lost her husband. It was a huge shock and she was very lonely and in pain. That is when we became friends. My wife and Frida became just like sisters. Two or three years later I was going to make a record. “Beyond the Notes” is the title of the album. I had remembered having said something to Frida when she came out of that difficult time. I said something like: “The great thing about life is that eventually after a sad thing the sun will shine again.” I was playing the piano and I suddenly had that tune in my head. Just those words “The Sun Will Shine Again” fitted into that tune. So I wrote on the paper and went to my friend Sam Brown. She did the lyrics. I asked Frida if she would like to sing it for my record. She said she would do it if she would like it. I made a demo, showed it to her and she was very touched and liked it. I like the words very much, very thoughtful, beautiful and emotional words. Sam Brown did a perfect job, and Frida has this wonderful mezzo-soprano voice that goes quite deep. It is a very unusual voice and very attractive.
DECEMBER 11: KFD HELSINKI DETAILS
The Helsinki production will be about one hour shorter than the stagings in Sweden. The scenography concept has also been bought and Robin Wagner will rework them for Svenska Teatern´s stage.
As for comment it is propably good practise for B%B and other KRISTINA makers to cut the original musical shorter and suitable for smaller theatres and budgets. It would be fun that the musical could be performed more often and in several places and could attact the audiences more if the lenfght of the show would be a bit shorter.
DECEMBER 10: MORE HELSINKI
Benny told in Helsinki yesterday that he and Björn met for the first time in 1966. Couple of years later Hep Stars had 20 gigs booked in Finland but suddenly they had no guitarist. Benny phoned Björn who wasn´t willing, as he was studying law. Benny managed to persuade him and during the tour their friendship grew and collobration went on.
Further on Benny told that rehearsals will start in the end of 2011. Auditions start already in autumn 2010 but Benny believes it takes time to find the actors. He believes it is easier to find Kristina from Finland or Sweden for Helsinki. In the USa they didn´t find good enough person so helen Sjöholm did the New York concerts.
Benny has no idea how many people will be interested in the roles. He doesn´t care if there are lots of applcations as long as there is a good one among them (for the role of Kristina). The production at Svenska Teatern will be smaller than in Sweden (the theatre is much smaller than in Swedish productons).
In the beginnin Benny had doubts when Svenska Teatern´s chief Johan Storgård contacted them. Benny said it never can be performed in a theatre with 500 seats. Storgård said it is possible. Benny said no. Storgård said yes. Benny said no. Storgård said yes. In the end Storgård won.
Benny and the rest of the team have no problems digging up the feeling of Kristina though many years of last production has passed. The play lives in their hearts. Benny said she is so strongly in them that it feels like she really existed.
Swedish language (official language apart from Finnish) speaking people are minority in Sweden. Benny says they are always ready to support language minorites. He is also slightly after a reunion of Finland and Sweden.
It is impossible to eat an astrakan apple, says Benny. Björn told that he got astrakan apple tree as birthday present and planted in in his garden. This autumn he got the first apples.
Both men sy that they belong to the people who cry when Kristina looses her daughter and when she herself dies. They both have relatuves who moved to America like Kristina and Karl Oskar. Their destiny is unknown.
The two Bs said that they have sometimes spoken slightly about doing music for children.
DECEMBER 9: KRISTINA TO HELSINKI
Benny says that one of Finland´s national authors, Väinö Linna, is "cousin" for Vilhelm Moberg in his epic telling. Benny also sees some way Sweden and Finland feel like one country though they have been two separate countries for a long time. But still the two countries have a very long common history so it is nice to do KFD in Finland.
Benny and Björn will live in Helsinki during the rehearsal period of KRISTINA. Björn says Helsinki is a nice town with lots of good hotels. If he wishes to rewrite lyrics he can easily go to hotel as the theatre is so centrally located.
DECEMBER 9: KRISTINA TO HELSINKI
More about the press conference.
-Benny has joked that now the musical could made even longer than in Sweden
-Rudolfsson, Eljas and Robin Wagner will be involved in the Helsinki production
Story behind KfD in Finland:
Svenska Teatern has contacted Görel Hanser five years ago. She had immediately shown understading for the project. Contract between Svenska teatern and Charlotta Teaterproduktion has been signed today. Attending the press conference have been B&B, Lars Rudolfsson, Anders Eljas. The contract gives Svenska Teatern rights to perform KfD in Finland in Swedish and Finnish, and in Russia, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania,amd Latvia in their language.
