Mama Mia! The Swedish Group ABBA Has Made a Lot of Money, Money Money!

Much has been written about the Swedish super group called ABBA. After all, the group has more than proven its endurance to a global audience.

The group's iconic logo was/is also a registered trademark

Songwriters and musicians Björn Ulaeus and Benny Andersson first met in 1966, and in 1969, the seeds of the soon-to-be Swedish supergroup were planted when Björn met his fiancée, Agnetha Fältskog, and Benny met his fiancée, Anni-Frid (known as Frida) Lyngstad, and the group formed in Stockholm in 1972. Ulvaeus and Andersson knew how to write contagious pop hits, but Fältskog's and Lyngstad's beautiful harmonies were integral to the global chart-topping ABBA sound. The group's name is an acronym from the first letter in each of their names. In 1974, ABBA was the contestant for Sweden in the Eurovision Song Contest, the pan-European music festival. Sweden (and ABBA) took home the prize as the winner of the Eurovision contest that year with their performance of the song "Waterloo".

Although relatively unknown outside of Scandinavia at the time, ABBA used the Eurovision song contest as a launching pad to become a global pop music sensation. While Sweden has long been one of the world's largest cultural exporters (books, music, film, television programming, etc.), likely because in Swedish public schools, the population is taught English in as a core subject (along with Swedish and mathematics) staring in grade school between the ages 7 and 9, depending on the school attended. Indeed, most Scandinavians are praised for having both fluency in English and language competency in addition to their own native tongues, hence Swedes successfully export to the broader English-speaking world.

Anyway, in 1974, in spite of competing against the likes of Olivia Newton-John who represented the UK in Eurovision that year (unfortunately, she sang a boring song entitled "Long Live Love" that year, and her outfit was similarly conservative), ABBA grabbed the top prize.  A video of the group's winning performance in the 1974 Eurovision contest can be seen below, or by visiting HERE.



Not only was the ABBA song "Waterloo" understood across Europe, but the band also wore what were considered pretty daring costumes that year, too. Their costumes were certainly eye-catching: shiny, satin, all-in-one outfits and even shinier knee-length hot-boots. The costumes were explained largely as a way to exploit a Swedish tax law. As long as their outfits were so outrageous that they could not be worn on the street, the band could claim the cost of the outfits were tax-deductible.

ABBA band member Björn Ulvaeus recalled: "In my honest opinion, we looked like nuts in those years. Nobody can have been as badly dressed on stage as we were." Björn added: "We figured with our clothes, people would remember us even if we finished ninth." Frida noted: "We chose clothes we felt comfortable in. My favorite was a body stocking with a little dress cut diagonally. I thought I was elegant and sexy in it."

But the costumes fit right into the disco era which was just emerging around the world at the time, and people remembered the band who wore such colorful (if garish) outfits. It didn't hurt that their music was universal, and the harmonies of the women's voices in the group sounded great. They took their knack for memorable (if ugly) costumes, along with catchy lyrics and danceable pop melodies and became a global superstar group whose success is in many ways, unparalleled. All told, ABBA released eight studio albums over their original 10 years together. Perhaps their most iconic single was their 1976 hit "Dancing Queen" which can be listened to below, or by visiting https://youtu.be/xFrGuyw1V8s?si=HojD4RRc6NKTZylr.

"Dancing Queen" was ABBA's biggest hit in the United States (going to number one), and it also topped the charts in Australia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Germany and Zimbabwe. "Dancing Queen" also reached the top five in many other countries.

At their commercial zenith in the late 1970's, ABBA were reputedly second only to Volvo in their contribution to Sweden's exports. While figures vary, industry watchers agree that ABBA has sold at least 200 million albums and singles worldwide (some unconfirmed estimates put the figure closer to 400 million, behind only The Beatles but ahead of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Queen), and certainly comparable to the Rolling Stones. Collectively, estimates are that ABBA has earned more than $2 billion in album and singles sales during its career.

