FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
Showing posts with label Benny Andersson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Benny Andersson. Show all posts
40 years today since ABBA swept Eurovision Song Contest with their song Waterloo, becoming first Swedes to win: http://t.co/aLNQJtziq3
— Sweden.se (@swedense) April 6, 2014
TheSpringOf74 YouTube Channel video: ABBA - Dancing Queen - LIVE at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, June 18, 1976, at the gala tribute to Sweden's King Carl XV1 Gustaf and future wife and Queen, Silvia Sommerlath, the night before their wedding.
This was the first time the song had ever been performed in public in Sweden.
Euronews YouTube Channel video: Euronews reporter Valerie Zabriskie speaks with lucky Abba fan club members selected to get a sneak preview of the new museum in Stockholm. Uploaded May 5, 2013. http://youtu.be/xbDW3FdtEgM
"A" is for Awesome and ABBA and the new ABBA Museum in Stockholm, which officially opens today at 1600 Stockholm time/10 a.m. Eastern U.S. Monday night's gala premiere brought Anni-Frid, Benny and Björn together, cheered on by a select group of invitees from across Swedish society and the music industry, who are, in the end, just fans of the band like everyone else, and very excited that this amazing museum is FINALLY a reality; #abba, #AbbaMuseum, #ThankYouForTheMusic, @stockholm, @sweden
I could mention who some of these VIPs are and why they're important and why they're there,
but that's not worth spending the time it would take today to do that, and besides, TMI as I'm sometimes reminded by friends here in Hallandale Beach and elsewhere around the globe. Plus, I've had a very clear idea of how this particular blog post would look ever since I was there in January, so trying to explain to you all who Carola or Sarah Dawn Finer are and why they are in the video below iis, well, just a losing proposition today.
Tickets for the much-discussed and anticipated museum that's full of innovative technology run about 195 SEK/ just under $30 U.S. for adults, and 50 SEK/$7.63 for children up to age 8, at today's current ratio of about 6.52 Krona to the dollar, more or less.
But fair warning, the museum in the beautiful Djurgården section of Stockholm WON'T take bills or coins, only electronic payments, because as the museum puts it loftily, "Vi har en dröm om ett kontantfritt samhälle, därför går det inte handla med mynt eller sedlar hos oss." ("We have a vision of a cashless society, therefore we don’t handle coins and bills." )
Yes, sorta like in the future as seen in Star Trek, but not quite, since there's a 5% discount with MasterCard. Björn's explanation on why abba-museet doesn't take bills and coins, largely to prevent crime, has a great introduction that only a real genius like him could get away with saying in his Big Picture way
There was a time when bills and coins served their purpose. They replaced cumbersome barter and made trade between people and nations possible. But do they still serve this purpose? Do we really need cash? Or is it a fixed idea like with Scrooge McDuck? Have we lost the ability to see that coins and bills are mere symbols and that those symbols easily could be exchanged for others? Cards and smartphones today and who knows what in the future.
According to Lars Epstein's post yesterday, above, at his Stockholm-centric Epstein's STHLM blog at Dagens Nyheter, the museum is expecting about 217,000 visitors a year.
For someone like me who has been a huge ABBA fan for more than two-thirds of my life, the biggest ABBA fan that most people I've known have ever met, as small as this exhibit at the airport was, in looking at it and reflecting back on everything, it was hard to get over the fact that for so long, like millions of other fans, we fervently hoped that there'd be a museum some day that would be shaped along the lines of,,, well, just what they seem to have actually done: music plus heart -musik plus hjärta.
Like those other fans of the band, over the past 20 years I've given up counting how many interviews I'd seen with the band members, especially Benny and Bjorn, discussing the idea of it, but quite naturally, being somewhat unsure of how to answer such a question without seeming pretentious. But it IS a weird question, isn't it, when you really think about it? Should there be a museum that people pay to get into that's all about you and three other people you've known for most of your life? How do you answer that?