B&B, Eljas and Rudolfsson will take part in the casting process which starts autumn 2010.
Svenska Teatern hopes that is is just the beginning for a good collobration between them and Charlotte Teaterproduktion.
Exact premiere date was not yet announced.
DECEMBER 9: MORE HELSINKI
Latest news is that B&B will fly to Helsinki with private plane.
Finnish press writes that Svenska Teatern has tried to get rights for MAMMA MIA! for years. Very likely the show, what ever it is, will be performed in Swedish. There exist Swedish translations of MM! and CHESS from Swedish productions.That makes the production in Finland cheaper and easier. MAMMA MIA! is of course most quarenteed hit of the three musicals. Both MM! and CHESS are great, but KRISTINA FRÅN DUVEMÅLA would be even better as it has not been performed for years. .....
DECEMBER 8 : HELSINKI
Benny and Björn are expected to be in Helsinki on Wednesday doing press meeting. Media presentatives have got mysterious invitations on Monday at 4 pm and confirmation for attandance must have been given til 5 pm. No details have been given for reporters what the press conference is all about. Görel says in Swedish press she can´t tell anything before Wednesday. News of a Finnish production of MM! is expected, but on the other hand both Bs seldom have attended these kind of MM! events where new productions are announced, mainly both have attended premieres. Not very likely that the new musical will be done in Finland or be based on Finnish literature like Kalevala, but a CHESS production is possible, KfD might be too big and risky.
DECEMBER 7 : FRIDA
A new list of richest persons living in Switzerland has been published. Frida is at position 250.
DECEMBER 7 : FINLAND
Benny and Björn start collobration with Svenska Teatern in Finland. A press conference will take place on Wednesday. At present neither the theatre nor Görel want to tell what is going on. A production of MAMMA MIA!, CHESS, KFD or what.
The main stage of Svenska Teatern has 503 seats. However after spring 2010 season the theatre will have an extensive rebuild and will be closed til December 2011. Autumn 2010 and 2011 Svenska Teatern will temporarily play at Aleksander Theatre which has 500 seats.
DECEMBER 4 : GRAMMIS
Nominees for Grammis music award were announced today. Benny Andersson Band is nominated for best dance music band for STORY IF A HEART. Usually BAO has won when nominated, but as STORY contains mainly old music, it would be no wonder if BAO wouldn´t win this time.
Grammis award is loosing it glory. It has not interested the TV audience and this year the gala is not even sent on TV anymore!
DECEMBER 3 : MM! DVD
MAMMA MIA! DVD sold 1.708.529 units in the USA in 2009 earning $32.414.994.
In 2008 the sales of 4.609.575 copies brought in $97.730.669
NOVEMBER 25: LINDA ULVAEUS
In thew middle of October.
NOVEMBER 17: NEW MUSICAL BY B&B
Update: In Berlinsgke tidning Björn says that B&B have spoken about the musical ideas with Catherine Johnson, as the team of MM! has been a good one.
This would propably mean an English sung musical. Previously Björn spoke about longing to have again a musical at Cirkus, which wuld mean a show performed in Swedish. Let´s see what happens
*******
Björn said in Copenhagen that he and Benny have finally found an idea for a new musical, but can´t tell more about it yet.
He sees no end for MAMMA MIA!. When it opened in London they expected it to run for two months and now 10 years have passed. It look for Björn that MM! will run another 10 years both in London and New York.
NOVEMBER 17: MM! COPENHAGEN
Björn attended yesterday the press launch of MM! in Copenhagen. He poses with the cast and translator Anne Linnet in the photos below.
NOVEMBER 16: MORE ABOUT THE WEDDING
After ceremony Björn told that it was very emotionfull, and that the couple looked happy. Björn thinks that Eva and Efva chose to "re-marry" to be able to celebrate their love for another time. They like of happy parties and want to collect together happy people.