The 1974 Eurovision-winning band was actually made up of two couples — Agnetha Fältskog and  Björn Ulvaeus, and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad. Both couples would later split as the band became most successful, and ABBA broke up as a group in 1982. ABBA was always bigger in terms of studio recordings, but decidedly less so when it came to touring and live performances. Despite some disagreements among the quartet, the four largely remained in touch and they seem fairly united in decision-making that has perpetuated their fame and fortune. The original ABBA team have proven themselves VERY adept at continuing the nurture their money-machine by carefully licensing their songs to bands and singers who have kept their songs continually playing (and selling).

For example, in 1992, they wisely licensed several of their songs to the UK pop duo Erasure (Vince Clarke and Andy Bell) which released an EP of four of ABBA's best-known hits. That EP revived ABBA's songs for a generation of young adults who grew up listening to the original ABBA songs on the radio, and was also Erasure's first and only #1 on the UK Singles Chart for the single "Take A Chance on Me", plus it got significant airplay in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

ABBA later licensed its songs to live theater productions of the show "Mama Mia" which opened in London and remained a best-seller there, replicating that successful run in New York, Toronto, Sydney and elsewhere. The stage version's worldwide gross from 49 productions exceeded $2 billion in 2015, having been seen by 500 million people. The 14-year Broadway run alone grossed more than $600 million, according to the trade group Broadway League.

In 2014, the ABBA band-members released a video they called "The Last Video" which can be seen below, or by visiting https://youtu.be/8L6T6Yj5u4k which is indicative of the continued creative work from the group members.

ABBA's West-End/Broadway success with "Mama Mia", in-turn, lead to the Hollywood movie version of "Mama Mia" that starred Meryl Streep. The "Mamma Mia" movie version of the all-ABBA musical was released by Universal and earned the band another $600 million at the box office, while the sequel (whose story was panned) still quietly earned another $280 million during just its first four weeks without even factoring in DVD and streaming sales, licensing to cable television, etc. ABBA also released (or was it really a re-release of their biggest hits?) "ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits", which has been called one of the most influential compilation albums ever released, and sparked a strong revival of ABBA's music that has endured well into the 21st century.

In 2018, one guest-star of "Mama Mia 2", herself a seventies pop icon Cher, released a whole new album of ABBA covers following her appearance in the sequel movie. She announced one of the singles "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" via her active Twitter account.

🎂time pic.twitter.com/222E1D3m2B

— Cher (@cher) August 8, 2018

Cher told the press (see HERE): "I've always liked ABBA and saw the original Mamma Mia musical on Broadway three times. After filming "Mamma Mia! 2: Here We Go Again", I was reminded again of what great and timeless songs they wrote and started thinking 'why not do an album of their music?' The songs were harder to sing than I imagined but I'm so happy with how the music came out. I'm really excited for people to hear it. It's a perfect time."

Meanwhile, back in Stockholm, Sweden, the ABBA The Museum is a Swedish interactive exhibition about the pop band ABBA that opened in Stockholm, Sweden in May 2013. ABBA's collected works are showcased in a contemporary, interactive setting at Djurgården, Stockholm.

ABBA also announced that the Swedish foursome had recorded several brand new songs during 2018, its first in 35 years, which will be released in early 2019. The original band members are all now in their seventies, so studio recordings are one thing, but the group has said they have no intention of doing any live performances. But there ARE plans for a TV special, and a separate digital project to recreate the four members performing as what they're branding their 'ABBAtars' using the experience gained from the ABBA Museum to further their commercial success on a global basis.

Just how much longer ABBA can perpetuate its "Money, Money, Money" tree remains to be seen. But they've proven themselves perhaps the most successful at merchandising their music in a way that few other bands have yet to replicate -- it doesn't just happen, it takes a degree of talent, intellect and work -- but perhaps could pave the way for future artists in the 21st century?

TV on the Net

On March 4, 2013, the New York Times featured article entitled "Don't Touch That Remote: TV Pilots Turn to Net, Not Networks" which can be found at http://nyti.ms/15ydEwf. It was how the traditional model for show pilots over the airwaves had been disrupted by the internet with new players like Netflix now playing an important role. In that article, the Times wrote:

"Internet-delivered TV, which until recently was unready for prime time, is the new front in the war for Americans' attention spans. Netflix is following up on the $100 million drama "House of Cards" with four more series this year. Microsoft is producing programming for the Xbox video game console with the help of a former CBS president. Other companies, from AOL to Sony to Twitter, are likely to follow.

