Happy 81st birthday, Björn!

 Today we wish our dear Björn Ulvaeus a very, very happy 81st birthday! Happy birthday, Björn! 🎉🎉🎉

 

52 years of Waterloo

 Today marks 52 years since ABBA's incredible and groundbreaking Eurovision win with Waterloo! Happy anniversary, ABBA!

 

Happy 79th birthday, Benny!

 Today we wish a very, very happy 79th birthday to the man behind the music, Benny Andersson!

 

New ABBA The Museum Kimonos

 I was just browsing the ABBA the Museum website and happened to see that they've just remade the kimonos.  And I was pretty excited because, as stated in my lengthy post from August about the problems with ABBA the Museum's costumes, ABBA the Museum did not make an accurate kimono.  Now, I'm not trying to diss ABBA the Museum for attempting to sell ABBA costume replicas, because so few of those exist, but when the product is described as being a replica of the ABBA members' stage costumes, I expect to see a replica, not just something inspired by the kimonos.  And sadly, these kimonos are just as flawed as the first one.

The first issue is not with the costumes themselves, but with the item description, which is as follows:

This kimono is a replica of the stage costume worn by Frida during the Japan leg of the tour. Designed by Owe Sandström, the piece reflects a creative fusion of Japanese and Swedish aesthetics. Sandström chose the traditional Japanese kimono silhouette and adorned it with motifs from Swedish flora—specifically, the Columbine, a classic garden flower. 

(Obviously it says a different ABBA members' name per product description, I just copied the one for Frida's.  Everything else is the same.) 

Now, if you're familiar with ABBA's story, which I would assume ABBA the Museum would have to be because they are the official ABBA museum after all, you know that the Kimonos first debuted in 1976.  Not 100% certain on this, like I can't find a source for this other than my own brain, but I do believe the kimonos were created for the purpose of taking them to Japan, but ABBA didn't end up going to Japan until 1978.  Bjorn and Benny did end up wearing the now-two year old costumes during the short promotional trip, specifically for three of the performances (Knowing Me, Knowing You, The Name Of The Game, and If It Wasn't For The Nights), although Benny was oddly wearing Agnetha's kimono rather than his own.  

 The first official appearance of the Kimonos was in one of the commercials for Japanese Electronics Company, National, in August 1976.  And roughly a month later, the kimonos were worn during the performance of Why Did It Have To Be for the TV special, ABBA-Dabba-Doo.  The final time the ABBA members wore all four kimonos together was in November 1976, when they appeared on the French TV show Les Rendez-vous du Dimanche.  

The kimonos were not worn during the Japanese leg of the 1979/80 World Tour.  So I don't understand why they would say that in the product description,

Now onto the actual costumes themselves.

In the previous iterations of the Kimonos that ABBA the museum sold, they simply scanned in one design out of the 3-4 that appear on each ABBA members' costumes and repeated it in a couple spots on the kimonos.  The kimonos were also full-length, more accurate to traditional Japanese kimonos, but not accurate to how ABBA's costumes were designed.

This time, they have made shorter kimonos, more in line but not quite as short as ABBA's original Kimonos.  They've also scanned in more of the original designs, not just the one, and have made the costumes more accurate in color.  

They almost had me fooled that they'd made an accurate replica this time, however, yet again, the placement of the designs is wrong, again.

To compare, here is an updated chart featuring my drawings of the designs in the correct placement, and the new ABBA the Museum costumes.  (For some bonus fun, can you tell from where on the original kimonos they took the designs from???)  ((ALSO just a reminder - these drawings I did of the floral designs are not 1000% accurate because I had to piece them together myself using images of ABBA's kimonos))

Agnetha: 

  Frida:

 

Benny:

 

 

 

 

Bjorn:

 

 

 I'm just so baffled as to why they've done this, why they can't just put everything in the correct placement.  If they just looked at my charts, they would see how inaccurate they are, but they don't even have to use my charts because they have the actual original costumes right there on display in the museum to consult with.  I just don't understand.

