Sunday 29 March 2009

Pop Foto, 1977: ABBA had to disappoint a celebrity

Recently, ABBA received an important award for Swedish groups in their own country. The group was proclaimed the ‘Best Group of the Year’. To celebrate the occasion, a huge party was being held at the Opera Restaurant in Stockholm. An enormous celebration with lots of champagne, several tasty delicacies and obviously an amount of rather to very well-known Swedes! There, the ABBAs met an equally famous compatriot, namely the world champion skiing Ingemar Stenmark.

At the same time as ABBA, this young man received an important award as well. At the party, that was hosted by a big Swedish newspaper, it turned out that the five Swedes got along exceptionally well, because they had a lot of fun together. On the accompanying picture, taken in front of the ‘modest’ background of the royal palace of King Carl Gustaf, Ingemar is positioned in the middle. The Scandinavian skiing freak had become such a big ABBA-fan after this pleasant afternoon, that he invited Anni-Frid, Agnetha, Björn and Benny to take free skiing lessons. Without a doubt a fantastic offer, that’s what the four ABBA-members thought as well! But no matter how much they’d love to do it and how much fun they thought it would be, the world’s most famous group simply didn’t have the time. Regretfully they thanked Ingemar. To which he responded unaffectedly: “Well, that’s your decision. But then I won’t record an album with you either!”

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