Bjorn Ulvaeus says ABBA success humbling as he marks two milestones
sson, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad in Stockholm in 1972.
“Mamma Mia!”, composed by Ulvaeus and Andersson and based on their songs, originally opened in London’s West End on April 6, 1999. Written by Catherine Johnson and directed by Phyllida Lloyd, it centres around a mother and daughter with three possible fathers.
According to its creators, over 70 million people have seen productions of the show in more than 450 cities around the world, staged in 16 different languages. It has also led to two blockbuster movies.
“The fact that somehow ABBA has managed to touch so many millions of lives around the world, generation after generation and people ask me ‘how does it feel for you to know that?’, and that’s a very good question and very hard to answer,” Ulvaeus, 78, said.
“It’s a very elusive feeling. It’s more to do with gratitude and with humility than pride, because it humbles you to know that so many people have listened to something you’ve created and that they’ve been made happy by it or sad, and that it has meant so much for them in their lives.”
“It’s very difficult to fully emotionally grasp that, at least for me,” said Ulvaeus, who was joined on stage by producer Judy Craymer, who first met him and Andersson in the 1980s and convinced them that a musical could be made from their songs.
With its 25-year run, “Mamma Mia!” becomes the 3rd longest running musical in West End history, after “Les Miserables”, which made its debut in 1985 and “The Phantom of The Opera”, launched a year later, in 1986.
