Expressen's entertainment supplement "Nöje" covers A*Teens in four sides today, plus the cover of course... Here's a translation of the whole thing!

 E x p r e s s e n N ö j e 9 9 0 9 0 3 R o b e r t B ö r j e s s o n

TEENAGERS ON EXPORT

THE ABBA-COPIES ARE ALREADY BIG IN SWEDEN - NOW THE BUSINESS IDEA IS GONNA CONQUER THE WORLD

You thought that A-Teens where only one Swedish summer hit. Wrong. This week they teenage quartet enters the British chart at number 12. And next week it's time for USA. Bur the quartet is only 16 years old... right?

Nöje's Robert Börjesson asks the worried questions and in addition get's declared as an idiot.

How do you interview a sixteen year old pop star? What do you say to four teenagers, with Gott&Blandat liquorice in their mouths, who excited tells you that they are a "high priority band" (record company English for a band that the executives has decided is gonna make it worldwide)?

Two girls and two boys who in just a week has sold 80.000 copies of their debut album "The ABBA generation". Do you treat them as the under aged they actuall are - no matter how speculatively breeded they are by Stockholm Records - and concentrates on questions on favourite colour and what food they like the best?

Or do you decide that four full time pop stars who's gone up extra early this morning to be able to spend an hour at a make up studio before the interview, should be taken seriously and be asked the same questions that everybody else you interview.

I don't know.

So A-Teens Amit Paul (dark, short hair), Sara Lumholdt (dark, long hair), Dhani Lennevald (bright, short hair) and Marie Serneholt (bright, long hair) get's to decide for themselves.

** I don't know how to interview you. You're only sixteen years old. Either I ask the same questions that you've probably answered hundred times already, about your favourite colour and the names of your cuddly toys or I ask the same kind of questions I usually do.

Amit: Ask the questions you would ask other artists and we'll see which one's we answer? Sara: But we can't say so much about our lives. We haven't lived that long. If we're to talk about our background it'll probably only be a lot of "and then we had lots of exames and that was tough".

NO QUESTIONS ON SEX AND MONEY

A-Teens do not answer questions on sex and money. And up until I asked about money they have only had to say "stop" once. A journalist asked about their sexlife.

- It was as if he thought we were 20, Amit Paul explains. But we're known for our music, not for our... sexlife.

The answer relieves a long awaited burst of laughter. [oh my, literal as always! transl. note!]

A-Teens love to describe their vocoder popversions of ABBA's music as "our music". Not many answers come without that mantra. And even if it's as popular as inevitable to describe the teenage group as a cynical record company product utilising yet another ABBA revival, the quarted surely wouldn't sell as many albums if they didn't add some kind of charm or personality to the original songs. The question is only: what?

- Even if it's covers, Marie Serneholt explains, it's our versions of the songs. We add our background and our world when we sing the lyrics.

** But isn't that hard, ABBA's lyrics are pretty adult?

Sara: Yes, of course it's hard to sing "I've been cheated by you since I don't know when". Noone of us has been there.

** So then perhaps A-Teens contribution to ABBA's songs is naivity, that you sing the lyrics without really knowing what they're about?

Marie: Yes, yes... perhaps it is?

WASN'T ALLOWED TO BE NAMED ABBA

Some time ago the quarted changed name from ABBA-Teens to A-Teens. Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson didn't approve on the name. In Expressen Andersson commented: Abba is Abba. What they're doing is something completely different.".

- But it was as much our decision, Amit Paul explains. And it was a change of name we'd thought about for a long time. Next album will probably not only include ABBA songs and then A-Teens works better.

** So it was your decision?

- Yes, to a great part. Or boths...

** Like when a relationship ends and you're both the one who broke up?

- Eeh... well, we're happy.

In A-Teens Amit Paul is the one you wanna ask the questions to.

He's already a potential Robbie Williams. All the time ready with cynical answers and a look that says "yeah, I know what you're saying buddy, but I'm just playing along right now and next year you can have the exclusive for my solo carreer".

** What exactly are you guys doing? You don't sing and it's ABBA's music? I feel a little sorry for you.

Amit: Just wait 'til you hear the full length CD.

** I've heard it?

Amit: But ABBA's songs are made for girls and this won't be for ever and when it's time for my own carreer I will have good help from this.

In the future all four want's to keep on working in the music business. Noone thinks that A-Teens will last forever. When asked about what artists they wanna cover when they go solo Amit is quick to say Stevie Wonder and Marie Whitney Houston until Sara finds the right answer: "I think I would rather do my own songs". Dhani isn't stupid. He answers the same.

Quite frankly I have nothing against A-Teens. I'm just "motherly" worried.

