Madonna‘s songs were to the 1980s what Abba’s were to the 1970s — both artists produced lasting, classic dancefloor fillers with impeccable grooves. When Madonna sampled one of Abba’s best disco tracks, she could have desecrated a classic. Instead, she produced a song that’s superior to the original. Let’s take a look at how the Queen of Pop outdid Abba.
Madonna’s ‘Hung’ Up’ samples 1 of Abba’s only disco hits
While Abba was part of the disco era, they only released two big disco songs: “Dancing Queen” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).” The latter is most notable for a hypnotic riff. That riff formed the basis of Madonna’s “Hung Up,” one of her final songs to become a big hit in the United States.
Madonna’s song simply has better lyrics than Abba’s. Abba lyrics are often awkward and that’s part of their charm.
Madonna’s ‘Hung’ Up’ samples 1 of Abba’s only disco hits
While Abba was part of the disco era, they only released two big disco songs: “Dancing Queen” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).” The latter is most notable for a hypnotic riff. That riff formed the basis of Madonna’s “Hung Up,” one of her final songs to become a big hit in the United States.
Madonna’s song simply has better lyrics than Abba’s. Abba lyrics are often awkward and that’s part of their charm.
- 4/15/2024
- by Matthew Trzcinski
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Exclusive: Judy Craymer would just love it if Barbie filmmaker Greta Gerwig could just make herself available to complete the Mamma Mia! movie trilogy.
“Hey, Greta, if you’re free to do anymore projects…” jokes Craymer, the driving force that has kept the “Money, Money, Money” pouring into the box office for musical Mamma Mia!, featuring the songs of Swedish pop stars Abba, for a quarter of a century.
Saturday night will mark an incredible milestone for a show that has taken over $5.685 billion at the box-office worldwide in ticket sales and is responsible for a further $17 billion in supplementary expenditure from spending on hotels, restaurants, transport and merchandising globally in the 25 years since opening night at the Cameron Macintosh-owned Prince Edward Theatre on April 6, 1999.
Those figures do not include the hundreds of millions of dollars that movie offshoots Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again have amassed.
“Hey, Greta, if you’re free to do anymore projects…” jokes Craymer, the driving force that has kept the “Money, Money, Money” pouring into the box office for musical Mamma Mia!, featuring the songs of Swedish pop stars Abba, for a quarter of a century.
Saturday night will mark an incredible milestone for a show that has taken over $5.685 billion at the box-office worldwide in ticket sales and is responsible for a further $17 billion in supplementary expenditure from spending on hotels, restaurants, transport and merchandising globally in the 25 years since opening night at the Cameron Macintosh-owned Prince Edward Theatre on April 6, 1999.
Those figures do not include the hundreds of millions of dollars that movie offshoots Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again have amassed.
- 4/5/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Hot Swedish helmer of Georgian descent Levan Akin is due to kickstart Berlin’s Panorama Feb. 15 with his feature drama “Crossing.” Nine years earlier, he walked the Berlinale red carpet with his youth sci-fi “The Circle,” showcased at Generation. Next to him were his Swedish producers of Rmv Film – Abba’s Benny Andersson and his son Ludvig Andersson.
The latter who met Akin over 20 years ago, has stayed by his side since his debut pic “Certain People” in 2011, serving also as executive producer on the 2019 Swedish Oscar entry “And Then We Danced,” and as co-producer this year of “Crossing”.
“Rmv Film spotted Levan from his very first film and has supported him all along,” confirms French Quarter’s Mathilde Dedye, producer of “Crossing” and “And Then We Danced,”, who believes “trust and continuity to be very important for the development of auteurism.”
“I met Ludvig through Levan and he is...
The latter who met Akin over 20 years ago, has stayed by his side since his debut pic “Certain People” in 2011, serving also as executive producer on the 2019 Swedish Oscar entry “And Then We Danced,” and as co-producer this year of “Crossing”.
