Happy new year!

  It's hard to believe it's been 3 years since I made this animation, but anyway, happy new year!  (I still have 5 hours to go before the clock strikes 12. :P ) 

ABBA Reunion doesn't mean singing

I believe I've blogged about this before, but I'm going to do it again because I can. ;) 

After their "break-up" in 1982, ABBA never reunited.  (They did technically in 1986 with the Tivedshambo video, but whatever.)  They never sang together publicly (there were a few private performances here and there, I believe).  And whenever they're asked if they're ever going to reunite, they always say no.

In 2008, ABBA "reunited", but the four of them never stood close to each other as can be seen in the image up there. ^

The closest we got to a "reunion" was at the ABBA the Museum opening with Frida, Benny, and Bjorn.  Agnetha visited a while later.

To ABBA, a reunion means all four ABBA members have to get back together and perform a song on stage while wearing the old stage costumes. That's why they all say to no to a reunion. But to me, a reunion is for all four ABBA members to appear at a public event, stand next to each other, and just be there.  They don't have to sing and they don't have to wear their old costumes.  All four of them just have to be there together.  And if they wanted to sing, they could.

Next year, the Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Sweden again, and I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, the ABBA members could reunite the Becky way.  :)

2015 - A Year In Review

I've noticed that this year I've been pretty lax on this blog.  My tumblr blog has sort of become my primary blog, but I still love this blog so so much.  Anyways, I thought I'd do a year in review sort of post because 2015 is nearly over.  These aren't in any particular order, BTW.

-I ranted a lot about tribute bands.  Like, more than usual.

-My blog and YouTube channel turned 3!

-My Agnetha and Frida dolls finally got their 1979 stage costumes

-I decided to completely redo The Story of ABBA for Young Readers because reasons

-I finally made part 5 to ABBA's Outdoor Adventures

-My collection expanded slightly with ABBA the Scrapbook and the Millennium Collection

-I made this really fascinating post regarding "Nina Pretty Ballerina" and "Dancing Queen"

-I compiled all the footage I could find and made two versions of a 1979 concert recreation using audio from the live album

-My BFF and I made an ABBA tumblr blog for teens called ABBA4Teens which runs on a queue. :P

-I made a few videos but didn't make any new animations. :/

-And best of all, I wrote to Gorel Hanser and I will be getting Bjorn, Benny, and Frida's autograph's sometime early next year!! Eeek!! :D

So that's basically all I did this year.  See what I mean by lax?  Hopefully next year I'll be more active and might be able to find the time to finish all my animations!

Here's to an awesome 2016!
-Becky/ABBAFan456

Happy 69th birthday, Benny!

Today's his real 69th birthday! :'D  (Last year I mistyped and said it was his 69th birthday instead of his 68th birthday, lol.) 

Happy birthday, dear Benny!  I hope you're having a fabulous day!!  ^^

Send birthday wishes to Benny!

Send them here! ^^

Happy 4th Birthday, Benny Anderdoll!

I cannot believe he's four years old now! Time flies by so quickly! :D

Becky, do you know ABBAFan456?

Seriously Google?

Happy 38th Birthday, Peter!

Happy birthday, Christian Peter Ulvaeus!!

On and On and On rehearsals

Where are all these goodies coming from? :D

The Story of ABBA illustrations

Some illustrations for my upcoming book.  :)  You can follow up on my progress on my instagram page!

Old doll pics

Found these two old pictures of Agnetha doll while looking through my camera. She was so clean and not broken then. :'(  I still love her and will do whatever I can do preserve her for future years.  ^^

Tony Rooth visits ABBA the Museum

"Very special visitor last week, Björn's friend from school and from Hootenanny Singers, Tony Rooth. Thanks for all the good music Tony and welcome back."

Happy 70th birthday, Frida!!

Happy birthday, Dancing Queen! :D  I hope you have a fabulous 70th birthday! <3

My supermarket loves me

You know how I mentioned that last week my local supermarket played "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" on the radio?  Well, today they played "Honey Honey"!!! :D  I'm soooo happy!  They love me!!

Super rare ABBA peformance!! :D

Many thanks to Magnus Faltskog for uploading this rare performance!  So happy to finally see it!