TheSpringOf74 YouTube Channel video: ABBA - Dancing Queen - LIVE at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, June 18, 1976, at the gala tribute to Sweden's King Carl XV1 Gustaf and future wife and Queen, Silvia Sommerlath, the night before their wedding. If I remember my ABBA history correctly, this was the first time the song had ever been performed in public in Sweden. http://youtu.be/33Yj5pbsXAs
Above, in my humble opinion, the single best version of this iconic song ever recorded on film.
Here are those January 10, 2013 photos I snapped at Arlanda before and after grabbing my luggage:
You can see more photos of this exhibit by going to Google Images using these words as your search terms: "Terminal 5, Arlanda, ABBA"
Here's the link to the ABBA Museum-related news videos that have run on TV4, most recent first, obviously, in Swedish, but many with lots of great video of the musem: http://www.tv4play.se/s%C3%B6k?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=Abba
sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Benny Andersson on piano, Olle Moraeus on violin - "En skrift i snön" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on Dec. 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/cTatkGocfCY
Sweet & sublime as always! SVT's 2012 St. Lucia telecast from Uppsala Cathedral -with Astrid Cederlöf as Lucia- was loaded with Swedish goodness, including ABBA's Benny Andersson on piano and Helen Sjöholm singing; There's no substitute for such sheer genius & talent!
The sweetness and the utter simplicity never disappoints.
Church choirs singing traditional Lucia and Christmas carols, the reading of the Lucia text, and as always, all done with no self-conscious showboating or self-congratulatory displays -and no distracting applause from the audience.
All done in one hour.
Above and below, my screenshots of 14-year old Astrid Cederlöfas Lucia.
By now, after a few years of watching this, and having gotten into the swing of how things go, there are certain songs that are always performed that are now so familiar to me that I can already hear the upcoming refrain, chorus or key musical notes even before the chyron disappears from the TV screen.
Correct, like hearing the first few notes of an ABBA or Beatles song. To me, this year's telecast seemed much more subdued than the previous two Luciamorgon telecasts.
Whether that was the plan or just the way it all worked out, I can't say, but it did seem like there was noticeably less energy in the room, maybe almost too subdued. Was it because I already knew that this year's telecast was NOT LIVE as the last two had been, where anything done LIVE always offers up the possibility of something interesting and unexpected happening?
Or maybe it was just because yours truly was already pretty tired and stayed-up all night thru to watch the telecast, which was 1 a.m. Eastern my time that Thursday morning, 7 o'clock in Uppsala. When that opening framing scene outside Uppsala Cathedral came onscreen, it looked SO very dark and very cold! I practically shivered vicariously when it came on and I thought about how mornings like that can make you exhausted even before the day begins. Thoughts of warm tomato soup and soup crackers went thru my head.
This is what it looked like outside the Cathedral in Uppsala an hour later, at 8 a.m., looking more like 6 p.m. in Bloomington, Indiana, about mid-January.
sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson - "Vinterhamn" on SVT's Luciamorgon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/Xqtr219lt40
sannasonja's YouTube Channel video: Helen Sjöholm & Benny Andersson: "Nu tändas tusen juleljus" on SVT's Luciamorgoon telecast from Uppsala Cathedral, Sweden. Recorded December 7, 2012 for broadcast on the 12th. Uploaded December 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/fsnbicyYNcU
The above was short and sweet, but still my favorite from that day!
The video of the entire telecast is on SVT Play's website for another 28 days, as of today, then will be permanently deleted. http://www.svtplay.se/video/907512/lucia/?tab=undefined&sida=1 As usual, the SVT audio and video quality is amazing, so be sure to click the opposing arrows in the far right corner of the video and hit fullskärm to enable the full screen, And be sure to watch for Olle Moraeus on the violin.
Sweden.se's Vimeo video: SwedishLuciafor Dummies. Lucia Day - a feast of candlelit processions, saffron buns, mulled wine and talking animals. Here’s how to make the most of it. http://vimeo.com/55253944
As a bit of a Lucia bonus, here's a short video of some kids in a Lucia procession who made their way out to the glass cage in the Great Square in Malmö, Gustav Adolf Square, where this year's Musikhjälpen took place two weeks ago, and where Robyn famously performed in 2010, as I wrote at the time. Robyn rocks Malmö at Musikhjälpen 2010 as amazed fans watch her like a goldfish in a glass bowl at Gustaf Adolfs Square http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/robyn-rocks-malmo-at-musikhjalpen-2010.html
Below, Kodjo and Gina interact with the kids inside their glass cage studio:
2Shaymcn YouTube Channel: ABBA - Dancing Queen (HQ) - LIVE at the Royal Swedish Opera, Stockholm, June 18, 1976. http://youtu.be/qk_Vu6AcbWg
Above, in my humble opinion, the single best version of this song ever recorded on film.
