ABBA star Björn Ulvaeus has landed a new radio show on Apple Music Hits.
‘Björn from ABBA and Friends’ is a new four-part series, which features conversations with friends, collaborators, and artists about all things ABBA.
“I’m excited to be bringing the show to Apple Music Hits because I have long wanted to ask some emotionally intelligent as well as intellectual people who know about ABBA about why they think our songs have lasted for such a long time — almost 40 years — because I don’t understand it myself,” said Björn.
The inaugural episode of ‘Björn from ABBA and Friends’ features special guest Nile Rodgers, who shares stories and discusses songwriting secrets, ABBA’s enduring influence, and the keys to their success and undeniable catalogue.
Additional guests include playwright Catherine Johnson, who penned the book of the stage musical and first film adaptation ‘Mama Mia!’, and creative director for the forthcoming ABBA Voyage concerts, Johan Renck.
“Sometimes when I see the number of albums we’ve sold — which they say is around almost 400 million — I can intellectually grasp that, but emotionally I never have been able to because I don’t know why all this happened,” the multi-instrumentalist added.
“I just know that we wrote our songs as best we could, and then recorded them as best as we could, and that was it. What happened afterwards was a phenomenon that I never quite understood. But maybe my guests here on this series will help me to understand it. Maybe they have some input that that I’ve waited for for so long.
“I’ve talked to several people about this already of course, but no one has come up with a really good answer, so I think that is, in essence, is what this series is about. It’s about finally getting some questions that I’ve had for a long time answered”.
Listen to Björn from ABBA and Friends every day this week at 12:00pm PST on Apple Music Hits.
ABBA made their long-awaited comeback last year with their first album in 40 years, ‘Voyage’, ahead of their groundbreaking digital live shows of the same name, beginning March 27 at the purpose-built ABBA Arena in London.
In a review of the album, Retro Pop called ‘Voyage’ “a fitting closing chapter in the tale of Sweden’s best-loved musical export”.
‘Voyage’ is available on CD, vinyl and cassette.
