Where can I write to the ABBA members?

Write c/- Mono Music, but there is no guarantee that you will receive a reply. 

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Where can I buy ‘ABBA - The Movie’?

ABBA - The Movie has finally been released on DVD - it is available in one disc and two disc versions. The two disc version has bonus features and special packaging.  One bonus feature is a long interview with Björn, Benny and director Lasse Hallstrom conducted in New York by Carl Magnus Palm. ABBA - The Movie was released in Sweden, the UK and various other European territories on September 26, 2005. It should be available in most major territories by the end of October 2005.

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What ABBA DVDs are available?

The documentary ‘The Winner Takes It All - The ABBA Story’, made in 1999, ‘The Definitive Collection’, a collection of all of ABBA’s promotional film clips (music videos), and 'ABBA GOLD', featuring the same 19 hits as on the multi-million selling CD of the same name, have been released in most major markets. 'ABBA in Concert' (the television special of the 1979 tour, first screened in 1980) was released on 29 March 2004. 'The Last Video', a short film starring puppet versions of ABBA auditioning for a sleazy record company executive and featuring cameo appearances by all four former ABBA members, was released on 19 July 2004. Check with your local Universal Music office or retailers for local release details of these latest releases.

There have been several Sound + Vision CD and DVD packages also released. 'ABBA GOLD' featured the CDs 'ABBA GOLD' and 'MORE ABBA GOLD' plus the 'ABBA GOLD' DVD, 'The Definitive Collection' featured the double CD with the similarly titled DVD. In both cases, the contents were identical to the previous separate releases. The 'Waterloo' 30th Anniversary Edition included the original album, with bonus tracks including all language versions of 'Waterloo', plus a DVD of ABBA's winning performance of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, the Swedish heats, plus two other television performances from that year.

'ABBA' and 'Arrival' have been released with DVDs featuring the promotional clips to 3 songs on each album. The Sound + Vision releases are all limited editions, available for a short time only, and not in all markets.

'Super Trouper - 30 Years of ABBA', a documentary DVD, was also released in 2004. It recycles material from 'The Winner Takes It All - The ABBA Story' DVD but has new interviews and footage with Björn, Benny and Frida. It also has behind-the-scenes footage from the 5th Anniversary celebrations for Mamma Mia! in London.

In all cases, the DVDs are region 0 (zero), meaning that they will play in all regions. They should be available from all good music shops or on-line stores.

Universal Music released ABBA The Movie on DVD in September 2005..

The 30th Anniversary edition of ARRIVAL will contain a bonus DVD with the "ABBA DABBA DOO" TV special and other bonus footage.

Several other DVDs have been available in limited markets. ‘ABBA GOLD’ (not the same as the currently available version mentioned above) and ‘MORE ABBA GOLD’ have been released in Japan, Brazil and Russia, though the contents have not been digitally remastered, and are about the same quality as the previously released VHS tapes. Though these seem to have been released by Universal Music in their respective territories, none of these were actually approved by the parent company - in Japan, they were quickly withdrawn from sale, and the legality of the Brazilian releases is currently under investigation.

A very unofficial collection ‘ABBA A Video Biography - Music Video Karaoke’ was released by a Taiwan based company. The karaoke music tracks have been rerecorded by local session musicians, which can still be heard when playing the normal soundtrack.

I'm sorry, but I do not have any details on how or where these "other" DVDs can be bought.

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Are any ABBA concert videos available?

'ABBA In Concert', the television film of the 1979 tour, was released on DVD on 29 March 2004. This 50 minute program was first screened on television in 1980. The DVD contains 3 additional songs not featured in the original television film, plus interviews with the film's director and ABBA's tour promoter, a picture gallery and other extras.

'ABBA - The Movie', the feature film of ABBA's 1977 tour of Australia, was released in September 2005.

However, neither of these releases features a full concert. The songs included on the 'ABBA In Concert' DVD are all that was filmed of those concerts, and it is believed that all concert footage not used for 'ABBA - The Movie' was destroyed many years ago.

No full concert videos have ever been or are likely to be released.

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Why won’t ABBA and/or Universal release more unreleased songs?