Thirty-five ago today, one of the most popular songs of the late 20th-Century got the definitive visual look it needed to go supernova, and there it stays, frozen in our collective memories.
Well, at least among those of us with a yen for genius lyrics and power-pop harmonies.
The day before the 1976 Royal Wedding in Stockholm of King Carl XVI Gustaf and his fiancee, commoner Silvia Sommerlath, the present Queen Silvia, during a variety program celebrating the nuptials, ABBA performed a never-to-be forgotten costumed version of Dancing Queen at the Royal Swedish Operafor them and their invited guests.
As you watch the video, you can see the almost bewildered look of many of the officials and other musicians seated behind them on the stage, who, the story goes, because of their unfamiliarity with the song, had no genuine idea whether or not the song was supposed to be about the future queen -or not.
And yes, it does remind all of us again of the group's marketing genius, since two years prior, at the 1974Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton that made them famous, they wore early 19th-Century costumes when they performed Waterloo, which earned them first place.
As of today this video has received 9,355,415 views.
The current population estimate of Sweden by the CIA is 9,088,728.
Benny sliding his fingers across the piano keys at the beginning -so very, very simple and yet so genius!
Fox-TV's multi-national hit Glee featured a performance of Dancing Queen in their May 10th episode titled Prom Queen, with Amber Riley and Naya Rivera doing the duet.
You can watch the entire episode on Fox's website until this coming Thursday at
2Shaymcn video: Yngwie Malmsteen: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (ABBA) HQ http://youtu.be/tfmg_wV-QeU If the blog is rockin', don't come knockin'... Agnetha, Benny, Anni-Frid & Björn
Below, the one and only original version of Gimme!, as seen during the 1979 World & U.S. Tour promoting the Voulez-Vous album, whose first stop was Göteborg. Thirty-two years later, I still largely recall the tour stops in chron order. Trettiotvå årsenare...
ABBA -Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (LIVE at Wembley Arena, November 1979) http://youtu.be/RLtU7aOnp2U Another previous post of mine on ABBA and that 1979 World Tour, that included the United States -though the best info will stay in my head- is from July 2, 2009, titled, ABBA Geniuses At It Again: Story Of A Heart, featuring Helen Sjöholm, Words & Music by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus If you are a new reader to this blog, I urge you to read it to get a better sense of me and my musical back-story and tastes, and why, perhaps, certain things will appeal to me and appear here on the blog that don't appear on other blogs or websites you regularly visit. http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/abba-geniuses-at-it-again-story-of.html As I note there, my music teacher in high school, at North Miami Beach Senior High, was one of the top studio musicians in the country, and regularly performed at Criteria Studios in nearby North Miami for all the top groups of the time when they came to South Florida to lay down some tracks, or, record an entire album, and that even included ABBA. In fact, he was part of the album title song recorded at Criteria the month of my 18th birthday, for which this video was later recorded, and if I recall correctly, was to be part of the touring band as well. ABBA - Voulez-Vous (1979) http://youtu.be/OUx4tLPMo50 ----- http://www.yngwiemalmsteen.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/2Shaymcn http://www.youtube.com/user/SHAYMCN1
Helen Sjöholm - Inte jag (CHESS på svenska) Someone Else's Story http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOda9k1sbLs
You'll recall that back on July 20th, to commemorate a posting that day by ABBA super-fan and expert Shay in Dublin of the video of the biggest-selling U.K. single in history by a Female Duo, Elaine Paige (as Florence) and Barbara Dickson (as Svetlana) ofI Know Him So Well from 1985, written byABBA'sBjörn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson along with Tim Rice for the Musical "Chess" I included that video here.
