Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Mamma Mia! The Movie : A Tribute to ABBA

Sweden is a pretty nation of the Scandinavian. I have been there once in 2002, had a great time and wonderful moments there. The winter is extremely cold and the sight views are just magnificent. Besides been famous for its beautiful scenery, sourish delicacies, home for the Nobel Prize and some world's famous footballer, perhaps the greatest export by the Swedes ever was the musical group ABBA.

Mamma Mia! The Movie will be released soon in our local cinema and I just can't wait to watch it soon. I rather missed out the chances to watch it on crappy-pirated-DVD, rather try to enjoy the fun of songs on a cinema. I was looking forward for songs made famous by ABBA, obviously the musical group whom shot into stardom in the 70s, was perhaps one of the most favourite musical group ever. Others include Bee Gees and The Beatles. Abba's song is very catchy in tune with some hidden messages and themes underlying it. They topped the music chart in various countries and gaining fame worldwide at that time. My parents grew up listening to the Abba, just like many peoples in those days. During their popularity, ABBA made a huge impact on the pop culture, spinning hits after hits, touring in sold-out concerts all over the world, especially in Australia and Europe.

Most memorable tune you tend to heard somewhere, someway is perhaps the line from their songs. Due to their highly fame status on that time, a new word emerged - ABBAholics, used to describe the crowds of people consisting of Abba's truly near-hysterical fans. It is not a surprise to say that many of us may found ourself familiar these words are:

"Mamma Mia, here I go again.
My,my,how can I resist you"
or
"You are my dancing queen,
young and sweet only seventeen"
or
"Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me
but I won't feel blue"

Who can gorget those lines from their three most famous song, "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen" and "Super Trouper"? Those were the legend and legacy. That was in 1970s but too sad to said that they officailly broke up in 1982. The legend always bornt while it is still at peak. However, about three decades later, the revival of ABBA spirits were made possible by the Swedish teen techno-disco, A*Teens. Remember them? Remember their songs like "Upside Down" and "Halfway Around The World"?

In a tribute to the super trouper ABBA, a musical stage was made, inspired by Abba's hits and greatest tunes to come out with stage show - Mamma Mia! Since it was opened in London in 1999, the musical stage generated many viewers and millions have watched it. At once it was staged in Malaysia, not quite long ago.

Because of the success of the musical stage, a movie based on the adaptation of the West End musical stage and inspired heavily by the musics of the Abba, "Mamma Mia!" was made into the silver screen. The movie starred Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth; Tom Hanks and the two male members of ABBA served as the executive producers. The most interesting was that all the songs and the musics featured in the movie were created and penned by ABBA members themselves.

24 songs in the 108 minutes movie - Mamma Mia! is the movie I want to watch and catch. Join in the fun, why not you say. Of course it is one of those movie that everyone just can't wait. Abba's legacy and legendary and greatest hits, who would said no!! I wonder if James Bond aka Pierce Brosnan can really sing or not?

Before I left and stop this long post, here are five facts about ABBA:
(1) The name ABBA is derived from the acroynm from the first letters of each of the group member's given name - Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

(2) The ABBA logo was made initially as the band's promotional material from 1976 before it eventually became the group's registered trademark.

(3) ABBA's first number one song was "Waterloo", paving way for more number one songs later in their career. "Waterloo" was their winning song from the 1974 Eurovision.

(4) Agnetha and Bjorn, as well as Benny and Anni-Frid were married, however their success as a group take a tow where both marriages fell - ended up with divorce.

(5) Abba made 8 albums throughout their career - "Ring Ring", "Waterloo", "ABBA", "Arrival", "The Album", "Voulez-Vous", "Super Trouper" and "The Visitors"; all sold to an estimate 370 million copies.

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