Björn and Benny feel that anything not released at the time was left unreleased for very good reason and are extremely reluctant to allow anything out of "the vault". In 1994 they relented somewhat, allowing many previously unheard treasures to be included on the box set ‘Thank You For The Music’, though unfortunately (for us fans), many of them were not featured in full but as part of the ‘Abba Undeleted’ medley. Its highly unlikely that they’ll allow any further releases from the archives, though I’m sure that Universal would love to release more, especially the infamous ‘Just Like That’.

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What will it take for an ABBA reunion?

It seems highly unlikely that we’ll ever see a public reunion and a picture of all four of them together. The members of ABBA always maintained that they made music together because it was "fun". The group ended when all felt that the "fun" was gone and that they had done all they could do in the group format. Since then, they’ve been offered outrageous amounts of money to reunite for an album and/or tour, including an alleged US$1 billion a couple of years ago, but have turned down all offers.

Despite these huge offers, the four have gotten together to mark special personal occasions - firstly, in January 1986 when they were filmed singing ‘Tivedshambo’ for ABBA manager Stig Anderson’s ‘This Is Your Life’ TV show. They also apparently sang together at friend (and ABBA tour sound engineer) Claes af Geijerstam’s 40th birthday in 1986. The most recent known occasion was in June 1999, when they sang together for their friend and business partner Görel Hanser’s 50th birthday. There they performed a traditional Swedish birthday song ‘Med en enkel tulipen’ (With A Little Tulip).

This year, there was much speculation that the four former ABBA members would reunite for an appearance to commemorate the 30th Anniversary of their win at the Eurovision Song Contest. Björn, Frida and Benny did indeed appear together and make short speeches at the 5th anniversary celebration of the musical 'Mamma Mia!' in London on 6 April. All four former ABBA members made cameo appearances in the short film 'Our Last Video Ever', which was premiered on the Eurovision Song Contest broadcast on 12 May 2004, and was released on DVD on 19 July 2004 as 'The Last Video'.

All four members of ABBA attended the Stockholm premiere of Mamma Mia! in February 2005 but all arrived separately and sat in different parts of the theatre. Only Björn & Benny made a brief appearance on stage at the end of the show - no photos of the four of them are known to exist from this night.

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Is it true that ABBA were offered US$1 billion for a reunion?

It’s hard to really say, now that the story has become so ingrained. When news of this offer first appeared in the Swedish press, it was reported as one billion Swedish kronor, a decidedly less amount than one billion US dollars (though still a hell of a lot of money). Once the story hit the international news services, it seems to have changed there to one billion dollars, though on some occasions it’s also appeared as one billion of whatever local currency the story is printed in, and has recently grown in some reports to amounts up to $2 billion.

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Are records without the ABBA "backward B" logo rare or valuable?

No more than any other ABBA record. Before the ABBA logo was introduced in July 1976, all ABBA records featured ABBA written normally, with both Bs facing the right way, and written in no particular font. This includes ABBA's first three studio albums and the first Greatest Hits volume. Even since then, many records have appeared without a backward B.

The only exception to this is the first issue ‘Dancing Queen’ single in Australia, the sleeve of which had the ABBA logo modified so that both Bs faced the right way. Apparently, this was due to a copyright dispute with an advertising firm over the Bs facing each other, though the dispute must obviously have been resolved quickly - on release date in August 1976, copies of the single cover featuring the proper ABBA logo were plentiful. However, many thousands of the so-called "forwards B ‘Dancing Queen’" were available, and it’s not really much more valuable than a standard version.

For anyone who's never seen this famously unusual sleeve, here it is on the left. Compare it to the more commonly available version on the right.

Incidentally, the ABBA logo font is News Gothic Bold.

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Where can I find lyrics to ABBA songs?

The official website ABBA - The Site has lyrics to all released ABBA songs. These were recently checked over and some corrections made, so they are now all accurate. The most popular fan sites that feature lyrics include ABBA Plaza and The ABBA Internet Database. Check the 'Links' section of ABBA World for links to more sites.

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Where can I find mp3s of ABBA songs?

Lots of sites have mp3 files, though we here at ABBAMAIL do not condone the sharing of mp3s of commercially available songs - we encourage fans to support the members of ABBA, Universal Music and other companies in their official CD releases. For mp3s of unreleased and unavailable songs, check out the 'Links' section of ABBA World.

