A*Teens

25 years after the victory in the Eurovision Song Contest, ABBA reappears, this time as four young artists performing ABBA’s music. A TEENS is the name of the new band. The debut single “Mamma Mia” will be out the summer of 1999. A TEENS consist of four members in their mid-teens, all from Stockholm. Together they perform modern versions of ABBA songs.

A*TEENS started working on their debut CD in November 1998. Together with the producers they picked out twelve songs for the album and continued working on the project in both Stockholm, Sweden, Oslo, Norway and Copenhagen, Denmark. The first single “Mamma Mia” will be in the stores the summer of 1999. The original version of “Mamma Mia”, which by the way is ABBAs original producer Michael B Tretows favourite track with the group, was number one in the European charts in 1975-76. It was also the track that launched ABBAs extremely successful career in England, where it went No. 1 in 1975.

Marie on A*TEENS: -It’s a lot of fun singing and dancing to ABBA songs. To mix contemporary music styles with ABBA’s fantastic material is exciting. We look at A*TEENS as a tribute to ABBA, and hope that Bjrn and Benny, who wrote the songs, will like what we do. The video for “Mamma Mia” was shot on the 27th of March 1999 outside of Stockholm. The video includes some references to ABBA videos, like the classic “looks” and poses (back to back). There is also a parallel story about stiff and somewhat dull people in their 30’s coming to life with the help of ABBA’s music. Asked about the video, Sara says: -It’s exciting. We have never done a video before. We never expected this much work for a 3,5 minute video. But we’re having a lot of fun.

The immediate future will put a lot of demands on the A*TEENS, including many nights doing interviews and TV shows, since all the members go to school during the day. -The record company asked if we would really have time for A*TEENS. But we have been singing and dancing 6-7 nights a week for the last few years. There isn’t much more time than that, Amit laughs.