NOVEMBER 16: BJÖRN AND BENNY ATTEND WEDDING
On Sunday singer Eva Dahlgren and jewelry designer Efva Attling got married at Rival Hotel. They have been living in a registered partnership since 1996, but now it is possible in Sweden for two women or two men to get officially married
Björn attended the wedding and while entering Rival he wished that the couple will have a long marriage as he has had with his wife. Also Benny was there, like Tomas Ledin, Peter Jöback and Attling´s ex-husband Niklas Strömstedt.
NOVEMBER 12: FRIDA
NOVEMBER 12: MAMMA MIA! OSLO
MAMMA MIA! in Oslo will close on December 19. By then it has been performed 211 times.
Queen Sonja and Crown Princess Mette-Marit attended charity performance of MM! recently.
NOVEMBER 8: SVENSKTOPPEN
After 278 weeks, DU ÅR MIN MAN by BAO dropped from radio chart Svensktoppen this week.
DU ÄR MIN MAN broke Svensktoppen records. Apart from being clearly longest running song (Björn Skifs is number two with 142 weeks) the song tops list on most number one weeks with 38 chart topping wees. Peter Jöback´s GULDET BLEV TILL SAND is numbe rtwo with 36 weeks.
OCTOBER 24: SVENSKA HJÄLTAR
The jury of Svenska Hjätar has had it´s first meeting handling/voting the candidates that have appeared this far. Most of the jury members attended and two of them were connected via telephone conference. Frida didn´t attend neither way, she had prevoted.
OCTOBER 18: THIS IS YOUR LIFE
Recent season of TV show THIS IS YOUR LIFE finished this weekend. It was also announced which celebrities have refused to take part: Agnetha Fältskog, Helen Sjöholm, Björn Borg, Carola.
The idea is that the person is "kidnapped" and taken into TV studio in Gothenburg. In Helen´s case Björn Ulvaeus was involved in persuading her to take part. Björn says it was very clear that Helen doesn´t want to appear in the show. Helen herself doesn´t want to comment. HÄR ÄR DITT LIV calls Helen´s refusal biggest setback of the season.
Person from show´s production team told by accident to Agnetha about the plan, and she send her NO reply before the kidnapping was even tried to do.
It has happened, that persons who were kidnapped, have refused to take part in the recording of the show.
OCTOBER 11: HELEN SJÖHOLM
In a new interview Helen Sjöholm tells that she doesn´t know what would have become of her singing career if she had not been discovered by B&B. During the KRISTINA period she learnt a lot about the branch. Sjöholm can think to move to New York for a period to do concerts. If KFD would be done abroad she doesn´t know would she like to do the show. It is such a big thing and would take too much time from family life. Helen Sjöholm says she is well paid but by no meanings economically independent, she still must work. And she is a pessimist and thinks that even if it goes well for hernow, it can change any moment.
OCTOBER 6: SVENSKA HJÄLTAR
Frida is member of the Swedish Heros (Svenska Hjältar) jury this year. Here an interview with her:
Why di you want to be in the jury of Swedish heroes?
-There are many daily life heroes, but many of them remain anonymous. To be able to be involved in bring them up wil be an important process for myself aswel and is itself a reward.
Describe hero in three words.
-Heart, caring, courage.
Are there occasions where it is forgivable to close one´s eyes when someone is in danger
-It depends on situation. If one puts himself on danger, maybe one must consider what to do. But compleletely spontaneously I believe most pople want to help.
Many offers of accidents are saved with acute artificial respiration. Have you been in such a course.
-No, not even avalanche course though I ski a lot. But such courses should be obligatory in schools. Like courses of fellowmanship.
Do yu remember a situation where you regret not having taken an action?
-Not, actually not. I am known as a direct person who is not afraid of saying what I think.
Why is it important to out out daily life heroes?
-Because most of them are not noticed, though they principally are everywhere, though in very small connection. When one puts up heroes, new ones are born. Heroes can wake us what lives in us others.
Youw own hero of all heroes?
-My grandmother Arntine Lyngstad, who took me and moved to Sweden when I was two years old. She had no idea what was waiting. She had style, emotion and pride. It is now at later age that I only realise what deed she did.