The companies are, in effect, creating new networks for television through broadband pipes and also giving rise to new rivalries - among one another, as between Amazon and Netflix, and with the big but vulnerable broadcast networks as well."

However, at its core is something I've been saying since I began this blog: Internet-delivered content, combined with the dramatic reduction in content production costs (inexpensive, high-definition video cameras, for example, can be had for a few hundred dollars these days) could soon challenge big media's dominance of TV. Indeed, what we think of as TV may already be changing. These days, many people watch shows on their tablet computers, phones, and just maybe, a traditional television, though that is not as common as it once was.

Content quality for stuff distributed online, on the other hand, is literally all over the map. Some stuff is truly phenomenal, while other things are utterly disposable. Then again, the same can be said about stuff on traditional TV (I have almost no use for so-called “reality TV”). What has changed is that instead of content we watch being firmly controlled by its self-anointed gatekeepers at big media companies, there's been a much-needed democratization of sorts. Today, anyone can produce content and post it on YouTube. And, you can probably watch it on your TV if you really want. Or your laptop, tablet, smartphone or iPod (which many more are doing anyway).

Incidentally, the trend of WHERE we watch TV being redefined isn't limited to the U.S. Sweden, the European country perhaps best known for progressive taxes and the one with the highest quality of life in the world (not to mention the highest levels of affluence in the world, including the über-wealthy Wallenburg family), has taken the bold step of having the TV tax assessed on taxpayers to fund Swedish state television not only on physical television sets, but now includes mobile devices like iPads and tablet computers (see http://on.wsj.com/14uSJHX for details) in recognition of the fact that more and more so-called “TV content” is now being consumed on those devices. That’s unlikely to ever happen in the U.S. where there is hardly any public support for state-funded television (PBS being a notable exception, and what exists doesn't fund anywhere near the network’s full operating expenses), but the point is that we’re no longer required to watch content on TV sets anymore. The Swedes rely on an honor system, but the fact that the Swedes are now including devices suggests where things are going.

While I'm not sure we can yet say that Netflix is necessarily the next ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox or CW, we can say that we’re approaching a point where "broadcast" no longer means over the airwaves exclusively. As the lines between TV and online content blur with new TVs and devices like Roku players, we may also soon reach a point where content could be managed from our desktops rather than our cable boxes. We’re not quite there … yet.

"These are the very first lab tests in a very grand experiment," said Jeff Berman, the president of BermanBraun, a media company that makes programming for NBC, HGTV, AOL and YouTube, among others.

As he suggested, the competition from online content has really only just begun, but the distributors are companies including Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft and maybe Google's YouTube.

To be sure, it's still pretty early. At this point, I can safely say that managing all that online content is still a VERY, very cumbersome process, and frankly, Apple's “Apple TV” device does nothing to make managing all that content any easier, it’s just another TV input and it does nothing to help organize all of the disparate content on DVDs, DVRs and online. Google did a bit better with its inexpensive Chromecast dongle (priced at just $35), but a host of others including Intel and Amazon are pursuing similar set-top box (or plug-ins) concepts.

On Wednesday, March 6, 2013, the NPR show "The Takeaway" with John Hockenberry had an interesting show entitled "More Reasons to Cancel Cable" about how soon, Netflix would have more competition from the likes of Amazon and Microsoft's X-Box (although Microsoft’s studios in Hollywood later shut down), as well as other providers. It discusses the aforementioned New York Times article and more. That can be listened to below, or by visiting http://bit.ly/ZgMy7w:



Brian Stelter, media reporter for The New York Times, says that online programming is very likely the future of television -- and that cable networks should be very wary. (Note: one of my previous posts featured an interview with Brian Stelter, see http://goo.gl/3Ic0S for details).

What streamed content offers is a few things, including no need to worry about editing content that would be unable to be broadcast, as well as programming length. For a half-hour broadcast sitcom, they must allot for several minutes of commercials, which means that the programming is limited to 22 or 28 minutes. That limits what can be covered in each episode. Pay cable programming offered a way around that, and now streaming does, too.