Two years ago...

Agnetha's autograph arrived in the mail. :)  An envelope from Sweden addressed to me... You can just imagine how excited I was and amazed that I got a response!  Agnetha's autograph is one of my most treasured possessions and I have it sitting on my table in my room so I can look at it every day! ^^  Thank you Agnetha!!

Send birthday wishes to Frida!

Send them here! :D

Happy 4th Birthday, Bjorn Uldollus!

Four years ago, today, I finished making Bjorn Uldollus! :D  Four years, wow.

Nina Pretty Ballerina is the Dancing Queen

I was listening to "Nina Pretty Ballerina" a few days ago and I noticed that the song is quite similar to "Dancing Queen".  Notice the parallels:

NPB:
...’cause I know she’s got a little secret
Friday evening she turns out to be:

DQ:
Friday night and the lights are low
looking out for the place to go

NPB:
Nina, pretty ballerina
now she is the queen of the dancing floor

DQ:
You are the Dancing Queen
young and sweet only seventeen

I have thus concluded that Nina, the pretty ballerina, is the dancing queen.^^

Oh no hard feelings between you and me...

Today my local supermarket played "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" on the radio and it really made my day.  :D  Finally they play a song that isn't "Dancing Queen!" ;)

.<.ABBA.>. <./.ABBA.>

I had to put the dots in the title so that it'd show, lol. XD

Anyways, I've been learning to use HTML5! :D  Isn't that cool?  Sadly, I haven't been to interested in it... that is until I started making all my projects ABBA related!  I realized that things aren't fun unless they have something to do with stuff I'm interested in, and so that I'd be able to continue with it, I started making tables, editable content, and other things but with an ABBA twist to it! :) 

ABBA's 50th Anniversary?

Lately, I've been listening to the 50th Anniversary CD that the Hep Stars released last year and it's got me thinking that ABBA should release a CD like that where they rerecord some of their greatest and release it.  That's probably never going to happen, though, because ABBA's not going to reunite, but a girl can dream, right? :P

Giving a little bit more

Ugh, ABBA needs to release "Giving A Little Bit More".  I've been obsessing over it lately and I would totally listen to it over and over again if it was released!

ABBA Performing ABBA After ABBA

ABBA on the Eddy-Go-Round Show! :D

So happy to finally see this performance! :D

Frida has a VEVO channel! :D

You can check it out here! ^^  It's nice to see her promotional clips in HQ quality! :D

Silly me

I thought today was Saturday, so I changed my weekly picture. XD  Lol.  I'll try to remember not to change it this coming Saturday. :P

ABBA Live at Wembley V.2

Enjoy the full concert recreation! :D

ABBA Live at Wembley Concert Recreation V.2 (part 3.5)

Part 3.5 of my concert recreation v.2.  I'm posting it here because YouTube won't let me. :S  Anyways, enjoy. ^^

I know there's something going on

October 23rd will be the release of a limited deluxe edition box set of Frida's Something's Going On! 

Der Kleine Franz

Such a beautiful song! ^^

New Frida drawing

My newest drawing: Frida!  :D

I have drawn this picture before, but this is one of my favorite pictures of Frida that I just had to draw it with graphite pencils.  ^^

Moviestar, oh Moviestar o-oh

This song is sooo cute - you just have to listen to it!  Frida's backup vocals are so adorable!!

I had a crazy dream today

That I was at an amusement park/arcade thingy place and there was an ABBA tribute band there.  And they were singing "Take A Chance On Me", but they got the lyrics all wrong.  After their performance, I told them, "You're really cool, you sound sort of like ABBA, but, no offense, you got the lyrics wrong."  I told them various ways to improve their band, but they just left to eat pizza...  :S  Somehow I made better costumes appear out of thin air, and they posed for a picture with me and I put it up on my blog...  And the Bjorn and Benny guys, their wigs were made of yarn.  :P  Crazy dream, lol.

New Agnetha Drawing

The scanner was very evil and made this picture look very blechy, but nevertheless, here is my newest drawing of Agnetha! :D  1 down, 4 to go.  You can just guess that that's supposed to mean.  :P

ABBA fanfictions? No way!