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How much are ABBA autographs worth?

It’s hard to put a definite price on autographs. I’ve seen autographed items sell for as little as US$50, or as high as US$500. It often depends on what has been autographed – for example, a photograph, an album, or a scrap of paper.

Since the musical 'Mamma Mia!' opened in 1999, the market has become somewhat saturated with autographs obtained by fans at premieres for onsale on eBay. Recently eBay and the like have become flooded with obvious fake signatures, which in some cases look nothing like the real thing. Unfortunately, many people who aren't aware of what the autographs should look like have probably been fooled into parting with large sums of money for these fraudulent items.

Here are examples of the four genuine autographs:

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How much is this piece of memorabilia worth?

Often, as much as you want to pay. Many thousands of items were produced in ABBA’s heyday, predominantly in Australia and the United Kingdom, though many items were also available in Europe and North America. It depends on the item and the condition - a badly worn commonly available poster may not be worth very much, but the ABBA dolls are legendarily rather expensive.

The Rare Records Price Guide site lists valuations for many ABBA items in British Pounds. There is no other valuation service currently available that I know of. A good way to check prices is to compare with what's currently available through sites like ebay.

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I have a rare piece of ABBA memorabilia that I'd like to sell to a deserving fan. Where can I sell it?

All I can recommend is that you try one of the online auction sites such as eBay, Yahoo! or amazon.com. eBay seems to be most popular with ABBA fans. However, be honest with your description while still trying to attract interest - there's a lot of crap listed, and almost every entry seems to use the word "rare".

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What is the story about the unreleased album ‘Opus 10’?

There is no such thing as 'Opus 10'. This is a long tale about a joking reference in a newspaper article that’s been blown out to a myth about an "unfinished" tenth ABBA album.

In 1981, while ABBA were recording songs for what would be ‘The Visitors’ album, a journalist from Swedish newspaper Expressen visited them in the studio for an interview. When the article was published on 8 June, it was headed "Now ABBA Are Recording Their 10th Album", mentioned several times that the new album would be ABBA’s tenth, and went on to list the previous 9 albums, from ‘Ring Ring’ to ‘Super Trouper’, including the two ‘Greatest Hits’ volumes (but not including the collection of ABBA hits recorded in Spanish, ‘Gracias Por La Música’). The writer then somewhat light-heartedly wrote "Will ‘Opus 10’ now beat them all?"

Since then, the rumour first spread that ‘Opus 10’ was the working title of ‘The Visitors’. In fact, when I first heard the rumour in 1983, it was said that there was to be an instrumental title track. A demo recording has appeared on several bootlegs with the title ‘Opus 10’, which has since proven to be called ‘Nationalsång’, a melody that was tried out during the earliest sessions for ‘The Visitors’ in March 1981. This tune eventually became ‘Anthem’ in Benny, Björn and Tim Rice’s musical ‘Chess’ in 1984.

Somehow over the years, the rumour has morphed into a story about a "tenth" ABBA album after ‘The Visitors’. Backing this up are usually claims that it was to include ‘Just Like That’ and ‘I Am The City’ two songs that were recorded in 1982 but not released at the time - in a press release in June 1982, Polar announced that these two songs would not be released as singles later in the year, describing them as "album tracks". Logically, any album following ‘The Visitors’ would have been either ABBA’s 9th studio album, or their 12th if you include the two ‘Greatest Hits’ compilations and ‘Gracias Por La Música’. The inclusion of references to the ‘Opus 10’ album in John Tobler’s book ‘ABBA GOLD - The Complete Story’ and in CD liner notes has only reinforced the myth.

(special thanks to Carl Magnus Palm.com for the full details of this story)

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What’s happening with Agnetha’s new album?

Agnetha's long-anticipated first album in 17 years 'My Colouring Book' was officially released on 19 April 2004, though in most territories, the release was later than this date. Two singles were released from the album in 2004: 'If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind' and 'When You Walk In The Room'. A third single 'Sometimes When I'm Dreaming' was released as a promo-only single to Swedish radio stations at Christmas 2004.

Agnetha's album was released in many territories but it was most successful in her home country, Sweden, where it sold 100,000 copies. The album featured cover versions of songs originally recorded by Agnetha's "favourite and most inspirational" artists, mostly from the 60s.

