Would there be another museum that makes its visitors smile and be happy for the rest of their day? I wonder. Of course only fans of ABBA will consider a visit to their museum in Stockholm, but then again, who is not a fan of ABBA? There were families, boyfriends and girlfriends, and just solitary visitors like me, entering a world of songs that over the years have been become common knowledge. There's a lot of history in the museum (ABBA winning the Eurovision song contest in 1974, ABBA on tour in Japan in 1980, the love affairs and the split ups), there's music everywhere, but there's even more interaction with the visitors. I must admit: I did sing in one of the three microphones - it made me feel as if I was really standing in their studio, taping 'The winner takes it all'. And yes, I saw a woman, dancing on stage to 'Dancing Queen' next to four ABBA members who were just holograms really. I didn't even know that the museum would show that many fashion items from their stage wardrobe. From a costume history point of view it's quite tempting to say most of the outfits look like over-the-top Las Vegas-style, but hey, this was ABBA! I didn't really spend much time in the museum, but I had fun, and with a smile on my face (and a 14 digit number to retrace my music tape on my laptop a couple of hours later) I returned to the real world. Here are some of the pictures I took.
ABBA The Museum, Djurgårdsvägen 68, Stockholm, www.abbathemuseum.com
