The first museum dedicated to all that is fabulous about ABBA is to open in their hometown of Stockholm, Sweden.
The museum is due to open in 2008 and will display the kitsch pop group’s instruments, handwritten lyrics and their original famous brightly coloured outfits.
ABBA’s now reclusive members; Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Reuss think it’s a great idea. They said in a group statement, “It’s great that someone feels like taking on our musical history and making it accessible.” They added, “We hope and believe that it will be a fun and groovy museum to visit.”
The ABBA museum idea was thought up by entrepreneurs Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and Ulf Westman after they visited the Beatles museum in Liverpool, and the pair eventually convinced the band to give their approval; and to donate materials to make the permanent exhibition happen.
Wigenheim-Westman explains why Abba and why now is the time for a museum to open, saying, “ABBA is one of our largest contemporary cultural treasures. With 370 million records sold, only Elvis and the Beatles have had larger sales in musical history. Today, 25 years after ABBA retired, the group still sells a couple of million albums a year. This makes Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid living legends and speaks volumes about how many fans they still have around the world.”
The museum is expected to be a phenomenal tourist attraction attracting up to 500,000 visitors in its first year.
The legendary pop group is still Scandinavia’s biggest musical export, even though they disbanded in 1982.
For more information about the ABBA museum – Click here to go to the official website