ABBA Omnibus blog – year five

Five years ago, on March 17th, I started this blog as an extension of my website ABBA Omnibus. The post before this one was also the 200th post in the blog. Here are a few of my favourite blog posts from the past year:

Happy 25th anniversary, ABBA fan club!

Happy New Year’s vision of the future - analysis of the Super Trouper album track

Two For The Price Of One – backtrack or flash-forward? - in defence of a much-miligned ABBA song

Dum Dum Diddle – it’s not that bad - defending another ABBA classic

Dancing Queen – young and sweet, only 35 - anniversary of ABBA’s most famous hit 

An amazing find - the concert segment from 1978′s Olivia special, featuring guests ABBA and Andy Gibb, in full and in stereo

ABBA book bonanza - lots of new ABBA books

ABBA – The Inner Circle Interviews - review of the book

Agnetha, fashion legend - a rare public appearance

The Visitors - my memories of getting the album in 1981

The ABBA revival – 25 years and counting

Take a look my favourite posts from previous years under Pages to the right.

ABBA Omnibus blog – year four

Four years ago today I started this blog as an addition to my website. It’s been a busy time over the past twelve months, with the website and associated network changing from ABBA World to ABBA Omnibus, and so much going on in the greater world of ABBA.

Here is a selection of my favourite blog posts from the last year:

• The ABBA reunion story, FFS! Another reunion story, Agnetha wants to reunite ABBA – no less than three reunion rumours 
• Ten years of ABBA World – the tenth anniversary of the website
• ABBA tribute acts face their Waterloo – tribute bands directed to not use the name “ABBA”
• Frida sings! – on her first recording for six years
• I’ve been ripped off! – an image I created used on TV
• Forty years of ABBA – the 40th anniversary of the first performance by Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid
• Why ABBA World is now ABBA Omnibus – changing the name of the website
• Gracias Por La Música – the lost ABBA album – ABBA’s 1980 album of Spanish recordings
• Ten ABBA websites I visit regularly
• 25 years since the last ABBA performance
• For Stig Anderson’s 80th birthday – ABBA’s tribute for their manager’s 50th birthday
• Working at ABBAWORLD - the exhibition in Sydney
• Super Trouper Deluxe Edition – an analysis of reactions to this forthcoming release

ABBA World blog – year three

This week the ABBA World blog celebrates its third annivesary! Time flies when you’re having fun and all that. It seems like only yesterday that I was making those very first posts.

Here’s a sampling of some of my favourite posts over the last year: 

• Finally facing their ‘Waterloo’? The importance – or not? – of Eurovision in ABBA’s story.
• Story Of A Heart and the music of Benny Andersson does Benny’s music sound like ABBA or is it the other way around?
• Benny Andersson Band in London I was there!
• My City_My Life Björn’s travelogue around Stockholm for CNN.
• No Voulez-Vous Deluxe Edition? delayed in 2009, now to be released in May 2010.
• Who owns a song? discussion on the virtue of cover versions.
• Kristina at Carnegie Hall I was there for the English language debut of Benny and Björn’s musical.
• ABBA and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame reaction to the announcement of ABBA’s induction.
• Mamma Mia! fans celebrate the return of the musical.
• ABBA and Christmas why I’m glad ABBA never made a Christmas record.
• What was the ABBA event of 2009 poll – still open, by the way!
• My first ABBA record reminiscing about the ABBA LP.
• The Little White Piano Björn’s literary debut.

Who owns a song?

A frequent comment heard from ABBA fans is that so-and-so “owns” a song and no one else can do the song justice. It’s been used most recently in discussions about the recent CHESS In Concert CD and DVD releases (from last year’s Royal Albert Hall concert) and also tomorrow night’s Thank You For The Music: A Celebration of the Music of Abba concert in Hyde Park in London.

But who really does own a song? And if a song “belongs” to a certain singer, does that mean it’s not that good a song but rather the performer or performance that makes it “good”?

Because that’s the subtext every time someone says that no one else can perform a song. ‘The Winner Takes It All’ is a good example. Fans claim that it is “Agnetha’s song”, frequently vote it as the best ever ABBA song, and criticise every cover version, including the Benny-produced performance by Meryl Streep in the Mamma Mia!movie. Ergo, if every other version is not up to Agnetha’s, or is “rubbish”, then the song mustn’t be very good if it can’t be interpreted by anyone else.

