Finally – after months of eager anticipation – ABBA The Museum opens in Stockholm today! Of course, we were there beforehand to check it out! Read on for the YLC lowdown on Stockholm’s newest attraction!

On Monday, Björn Ulvaeus of the Swedish former super group told the gathered press that he is very happy with the exhibition at the museum ahead of today’s official launch.

“I am very very proud of the museum, the vision I had was of a story told with humour and warmth and a story where the visitor would get closer to us than perhaps ever before –  and we have achieved that!”

However, Ulveaus remains humble about the ABBA success story.

“We wrote our songs from the heart and we would sit there and bang away on the guitar and the piano during office hours, 10 to 5, and when something came out – like out of thin air – we would say ‘oh, that’s good, that’s good – that’s a good one’ and we’d play it over and over again and hopefully at the end we’d have a song that we thought was the best we could achieve at the time – that was out method. That the rest of the world liked it as well – that’s just coincidence. I am extremely happy about that. And grateful. But I don’t know why. “

Ulvaeus was also quick to deny fans any hope that the group will reunite sometime in the future.

“During all this time we have never reunited, and let me take this opportunity to say that we never will,” he assured the (disappointed) press.

Neither does the former ABBA great have a favourite part of the museum. Instead he thinks that visitors should make sure to take in the whole show.

“I would recommend visitors to go through the whole museum. It’s an exhibition, it is a story,” he said.

And it is hard to imagine that ABBA fans visiting the museum will be disappointed. The highlights are sure to be the booths where visitors can audition to be the fifth member of the group by crooning along to ABBA hits, the chance to actually perform alongside the band in a holographic experience of a lifetime, as well as record one’s own ABBA music video, We’re pretty sure all fans will love it – we certainly did!

Another brilliant exhibit is the so-called self-playing piano, actually hooked up to Benny’s piano in his current studio – when he decides to practice, you’ll hear it live in the museum (it did last Friday, we were informed). There is also the red phone, which only the four band members have the number to. If it rings whilst you’re in the museum, be sure to answer it and you could be talking to Agnetha, Benny, Björn or Anni-Frid!

Meanwhile,  outside the museum, a group of die-hard ABBA fans had already gathered on Monday morning, some from a long way away.

“We are here because we love ABBA , of course!”, said Gustavo, from Mexico.”

He told YLC that it would be impossible to choose one ABBA song above the others, it would depend on the listeners mood at the time.

“If I gave you one song that I told you I loved the best, by tomorrow I would have changed my mind. All their songs are great,” he told YLC.

Hear what Björn Ulvaeus has to say about the museum and the music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pva13R6fl9Q

You’ve heard the band, you’ve seen the film… it’s time to get down and see the hottest new attraction in Stockholm!

ABBA The Museum opens to the public on May 7th 2013 at Djurgårdsvägen 68, next to Gröna Lund on the scenic island of Djurgården in Stockholm. Tickets are available for online purchase at www.abbathemuseum.com.

Opening hours

10 am to 8 pm (May – Aug)

Noon to 8 pm (Sep – April)

Tickets

Adults: 195 SEK

Children under the age of 8: 50 SEK

www.abbathemuseum.com

Street address

Djurgårdsvägen 68, Djurgården, 115 21 Stockholm

Rebecca Martin

Follow Rebecca and Your Living City on Twitter here!