See ABBAMAIL's extensive feature section on Agnetha's album, or the official Agnetha site.

Agnetha's solo Swedish language albums were released as a box set in Sweden towards the end of 2004. Her three albums for Polar Music - including her Christmas album with daughter Linda - were remastered and released individually in August 2005.

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Will Frida record again?

It doesn't seem likely at this stage that Frida will make a full return to the music world with a new album. However, over the past few years she has made several appearances.

In 2002 she recorded a duet ‘La bacarolle’ with Italian opera star Filippa Giordano. This has only been released in Japan on a special edition of Filippa's CD 'Il rosso amore - deluxe'. The song is the first track on the bonus disc. It can be ordered from HMV Japan or Tower Japan. The duet was also included on a one-track promotional CD. There is a bootleg CD in circulation that includes a remix combining this version with another recording by a male singer, but this remix is homemade and not an official remix.

In 2003 she recorded two songs, 'Lieber Gott' and a cover of ABBA's 'I Have A Dream', with Swiss restaurateur and entertainer Dan Daniell. All proceeds from sales of the CD single go to children's charities. The single is available only from ABBA Remember or the ABBF Record Service.

In 2004 she recorded a song 'The Sun Will Shine Again' on former Deep Purple member Jon Lord's CD 'Beyond The Notes', which was released around the world in late 2004. This song was written especially for her by Jon Lord who is a close friend. Frida and Jon have performed the song on many German television programs since it was first released.

At the end of October 2005 a box set will be released containing all of Frida's remastered Polar Music albums* (plus Djupa Andetag with three bonus tracks) and a 3 hour DVD with TV appearances, promo clips and a new interview conducted in Switzerland.

* These remastered albums were released individually earlier in 2005. They are Frida Ensam, Something's Going On and Shine.

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Where can I buy ABBA merchandise?

ABBAMAIL has available several vintage Australian items from the 1970s – check out the Merchandise page. Other sites that sell a limited range of newer merchandise include the ABBF Record Service and Pop Import. Auction sites like eBay often have some ABBA merchandise items on offer, but beware that sometimes the items listed are not genuine.

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What does ABBA mean?

It is simply the initials of the four members: Anni-Frid, Benny, Björn and Agnetha. When the four first started recording together, their records were released under the title Björn and Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid (later shortened to Frida). Tired of saying all the names in interviews, manager Stig Anderson played around with the initials and came up with ABBA. The name started to be used by journalists and soon caught on, its first official use coming when ABBA released ‘Waterloo’ in 1974.

There is some dispute over which member name belongs with which letter. For ABBA themselves, it seems to have been rather fluid - at different times, both men identified themselves as the first B, as did the women with the As. Here I have chosen to use the order given in the opening credits of ‘ABBA - The Movie’.

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What are the ABBA members’ birthdays?

Björn is the oldest, born 25 April 1945. Frida was also born in 1945, on 15 November. Benny came a year later, on 16 December 1946, and Agnetha is the youngest, born 5 April 1950.

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How many albums did ABBA release?

Between 1972 and 1982, ABBA released eight studio albums - ‘Ring Ring’, ‘Waterloo’, ‘ABBA’, ‘Arrival’, ‘ABBA - The Album’, ‘Voulez-Vous’, ‘Super Trouper’, and ‘The Visitors’. They also recorded an album of Spanish versions of their hits ‘Gracias Por La Música’, plus released three compilations ‘Greatest Hits’, ‘Greatest Hits Vol. 2’ and ‘ABBA - The Singles - The First Ten Years’. A live album was released in 1986, without any input from the group. Since ABBA ended at the end of 1982, a multitude of compilation albums have been released.

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What are ABBA's biggest selling single and album?

ABBA's biggest selling single worldwide is 'Dancing Queen'. The biggest selling album by far is the compilation 'ABBA GOLD', with over 25 million copies sold so far.

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Who sings lead on a particular song?

Most ABBA fans can tell the difference between the members' voices in an instant. However, if you're not sure, check the Who Sings? list on ABBA World or the lyrics section of ABBA Plaza.

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What year did ABBA win the Eurovision Song Contest?

ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April 1974 with ‘Waterloo’.

Answers prepared by ABBAMAILer Ian Cole                                                                          BACK TO TOP