Like when Lumholdt says that the pop carreer makes them not having to go through that painful time of adolescence and I happen to put the follow up question "what exactly?".

Then the obvious authority from the Mamma Mia video disappears. Left is only an unsure girl who like Dustin Hoffman in "Rain man" is rocking back and forth hoping for the bell to ring and that the homework test is ending. How I wish I didn't ask that question.

A YEAR AWAY FROM SCHOOL

What A-Teens wanna avoid is the "group pressure thing" and to "see their friends get all drunk". But they would be happy if they had some more spare time. And it bothers them that their friends don't enjoy their vacation. Yes, they call the summer holidays for vacation. Then Marie Serneholt tells about how they all got sick during their three weeks of holidays.

- You know, the 16 year old says, like when you've worked really hard and then just let's go and relaxes. Then the body is extra sensitive to bugs. Otherwise you don't have the time to be sick. You push it away.

Marie tells that she's gonna take a year off since she hasn't got time for the studies. During their summer tour they've been sleeping an average of six hours per night.

- It doesn't hold water to make the lab reports if you haven't made the lab itself.

But Marie doesn't mean a year off from the pop dream. She means a year off from school.

And when I ask if the others are going on promotion to USA without her, they all burst into laughter.

Really loud.

- No, no, from school of course, Marie Serneholt screams. Not from A-Teens.

For the first time they let go of that plastic politeness. Between them the looks they share can only mean one thing; what a moron!

Why would they give up A-Teens?

 *********************************************

THE RECORD COMPANY IS TO MAKE MILLIONS ON ABBA'S SONG TREASURE

How was Sweden's best selling pop group born? Anders Johansson, talent hunter for Stockholm Records and Ola Håkansson, the president of the same company knows. Thank's to them whole Sweden is humming "Mamma Mia" again.

- Journalists often contemptously writes that A-Teens was created at a marketing meeting at Stockholm Records and it's all true.

Anders Johansson, talent hunter at Stockholm Records, was in on creating A-Teens. Stockholm Records is owned by multinational record company Universal who owns ABBA's songs.

- The idea was originally born because as a frustration over mediocre ABBA covers and "Star search"-imitations. And we also knew what song treasure we had our hands on.

The first idea of a cover group goes back to 1996.

- At first the group was to be made up by 10 year olds, a sort of mini-ABBA called ABBA kids. We wanted to make an ABBA for children by children. But we discovered that children that young is very unfocused and that their voiced wasn't good enough. The fact that it became four 16 year olds was more due to the fact that Dhani Lennevald, Marie Serneholt, Sarah Lumholdt ant Amit Paul impressed the executives of Stockholm Records then a decision that 16 year is the age when a child is ready for a carreer in pop music.

50 KIDS ON AUDITION

To construct A-Teens Anders Johansson called Lassse Kühler's show and dance school where the dance teacher Eva Jonsson got a request for collecting 50 youngsters for an audition. Dhani, Marie, Sarah and Amit where among the last to perform and the only ones who did it as a group.

- We had three criterias, Johansson explains. They should be good dancers, good singers and they should love ABBA. The fact that they're so well disciplined, purposefull and talanted also spoke to their advantage.

At first the thought was that every country should have their own A-Teens. Instead of the group, the concept should be exported.

- But when the record company representatives from the other countries saw our A-Teens they understood that there was no use trying to create something of their own.

The fact that Dhani, Marie, Sarah and Amit are only 16 makes a difference.

- Yes, naturally it's something we've considered. The thought still strikes me. They are so young and when you start a project like this you've got no idea what you're getting yourself into. We don't know the extent of it all. We have to be very very carefull.

** So concretely, in what way are you careful?

- There are exceptionally many people working with A-Teens. And we're very concerned about them getting enough sleep and that their work schedule is followed. That they eat their lunches.

- And when we explained to their parents what was about to happen we where very honest with them, saying that we didn't know what would happen when their kids in three or four months was gonna be Top20 in Britain.

In a week A-Teens is performing at the Bimbo club in San Francisco in USA in front of a whole bunch of record companys executives. With that gig the A-Teens start their way to the USA top.

- What they American executives are struck by when it comes to A-Teens is the freshness that's not in American teenage band. That A-Teens is not about sex. It's nothing of that bad taste Lolita image like with Britney Spears, Ola Håkansson, president of Stockholm Records, says.

Håkansson thinks that A-Teens will be big in USA. The album is to be released in november and the first single already in september.

- It's very unusual that a foreign band is launced with such short notice in USA. And you have to remember that ABBA never had a real big break through in USA. For many Americans A-Teens will be new and fresh.

Translated by ABBAMAILer  Anders Johnsson