Ace of Base star Jenny Berggren continues to be “amazed” by the response she receives from fans while playing the group’s music around the world.
Having launched into the global pop charts in 1993 with their massive hit single All That She Wants, beginning a legacy that would see the four-piece become one of the most successful groups of the decade.
The band topped the UK charts over the summer, and by the end of the year the Swedish four-piece had broken into the US mainstream, where they went on to be named Billboard’s Year-End No.1 album and single the following year with ‘The Sign’.
Throughout the nineties, Jenny and her siblings Jonas and Linn, along with bandmate Ulf Ekberg, were one of the country’s most successful acts, but life in the limelight wasn’t without its challenges.
“Gradually, people started to recognise us in Sweden, but it was after ‘93 that the social life and the privacy was vaporised,” Jenny tells RETROPOP’s April 2023 issue, adding of their frequent television appearances: “There were only two or three TV channels in Sweden, so there was not much to choose between.
“After a couple years, me and my sister were discussing where on earth we could go on vacation, or what we would do if people came up to us, who maybe didn’t recognise us, and asked what we do for a living. How do you say, ‘Oh gosh, I’m a pop star,’ without them saying, ‘Oh, I know your music’? And then we realised that if we wanted a vacation, we’d have to go to the moon!”
Together, Ace of Base released five albums together, with their final LP ‘Da Capo’ arriving in 2002, before they parted company. Over the years, reunions have been sporadic, with Jenny, Jonas and Ulf appearing as a trio and Linn absent.
When faced with the prospect of the group ever coming back together, whether for a one-off performance or even a single release, she sighs: “Not together as a group. Ace of Base fell asleep in the 2000s and it’s still asleep. If they come knocking on my door, all of them, then I will open it. If everybody wants to join in, I won’t be the one who stops anything, but it will not happen and I know that. So it’s better to keep that dream a bit folded in and sit still in the boat, as we say in Swedish.”
However, the music lives on and in addition to a new singles box set release Jenny will play a string of live dates throughout the year, performing the group’s biggest hits ahead of new solo music – including a planned collaboration with Jonas – due out soon.
“Ace of Base didn’t do any world tours, we weren’t a live act in that way. So being a live act today and receiving all the feedback, it’s like a wall coming back to you when you’re on stage as people sing the songs – and that is amazing,” she smiles. “I don’t know what we did, but I’m grateful for it because people get happy when they sing those songs
“It takes you back to where you were at that time. And it was a happy time. It gives people energy and you want to listen to it. We need that today.”
‘Beautiful Life: The Singles’ is out March 31 on Demon.
Read the full interview in the April 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
