The ABBA reunion on Sunday night was unexpected, a most magical experience, and a piece of music history. For the ABBA members, Sunday, June 5, marked the 50-year anniversary of the day that Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson met for the first time.
In honor of the anniversary, ABBA members reunited at the Berns Salonger in Stockholm along with guests including Sweden’s most well-known artists and musicians. As Sweden’s Express reports on June 6, the event was a private gala with all four ABBA members present.
The private event celebrating the beginning of the friendship of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson on June 5, 1966, began at 6:15 p.m., and the private party lasted until well after midnight.
Among Sunday night’s guests were ABBA members Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstand. They had met their future song partners and husbands in 1968. By 1972, ABBA was born. In 1974, the group won the European Grand Priz with their song “Waterloo.”
Despite their amazing musical success (or maybe because of), ABBA and their marriages dissolved in less than a decade. Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus had met in May 1969 and were married from 1971 until 1979. Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were also married, but their marriage fell apart in 1981.
Except for a TV appearance in 1986, ABBA did not come together again publicly until the Swedish premiere of the “Mamma Mia!” movie on July 4, 2008.
Following the premiere, Björn commented that there was no reason for the four to appear together again on stage: “We will never appear on stage again. [...] There is simply no motivation to re-group. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition.”
In January 2016, eight years after Björn Ulvaeus’s comment, the four ABBA members did reunite on stage together – not to perform -- but to celebrate Björn’s new restaurant Mamma Mia! Agnetha Fältskog, now 65, Björn Ulvaeus, 70, Benny Andersson, 69, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 70, can be seen in the above video or in the January 2016 ABBA reunion video.
So far, no video footage has appeared from Sunday night’s ABBA reunion at the private party in honor of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. Pictures of the event have appeared on social media sites.
So was there really an ABBA reunion during Sunday night’s party?
According to Guitarist Janne Schaffer, what really happened is that the two female ABBA members, Agnetha Fältskog (Björn Ulvaeus’ former wife) and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Benny Andersson’s former wife) got on stage to talk about ABBA's history and to honor the two men's friendship which began 50 years ago:
“Among those performing throughout the night were Fältskog and Lyngstad who got on stage to perform the song You and I, dedicated to Ulvaeus and Andersson, with the male songwriting duo joining in on the performance towards the end of the song thus reuniting the whole group on stage,” Schaffer said.
The impromptu ABBA reunion left all the guests and ABBA members emotional. Anni-Frid Lyngstad described being together again “as an emotional night,” and the female ABBA member added, “ It was absolutely amazing. A lot of emotions. We’ve made this journey throughout our history. Benny and Björn in particular. Its been very nostalgic.”
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