 

 

 Now we know that I have beef with a lot of ABBA tribute bands, but why is it that some of their costumes are more accurate in terms of design placement than the ones sold at the ABBA museum???

 

  

PLEASE do better ABBA the museum, or at least don't list your costumes as replicas.  Please and thank you. <3

 

Somewhat related - I saw this shirt at the Polar Music store, and I think it's such a cute, but subtle way to wear an ABBA themed garment, featuring the design on collar of Frida's Waterloo Costume.  It may be ridiculously expensive, but it's super cute regardless.  If ABBA the Museum wanted to sell more ABBA-inspired clothes like this, I wouldn't have any complaints with that.

 

 Alright, rant over.  Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

 

Also, one nice thing about these new kimonos is the nice high quality scan of the design that's on the back left of Agnetha's sleeve that I unfortunately had to make up half the details for on my doll kimono because there were no high quality reference photos.  Unfortunately this means, oh the horrors, my doll costume is slightly inaccurate, but at least I can saw it's placed in the correct location lol)

 

ABBA: A Little Golden Book Biography

 If you remember, way back in 2013, I had the idea to publish my very own children's book about ABBA, something that I realized didn't seem to be available anywhere.  As a kid, I would go to the library in search of anything related to ABBA, and the only band-related biographies written with children in mind were about the Beatles.  So I had no choice but to beg my library to inter-library-loan biographies about ABBA that were not written with children in mind, and while I'm not saying that ABBA's story was scandalous or dirty in anyway, but discussion of "Sexy Bottoms", "Sex-Appeal", and "Sex" is definitely not something that a child should be reading about.  Never mind that those topics are not important or crucial to ABBA's story at all, but of course every author has to include something about that because they can.

So, I wrote and illustrated a book on ABBA, self-published it on Amazon's Create Space, now known as Kindle Direct Publishing, and that was that.  I have since done over that book twice, and not to toot my own horn, but I think I was able to fill a big gap in the ABBA book world.

Since my book's initial release in 2013, there have been a few more ABBA children's books that I can think of off the top of my head - "Sagan om ABBA" or "Pop Story" as its titled in English by none other than Bjorn Ulvaeus, and a french children's book on ABBA titled "Mes premières chansons d'ABBA", and I'm sure there are a few more as well.

But anyway, as of today, a new children's book on ABBA has been announced.  Published by Penguin Random House, author Jeneanne DeBoise and Illustrater Miake Plenzke are releasing a story on ABBA as part of the Little Golden Book Biographies series!  I grew up with access to Little Golden Books, and in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, they literally have a small shelf designated to all the newest Little Golden Book biographies (and I'm currently on the lookout for the new Chappell Roan biography haha), so this is quite exciting.

Despite ABBA's worldwide success, books on ABBA are not common in the US, at least not in my part of the US, so the fact that a major publishing company that releases books worldwide, America included, is releasing a book on ABBA, I am quite excited that there will be yet another way for children who might have in interest in ABBA to read about ABBA in a nice, child-friendly way.  

Now, will the book be accurate?  I'll have to find out when it's released in March, 2026, but I'm optimistic!

Happy 80th birthday, Bjorn!

 Today our very own Björn Ulvaeus celebrates his 80th birthday! Grattis på födelsedagen, Björn! ❤️🎉

 

51 Years of ABBA

A simple drawing to celebrate 51 years since ABBA's global success story began in 1974! Happy anniversary, ABBA!

 

Happy 75th birthday, Agnetha!

Wishing a very, very happy 75th birthday to Ms. Agnetha Faltskog, our Queen of Hearts ❤️❤️❤️ I hope she has an incredible day celebrating with all her loved ones.

 

When two worlds collide

 I'm not really one to go sharing ABBA/ABBA related news because it's too hard to keep up and I don't have the motivation, but I had to share this considering one of my top favorite artists got to meet a member of my top favorite band today.  Considering Sabrina has been singing ABBA on many of her Short n' Sweet tour stops as a surprise song, and she's even named her cats Benny and Bjorn, I actually can imagine how exciting this must have been for her because I think I would feel the same way if I was presented with the same opportunity :') 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ABBA (@abba)

AI ABBA songs...?