OCTOBER 2: BENNY IN STOCKHOLM THIS WEEK
OCTOBER 1: AGNETHA
SEPTEMBER 29: ARCHIVES
Very small and unclear, but rare pic of Frida and Ruzzo.
SEPTEMBER 29 & 28: MORE FRIDA
SEPTEMBER 27: FRIDA
SEPTEMBER 26: ARCHIVES
SEPTEMBER 26: FRIDA
Heinz Julen gets married this weekend. Let´s see will Frida be there and will any photos surface. This week the 4th Sunflower Jam took place, no info wether Frida attended. The last known public sighting that media has mentioned, without photos, is Frida´s arrival to Grand Hotel in June when Bruce Springsteen was there.
SEPTEMBER 26: KRISTINA REVIEWS
Ny Times.
SEPTEMBER 25: KRISTINA
Review of TIME magazine.
Aftonbladet reviews KRISTINA concert and says that Helen Sjöholm did world class performance. The concert gets full ***** points. Translation works brilliantly. Lenght of show is 2 hours an 15 minutes. Also other cast apart from Helen gets praising from Aftonbladet.
SEPTEMBER 24: N.Y.
Interview with Helen and Kevin Odekirk in NY Post
Article of Expressen tells that Sweden´s prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt was among the audience and he was impressed by the performance of Helen Sjöholm. Reinfeldt had seen KRISTINA for the first time in Cirkus.
Björn Ulvaeus was very plased with the concerts and praised acoustic of Carnegie Hall. Benny Andersson called Helen Sjöholm as queen of the night. Sjöholm herself felt unreal having done the concert.
Another Aftonbladet report tells about the American bureaucracy. It didn´t allow Swedish radio and TV station to record interviews with B&B etc. And papers that had forgotten to ask for press pass, didn´t get chance to shoot photos.
Aftonbladet writes that Helen Sjöholm´s fantastic voice just gets better when years roll on. The song TÄNK ATT MÄN SOM HAN KAN FINNAS which in original production was funny number about misunderstanding between Swedish and English, has different function now, writes Aftonbladet, but doesn't explain more detailed. On the background there were black and white images.
Aftonbladet has aswell article about Barry Watson and Helen Sjöholm . Watson says that KRISTINAis more than a musical. For Sjöholm Carnegie Hall resembles malmö. Bac in 1995 she wasunknownthere, Benny, Björn and Lars Rudolfsson make late moment changes. New translations of lyrics come with telphone and SMS. Like 14 years ago, also now one wonders how people will take it?
SEPTEMBER 23: AGNETHA
SEPTEMBER 22: INGMAR BERGMAN
Late film legend Ingmar Bergman´s last will was that his legendary home property on island Fårö in Gotland would be auctioned after his death. Christies in England takes care of the auction. Among the intersested ones to buy some of the property are Bergman Fund and Bergman´s daughter Linn Ullman. Kind of surprise is that even Björn Ulvaeus has made a bid for the property. It is unknown if Ulvaeus wants to buy both Bergman´s property and build the studio house on Furillen in Gotland, for which he last week finally got permission. Or just the first one if his bid turns out to be succesful.
SEPTEMBER 17: MORE CARNEGIE PIX
SEPTEMBER 16: KRISTINA CAST PRESENTATION IN NEW YORK
SEPTEMBER 16: AGNETHA 2005
SEPTEMBER 14 TYFTM CONCERT
SEPTEMBER 11: AGNETHA AND LINDA
SEPTEMBER 10: SCOUTS
Baden Powell had recently a meeting and gala diner in Sweden. We have seen lots of photos, for ex taken around the restaurant where the dinner took place. No Frida in sight. Also many photos are available of Swedish Royals (and Raoul Hamilton) arriving with the same car, but no glipse of Frida in these photos neither. It would be very likely that Frida would have been photographed if she had been there.
SEPTEMBER 9: MONO MUSIC
Paul Potts and Swedish singer Carola have been recording at Mono Music studio two songs for her coming Xmas album.
SEPTEMBER 9: ORSA SPELMÄN
Per-Erik Moraeus says in Swedish press that Orsa Spelmän in their original form (Per-Erik & Kalle & Olle Moraeus, Leif Göras, Nicke Göthe) will perform two parts from KLINGA MINA KLOCKOR piece with Benny and a symphony orchestra in the ABBA tribute concert in London.
