Music Monday: ABBA

Note: From now on I am linking to videos instead of embedding them. I am not taking any chances with copyright.

ABBA has a Tik Tok.

The short-video, social media platform comes on and off my phone. The cat videos lure me in and one night while making myself put away the phone to read an actual book, something popped up on my ‘For You’ stream.

ABBA.

More importantly, ABBA with a TIk Tok.

Even more important, ABBA has new music coming out.

I featured one song on my ‘Awesome Mix’ from the Swedish group. During my childhood, my knowledge of Sweden came from three things:

1. ABBA
2. Tennis player Bjorn Borg
3. Pippi Longstocking

Roger, my brother, was responsible for the kind of record collection we had, including what was featured in the Awesome Mix. Among the LPs and 45s was ABBA. Dancing Queen was a single, along with SOS, and Fernando. We had the LP simply called ‘The Album’ along with Super Trooper. I begged a friend to borrow her sister’s Voulez Vous album. I played the hell of our those tunes. Later I bought both volumes of ABBA Gold.

I danced, sang, and imagined with those songs. I saw a concert documentry about one of their tours and witnessed the maddness. I nearly saw an ABBA cover band when it came to town. I figured this was the closest I get to their live shows.

Nobody dreamed they would come back together, record new music, and put on a concert. Cool, I thought, Maybe they will tour North America.

Not quite.

ABBA will play a concert, in a specially-designed arena in London’s Olympic Park, taking what happened with the Tupac hologram in Coachella and making it even bigger. With the help of Industrial Light and Magic, yes that compnay behind our favourite movies, the concert will featuer ABBA-tar versions of the quartet. Using motion caputre techology, lighting, and even an orchestra, ABBA will ‘perfom’ as their younger selves with old hits and new music from their albume Voyager.

When I read about it, my mind was blown. It also reminded me why I love this group so much. They offered a kid in Winnipeg hope. Remember that Richard Armitage Cybersmile entry? I related to it. A lot. As a bullied kid, ABBA and books provided an escape, much like what happened in Muriel’s Wedding. (A film I also related to, a lot.) It was joy, it was overcoming barriers, it was making it together the way old friends do. It was having dreams and seeing the wonder of a fairy tale. Sometimes I want to dance like a nobody watched me and they had plenty of foot-moving tunes.

ABBA’s new album already released two singles with one already my favourite. Only one other song brings a tear, ‘The Way Old Friends Do.’ I can add another with ‘I Still Have Faith in You,’ a song mainly about the group but already has a universal feel. In an in-between time, a little ABBA might go a long way. Also, unlike IKEA, they don’t come with instructions.