No this is not an April Fools post, but coincidentally today is actually my blog's 12 year anniversary I think...?  Wow.  Anyway, in recent months, AI ABBA songs have been becoming more and more prevalent on the various social medias, namely YouTube.  These AI ABBA songs range from "covers" where Agnetha and Frida's voices are basically slapped over existing vocals from other artists, or people are creating their own original ABBA songs with the ladies' vocals inputted over the creator's own vocals.

And I have a few thoughts on this, but I was hesitant to actually post this because I have this fear that the creators of these AI ABBA songs will see this post and learn to get better... and that's not what I want.

First of all, similar to what Bjorn himself stated in a beautiful post regarding AI, AI is becoming more and more powerful and it's impossible to not utilize it in some way.  I personally enjoy brainstorming with ChatGPT for ideas for my own books, and asking it questions I have about certain subjects and careers that I cannot possibly have any knowledge about and I have already extensively researched and couldn't find the answers I'm looking for (knowing full well that ChatGPT is not necessarily accurate.) How I use it I think only enhances creativity, and there are definitely other ways to assist creativity as well.  However, at this time, when it comes to AI art, whether it's music or art, AI is simply stealing people's work by being trained on it without the original artist giving explicit permission, and it is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.  

Considering the fact that ABBA themselves have always been very protective of their image, likeness, and rights, the fact that someone can simply take Agnetha and Frida's voices and put it onto someone  else's song and say it's an ABBA song, or generate completely new "unseen" ABBA images seems just wrong.

Now I don't really wanna go more into the morals of AI because it's all so confusing, but I am more than happy to talk about why AI ABBA songs are just in general bad, haha, and I think it will take a very very long time before they'll ever reach the level of actually sounding like ABBA.  And here's why:

A lot of these so called AI ABBA songs are generally created by someone taking pre-existing vocals from like, let's say I Know Him So Well by Chess, and using AI vocals that are trained to sound like Agnetha and Frida and placing them over the original vocals.  The result is you have a vocal that sounds kinda like Agnetha Faltskog but the phrasing, accent, and singing style is that of Elaine Paige, and same for Frida's general sound but sounding too much like Barbara Dickson because it is Barbara Dickson. And that simply doesn't work.  Don't get me wrong, I too want to hear Frida and Agnetha singing I Know Him So Well, but simply overlaying their vocals over the song doesn't get you that ABBA sound.  In fact, so far the creators of these AI songs simply don't understand how to capture the ABBA sound.

For starters, Agnetha and Frida, and Benny and Bjorn as well, each have their own unique timbre, accents, phrasing, and styles, that no one has managed to mimic for the base vocals.  I've heard AI songs where the singing sounds like a modern day pop-star, not even singing in Frida's range, with Frida's voice overlayed on top, and it doesn't sound like Frida.  The production of these tracks also don't understand that to get that ABBA sound is not just Frida singing with Agnetha singing the same melody or harmonizing alongside her.  To get that ABBA sound, you need to have those layers upon layers of vocals stacked on top of each other, and you also can't not include Bjorn and Benny's harmonies in there as well.  I talk about this enough times already but if you compare the Spanish recordings of ABBA songs, done solely by Agnetha and Frida, to the original English language versions that have Bjorn and Benny mixed in there, they just don't compare. (Not saying the Spanish versions are bad btw, I just prefer the fuller ABBA sound that the originals have.) And these AI ABBA songs can't even sound like the Spanish versions!

I believe a lot of these "original" AI-ABBA songs are likely written by AI as well.  Considering the general public who aren't obsessed with ABBA like I am already reduce ABBA in their minds to "fun disco group" who "sang the songs from Mamma Mia", and assume that ABBA are just one of those stereotypical 70s groups with the stereotypical disco sounds with satin and sequins and flared pants, it doesn't surprise me that AI doesn't know what ABBA truly is either.  And the result is, dumb lyrics, simple song structure, songs with crazy long instrumental intros that take up the whole song...  And even worse because ABBA are obviously just the "Dancing Queen" band, the dumb AI lyrics like to reference ABBA songs in their lyrics, like having them mention the words Dancing Queen in the lyrics, because ABBA would totally do that, referencing their top hits in their songs.  