SEPTEMBER 9: VILLMAN
Far this only one photo of Agnetha attending Villman Produktion´s party has surfaced. One reason maybe that Swedish nightlife and party arranger Michael Bindefeldt released a book the same evening and most of the press was there. On the other hand Villmna´s site says that photographers were there. Hopefully there will be more pics coming at some stage.
Agnetha has this year appeared at Rockbjörnen gala (plus phone interview the day after) , Louis Vuitton´s store opening, Billy Paul´s concert, Celebration of the Arts and Villman name change party. Paul´s concert got no attention in Sweden and Villman very little. A few years ago the same happened for event where Agnetha and Per Gessle got an award. So it may well be that Agnetha has done more public appearances which we don´t know about. Anyway, let´s see when Swedish press stops writing about Agnetha as person who never gets out of her house....propably they never will....despite that she did live broadcast at Rockbjörnen, and has posed for photogrpahers at all 2009 events, has not tried
SEPTEMBER 8: AGNETHA AT VILLMAN´S NAME CHANGE PARTY
SEPTEMBER 6: MONEY MAKING SWEDISH SONGS in 2008
Here is list of Swedish songs that made most money outside Sweden in 2008.
• ”You and your hand” – Pink. written by Max Martin, Rami Yacoub withAmerican Lukasz Gottwald and A.B Moore.
• ”Who knew” – Pink. written by A.B Moore, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin.
• ”Young folks” – Peter Bjorn & John. written by Peter Morén, Björn Yttling, John Eriksson.
• ”Dancing Queen” – ABBA. written by Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Stikkan Andersson.
• ”Listen to your heart” – Roxette. written by Per Gessle, Mats Persson.
• ”With every heartbeat” – Robyn ft Kleerup. written by Robyn, Andreas Kleerup.
• ”Fairytale gone bad” – Sunrise Avenue. written by S Haber, J Backlund.
• ”It must have been love” – Roxette. Skriven av Per Gessle.
• ”Save tonight” – Eagle-Eye Cherry. written by Eagle-Eye Cherry.
• ”Mamma Mia”. written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, Stikkan Andersson.
SEPTEMBER 6: MAGNUS CARLSSON
Magnus Caarlsson, singer of Weeping Willows has made a solo album with jazz music. Carlsson wanted to do duet with Agnetha Fältskog for it. She likes Willows but said no thanks,. But Agnetha said that if the group gets a chance to do music for big Hollywood film, she ´ll do a duet with Carlsson.
AUGUST 31: COPENHAGEN
Danish MM! site opened today. There will be 82 performances at Tivoli Concert Hall betweenOctober,15-December31,2010.
AUGUST 31: POLAR MUSIC PRIZE
It looks like Frida is not attending the Polar Music Prize ceremony. Expressen has a video from pre-party and Frida is not seen there. Also no glimpse of her in the TV broadcast of actual ceremony.
Last weekend BP Fellows had dinner which Swedish Royals attended but no photo nor info of Frida has surfaced. Well, in the other hand no photos of anyone attending the dinner has been published anywhere.
AUGUST 30: MM! TO COPENHAGEN
MAMMA MIA! will be staged at concert hall of Tivoli in Copenhagen, premiere October 2010. It will be produced by same persons as in Gothenburg. Cast will be Scandinavian.
AUGUST 30: KYLIE
Benny says in Swedish press that he thinks Kylie Minogue, who willdo WHEN ALL IS SAID and DONE and SUPER TROUPER in the ABBA tribute concert in London, is good and fair girl and it will be fun to perform together.
Benny tells that BBC suggested some artistes that could be asked to perform. He feels it is good to perform in Hyde Park and that they are doing a tribute in England. He thinks there will be a lot of people coming, but he will perform even if there´s no public. Benny of course hopes for a good weather.
AUGUST 27: MONEY, MONEY, MONEY....
According to press reports 2008 was economically good year for Benny and Björn
Benny¨s holding company BAOBAB AB took in 17,7 million Crowns profits from Littlestar in 2008. in 2007 profit sum was 18,5 millions. Turnover of all companies of Benny in 2008 was 226,5 million Crowns, of which 97,5 millions profits. Bennycashed in 12 milions of the profits. He has used the profits to pay back his bank loan of 88,7 millions.