Something I really can't stand, besides tribute bands, is ABBA fanfictions.  Seriously, ABBA fanfictions?!  I wrote one once (and it was terrible), but I can't stand it.  Fanfictions about real people in general bother me.  Why write stories about real people when it obviously didn't happen? 

I saw a fanfiction today (I didn't read it) about Frida and Agnetha... talking blechy stuff about B&B and I was just like, WHAT?!?  ABBA weren't like that.  They weren't dirty people who talked dirty stuff.  Agnetha and Frida may have been really good friends but I don't think they'd talk to each other about that sort of stuff...

Another fanfiction I had seen was about how Agnetha and Frida hated each other and how they'd always fight.  I've seen a few articles about how they'd hate each other, but I don't think that ever happened.

And there are numerous other fanfictions, some of which are cute like if Benny and Frida had a child.

Okay, they're fan fictions.  But please, don't write them about ABBA. 

The things tribute bands always get wrong

Yeah, another anti-tribute bands post...  Sorry, I just can't stand it when tribute bands get everything wrong.  Please note that I'm not bashing any particular tribute band, I'm just speaking about them in general.

1. The Kimonos.

 Every single tribute band I see videos/pictures of, they always get the kimonos wrong.  Hello, ABBA wear pants with their kimonos.  Please don't try and mix the kimonos with the cat dresses - they're two separate costumes. :\  Sometimes they even get the colors of the kimonos wrong...  

2. What on earth are these?

I don't know where these outfits came from, but ABBA never wore them.  I believe these costumes first originated when Bjorn Again first started, as can be seen in their video for the song "Stop".  Now, almost every single tribute band has these outfits, sometimes with frilly skirts or pleated skirts.  Maybe they're based off the Mamma Mia! costumes (which I find to be super outrageous), but ABBA is not the same as Mamma Mia!....


3. Money Money Money

Whenever tribute bands sing Money Money Money, they always put on these fedoras and overcoats, and I don't know why they do it.  So that they look like gangsters or something?  ABBA never did that, so why are they..?  Okay, I've said this a million times: They're trying to give ABBA their own personal touch, but it'd be nice if they tried to do an authentic show...  :S















4. Those ridiculous "Swedish" accents.

I can't stand it when tribute bands do those ridiculous "Swedish" accents.  They sound... ridiculous.  ABBA didn't talk like that.  Swedish accents don't sound like that.  Just... ditch those stupid accents.  Please.  ABBA talked in their normal accents, you can too. 

There is tons more to talk about with all the things tribute bands get wrong and everything, but my hands are tired from typing, so...  :\

Before I end this post, just a little shoutout to ABBA the Show!  They wear pants with their kimonos! :D

Head over HEALED

  Okay, yeah, nonsensical title, but my finger is all healed - well, almost healed.  I've got this white-piece-of-skin-that-feels-like-a-bubble-but-it-isn't on the tip of my finger that hurts only a little bit when I touch things with it, but it's such a minor pain that it doesn't hurt me.  Anyways, this means I can draw again!  Yippee! 

  In case I didn't explain, I burnt my finger a few weeks ago while baking cookies and it's prevented me from working on illustrations of The Story of ABBA for young readers.  (And guess what I did today to celebrate that my finger is all healed: I baked more cookies. :P )  So, time to start illustrating!! :D

ABBA4teens - In case I never mentioned it

My dear friend ABBAFan Seventies and I co-run an ABBA tumblr blog called ABBA4teens about ABBA... for teens...  :P  It's basically just pictures set up on an automatic queue, but it's active. More active than this blog...  Which reminds me, I should try and post here more often. 

A drawing I did for a friend

I managed to draw this up last minute for a friend's birthday (though I posted it 2 days late... :P) and somehow I managed to color it all in with a burnt finger.  :P

I'm still alive - I keep them on the floor beside my bed

Am I the only one who finds a similarity between Agnetha's two songs, "I'm Still Alive" and "I Keep Them on The Floor Beside My Bed"?  They both have very similar intros by Agnetha on the piano, and I dunno, they just seem... similar.  Lol.  :P

Agnetha :)

Just a picture I put together with some illustrations I did for my book, the Story of ABBA. :)

My collection has enlarged!