“Rmv Film spotted Levan from his very first film and has supported him all along,” confirms French Quarter’s Mathilde Dedye, producer of “Crossing” and “And Then We Danced,”, who believes “trust and continuity to be very important for the development of auteurism.”
“I met Ludvig through Levan and he is...
- 2/14/2024
- by Annika Pham
- Variety Film + TV
Welcome back to Dead Time. If you live in the U.S., you might assume that other countries’ views on the paranormal are the same as our own. This month, I had a fascinating chat with Fred Andersson, a Swedish investigator and researcher, who told me that discussions around high strangeness, and even the way it’s presented in media, are very different in Sweden.
Andersson is a story producer for commercial television in Sweden, a freelance writer, the author of several books, and has more than a decade of experience researching UFOs and high strangeness. Andersson’s newest book, Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden, was released this year and you can order it and check out his previous books here.
Bloody Disgusting had the pleasure of talking with Fred Andersson all the way from Märsta, just outside Stockholm, about his books, personal experiences with UFOs, a new docuseries he’s working on,...
Andersson is a story producer for commercial television in Sweden, a freelance writer, the author of several books, and has more than a decade of experience researching UFOs and high strangeness. Andersson’s newest book, Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden, was released this year and you can order it and check out his previous books here.
Bloody Disgusting had the pleasure of talking with Fred Andersson all the way from Märsta, just outside Stockholm, about his books, personal experiences with UFOs, a new docuseries he’s working on,...
- 12/21/2023
- by Michelle Swope
- bloody-disgusting.com
Exclusive: As the West End production of Mamma Mia! enters its 25th year on stage, Judy Craymer, its creator and driving force, is expanding the Mm! universe with ITV’s Mamma Mia! I Have a Dream talent show. Set on an idyllic Greek island, it’s aimed at finding Mm! stars of the future. There’s definitely a desire to see Mm! back on Broadway in 2025, Craymer confirms, and she says she’s also pushing to make the dream of a third Mm! film a reality.
“It’s in its earliest stages,” she says, revealing that she has come up with a way to bring back all of the previous movie’s favorite characters. Which is no mean feat given that those parts involve stars such as Meryl Streep, who played the independent, fierce and spirited Donna Sheridan onscreen, and Cher, who played Donna’s vivacious mother Ruby in 2018’s...
“It’s in its earliest stages,” she says, revealing that she has come up with a way to bring back all of the previous movie’s favorite characters. Which is no mean feat given that those parts involve stars such as Meryl Streep, who played the independent, fierce and spirited Donna Sheridan onscreen, and Cher, who played Donna’s vivacious mother Ruby in 2018’s...
- 5/1/2023
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
Music group Abba isn’t weirded out by their de-aged “Abbatars” that appear during their immersive Voyage performances. They like that their artificial intelligence depicts their younger selves.
Abba | Ian West/Pa Images via Getty Images Abba announced a digital entertainment project, ‘Voyage,’ in 2016
According to the BBC, all four original members of Abba, Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, reunited as early as 2016 to start work on a multimedia project.
The Eurovision winners planned a “new entertainment experience” that would be immersive and involve virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The group would appear on stage as Abbatars or A.I. versions of their younger selves.
They hoped the experience would bring their music to a new generation of fans “in a way previously unimagined,” a press release said. Then, in 2018, they announced they added new songs to the project (per the Guardian). These were the first...
Abba | Ian West/Pa Images via Getty Images Abba announced a digital entertainment project, ‘Voyage,’ in 2016
According to the BBC, all four original members of Abba, Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, reunited as early as 2016 to start work on a multimedia project.
The Eurovision winners planned a “new entertainment experience” that would be immersive and involve virtual reality and artificial intelligence. The group would appear on stage as Abbatars or A.I. versions of their younger selves.
They hoped the experience would bring their music to a new generation of fans “in a way previously unimagined,” a press release said. Then, in 2018, they announced they added new songs to the project (per the Guardian). These were the first...
- 1/27/2023
- by Hannah Wigandt
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
After 40 years, Abba has returned with their newest album, Voyage, and a successful immersive performance. The music icons had a couple of starts and stops on the project but captured their original essence every step of the way.