Nothing is so good it lasts eternally Perfect situations must go wrong But this has never yet prevented me Wanting far too much for far too long. My post was titled, sensibly: Biggest-selling U.K. single by Female (Duo) - Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson: I Know Him So Well (1985); Marie Serneholt http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/biggest-selling-uk-single- by-female-duo.html
Well, yesterday, Shay posted an excellent audio version -with English subtitles- of the rewritten 2002 LIVE version of Chess that was performed in Stockholm, with the always fantastic Helen Sjöholm interacting on "Inte jag" with Tommy Körberg. Wow, I would like to have been there for that!
I've seen videos of her singing this song before, obviously, most notably, at the Berwald Concert Hall in Stockholm, a.k.a. Berwaldhallenhttp://sverigesradio.se/berwaldhallen/index_e.stm, which is the home of the Sveriges Radio Symphony Orchestra, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzyTM2zhpMcbut I really think this may be my new favorite.
And because I neglected to think of it in July, I'm also posting here today the Barbra Streisand rendition of I Know Him So Well It packs a real wallop, too!
Completely coincidental to David Cameron's first visit to the U.S. as British Prime Minister is the posting today by ABBA super-expert Shay in Dublin of the video of the biggest-selling U.K. single in history by a Female Duo, Elaine Paige & Barbara Dickson performance of I Know Him So Well from 1985, written by ABBA'sBjörn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson along with Tim Rice for the Musical "Chess."
Nothing is so good it lasts eternally Perfect situations must go wrong But this has never yet prevented me Wanting far too much for far too long...
Be sure to click the additional info below the video that Shay has written, which includes lyrics.Shay's YouTube Channel of ABBA group, individual and ABBA-related songs and memories is among the most amazing you'll ever find.http://www.youtube.com/user/2Shaymcn (But sorry, no A*Teens. See bottom.)
But then Shay lists his occupation as "Feeding The Fältskog Fever!!" so you know his heart is really in it. And the audio quality of his videos is simply awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hqnfbkxLlo
-----The following post was updated with new blog info re Marie and a posting of her SVT appearance from YouTube on November 21, 2011-----
A*Teens performing "Mama Mia" LIVE on Top of the Pops, May 1999.
Speaking of A*Teens, is it true that I've always been a sucker for the smiling face of Marie Serneholt? Guilty as charged!
Marie's new blog, chock full of photos and her latest adventures: http://marie.elle.se/
Here's Marie back on January 28th appearing on SVT'sGomorron Sverige (Good Morning Sweden) talking about the new production of Grease in Stockholm along with cast mate Sebastian Karlsson.
playing in Skiffle bands, at venues not unlike the
ones described here by Benny in the mid-late
1960's.
"Every town in Sweden used to a have a Volkpark with a stage and a dance floor where in the summer bands would play and people would bring their own booze and dance," says Andersson when we meet in the hotel he owns in Stockholm. "In the Eighties that started to decline, so in 2000 we started to play in Skansen to try and recreate the feeling of those big bands from the forties and the fifties."
This is perhaps the best single example I can think of,
when the music sounds like it was done just right, and
with Helen Sjöholm, you know the problem will never
be with the singer,
From 0:40 to 0:56 of this Rick Steves video of Skansen,
you can get a sense of the sort of folk dancing I suspect
Benny's talking about.
By the time the interview below with Jonathan Ross
concludes, and you combine it with his insightful
earlier comments in The Telegraph, you really can't
help but come away even more impressed, because
it's clear that Benny's positive attitude is undoubtedly
one of the keys to his continued success and health,
because he seems to keep things in their proper
perspective.
He really enjoys the life he has now, believes the other
three do as well, he has the freedom to write whatever
he wants and has the good sense not to want to turn
his life -and his family's- upside-down:
"To have talent is just luck. But you have to take care of your talent by working.
I try to write music every day. I am not an artist. I don't have that drive or ego to
perform. I just want to write music that other people want to listen to. I want to
have a conversation through the music and for it to be as good and meaningful
as it can be."
Benny's so calm and reassuring that I almost think he could play
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