Now common themes, phrases, subjects, is absolutely something that ABBA have done, as I was delving into in my song analysis series I was doing on this blog last year before getting severely burnt out, but AI doesn't understand that.  So AI is simply incapable of understanding the nuances of an ABBA song, Benny's ability to compose unique melodies, or Bjorn's unique lyrical style.

(Slight side note, but I was actually thinking recently how ABBA's Keep An Eye On Dan is basically ABBA's attempt at making a "stereotypical" ABBA song.  The song is an upbeat track, with kinda sad lyrics referencing relationship drama, namely a divorce and the tough feelings associated with co-parenting, having a character's name in the song: Dan - similar to Bobby and Bobby's brother, Suzy from Suzy-Hang-Around, and the many many more mentioned throughout ABBA's discography, and the nod to SOS, a previous hit, at the end.  The only thing that would make it more stereotypical ABBA would be if they referenced an animal of some type or used "feeling blue" as an emotion, haha.)

Also another thing that bothers me is a lot of people when generating these AI ABBA songs literally just apply a stereotypical 70s or 80s sound to the song, assuming that ABBA are just your stereotypical 70s/80s band, so the music just doesn't sound like ABBA at all.  Plus it's even funnier when they write a song specifically titled "80s style ABBA song", but the vocals they trained their AI models on are how Agnetha and Frida sounded in the early 70s.  That's like having Agnetha in her Hasta Manana or SOS singing style, singing One of Us from the Visitors album, and that historically couldn't happen because both Agnetha and Frida's vocals and singing styles had matured and changed throughout ABBA's career.

Considering a lot of these AI songs are likely created by amateurs, the songs just sound bad in general.  Bad mixing, with the vocals placed all the way at the front of the song while the rest of the instruments, which are all digital btw and as a result can never get that full sound or even come close to the wall of sound effect of ABBA's actual songs.  And like they kinda sound like, or even worse than, the simple instrumentals that ABBA tribute bands have their Agnetha and Frida sing along to, and like, simply having an Agnetha and Frida singing and dancing to an ABBA song doesn't capture the ABBA effect.

Anyway, although these AI-ABBA songs are generally bad, there are people in the comments who genuinely think that these are "new", "rare", or "bootleg" ABBA songs.  And while these tracks definitely don't sound like ABBA now, in time people are going to get better at making these AI ABBA songs without ABBA's permission, and it's just doing to end up ruining how people remember ABBA.  People are really going to be tricked into thinking these mediocre crafts are part of ABBA's history, ruining how ABBA want to be remembered.  Which is why I think it is extremely important that artists' rights and copyright are preserved, and the usage of their work to train AI models is stopped now.

Now, while I don't personally like to listen to ABBA covers or human-written ABBA-inspired songs, because as an ABBA purist I will only happily listen to ABBA, but there is nothing wrong with those.  With human intelligence, it's entirely possible to create something in the style of ABBA without infringing on ABBA's rights at all.  I think this video by Marti Fischer is the perfect example of how to do it right.

So yeah, those are my general thoughts on ABBA and AI music.  And if there are any AI music creators who are reading this post DON'T YOU DARE USE THIS POST TO ENHANCE YOUR MUSIC TO MAKE IT SOUND BETTER I DO NOT WANT YOU TO DO THAT!!!

Happy New Year!

  

May we all have a vision now and then, of a world where every neighbor is a friend <3

Happy 78th birthday, Benny!

 Wishing the maestro himself, Benny Andersson, a very very happy 78th birthday! Grattis på födelsedagen!