Björn´s company Kopparnäset made 14,6 millions profit out of turover of 25,1 millions. The company has paid bacj ut+s 4 million DOLLARS loan and is practically free of depts. Björn has invested 10,4 million Crowns into company Brasil Development
AUGUST 22: LUDVIG ANDERSSON
Benny´s son Ludvig Andersson and his friend Fabian Bonnier, have started a new recordcompany, Moby Dick Music.
Ludvig looks for songs for his new album, he calls the aimedmusic style as halfinteresting pop. He is involved into his friend Oskar Bly´soperacareer and they are planning aproject with Swedish opera songs
THE VISITORS is Ludvig´s fave ABBA song and he slso likes BAO´s KÄRLEKENS TID.
AUGUST 20: BROADWAY
MAMMA MIA! became yeasterday 13th logest running Broadway show. Previously the position, with 3.242 performances, was held by FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.
AUGUST 18: SVENSK ROCKARKIV
Universal has donated 145 gold discs, among them ABBA´s awards, to the Swedish Rock Archive (Svensk Rockarkiv)
AUGUST 6: BJÖRN IN AFTONBLADET
Björn tells in Aftonbladet that he and Benny are keen to write a new musical. They have some ideas that they are having a look at. It is too early to say what they have in mind.
B&B have not been asked to write a song for Crownprincess Victoria´s wedding. Björn says writing music that has been ordered by someone has not often been succesgul.
Björn has recently put the final touches to the English lyrics of KRISTINA. After New York concerts Björn travels on a holiday in Tahiti to sail for two weeks. He has always had a dream to enter on an island with no buildings, like Robinson Crusoe.
At present Björn is filming his part to CNN´s ”My city, my life”programme where people from different cities praise their hometown. Björn says that for him the archipelogo is equally much Stockholm as the actual city. Filming takes three days and will include filming from helicopter to show the beautiful archipelogo. Weather has been great and according to Björn the film team got beautiful pictures of the city when he and Stellan Skarsgärd sat on top of a boat speaking about Stockholm. Filming has been done also in Gamla Stan, Djurgården, Cirkus theatre and Wasa museum. Plus at Atlantis studios where many ABBA songs were recorded. Cirkus is an important place for Björn and he says iot would be fun play one more musical there.....
Here is a video of the filmings
AUGUST 6: NOTEHEADS
Björn Ulvaeus and Per Gessle have left from the leader group of the company Noteheads in the spring. The company sold notes via net and developed software for composing. The business wasn´t a success and and the company has used almost all the invested money.
AUGUST 6: MM! IN TORONTO
MAMMA MIA! returns to Toronto, playing at The Canon Theatre on April 27-June 27, 2010
AUGUST 6: MM! IN SOUTH AFRICA
MAMMA MIA! opens at Artscape Opera House, in Cape Town on 15 August 2010. Then the production moves to The Teatro at Montecasino in Johannesburg, opening on Tuesday, 05 October 2010.
AUGUST 6: MM! IN MEXICO
MM! opened at Centro Cultural Telemex in Mexico City on July 29.
AUGUST 6: MM! IN HOLLAND
A Dutch tour of MM! will visit these places:
| Hoorn | 29 aug t/m 6 sept 2009 | Schouwburg het Park |
| Amsterdam | 10 sept t/m 20 sept 2009 | Koninklijk Theater Carré |
| Hoorn | 23 sept t/m 27 sept 2009 | Schouwburg het Park |
| Rotterdam | 1 okt t/m 18 okt 2009 | Nieuwe Luxor Theater |
| Nijmegen | 21 okt t/m 1 nov 2009 | Stadsschouwburg |
| Eindhoven | 11 nov t/m 22 nov 2009 | Parktheater |
| Maastricht | 25 nov t/m 6 dec 2009 | Theater aan het Vrijthof |
| Den Haag | 9 dec 2009 t/m 10 jan 2010 | World Forum Theater |
| Amsterdam | 13 jan t/m 21 febr 2010 | Koninklijk Theater Carré |
| Groningen | 24 febr t/m 7 mrt 2010 | Martiniplaza |
| Apeldoorn | 10 mrt t/m 21 mrt 2010 | Orpheus |
| Breda | 24 mrt t/m 11 apr 2010 | Chasse Theater |
| Leeuwarden | 14 apr t/m 25 apr 2010 | Stadsschouwburg de Harmonie |
| Den Bosch | 5 mei t/m 16 mei 2010 | Theater aan de Parade |
| Heerlen | 19 mei t/m 30 mei 2010 | Parkstad Limburg Theater |
| Enschede | 2 juni t/m 13 juni 2010 | Stadsschouwburg Enschede |
| Utrecht | 16 juni t/m 4 juli 2010 | Stadsschouwburg |
AUGUST 6: MM! IN SPAIN
Venues of the Spanish MM! tour
06 aug - 06 sept
Bilbao Ven a vivir la Semana Grande con Mamma Mia!
