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Abba’s Frida releases ‘odd’ mountain song

The Swedish pop star has recorded a song dedicated to Zermatt, a mountain resort town in Switzerland, which is close to the famous Matterhorn mountain, first climbed 150 years ago.

Abba's Frida releases 'odd' mountain song
'Frida' on a recent visit to Stockholm. Photo: TT
Anni-Frid 'Frida' Lyngstad, who lives in Zermatt, recorded the official song to mark the anniversary with Dan Daniell, a local singer.
 
The track '1865' was officially released on Friday as part of commemorations to remember the first climb of the fabled 4,478-metre Matterhorn peak by British alpinist Edward Whymper and his team.
 
"The song brings the dramatic race to the summit of the Matterhorn to life with the power of the chorale and its impressive lyricism," the town's tourist office said in a statement.
 
"It is the perfect soundtrack for an anniversary that will surely attract attention from all over the world," it added.
 
The track's words include: "Today's the day of joy, underneath a sky of blue…A dream was born of ice and stone, many years ago…they made it to the top."
 
One of the former Abba star's dedicated fans was so impressed by the track that they created their own music video to accompany the song, merging clips of interviews with the star and panoramic views of the Swiss Alps.
 
"My love and my Queen," commented another Frida-obsessive beneath the video's YouTube post. 
 
"FRIDA is back!" wrote another.
 
An unofficial fan video of the song. Source: YouTube

 
Swedish commentators were less impressed by the latest offering by Frida, who sold over 380 million albums and singles worldwide with Abba and scored number ones across the globe.
 
"It sounds very dated, a bit like Enya," said one Swedish journalist.
 
In the song the pair are backed by a Zermatt-based group called Wintershome, which provides a chorus to the song composed by Daniell, whose real name is Urs Biner.
 
Biner is also a chef and owns the posh Alpine Chez Heini restaurant in the region.
 
Proceeds from the sale of the single will go to a foundation for children set up by Frida and Daniell that supports small projects in Switzerland, elsewhere in Europe and around the world.
 
Frida has shared a home in Switzerland with her British partner Viscount Henry Smith since 2008, having previously been married to Heinrich Ruzzo Prince Reuss of Plauen, a German Prince who died of lymphoma in 1999. She is also the ex-wife of Abba's Benny Andersson.
 
She has released a number of solo records since Abba split in the early 1980s.

ABBA

ABBA’s first album in 40 years shoots to the top of the UK charts

ABBA's first studio album in nearly 40 years has made it to the top of the UK charts, becoming the fastest seller of the year so far, the Official Charts Company said on Friday.

ABBA's first album in 40 years shoots to the top of the UK charts
ABBA's new album, 'Voyage' for sale in Stockholm at the start of this month. Photo: Jonatan Nackstrand/AFP

“Voyage” by the Swedish quartet of Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid racked up 204,000 chart sales in the seven days since it was launched last Friday.

Sales gave the supergroup the biggest opening week on the UK album chart in four years since Ed Sheeran’s “Divide”, and fastest-selling album by a group in eight years.

The last fastest-seller was One Direction’s “Midnight Memories” in November 2013.

READ ALSO: Abba’s new album has arrived – tell us, what do you think?

ABBA, propelled to global fame by their 1974 Eurovision Song Contest win with “Waterloo”, split in 1982, a year after their last album, “The Visitors”.

“Voyage” is their 10th number one album in the UK: only seven other acts — The Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie — have had more.

The group said in a statement: “We are so happy that our fans seem to have enjoyed our new album as much as we enjoyed making it.

“We are absolutely over the moon to have an album at the top of the charts again.”

The 204,000 sales comprise 90 percent physical copies, including 29,900 on vinyl, making it the fastest-selling vinyl release of the 21st century.

The previous record holder was the Arctic Monkeys’ “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino”, which sold 24,500 vinyl copies in 2018.

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