Cat Plushies

 So many years ago, over a decade by now, I had the idea to make for myself custom ABBA cat plushies based off of the cats that Owe Sandstrom designed for Agnetha and Frida's cat dresses!  But as we know, I am a girl with procrastination tendencies and hyperfixations, likely ADHD but I am currently undiagnosed, so the project was left unfinished with just the base of Agnetha's blue cat sewn.  I actually never posted about it, and even though I see this unfinished cat plush around my sewing area every once in a blue moon, I could not for the life of my find it so you'll just have to believe me that it exists.  

Recently, ABBA the Museum came out with the same independent idea of selling plush versions of Agnetha and Frida's cats, and let me tell you I was soooo happy when I found this out because a. obviously as they're official they are going to be so much better than any sloppy cat plush I was trying to make, and b. it means I don't have to finish my plush concept anymore!  I fell in love with these cats as soon as they came out, determined to get my hands on them ASAP, and that time finally arrived!

With Black Friday deals (which aren't really much a deal but certainly work to entice impulsive and kinda financially irresponsible buyers like myself), the cat plushies were on sale at a reduced price, so I couldn't help myself!  

And here they are!

I honestly think these are absolutely brilliant.  They are extremely well made, and each cat has printed on details.  I will say, they are not 1000% accurate, like there are designs and sequins that are not in the exact same place as the original cat, and some creative liberties were certainly made as it's really difficult to translate a 2d drawing into a 3d cat plush.  (Also Agnetha's cat is missing the greenish tinge on the ears but that's me being nitpicky.) For what it is, it's really really good and I couldn't be more impressed.  As a collector of many stuffed animals, these two are going to fit perfectly in with the monstrous amounts of plushies, webkinz, and famous social media stuffed animals that is my room.

Frida's cat:

Agnetha's cat:

Overall, I am quite happy to add these two cats to my ABBA collection, and I also got this fun ABBA t-shirt as well because who can say no to more ABBA t-shirts?

Happy 79th Birthday, Frida!

 To our beloved princess, 1/2 of ABBA's impeccable vocalists, absolute powerhouse and crazy talented singer...  Dearest Frida, happy, happy 79th birthday!

 

Collection Update

  So it's been a good minute since I've done a proper collection update.  The last one I did was in June last year, and since then amassed a few more ABBA items.  Obviously some of these items I have already talked about considering I've already written reviews for them, but I'll include them in this because they deserve to be included in one big post.

To start, I purchased ABBA's new compilation album The Singles - The First Fifty Years in its CD format.  I haven't actually ripped the CD or listened to it, so I can't tell you if the mixes are different or not, but even if I don't necessarily think this compilation album is worth getting, I'm happy to have it in my collection.  Now the booklet claimed to include rare unseen photos of ABBA, and from what I can tell there's only two unseen photos, and they're just outtakes from photo sessions that we are already aware of.  I personally live for outtakes, especially ones that show the "goofy" side of ABBA, however I'm not sure this compilation album which is supposed to be a bit of a conclusion to ABBA's story, something to round it out, is the place for these "goofy" photos.  I'm not complaining of course, please ABBA provide us more goofy ABBA photos, but you know, just a thought.

This year my hyper fixation was ABBA books, as I really enjoy reading over the weekends, especially big books that take a while to finish.  

The first one is Frida Beyond ABBA, a book that, as I already mentioned in my review, is a must have.  It's amazing, well researched, and such a respectful book and a very good read, too.  Of course I can't help but question a couple of sources, specifically the ones that come from Bright Lights, Dark Shadows, but that aside, this book is in my opinion one of the best ABBA books to exist.