A similar thing has come up with the forthcoming Kristina concert at Carnegie Hall in New York.  The claim is that Helen Sjöholm isKristina, no one else can perform the role and sing those songs. I saw the original Swedish production twice in 1999, with actress Frida Bergh in the role. I thought she played a fine performance, and her singing, especially of the signature song ‘Du måste finnas’, was up there with Helen’s performance that I was familiar with from the CD.

The genuine sign of good music is that anyone can perform it in any style. Certainly there have been some awful cover versions of ABBA songs, but there have also been some excellent ones, the best of all interpreting the song in their own way.

Music is an ephemeral thing. Once the song is over it doesn’t really exist. Music needs to be performed to stay alive.

So who really owns an ABBA song? We all do, every time we hear one, whoever it’s performed by.

ABBA World blog – year two

This week the ABBA World blog celebrated its second anniversary. A few weeks ago it passed 100,000 visitors, and this is the 99th post.

Here’s a look back at some of my favourite posts in the second year.

• Read vintage ABBA articles relive ABBA history
• Seeing CHESS the musical in Sydney
• Chasing ABBA a MySpace fan quest
• ABBA reunites – sort of  at the Mamma Mia! movie premiere
• How can I resist you? me at the Australian premiere of Mamma Mia! The Movie
• Bright Lights Dark Shadows redux a look at the updated edition of the essential ABBA biography
• My first ABBA fan event 25 years ago
• Mamma Mia! versus Across The Universe comparing the two movies
• Let The Music Speak book launch an exciting and unique new ABBA book
• 2008 in review
• A Gift of Song: The Music for UNICEF Concert a look back 30 years
• ABBA wins Lifetime Achievement Award: Agnetha and Frida accept award together and surprise everyone
• ABBA The Official Site – first day a look at the new site

Vote 1 ABBA World blog

I’m very happy to see that the ABBA World blog has again been nominated in ABBA Plaza’s ABBA Site Of The Year. Only the best of ABBA sites are included in the final ten nominees.

Go here to vote for the blog and your other favourite ABBA sites. Voting closes 31 December 2008.

ABBA World blog – the first year

One year ago today I started the ABBA World blog, as an extension of the ABBA World site.

Since then the blog has outgrown its origins, adding news, historical articles, critical reviews and much more. One of the highlights of the first year was seeing the ABBA World blog among the nominees for ABBA Plaza’s ABBA Site of the Year.

If this is your first visit to the blog, or if you’re a regular visitor, why not take a few minutes to revisit some of my favourite posts over the past twelve months. Or just take a browse through all the previous posts.

• DVD overload – about the flood of unofficial releases
• Not like that – why the MAMMA MIA! movie won’t include a new ABBA song
• Still my favourite song – since 1975
• The ABBA flag - decoration at 1977 concert venues
• ABBA Simpsonized – ABBA as Simpsons characters
• The first ABBA record – it wasn’t ‘People Need Love’ and it wasn’t ‘Waterloo’
• ABBA after ABBA – Frida, Agnetha, Benny and Björn revisit their past
• ABBA today – the former ABBA members in 2007
• ‘Dancing Queen’ cameos – ABBA’s classic appears in other songs (which leads into some interesting comments about technical aspects of ABBA’s recording)
• B-sides – lost classics or throwaways? – the songs hidden behind the hit singles
• Thursday, March 3rd, 1977 – ABBA’s first Australian concert
• An unusual ABBA record – a semi-regular series

Vote 1 ABBA World blog

The ABBA World blog is one of the nine nominees for ABBA Plaza’s ABBA Site Of The Year Award 2007.

I was pleased and surprised to see the blog among the final selection. Only the best of ABBA sites are included – so in just nine months, the blog has joined such august company.

Go here right now to vote for the ABBA World blog and your other favourite ABBA sites. Voting closes 31 December 2007.

Welcome

Hi there, and welcome to the new ABBA World blog.

I’ve been thinking about adding a blog to ABBA World for quite a while, to write about the site, to write about ABBA, and to interact with site visitors. But first I wanted to find a blog host that was easy to use and could be compatible with the site.

Doing some semi-regular surfing around ABBA sites today, I visited one site with a blog that seemed to be easy to use, and the blogger is a freelance IT journalist, so he should know the good from the bad.

So I signed up, looked around to see how things work, and here we are, with a brand new blog and another addition to ABBA World.

Ian