That’s one reason many top producers are actually drawn to do programming online on services like Amazon Prime or Netflix. Co-creator and producer Marta Kauffman said that was one of the things she really liked about doing a series for Netflix (her previous work includes the sitcom 'Friends'). She was speaking about the Netflix series 'Grace and Frankie' (which stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen and Sam Waterson and the series was just picked up for s second season, catch my blog post on that at http://bit.ly/1BvWByS for more background)

"What's lovely and what worked so well being able to work at Netflix is if a story can only bear 28 minutes that's fine, and if it needs 37 minutes that's fine. So it allows the story to tell you what it wants. That's pretty awesome, that's a great way to be able to write. I'm sure novelists have that ability to be as long as they need to be (see the interview at http://ow.ly/OB9zX for more details). 

The other thing is that content can be more refined to reach particular audiences. That’s created a whole new environment where niche programming can be created cost-effectively without even having a network. No longer limited to traditional confines of television production, the web has enabled a variety of shows to find audiences that way, ranging from immigrant groups, to religious groups to lesbian and gay audiences.

Leon Acord who produces the web series 'Old Dogs & New Tricks' which is now entering its fourth season, told Huffington Post reporter Brad Liberti (see http://huff.to/1I8t8MT for the article) that the experience of doing a web series had its origins in regular television, but the validation was that producing a web series' had fewer of the restrictions than regular TV does, which makes it very alluring for would-be content producers. That suggests we are still in early stages for web series generally.

Acord had been watching a lot of TV comedy with his father, something they’d often bonded over when Acord was just a kid. We loved 'All in the Family.' Now it was 'Two and a Half Men' in particular that his dad enjoyed, and while the Chuck Lorre half-hour comedy wasn't exactly known for its diversity and or sophistication, it did affirm one thing for the budding writer: "I had fantasized about doing a web series, but I guess I always, in the back of my head, thought, 'No, this kind of stuff you couldn't get away with,' and then watching 'Two and a Half Men', I was like, 'Oh, my god, this is raunchy and on network!'"

In the meantime, sifting through all of this disorganized digital content grows ever more challenging every day. So far, Apple has done little to enlighten or turn this around. Apple TV is, at best, an Apple-branded Roku box offering no major advantages but has its characteristic higher prices. For the moment, a basic PC seems to be the best way to manage content. Maybe we’ll see some innovation in the future. However, the good news is that there’s no shortage of exciting new TV content out there for viewers.

Pop Culture Reunion: Pippi Longstocking

Most kids around the world have read Pippi Longstocking when they were growing up, and probably also the two sequel books about this favorite kids character, including: Pippi Goes on Board and Pippi in the South Seas.  The author claims to have made the stories up the story for her young daughter who was sick (back in the late 1940s), and when her daughter kept asking for more stories about Pippi, she decided to write the stories down.  The books were first published in Sweden back in the 1950s, but were translated into virtually all European languages and various others, initially by Viking Press (appropriately enough).  The rest, as they say, is history.

Indeed, the author, Astrid Lindgren, became something of a national folk hero in Sweden, although she passed away in 2002.  Still, even as of December 2012, Ms. Lindgren was the world's 20th most-translated author on earth and sold roughly 145 million copies of her books worldwide.  That's pretty darn good, following only the Bible, the Koran, the works of William Shakespeare and a handful of others in terms of being the most-translated books on earth.

The reason the stories are so endearing to kids isn't hard to understand.  The little girl known as Pippi lives in a house all by herself (along with a pet monkey named Mr. Nilsson and a horse that lives on the front porch).  Because she lives all alone, there’s no one around to tell her to do her homework or even go to school.    Indeed one of the funniest chapters is the day she actually does go to school.  She also has a suitcase full of gold pieces so money isn't an issue.  She has extraordinary strength, being able to lift her horse one-handed without difficulty.  The two burglars who attempt to rob her are no match for this unusual little girl.  Pippi's social interactions, on the other hand, aren't what adults consider to be "refined".  In the original book, her attendance at neighbor Mrs. Settergren's (Tommy & Annika's mother) house proved to be a social disaster, and an experience which taught Pippi a lesson in humility.