10 - 13 sept
Salamanca
17 - 27 sep
Pamplona
04 - 18 oct
Zaragoza Son las fiestas del Pilar, ¡ven a vernos!
22 - 26 oct
Murcia
29 oct - 08 nov
Málaga
12 - 15 nov
Roquetas
19 nov - 13 dec
Alicante
17 - 21 dec
Torrevieja
28 dec - 04 jan
Tenerife
07 - 29 jan
Las Palmas
JULY 31: OSLO
At first it looked that MAMMA MIA! would not necessarily continue in Oslo after the first season, spring 2009. But the musical has turned out be a smash. Additional season August 27-October 31 was announced. Before the summer break 100.000 persons had seen MM! in 102 performances and 30.000 tickets were sold for autumn. There are lots of interest for an Xmas seasons it looks like the success continues...
JULY 31: BAO TOUR
Mono Music has issued a press release about the BAOsummer tour 2009. Total number of people coming to the shows was 30.000.
JULY 24: STORA TULLHUSET
Stora Tullhuset where ABBA THE MUSEUM was to be located,will become aphoto museum and cruising central instead.
JULY 21: NEW LINDA ULVAEUS PIC
JULY 17: NATIONAL HYMN
Culture chief fo rth eSwedish town has written a letter to minister of culture asking that a new national hymn for Sweden should be written. She thinks today´s Swedes can not identify themselves in the old hymn Du gamla, du fria. She suggest that Björn and Benny should write the new hymn.
JULY 13: BAO NUMBER OF AUDIENCE 2009 CONCERTS
Helsingborg: 7.000 sold out
Göteborg: 5.500
Leksand: 6.000 (one of the many rainy days during this summer)
JULY 13: AUSTRALIAN MM!
10th anniversary site has been opened for MAMMA MIA! in Australia
JULY 13: NICE PIC OF BJÖRN FROM 2008
JULY 13: SVENSKTOPPEN
Here photos of 5th anniversary party that Swedish Radio arranged for DU ÄR MIN MAN and it´s performers.
JULY 13: BAO TOUR
We now have pics from all concerts of the summer tour in the BAO 2009 gallery.
JULY 12: PHOTOS ADDED...
to Agnetha at Stadshuset gallery
JULY 12: B&B TRIBUTE
Gunilla Backman, Tommy Körberg and Sarah Dawn Finer do two B&B tribute cooncerts at Volvo Ocean Race in Stockholm on July 17.
JULY 11: DU ÅR MIN MAN
Helen and Benny celebrated this week the 5th anniversary of DU ÅR MIN MAN at Svensktoppen radio chart. The song entered Svenkstoppen onJuly11, 2004 and has been there 252 weeks of which 38 weekas number 1 without break.
JULY 10: SWEDISH ALBUMCHART
STORY OF A HEART drops into position 13 onit´s second chart week. Shame that BAO is not scheduled for Allsång på Skansen because usually apperance on it has incresed a lot the sales of the latest BAO album release.
JULY 5: THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC
Görel Hanser says in Swedish press that Benny and Björn are involved in choosing the songs and artistes to the THANK YOU FOR THE MUSIC concert in London in September. The B´sare not going to act as musicians during the concert. If they climb on stage it is mainly to say thank you. But Görel says it is too early to say if the event makes them so excited that Benny sits behind piano and plays something.
