ABBA rules out 50 year reunion for Eurovision 2024
No stage appearance, no official composition for Sweden in ABBA's 50th anniversary Eurovision win.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Eurovision, News
ABBA has reportedly ruled out an on stage reunion at Eurovision 2024, to be held in Sweden.
Next year marks 50 years since the band won the contest in the United Kingdom.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, the pair also dismissed the idea that they might compose the host nation’s entry.
Bjorn and Benny – who swore never to tour again and reportedly turned down an offer of $1bn to play 100 shows at the turn of the Millennium – say they do not want to get back together with Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad to perform – even for one night.
“I don’t want to,” says Benny Andersson, “and if I don’t want to, the others won’t. It’s the same for all four of us – someone says, ‘no’ – it’s a no.”
“We can celebrate 50 years of ABBA without us being on stage,” added Bjorn Ulvaeus.
There’s still 12 months for a change of heart, and the band could still be represented (and surely will be) through a tribute, or a single member or video message.
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4 Responses
Maybe they could call upon their holograms from their ABBA Voyage show (currently in London) to make an appearance instead?
Would have been nice if it’ll happen and it’s easy filler to do some kind of tribute but really hope SVT and producers would just like to show there is more to Swedish music than Abba. After all they’ve been trying to show that for decades now.
SVT know how to stage a Eurovision. They’ll work out something amazing to pay tribute.
If their most recent reunion album was any guide as to what they might come up with, I doubt very much anyone was going to be asking them to pen Sweden’s entry for 2024 anyway.
Perhaps the music wasn’t to your taste, but it did score them two “Record of the Year” nominations (their first ever), as well as an “Album of the Year” nomination (again, their first). While it could be argued that the “Album” nomination was in recognition of their total body of work, the individual track nominations indicate that a significant proportion of the industry felt that those two recordings were worthy of being singled out. I’m in no way suggesting that their most recent output is up there with their classics, but “Don’t Shut Me Down” in particular is a great song.