  Guess who got ABBA the Scrapbook!  Me!!! :D  This book has got to be one of my favorites (I used to get it from the library, but we don't go to that library anymore...), and now I get to own it!!  I'm so happy!!  ^^

The book has a few bends and creases in it, but that's because I got it used. :P

And also, the side of the book is a little broken...

But what I was mainly excited for was the content inside with nice HQ pictures, interesting text, and some rare stuff, too!

New favorite Frida songs

"Jag Är Mej Själv Nu" and "Min Egen Stad".  I've been listening to them over and over again while rewriting the section about Frida in my book. :)

2 down, 35 to go

I rewrote 2/37 pages of my book today.  :P

Another reason as to why I want to rewrite my book

Just now, I was reading through my book, "The Story of ABBA For Young Readers" and realized that there, right on the 6th page staring right at me, was a spelling error. 

"Their band name, ABBA, was an acronym of the member's names."

It should be members' because it is an acronym of four members' names, not just one member's name.... 

Okay, it's a tiny error, but it looks terrible.  I took a course in English grammar and it has turned me a little bit into a grammar critic.  Yeah, I'm not too cautious when writing on my blog, because it is just a blog where I can ramble all I want, but in a book that is now published for everyone to buy!!  Ugh. 

I shouldn't blame myself - I was young then.  I didn't know that much about writing like I do now.  :\

Gracias Por La Music vs. Thank You For The Music

Today I was listening to the Spanish recordings of Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Hasta Manana, Move On, and all those, and I realized that something sounded a little off.  Not just because the songs are in Spanish and I'm more used to the English one. 

In the normal ABBA songs, Bjorn and/or Benny are singing in the background, too.  In the Spanish versions, you can just tell that something sounds different, even though in the English versions, B&B's vocals aren't too prominent. Without Bjorn and Benny, you don't get the true ABBA sound.

You get what I mean?  :P

Man Vill ju Leva Lite Dessemellan

I haven't listened to this song with good headphones before (I lost mine a few weeks ago and finally found them behind the couch) and I LOVE IT!!!  :DDD

Happy birthday, Gorel!!

Happy birthday to the wonderful Gorel Hanser!!  She's such a sweet and kind lady and she has treated me nicely the few times I've written to her about my book, and my drawings.  ^.^

Frida's 1979 costume

2 down, 2 to go, plus a few accesories.  :)

Perfectionist, perfectionist, ooh lala perfectionist

  Today, while working on new illustrations for my book, I realized that my entire book, not just the illustrations, but the text too, is just sooooo cheesy.  It's childish!  I mean, yeah, the book is for children, but I never intended for it to be written like a 5-year-old wrote it  - no offense to 5-year-olds.  Okay, this was my first (and only, atm) published work, so it's silly.  Now, I'm determined to entirely redo my book so that it doesn't seem like it's written by a 5-year-old...  :P

Wembley Concert Recreation: TYFTM

Due to copyright issues, I can't upload "Thank You For The Music" on YouTube, but I should be able to post it here, right? :)

Progress Shots

Follow me on Instagram to follow up with my progress on "The Story of ABBA - for young readers" v.2!! :D

I have a dream...

I had a dream today where I got to see the Bjorn Identity tribute band perform live on stage and when the concert was over, they took me backstage and showed me around!!  ^.^  I love dreams like that! :D

49 years ago...

Björn and Benny met for the first time ever.  Wow, they've been friends for 49 years.  :D 

ABBA Live at Wembley Concert Recreation

When listening to the ABBA Live at Wembley album, I find that you can't get the full concert experience without seeing ABBA perform live on stage in front of you.  This is my try at recreating the entire November 10th concert with whatever footage I can find, be it "ABBA in Concert", "ABBA in Japan", even fan footage from way back when.  :P


Unfortunately, Windows Movie Maker has been so glitchy that it turns everything dark and pixely.  :P  So far I have only 4 videos, but it totals up to around 1 hour of concert.  :)

The production has started

Drawing while listening to the live album.  I love that album. ^.^