A*Teens break all records!

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A-Teens break all records. In a week the Swedish ABBA-copies have sold platinum - 80 000 albums. 

-It's totally unreal, says A-Teens Marie Serneholt, 16, about the unbelievable sales figures.

A Swedish debut artist or group selling so much in such short time is extremely rare. Last year no-one managed to sell even half that amont of albums in the first six months. Marie Serneholt was somewhat shocked when she saw the figures.

- I had heard that there where a lot of requests, but I could never believe that it was so much. I ran straight to the phone and called my mother and my father to tell them the news.

WILL CONQUER USA

A-Teens have also made it big abroad. In Norway the album has sold gold, in the Netherlands they are the highest placed new comer on the chart. Also in Denmark, Finland and Poland the sales are very good.

Now it's time to conquer UK and USA. Today they're heading for London and the legendary music program "Top of the Pops".

- It's totally sick that we're supposed to be in that show, says Marie Serneholt. [Marie means that it's unbelievable, we sometimes use "sick" to denote something that's very pleasant (to say the least!) but so unlikely to happen that's it's "a million to one"...: transl. note]

- It's something that you've heard of and you know it's huge. I'm so nervous about it, but I hope it's gonna be fine.

PLAYING WITH AQUA

Next week San Francisco and Los Angeles is on the agenda, where they will perform with Danish group Aqua.

- I haven't been to USA before, so it's even more nervous. It'll be really exciting.

The success for A-Teens can partly be explained by the fact that the original ABBA has had a revival lately, much thanks to the huge success of the musical "Mamma Mia!" in London. But Anders Johansson [No, it's not me! Really, check the last name...!] at Stockholm Records would also like to emphasize that the members of the group, Marie Serneholt, Dahni Lennevald, Sara Lumholdt and Amit Paul as worked hard for the success.

- They've done a lot of performances and loads of interviews.

UNIQUE SUCCESS

The musical expert Claes Olson, behind the music business magazine Music Industry, describes A-Teens rapid sale figures as "very unique".

- I can't think of any other example where an artist making it's debut has sold so much so fast.

Translation by ABBAMAILer Anders Johnsson