ABBA STAR BJORN ULVAEUS ADMITS HE BELIEVES ICONIC 70S BAND'S NAME IS 'STUPID'

Abba star Bjorn Ulvaeus has revealed he has always thought the band’s name is ‘stupid’.

The Swedish musician, 79, is a founding member of the pop group, also comprised of Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, who famously won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with their hit Waterloo.

The group’s name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names arranged as a palindrome, however Bjorn has not held back when sharing his thoughts on the title.

‘As we were kind of famous, all famous in Sweden, we made our first records under Agnetha, Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frid,’ he explained.

‘And the DJs on radio and everywhere else, in our office, they got tired of saying that… as you can imagine.

‘So they just abbreviated it to the initials Abba. We didn’t have a choice in the matter. I thought it was such a stupid name. And it is.’

Speaking on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast, Bjorn said Abba was also the name of a very famous herring factory in Sweden and they had to ask them for permission to also use the name.

‘And then they said “As long as you don’t dabble in marinating”,’ he recalled.

‘I thought we should have a cool name like The Rolling Stones or something like that. The Northern Lights. And here we are with Abba.’

Abba are the most successful Swedish act of all time in the UK charts, having scored nine number one singles.

Last month they were made Commander of the First Class of the prestigious Order of the Vasa in Sweden – the first time it had been given in almost 50 years.

But discussing the ‘great honour’ during the same interview, Bjorn stated it could be the ‘last occasion’ they would all reunite too.

‘We stood there quietly, accepting it out of the king’s hand and him saying a few words, it was a very quiet and very elegant ceremony,’ he said in the episode.

The honour is not a knighthood, so Bjorn will not be known as a sir but it is still a huge moment for the group and Swedish music.

Bjorn continued: ‘All four of us of course were there… in public (we see each other) very rarely, and Frida (Lyngstad, also known as Reuss) said to me afterwards, “this might be the last occasion”.

‘Very sad, and I thought about that afterwards, but we’re not getting any younger.’

It has been over four decades since Abba last performed together live, with the quartet even skipping the 50th anniversary of their win at Eurovision this year.

This disappointed viewers, albeit slightly placated by the appearance of their digital Abba-tars as the interval act.

In 2021, the group released the album Voyage and their first-of-its-kind London show of the same name, which began in May 2022.

This could also be how Abba finally takes to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury as Benny and Bjorn teased the idea at the anniversary of Abba Voyage in May.

At a Q&A at the Abba Arena, host Pete Paphides suggested that the Voyage live band could go to Worthy Farm, to which Bjorn excitedly replied: ‘Oh yes!’

‘I think that’s a brilliant idea,’ he added as Benny joked: ‘You’d need to ask the band.

In April, Bjorn also joined the cast of the London musical Mamma Mia!, which uses Abba music, to celebrate its 25 years in the West End by speaking to the audience.

This celebration also marked the Swedish band triumphing with their song Waterloo in Brighton on April 6, 1974.

The musical show premiered in London on the same day in 1999.

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2024-06-21T19:11:57Z dg43tfdfdgfd