Famous ABBA Fans Talk - by Stany Van Wymeersch

ABBA have always enjoyed a lot of respect and admiration from their musical peers. In our magazine we have interviews with a famous ABBA fan and let him or her explain why they like our fab four so much. This series is conceived in collaboration with Stany Van Wymeersch, who already interviewed several major stars for his books Let's Talk About ABBA and We All Love ABBA.

	Antony Costa "They have such great pop songs that they are always around in your head, like Waterloo, Take A Chance On Me, The Winner Takes It All and SOS. Their songs have fantastic choruses and, even as a kid, I found myself singing along to them in my head." Read more
	Cindy Alter "I was in a club and they played Dancing Queen and my mouth literally fell open. It was a feeling of “What is this?!”. I remember that every song of ABBA brought me joy." Read more
	Steve Norman "You know what? I'm proud of being a fan of ABBA, the music of ABBA. It's not a guilty pleasure for me. Why should it be guilty?" Read more
	Tony Hadley "The first time I ever heard them was when we were watching the Eurovision Song Contest. They looked fantastic, they were glam rock, it was instantly recognisable, you could sing along to it, it was a bit of a milestone really." Read more
	Eurovision Song Contest Stars Johnny Logan: "With ABBA there are so many songs that over the years are like sort of evergreens, not just one. I think Dancing Queen has always been one of my favourite ABBA songs. Read more
	Valerie Holiday (The Three Degrees) "I've always loved their arrangements, the musical instruments that were chosen and how they utilised them in combination with the voices. All their tracks were always very, very full, and full orchestration is my favourite." Read more
	Ken Andrew (Middle Of The Road) "Well, The Winner Takes It All is my favourite one. And I do like the one, Super Trouper, because it mentions Glasgow and that's…super." Read more
	Marcia Barrett (Boney M.) "The song which I actually like the most is perhaps The Winner Takes It All, even though it's sad and I don't like sad songs. Andante, Andante is another favourite, and all the rest I can take anytime!" Read more
	Monique Klemann (Loïs Lane) "Their arrangements are ingenious, but the melodies, melody lines and the underlying chords have a kind of spontaneity, honesty. And whether it is your taste or not, the songs are so incredibly catchy." Read more
	Madeline Bell (Blue Mink) "Everybody, as soon as Dancing Queen comes on, every dancing queen in the room, even the non-dancing queens, get up and dances because it's telling the story of their own lives." Read more
	Cher "The songs were harder to sing than I imagined. I thought that they were like poppy songs, but some of them are as hard as hell." Read more
	Dana Winner "The production of their recordings is superb, almost unbeatable. " Read more
	Getty Kaspers (Teach-In) "They have so many beautiful songs… but if I had to choose one, it would be Thank You For The Music because it represents everything that music is about and depicts accurately what emotions mean to people." Read more
	Toni Willé (Pussycat) "I love both voices, but I prefer Agnetha's voice, so clear, she sounds like an angel to me." Read more
	Gregg Field "It's very interesting how Frida and Agnetha's sounds compliments each other. I noticed that often Frida would sing the verses, and Agnetha would cover the choruses. When ABBA recorded Andante, Andante, that was the case. I was really happy that we were still able to produce ‘ABBA sound' with Frida covering the verses and choruses plus all the harmonies as well." Read more
	Kim Wilde "I often hear their voices when I'm singing in the studio, inspiring me in sometimes very subtle ways. It could just be a word or a whole line of a song, and somehow they are there. Two voices working like that together so magically is rare, as subsequent years have shown." Read more
	George Baker "Songs such as Ring, Ring and Fernando are quite far removed from each other, but both songs were very good and very interesting - and very appealing." Read more
	Kerry Ellis "I'm a huge fan - I think they are amazing. I have sung many of their songs over the years, and audiences react with much joy. I don't think people realise quite how complex some of their songs are. They seem very simple but, actually, when you start looking deeper, they are very complex." Read more
	Hazell Dean "There are so many fantastic ABBA songs you become spoilt for choice, so I selected the ones that I felt would suit my voice and my style. Does Your Mother Know seemed to surprise everyone, but I think it's a great, fun song." Read more
	Bucks Fizz "I have all their albums and some of the tracks are just so good. They really are" Read more
	Paul Young "The great thing with ABBA is when you hear a song, it's a complete thing. Take away some of the parts and it won't work as well. It needs everything that's on the record." Read more
	Martin Lee (Brotherhood of Man) "I recall that ABBA sent us Mamma Mia to record, but we already had a full set of songs for the studio at that time, so we didn't get to it." Read more
	Judy Craymer "I would say Dancing Queen is one of the most brilliant songs ever, but I would also say The Winner Takes It All is a ballad that musically and lyrically is a landscape of emotions." Read more
	Conchita Wurst "They made easy listening pop songs which never became old-fashioned. They are totally timeless." Read more
	Pete Waterman "The Winner Takes It All is obviously a classic, but The Day Before You Came is the most underestimated ABBA song of all time." Read more
	José Hoebee (Luv) "Björn said that he was prepared to collaborate, but not before having heard our record, and that if he didn't like it, the deal was off." Read more
	Terry Uttley (Smokie) "I remember very well coming across ABBA, bumping into them at airports and in television and radio stations. I found the four of them to be warm and down-to-earth people." Read more
	Liz Mitchell (Boney M.) "Of course! Of course I liked them!" Read more
	Andy Scott (Sweet) "ABBA are from the analogue era. When they performed, everything they did was live!" Read more
	Per Herrey "ABBA's victory in Brighton gave confidence to a lot of other Swedish artists that we, too, could win Eurovision." Read more
	Suzi Quatro "Beethoven 'was' the pop writer for the classical era. ABBA were influenced by this. It's in every song they ever wrote." Read more
	James Last "What does the opinion of one critic mean when millions of people love your music?" *
	Giorgio Moroder "You hear an ABBA song a few times and you remember it forever." *
	Brian May "The songs of ABBA are unquestionably immortal." *
	Anne Sofie von Otter "All my colleagues are jealous that I'm performing ABBA songs." *
	Plastic Bertrand "ABBA were clearly not manufactured by a record company." *
	Magnus Carlsson (Ex- Alcazar) "ABBA are practically royalty in Sweden!"
	Neil Sedaka "The production and vocal arrangements were genius." *
	Connie Francis "The house is always happier when ABBA's music is being played." *

*) quote taken from the book "Let's Talk About ABBA", by Stany Van Wymeersch - available at the ABBA Fan Club Shop

You can order the books "Let's Talk About ABBA" and "We Love ABBA" at the ABBA Fan Club Shop