ABBA Museum To Open In Sweden

A museum dedicated to the history of legendary Swedish pop group ABBA is expected to open in Stockholm in 2008.

Event consultant Ulf Westman and his wife, Ewa Wigenheim-Westman, have spent two years convincing former band members Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad that it’s a good idea.

Stockholm mayor Kristina Axen Olin said the museum, which is expected to draw 500,000 visitors a year, will make the Swedish capital a more popular tourist attraction for the millions of ABBA fans around the world.

“As a Stockholmer, this is what you have been missing,” she said at a news conference to unveil the plan. “We are convinced that this is important both for Stockholm citizens and for marketing the city.”

The interactive museum will feature original outfits and instruments used by the group, handwritten song lyrics, a display of different awards, and “all other things we can think of and find,” Westman said.

The museum will also feature a studio where visitors can record their own ABBA songs, and an interactive experience that will recreate “the feeling of being at Wembley stadium and seeing ABBA live with 50,000 others.”

Organizers are still searching for a suitable location for the museum, but said it will open somewhere in central Stockholm during 2008.

“It is nice that someone feels compelled to take on our musical history. We think this will be a fun and swinging museum to visit,” the four band members said in a joint statement.

They’ll donate material for the exhibition, but will otherwise not be involved in the project, which will be funded by company sponsors.

ABBA is one of the most successful bands in history, having sold more than 370 million albums.

While the group has not performed together since 1982, it continues to sell nearly 3 million records a year.

The musical “Mamma Mia!” – written by Andersson and Ulvaeus and based on the group’s hits – has been seen by more than 27 million people around the world.

— John Gammon