ABBA Reunited Wednesday Night—Sort of

More importantly, there now exists an ABBA singalong restaurant
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 21, 2016 10:39 AM CST
ABBA Reunited Wednesday Night —Sort of
Former Abba member Agnetha Faltskog and Thomas Johansson arrive for the premiere of "Mamma Mia The Party " at the Tyrol restaurant, in Stockholm, Sweden, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016.   (Anders Wiklund /TT via AP)

The four former members of iconic Swedish pop group ABBA have made a rare joint appearance for the opening of a Stockholm restaurant inspired by the Mamma Mia! musical. Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad showed up Wednesday for the opening night of fellow former band member Bjoern Ulvaeus' Greek taverna, where guests are invited to sing along to ABBA tunes. However, they did not sing or pose for photos together and rejected suggestions they would ever perform together again, with Andersson saying "I don't think so." The restaurant, where musicians and actors interact with waiters and guests, has borrowed the Greek-island setting from the Mamma Mia! musical and movie, but Ulvaeus said "it's a completely different story."

"This is a story about Nico’s, the guy that owns the taverna that we're in, and his staff and his wife and his daughter," Ulvaeus said, per Sky News. "So it's not the Mamma Mia! story at all, but it's inspired, it's in the Mamma Mia! world. There's a certain party mood in both the stage musical and the movie and people, at the end of the show, they are very happy, they're standing up in the aisle and they are dancing. And the idea was to try to take that with us into a restaurant environment—a Greek restaurant—and have a really good party." It's the first time the four ex-ABBA members have been seen in public together since 2008, but, queried as to how it felt to be at an ABBA event again, Andersson said, "This is not an ABBA event. It's not, so it doesn't feel like that." (More ABBA stories.)

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