ABBAWORLD LAUNCHED IN LONDON

Two members of ABBA, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Björn Ulvaeus, have attended the launch of the new ABBAWORLD exhibition at Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre in London on Tuesday.

Approved and supported by the record-breaking Swedish pop group, ABBAWORLD is described as an “interactive experience that will take visitors on a mind-blowing journey through ABBAWORLD’S 25 rooms, bursting with music, footage, images and never-before-displayed memorabilia” donated by the band member from their personal collections.

Visitors will also be able to sing and dance “together” with animated ABBA members on stage thanks to a high definition holographic karaoke system.

“This is going to be more like going to Mamma Mia! than going to an exhibition. We want people to sing and dance,” Magnus Danielsson, president of Touring Exhibitions, told the Associated Press.

ABBA, consisting of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog, were thrust into the global limelight when their smash hit single Waterloo won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton in 1974.

The band, which broke up in the early eighties, went on to sell more than 400 million records around world. In 1999, their music was adapted into the internationally successful stage musical Mamma Mia! which was in turn reworked into a hit movie in 2008.

The ABBAWORLD exhibition will run in London until March after which it is set to go on tour, with other versions planned for the US and Australia.