JULY 4: PHOTOS OF BENNY ANDERSSONS ORKESTER´S....
..and Benny Andersson Band´s concert and TV apperances during summer 2009 here
JULY4: BENNY AT FRIDAY NIGHT WITH JONATHAN ROSS
JULY3: BJÖRN ABOUT MICHAEL JACKSON´S DEATH
--Bennyand myself ate lunch with his first producer Quincy Jones in the beginning of the 80´s. He had just began to work with Michael Jackson as solo artiste and said: "He will be biggest artiste of the 80´s"
JULY3: ABBAWORLD
The fprmer ABBA THE MISEUM, now ABBAWORLDprogresses. Over 1.000 original ABBA items are collected. Thet arfe creating around 30 different enviroments where the ABBA story is told chronologically, for ex Polar Studios and backstage.
Visitos will also be able toperform with ABBA. The group will bepresented with hologram projector. The performance will be filmed automatically and one gets the video to home via internet, using yhe code from the entrance ticket. You can send the video of yourself singing with ABBA to friends.
So ABBAWORLD will be more an experince house than traditional museum.
JULY3: STORY OF A HEART REVIEWS
Svenska Dagbladet gives *** of *****. The ctitic is not very keen on compilatrions so the review is rather short.
Same points from Barometern. This critic is not keen on instrumental songs but finds title song and FAIT ACCOMPLI good pure pop songs.
3 of 5 poist also from Dagens Nyheter. The ctitics asks why Benny markets his Svenstgoppen music abroad. And answers that the reason is the same as usually when Benny Andersson does something, becauseit is fun. It is hard to guess how these songs are taken abroad as they are very Swedish, writes DN.
Gefle Dagbladet **** of ***** thinks that Benny wastes his talentas he is not writing more pop songs. STORY OF A HEART´s title track would have became a bighit with different arrangement and in pop costume. Now it is "only" good dance band music which suits for BAO´s repertoire.
The title track is regarded by Expressen as best song of the CD. Points: *** of *****
Hallandsposten, **** of *****, joins the group of critics who find SOAH as best song of the compilation,
Change of language works well, writes Metro and gives *** of *****
The songs loose something when translated into ENglish, says Uppsala Nya Tidning, (*** of *****)
JULY3: CHARTS
STORY OF A HEART enters number 5 on Swedish album chart.
JUNE 23: HELEN THE ONLY SWEDISH ARTISTE IN NY
Benny Andersson tells in Swedish press about plans for KRISTINA after Carnegie Hall.
-We take one thing at a time. But what may come out of this is a piece for orchestras and choirs to be performed on different stages for ex in the USA and England. It may happen that sort of spin-pff takes place.
The September concerts are based on KRISTINA workshop in NY two years ago
-We did the theatre performance with minor scenery in a rehearsal location to see what we have., and by then we thought it would be interesting to present it musically.
After the auditions the creative team realised that Helen Sjöholm has to be involved if there were an English production. The other Swedish artistes are though replaced by American and British singers.
-We found noone who was even near as good as Helen, so we had to be sure she is willing to to appear, before we decided to go on with the project. That the other Swedes are not involved is because we want to be as close to English idiom as possible.
About the CD recording says Benny:
-Actually it is one of the reasons that we do the concerts, to get KRISTINA on record, so that it exist on record in English.
Helen Sjöholm says she constantly rehearses the English lyrics. The Swedish ones sit so deeply in her that must try to get some ofit out of herself to be able to put in the new lyrics.
Lars Rudolfssonsays that the rather decorated Carnegie Hall suits as place to perform the story poor Swedes. He says that they attempt with simplicity, music, lyrics and singing to find a way to tell conditions in which Kristina and others lived.
JUNE 23: MORE AGNETHA PICS
Again we have added more photos to the Stadshuset gallery.
JUNE 22: MORE AGNETHA PICS
We have added more photos to the Stadshuset gallery.
JUNE 22: AGNETHA DID NOT PERFORM?
We have been informed that Agnetha Fältskog was NOT one of the performers at Marianne Bernadotte´s award/birthday gala.
more new Agnetha photos here.
Happy Midsummer
