British fans were surprised to see the front cover of tabloid newspaper Daily Express declare “ABBA STARS TO SING AGAIN“, featuring a lovely photograph of Agnetha and Frida taken at the Mamma Mia! movie premiere in Stockholm in July 2008.
Inside the paper Frida is quoted “It would be great to do something with Agnetha,” … “If we did, it would be hard to avoid all the pressure because of Abba. It could never be low-key.”
That’s the basis of the entire story. The quote comes from an interview Frida gave to Swedish paper Dagens Nyether that was published on 20 September. (Read the original story here, English translations at Mikory’s ABBA Blog and icethesite)
In the interview Frida is asked ” if there is one singer with a quality she wished she’d had” she names Agnetha, and when asked “Have you ever spoken about singing together again?” she replies:
“We talk and laugh about it sometimes, but life is changing, we’re getting older and there are so many other things that may be more important and which take up our time. It is clear that it would be great to do something with Agnetha. It is difficult though. If we would do something it would be so hard to avoid all the incredibly pretentious context that it would bring and all the associated pressure. There is such a fascination and curiosity that we could never do something simple and low-key, just because of that I do not think it will come off.”
And on the basis of that, another British tabloid beat up is born. As the story has travelled around the world it has been twisted to say that Frida is “keen to head back to the studio with [Agnetha]”.
It hasn’t helped matters that ABBA fans everywhere had already been discussing the original interview with such comments as “Frida would love to sing with Agnetha again”.
Oi vey!
Tags: ABBA, ABBA reunion, Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Dagens Nyheter, Daily Express, Frida
ABBA Omnibus blog 
1 October, 2010 at 08:28 |
entirely okay
another story built from dust
since the “opus ten” it seems that Abba mythical next album is a fantasy that fills newspapers
with this kind of articles , even if Frida would have wanted to record something with Agnetha , she will lose every interest in it !
16 October, 2010 at 15:32 |
Dear Ian
What is going on with Agnetha’s health?
Agnetha’s belly doesn’t look normal as it seems to look bigger than her usual self. The last time Agnetha looked like this was in 1977 because she was pregnant.
17 October, 2010 at 08:35 |
I think she’s just put on a little weight as she’s gotten older.
27 December, 2010 at 20:03 |
And they’re at it again. In an interview published in M-Magasin this week Agnetha apparently says:
Which has attracted the usual tabloid frenzy under headlines like “Agnetha wants to reunite ABBA” about an impending ABBA reunion. And fans who should know better are salivating, despite the fact that all four of them have said at one time or another that they can imagine doing something together, but in the next breath say that the time is long past and they will never reunite.
30 December, 2010 at 19:33 |
The article with Agnetha’s full comment is now out, where she is asked “the mandatory ABBA question”. In its correct context she is saying that she can imagine some form of the four together could happen, but not that she actually wants to do it:
Thanks to Mikory’s ABBA Blog