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CULTURE

Swedish icons ABBA return for impressive virtual show

The four-members of Swedish supergroup ABBA made their first public appearance in 14 years to attend the premier of their virtual show in London. The musicians, fans and critics alike were delighted by the spectacle.

Published: 28 May 2022 11:23 CEST
The Swedish supergroup ABBA performed in a virtual concert in London on Friday night.
The Swedish supergroup ABBA performed in a virtual concert in London on Friday night, delighting fans. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)

Glammed up in satin knickerbockers, sequins and platform boots, ABBA fans streamed into a concert hall in east London Friday for the opening night of “ABBA Voyage”, the Swedish supergroup’s digital avatar show.

Many had crossed continents and had bought tickets for multiple nights.

“I’ve been a fan since 1975,” said one woman, Roxanne Dixon, who wore sparkly “A” and “B” earrings, a gold-trimmed white satin tunic and gold boots.

“I came from Australia just for this.”

“We came all the way from America and it was worth it,” said Caleb Graham, 33, from Florida, he and his partner wearing matching black ABBA T-shirts.

The concert show at a purpose-built 3,000-seat theatre features digital avatars, or “ABBAtars” performing hits from the 1970s and 1980s as well as songs released last year, when the septuagenarian former bandmates announced they had reunited to record a new album.

After an invitation-only premiere Thursday — attended by Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia — Friday was the first chance for ordinary fans to experience the hi-tech show.

Ages varied from children to people old enough to remember ABBA first time round.

“I just think it’s incredible how, you know, ABBA draws people of all different walks of life together, all different ages,” said Jordan Charlesworth, 27, a public health agency staff member wearing a sequinned one-piece.

“It’s close to the soundtrack of your life, isn’t it, when you get to 56,” said Sarah Armstrong in swirly turquoise trousers, who had come with her sister and daughter.

The ambitious show is a hugely expensive project, with The Times reporting that ABBA need to recoup £140 million ($177 million, 165 million euros) to cover costs.

Band member Bjorn Ulvaeus, 77, told AFP ahead of the premiere: “I know that this is one of the most daring projects that anyone has done in the music industry, ever.”

‘Jaw-dropping’

Concert-goers see a 90-minute show, with a dozen live musicians on stage backing up the avatars.

It is set to run seven days a week until early October.

The avatars are the product of a years-long project, designed in partnership with a special effects company founded by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas.

To create them, the band performed in motion capture suits for five weeks while hundreds of cameras tracked their movement and expressions. Visual effects artists then used the data to project the characters onto a 65 million pixel screen. Combined with lighting and other effects, the result was a very lifelike performance. 

Critics praised the avatars after previous shows “resurrecting” dead performers have been slammed as unrealistic and creepy.

This time, there was “nothing ghoulish”, wrote The Times.

The Guardian said the digital effects were a “triumph” and “the effect is genuinely jaw-dropping”.

Fans said they felt they had watched a live show.

“It was amazing, so immersive, I really felt like they were there,” said Dawn Waugh, 63, who was attending with her 26-year-old daughter.

“It was the most wonderful feeling of being back in time,” said another fan, Stan Papoulias, 56, originally from Greece.

“I’ve been an ABBA fan for 45 years and I never thought I would see them in the flesh — or something like that.”

ABBA Voyage tracklist 

The Visitors

Hole In Your Soul

SOS

Knowing Me, Knowing You

Chiquitita

Fernando

Mamma Mia

Does Your Mother Know?

Eagle

Lay All Your Love On Me

Summer Night City

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)

Voulez-Vous

When All Is Said And Done

Don’t Shut Me Down

I Still Have Faith In You

Waterloo

Dancing Queen

Thank You For The Music

The Winner Takes It All

Where can I buy tickets?

You can buy tickets for the London show via the official ABBA Voyage website. 

The cheapest tickets are for auditorium seating and sell from £21. 

Dance booths – private areas with their own dance floor that can accommodate 10-12 people sell from £143. 

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CRIME

C.Gambino: Who is the Grammis-winning rapper shot dead in Gothenburg?

On May 4th, masked rapper C.Gambino was on stage to receive a Grammis award for the best Swedish hip-hop artist. A month later on Tuesday, he was gunned down in a Gothenburg car park.

Published: 5 June 2024 14:54 CEST
C.Gambino: Who is the Grammis-winning rapper shot dead in Gothenburg?

What happened? 

According to police, the 26-year-old rapper was ambushed by one, or perhaps two, gunmen as he entered a carpark near the Hisings Backa district north of Gothenburg, at about 10.40pm on Tuesday. He was rushed to hospital in an ambulance with at least two bullet-wounds, but died shortly after arrival. 

The rapper lived in the district, which is classed as a “vulnerable area” by national police, and had just parked his car at the time he was shot. 

Police say the assailants escaped in a silver Volvo V70 car.

The Expressen newspaper reported on Wednesday that police had raided an apartment in Gothenburg after the shooting. 

READ ALSO: ‘Supply and demand, motherfxxker!’: The real crime behind Sweden’s gangster rap

Who was C.Gambino? 

C.Gambino, whose real name was Karar Ramad, was one of Sweden’s leading rappers, with about a million listeners a month on Spotify.

His latest release, whose title Sista Gång, meaning “last time”, is rather macabre in retrospect, has been streamed 700,000 times on Spotify since it was released on Friday. 

Adopting the practice of the UK drill rap genre, Gambino always wore a mask for publicity photos, for music videos, in concerts and other public appearances.

The rapper came to the attention of hip hop fans in 2019 with his track Rebell. His debut album, Sin City, hit number two on the Sverigetopplistan of most sold records in 2022, primilarly on the back of its two main hit tracks, M5 and CCTV. 

His second album, In Memory of Some Standup Guys, was one of the most popular releases of early 2024, helping to win the rapper the Hip Hop of the Year award in the Grammis, Sweden’s oldest music prize, on May 4th. 

C.Gambino is not to be confused with Childish Gambino, the rap name of the US actor Donald Glover, although both presumably took the name from the Gambino crime family, which is one of the notorious “Five Families” that comprise the New York mafia. 

Was C.Gambino a criminal? 

Diamant Salihu, crime reporter for Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT, said that he had information that the rapper had “certain gang connections”, and had been found guilty of some minor crimes, but stressed that he seems to have focused on his music career. 

“He does feature in the crime register but he primarily devoted himself to the music,” Salihu told the broadcaster. 

Police in Gothenburg told the Expressen newspaper on Wednesday that they were investigating whether the shooting was connected to the long-running conflict between gangs in the northern and southern parts of the Biskopsgården suburb.  

The Aftonbladet newspaper, reported that the 26-year-old had a ran a joint business with a man police believe is a member of the Norra Biskop group, and who has previously been found guilty of gang crime offences. 

“I can only say that he is known to us from before, and there is a network connection. But I don’t want to give any more details than that,” Thomas Fuxborg, from the Gothenburg Police, told the newspaper. 

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