Needless to say, all of these factors means the Pippi Longstocking character has enjoyed a timeless quality, which also means the books remain popular even today, more than a half century after they were first created.

The Pippi Longstocking movies were actually compiled from a television series which ran on one of the major Swedish TV networks which first aired in 1969.  Needless to say, kids who grew up in the 1970s had a good chance of seeing this cast.  Swedish actress Inger Nilsson starred as Pippi in the original TV series, and her portrayal is perhaps the best-loved, and is also considered the best-acted version of the beloved book character.  Various sources have depicted her performance as a "confident yet oddball" that was also uncommonly consistent for a child actress.  Newer versions of Pippi Longstocking in film, including the 1988 Columbia Pictures version that starred American actress Tami Erin were not especially well-received by movie critics, nor the children whom the movie was supposed to appeal.

The 1969 Swedish television series starred Inger Nilsson and she remains perhaps the best-loved actress to portray Pippi, although others have been produced around the world including a Russian movie version of Pippi Longstocking.  Americans actually knew the 1969 Swedish TV version as 3 separate movies, which were dubbed into English, something that is still not all that common to American viewers.  Those were as follows:

1. Pippi Longstocking
2. Pippi Goes on Board
3. Pippi in the South Seas

These 3 movies seem to closely follow the flow of the 3 books written by Astrid Lindgren, which made the children's appeal stronger, as kids could read the book and know what was coming in the next episode.  As I understand it, each episode of the Swedish TV show matched a chapter in the original books, so assembling them together into a movie that flowed logically was straightforward.  While produced for Swedish television, the production was actually a Swedish-West German co-production, and several German actors/actresses had roles.

All 3 of the original 1969 movie versions can be purchased online at Amazon.com (see http://amzn.to/U7b2me for details), and I would presume, you can probably find them on Netflix as well, although you may need to search for them there.

Original 2005 Cast Reunion on German TV

Although 35 years had passed since the original shows were recorded, the cast grew up went their separate ways, with some even leaving Sweden to live elsewhere (like the European sunbelt country Spain).  Inger Nilsson (Pippi Longstocking), Maria Persson (Annika Settergren) and Pär Sundberg (Tommy Settergren) had reportedly not seen each other for more than a decade.  Inger went on to become an actress (big surprise!), while Maria (Annika) moved to Mallorca, Spain a with her son, and Pär (Tommy) became a businessman in Sweden.

On February 26, 2005, German TV network RTL broadcasted "Die grössten TV-hits aller Zeiten - Die beliebtesten Kinderserien" (which translated into English means "TV's Greatest Hits - The Most Beloved Children's Series").  Pippi Longstocking came in sixth place (also known as Pippi Långstrump in Swedish, Pippi Langstrumpf in German) and the three actors who played Pippi, Tommy and Annika were reunited especially for that show.

The RTL broadcast was an interesting reunion because the only common language that all of them (meaning the news crew and Pippi cast) seemed to speak was English, hence American viewers could actually follow a decent portion of the conversation from German TV, although you might have missed bits and pieces if you hadn't studied any German (or Swedish!) in high school.  The interview was conducted in German, although they spoke both English and Swedish, with German dubs, and no subtitles.  Alas, thanks to copyright challenges, the original YouTube video (which was previously at http://youtu.be/5SDwHUrFch0) featuring this cast reunion has disappeared from the online world, which is unfortunate for American viewers.

However, I suspect Inger Nilsson will continue to enjoy the distinction of being the best-cast "Pippi Longstocking" for some time to come.  Much like other shows with child casts (think of Broadway shows like "Annie" for example), finding child actors to play these roles goes beyond having someone who looks the part and can memorize the lines.  Casting is key to ensuring the movie version is consistent with the tone of the original book.  For example, British author Roald Dahl reportedly hated the 1973 film version of "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", although he had also gone on record noting it had less to do with the child actors in that film version than it did with presenting the movie from the perspective of Willie Wonka, rather than from Charlie Bucket (catch my reunion post on Willie Wonka at http://goo.gl/Xn4ou).  In any event, the Pippi cast reunion was one cast reunion I never expected to find online, but the world is a smaller place these days!