Björn was interviewed by Petteri Väänänen in Swedish and therefore sub-titled on the Finnish broadcast.

Most of the time talked about the old ABBA times although that discussion contained very little news to avid ABBA fans. It was very much about media, marketing and money. There was a certain pattern in the conversation. Mr Väänänen would bring up some spectacular or sensational facts, details or figures and Björn would in a modest way play it all down.

They talked about how a great part of the Swedish media, geared towards "progressive rock", tended to be quite negative in their writing about ABBA in the 70's; and how ABBA came to be their image of evil, representing the empty-headed, commercial, right-wing music. Björn said that all the criticism in Sweden did not really touch ABBA, because they received so much appreciation elsewhere and because they were so often abroad and in the studio - so much of it did not reach them at all.

Mr Väänänen confessed that it was much easier for him to listen to ABBA now, during the revival, than it had been in the 70s. But even today he seemed to be willing to talk more about marketing and money than music. Björn dismissed the widespread rumour that ABBA would have, during a certain year, made more money than Volvo. He said, "That is just one of those things. Someone needed a flashy headline and decided: 'Let's write that they make more money than Volvo'. They printed it and it has been following us ever since. It is ludicrous".

Björn said that the much-touted marketing wasn't all that complicated either. In the 70s most countries had one important television show with pop music. ABBA simply tried to appear on that leading show in each country and that way they would reach most of the country's population. When Väänänen showed the picture of the ABBA dolls from the Thank You For The Music booklet Björn said: "My great regret is that can't find one of those. I have none left, so that my youngest daughter could play with a doll of her father." Now there's a good tip for fans who want to impress him with a present!

It seemed to be important to Björn that Sweden had been a peaceful base for a superstar. "Nowadays not everybody recognises me in the streets anyway, because people know us as we were then. But even then, when everyone recognised us, in Sweden we were still left in peace. It wasn't like that at all abroad, in England for instance. It was more peaceful in Sweden, except for the summers when the foreigners were there" (laughter).

Väänänen was tempted to attribute the fact that ABBA managed their business quite well and did not get swindled like so many other pop stars to Björn's law studies back in the 60s, but Björn thought that the security of Sweden was decisive even in this matter. Later in the disussion the difference in opinion between ABBA and Stig Anderson was mentioned. Björn told that it was all settled now, no problems anymore.

There was a moment in the otherwise relaxed interview, when I felt PV had gone too far with his provocative questions. He mentioned love as "the brand of ABBA". He talked of their private lives and the constellation of two couples as if it would have been a marketing ploy. Then he asked if this wasn't a bit risky, referring to the divorces and all the unpleasant press coverage of the private matters. All this time the camera was showing a close up of Björns face, and he did not look pleased, for a moment he even looked nervous. But in the end he handled it very elegantly. He told that everything was not a result of a conscious strategy, that they could not have planned it all when they first participated in the Eurovision Song Contest and won. According to him the divorces were not caused by ABBA. The marriages would have broken even sooner, if one in the couples would have been waiting home or working with something else while the other was touring around the world.

After a short mention of Chess the conversation moved on to Björn's and Benny's latest success, Kristina från Duvemåla. First they talked about the huge task of compressing 2,000 pages of Wilhelm Moberg's text into a musical.

PV asked why Björn and Benny had chosen a Swedish "national epos" for their subject matter. Was it to make the break from the ABBA background clear?

Bjorn replied, "No, it being a national epos was rather an obstacle. We tried to escape it. We wondered who we were to rework these books that definitely belong to the ten most important ones in Swedish litterature in all time. We would have rather wanted to find a shorter text by an unknown author. But we kept returning to these books over and over. The text is so great. There is music between the lines. It cries for a composer. So, in the end we surrendered to it against our will."

Björn considered Kristina från Duvemåla a return to B&B's Swedish roots, "One step forwards AND one step back"

The program was finished with the final song from Kristina från Duvemåla - I gott bevar against some images of barren landscapes and fire.

Broadcast information:
Tuesday 29 April 1997, FST (Finlands svenska television, now Yle Fem), Finland
?, Sweden

1. Björn, when shown a picture from a book about Melodifestival 1974
2. A telephone rings in the background

Extracts ....

Petteri Väänänen: When you look at a picture of you at the time of your triumph in the Eurovision and when you see yourself in the mirror today, can you see any marks that that incredible fame and success has left on your personality?
Björn Ulvaeus: If anything has happened. It is that you have become humble, confronted with that tremendous love that people have felt for you. And that you were given the chance to live it and to be a part of it. Gratitude and humility that is what I have got more than anything else.

Referring to Kristina från Duvemåla:

PV: Do you think it will become a saleable product on Broadway?

BU: That is hard to predict. How much does the fact that people appreciate it as much as they do, have to do with the Swedish or Scandinavian mentality? But we are going to try anyway. We are going to translate it in English.

PV: How far have you proceeded with those plans?

BU: We have an American playwright, Michael Weller, who will come over by the end of the month. (The interview was taped during Bjorn's visit in Finland in March.) We are going to spend three days with him to talk about how it should be presented (lägga upp) for an American audience. It may have to be changed a little. There are linguistic contrasts (sprakmatsättningar) that have to be overcome.

PV: And then you'll have to turn up the tempo.

BU: NO, it has to be the way it is. Either that, or then they are not going to have it at all. First we will of course try outside the Broadway. There's a beautiful theatre in Minneapolis for example. We will test it and see how it goes. 'Les Miserables' was also significantly different from the American style, but it was still a success. It, too, is long, slow sometimes, and heavy.

PV: You have had three careers: Hootenanny Singers, ABBA and Chess/Kristina. What will be the fourth?

BU: That will have to come after the next musical, because we have decided that we will write one more ...

PV: What about?

BU: We do not know yet. I am grateful for tip-offs. [...] But it has to be different from Kristina, of course. A step forward, or to the side.

Thanks to Jozsef, "justforme", Dean Morrison, Mikko Suhonen and Petri Kaasalainen
YouTube links c/o TheSmackwaterjack