Saturday 22 June 2013

Rocky, 1977: Partner switch with ABBA

The guy is called Ashley, he is an Australian DJ and lately a moviestar as well. His part gives him the opportunity to get very close to two Swedes who usually have a clean reputation: Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Both ladies are the leading contributors to the Swedish major enterprise called ABBA. About this 'company', a movie is being made that will be screened next year in German cinemas and that will surely attract millions of viewers. Its title is plain and gripping: 'ABBA - The Movie'.
Its title is as plain as its story, that revolves around the Scandinavian success group. Robert Hughes, a professional reporter, is dreaming about an exclusive interview with ABBA. Hughes, played by Ashley, goes through all kinds of amusing experiences during his hunt for the group. Encounters between the screen hero and the ABBA members are taking place primarily in Hughes' bed: indeed, he is dreaming them up. That's how the movie runs along for ninety minutes, highlighted with plenty of music, a bit of drollery and of course a happy end.
The entertainment film will once more prove the incredible popularity of the Swedish hit group. The soft rockers are looking back on more than a dozen million sellers and their aim is to keep their ABBA enterprise this prosperous. Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson were forced to take a break this year to take care of a couple of personal obligations: Agnetha gave birth to her baby and Anni-Frid found her long-lost father.
This breathing space was a good opportunity for the quartet to think about the progress of their tumultuous career and come up with new hit supplies. The Swedish ABBA factory has an extreme shortage of staff.
That's how the business-minded Swedes are taking all the raisins out of the show cake and produce hit singles and albums that turn into gold even before they are released, and they are shooting a movie.
It's clear to ABBA that a successful world career can also be pure hell. "After all, we can't tear ourselves up and be in America, Germany, England, Japan, Scandinavia and everywhere where our songs become hits, at the same time," Björn Ulvaeus said in an interview. "ABBA is running like a freight train but we are running out of breath."
Apart from that, the phenomenon of the registered ABBA trademark is linked to vast amounts of money, so that the Swedish state would have to put up with a sensitive drawback in its balance of payments if ABBA's stream of foreign exchange would dry up one day. If the four world famous stars want to end up with any money at all from their success and not work exclusively for the tax office, they have to invest in new ventures. That's also the reason that there will be more products with the ABBA trademark in the future.
Because the four clean Swedes have long turned into an institution and little time is left for a 'human touch', the question is discussed ever more often if other musicians will be able to come into the name and success of ABBA...

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