The Creators
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson
Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson are maybe mostly known to the
world as the two B:s in ABBA. They made the music behind the ABBA-wonder and have worked together for more then
30 years. But they haven´t just created everlasting hits like Dancing Queen and Waterloo.
They have made the musical Chess together with Tim Rice and Benny Andersson has composed tunes very much inspired by
the swedish folkmusic. Björn and Benny reached success even after ABBA and they started to think of maybe making a new musical, with a
all swedish story as their base. The choice fell on the novel by Vilhelm Moberg, the epic about the Emigrants, a series of book newly elected book of the century by the swedish population.
They had a hard work ahead of them. Benny composing the music, and Björn writing the lyrics.
After while they came in touch with the director Lars Rudolfsson who was a
valueable help for them to put the musical on the real stage.
This was the biggest musical project in the history in Sweden and it drew a lot
attention from the media. People were curious of the big project the former ABBA-members were working
on. And finally when Kristina från Duvemåla opened in Malmö 1995
it became an instance success. Now the musical has been played in Malmö, Gothenburg and finally
Stockholm. But the successfull couple doesn´t rest..Björn has started to translate Kristina to english
with an idea to maybe one day take it to Broadway. And now in April the musical Mama Mia opened in London, a musical
based on 28 ABBA:songs.