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After a decade as an ABBA fan and knowing that there was really little likelihood that ABBA would ever regroup, I resigned myself to the fact that it was probably going to be very unlikely I’d ever have an opportunity to see ABBA, much less any member of ABBA perform live. Sure there’s rare instances when Frida makes an appearance and mostly mimes along to a recorded track, and sure for the last few years Benny has been taking his band out on the road within Sweden for concerts and only venturing to Glasgow with the band outside of Sweden. And since a trip to Sweden isn’t likely to be in the cards for me anytime soon, the announcement that Benny Anderssons Orkester (or BAO as they re often referred to as well) was going to be playing in Minneapolis, Minnesota as part of the American-Swedish Institute’s anniversary fundraiser, I thought it would be the best chance to go and see a member of ABBA perform.

Sure I’ve seen Benny a couple of times at the premieres of Mamma Mia! in New York and Las Vegas. I even got a moment to say hello, how much I appreciate his music in Kristina, and got an autograph and a photo with him in Las Vegas, he wasn’t there to perform, just bask in the glory and attention that American audiences are now giving to ABBA through Mamma Mia! that wasn’t to the same degree when ABBA was making the rounds in the seventies.

In any case it was going to be an opportunity to see and watch a musical genius at work and play doing what I’m speculating ultimately gives him the best pleasure in the world, making music. Along for the ride are many talented musicians and incredible vocalists familiar to the family of ABBA fans already, the legendary Helen Sjöholm and incomparable Tommy Körberg. Both having the B&B concert tour as well Björn and Benny’s Chess under their belts, Tommy in both English and Swedish, and Helen just the Swedish along with the title role in Kristina Från Duvemåla makes them long familiar names to the ABBA fan community. They’re like extended members of the ABBA family.

Of course the opportunity to see Benny perform in the United States meant that I wasn’t going to be the only ABBA fan in attendance, and it ultimately became a good opportunity to see and spend time with about 40 other fans who made the journey to the city most famous for being where the characters of the Mary Tyler Moore show lived and worked and home to the largest mall in the United States, appropriately called the “Mall Of America.” Most of the fans in attendance were from the United States hitting seemingly all four corners of the country and everywhere in between, and several arrived from Europe, a couple of fans from Mexico and even one from Australia. Also in attendance but not specifically with out group of people were some who had come from Japan and other places.

While I don’t know the extent of the truth to this but word was going around that Benny had actually donated the time and transportation of the band to the American-Swedish Institute so that they would be able to receive more of the funds from the ticket sales for their fund-raising efforts than if the band was paid out of those collected fees. If that’s true then it truly is a wonderful donation to the American-Swedish Institute of time and talent in a very rare opportunity to bring to the community of Minnesota an authentic Swedish folk band containing some of the most talented musicians in Sweden.

As a “Dans” concert a large floor for dancing was set up before the stage so that people who wanted to could get in the spirit of the Swedish folk music and dance the night away. Benny’s band would often play two of the same type of song in a row for the dancers whether it was a polka, a tango, or schlager so that they could practice their steps for a couple of songs in a row before changing to a different dance.

While much of the music wasn’t my cup of tea, it was still fun to be in the presence of Benny Anderssons Orkester and witness a group of people who love to play music to make music. While maybe some of it had the feel of being at a prom in the late 1800’s, it really was a paradoxical moment to be able to have such a small town and maybe a county fair type feel and to have this band performing containing someone who’s one of the most successful songwriters of the last 30 years playing so up close and personal when few in his position would ever consider playing a show like this. And to top it off the band played for close to four hours with only a single fifteen minute intermission. You’re lucky to get 90 minutes out of some performers today.

While there was a lot of variety of music played, I must admit the guilty pleasures for me were the ABBA songs done throughout the performance, the vocal selections done that had been previously featured on BAO albums and the chance to hear a couple in English that are usually in Swedish. And even the combination of Swedish and English version of You Are My Man which was purely accidental as Helen just went on autopilot and started the song in Swedish only to switch mid-song to English. It was a wonderful night and was made even better by the company of ABBA fans, most of which I’ve met through ABBAMAIL. Without these folks as well as Benny Andersson, the concert would have just been a show, and not quite the spectacular event it ended up being.

Ryan