Abba at the premiere of ‘Voyage’ | Dave J Hogan/Getty Images Abba announced a new kind of digital entertainment project, ‘Voyage,’ in 2016
According to the BBC, Abba planned their Voyage project as early as 2016. They announced that all four original members, Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, would return for a “new entertainment experience” that would be immersive and involve virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
The group would appear on stage as ABBAtars, or as their younger selves. In 2014, Ulvaeus told Billboard that fans “will never see us on stage again … we don’t need the money, for one thing.”
The Eurovision winners hoped the experience would bring their...
Abba at the premiere of ‘Voyage’ | Dave J Hogan/Getty Images Abba announced a new kind of digital entertainment project, ‘Voyage,’ in 2016
According to the BBC, Abba planned their Voyage project as early as 2016. They announced that all four original members, Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, would return for a “new entertainment experience” that would be immersive and involve virtual reality and artificial intelligence.
The group would appear on stage as ABBAtars, or as their younger selves. In 2014, Ulvaeus told Billboard that fans “will never see us on stage again … we don’t need the money, for one thing.”
The Eurovision winners hoped the experience would bring their...
- 1/26/2023
- by Hannah Wigandt
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Tj O’Grady Peyton last appeared on the pages of Dn as both director and actor in Wave, a film which shows a man isolated by the barrier of unintelligible language so it only seems fitting that his latest short, Broken: A Lockdown Story, is guided by a bizarre exploration of language and expressions. Tj worked with fellow London Film School graduate John Craine to create the story of a family who have seen better times as envisaged through the fantastical prism of its matriarch whose playful account belies the reality of the household’s situation. The film’s playful score and quirky narration, which has fun playing with recognisable idioms, are equally matched by its highly stylised scenes of outlandish capers and a delightfully dry sense of humour which runs throughout. We sat down with Director Peyton and Writer/Cinematographer Craine to delve into how they wove together a selection...
- 12/15/2022
- by Sarah Smith
- Directors Notes
Göteborg-based Cinenic Film, headed by Annika Hellström and Erika Malmgren, has a flawless track record in backing debut directors with global breakthrough potential.
Their roster takes in Ísold Uggadóttir (“And Breathe Normally”), Gorki Glaser-Müller (“Children of the Enemy”) and most recently Christoffer Sandler, whose fiction debut “So Damn Easy Going” opened the last Göteborg Film Festival and is now heading off to the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund (Aug. 20-26).
Cinenic will also be in Haugesund with its latest young filmmaking recruits, Angelika Abramovitch and Minka Jakerson and their respective feature debuts “The Braid” and “The Soft Skin,” to be pitched at the Nordic Co-production Market, part of Haugesund confab New Nordic Films (Aug. 23-26).
The Crimean-born Swede Abramovitch competed in Clermont Ferrand with her graduation film from Stockholm’s Academy of the Arts “Catcave Hysteria” and was picked for the Future Frames next generation showcase in Karlovy Vary in July.
Their roster takes in Ísold Uggadóttir (“And Breathe Normally”), Gorki Glaser-Müller (“Children of the Enemy”) and most recently Christoffer Sandler, whose fiction debut “So Damn Easy Going” opened the last Göteborg Film Festival and is now heading off to the Norwegian Film Festival in Haugesund (Aug. 20-26).
Cinenic will also be in Haugesund with its latest young filmmaking recruits, Angelika Abramovitch and Minka Jakerson and their respective feature debuts “The Braid” and “The Soft Skin,” to be pitched at the Nordic Co-production Market, part of Haugesund confab New Nordic Films (Aug. 23-26).
The Crimean-born Swede Abramovitch competed in Clermont Ferrand with her graduation film from Stockholm’s Academy of the Arts “Catcave Hysteria” and was picked for the Future Frames next generation showcase in Karlovy Vary in July.
- 8/12/2022
- by Annika Pham
- Variety Film + TV
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