Speaking of Bright Lights, Dark Shadows, I purchased this book specifically because I wanted to know if it was a good book.  I've always seen so much praise for Carl Magnus Palm, people considering everything he says to be true, as if he is the only ABBA expert, which of course is strange when there are things in this book that are not accurate and are counter to things the ABBA members have said....  There is no doubt that this book was well researched and a lot of work was put into it, but I just question the sources, especially where they come from tabloids which are known to be untruthful, and also what are the intentions of the including extremely personal details in this book?  Why do I have do know that Agnetha had intense diarrhea and vomiting after the Boston plane incident?  Out of respect to the people, wouldn't it have made sense to just tell us that she was really sick?  Regardless, I respect Carl Magnus Palm for putting in the effort for this book, especially as the original version of the book was released at a time when there were hardly any "accurate" ABBA books, I just, don't like the book.  Out of curiosity, I have gone ahead and pre-ordered the new and revised version of the book in hopes that maybe things have been edited and changed, and I will definitely compare and contrast them when i get my hands on the book.

I purchased this book due to a misunderstanding on my end, and it's a pretty good book on it's own, telling in great detail how the record companies would promote ABBA's music back in the day.  It was a good read, but also not necessarily my interest area.  However, the section at the end all about Michael B. Tretow's tapes are absolute Gold!  It was written in the style of ABBA The Complete Recording Sessions, a book that I have yet to get my hands on and hope to someday get my hands on a physical copy, and if the section on Michael B. Tretow's tapes was that good, I'm sure the Complete Recording sessions will be awesome!  

Back in February I purchased a couple of things from ABBA the Museum, including this souvenir book.  It's very short, very sweet, but lovely, nonetheless.

Speaking of ABBA the Museum, do you remember back in the day I used to sell cat dress t-shirts on Zazzle?  They would sell like crazy, and shortly before my zazzle shop got shut down, ABBA the Museum came out with their own official ABBA Cat Dress t-shirts, and I couldn't help but feel that I inspired their cat dress t-shirts!  I am not complaining in anyway btw, and this all alleged, but I'm glad that since 2014 ABBA have been selling t-shirts that look so much better than the silly little drawings I did with MS Paint hahahhahaa, but I finally got my hands on the shirts that I may or may not have inspired.  Here they are as modeled by me and my sister. :')

Of course to celebrate ABBA's 50th anniversary, I went ahead and got myself some Waterloo themed apparel.  I just gotta say, as someone who has bought a few different concert/band merch, I'm happy to say that ABBA Voyage and ABBA the Museum's t-shirts are some of the highest quality merch t-shirts I've ever purchased, and I love wearing them.

Late last year I bought this small denim jacket from the ABBA Voyage store.  Very expensive haha, but it's such a cool jacket and I enjoy wearing it.  Unfortunately even the smallest jacket is too large on me, the sleeves are too long and it's a bit oversized, but that's more of a me being too petite, but it would be nice if they sold it in XS.

At ABBA's polar music store, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary, they sold this ABBA necklace with a star guitar charm and a little 50th anniversary charm as well.  Sadly it doesn't feel as high quality as the ABBA necklace as sold at ABBA the Museum that I have worn every single day since buying it, and I saw a lot of reports that it breaks easily, so I don't wear it much at all, but it's still nice.

That is a second stud in my ear not a weird red splotch on my ear haha

The Polar Music Store was also selling official ABBA earrings, which I immediately jumped on!  I have been dying for official ABBA earrings ever since I got my first piercings, so I'm glad they released them.  Although when they first arrived, the ABBA logo on one of them was put on backwards, so I had to flip it myself, but other than that, they're nice and sturdy and I have worn them pretty often.

I decide to add ABBA's 1986 live album to my collection.  I don't listen it often as the studio overdubs bother me, but it's nice to have it in my collection.

I also got ABBA Oro, so I could finally have my hands on all the Spanish language tracks in one place.  Also I just have to say, although I love ABBA's classic logo, it kinda looks out of place on this cover idk way.

I always feel weird including my own custom things amongst collection updates, but I got a poster of my birthday drawings that I did last year.

And although not directly ABBA related, I went ahead and got this CD and booklet on Swedish birdsong that was produced by Benny, as 1. I love Benny, and 2. I love birds, so it was the perfect fit.  Now it sits amongst all of my bird-themed items in my room. :D

So that's all I have for now.  I should mention I have been meaning to do a post like this for a good while now, but alas, the undiagnosed ADHD got the best of me and I kept on procrastinating....