Broadcast on Christmas Eve in the UK, The ABBA Christmas Party was hosted by Paddy McGuinness.

The programme was cover versions of ABBA songs performed by various UK soap stars and singers.

Björn popped up in between performances with comments filmed at the location of Mamma Mia! The Party.

The performers were:

1. The Feeling - Waterloo
2. Catherine Tyledsley and Shayne Ward (Coronation Street actors) - Take A Chance On Me
3. Union J - The Winner Takes It All
4. Daniel O’Donnell - I Have A Dream
5. Nadine Coyle - Voulez Vous
6. Scouting for Girls - Super Trouper
7. Michelle Hardwick, Amy Walsh and Gemma Atkinson (Emmerdale actresses) - Does Your Mother Know
8. Susan Boyle - Thank You For the Music
9. The cast of Mamma Mia! - Dancing Queen

Björn:  The sound of ABBA is er, ... is ... is very distinct. When I'm in a supermarket or something I think I can hear it miles away. 

We came together organically. We were first two friends, Benny and me, then two couples, we fell in love with two girls. We never ever thought of starting a group together.  It just happened.

It is first and foremost the two girls' voices together, the blend.  Agnetha is a true soprano and Frida is a mezzo and they sing, a lot of the time, in unison.

In the begining, we just tried to look outrageous you know, and we were not really that image-conscious Every otufit was my particular favourite at that moment. Some of them were, you know, frightful. I cringe when I see myself. There's especially one where ... a bit like Superman with a cape and everything  terrible bad taste!  I mean, sometimes I envied other contempoary groups around me like Roxy Music - always impeccable and perfect image whereas we looked like the poor cousin from the country. Just recently I put one of my old overalls on - very tight - and I could still wear it, I'm proud to say.

There is definitely a kind of a Nordic undertone in the song - very often minor key and very sad lyrics. But somehow the girls' voices make them sound jubilant almost. 

Every year when there's a Eurovision Final what comes back to me is of course those days in Brighton.  That changed everything. Before that we were almost completely unknown and when I hear Waterloo I cannot help thinking about that moment. 

Some people accused us of being a hit factory. They said, "You have a formula, it's no problem for you - you know how to churn out hits"  ... it's absolutely not true. I would say that for every song we wrote we never knew how the audience would receive it.  There was absolutely no formula. Anyone can see there wasn't because the songs are so different. 

It actually comes very easily to me to write from a female perspective - Mamma Mia! of course is a female production - very much. There's always a certain atmostphere and energy and pride that we felt in Mamma Mia! performances either in the film or on stage or in the restaurant.

The ABBA camp was a family with kids around us all the time, it was a playground. We had so much fun the whole time. We were constantly laughing.


[Performances]


If I was to dance which very rarely happens - to an ABBA track - I think it would have been .....

[hint that Nadine Coyle would be performing that song later ...]

Pop music is very much technology-driven, so every new synth, every new thing that came on the market, we were there, we had it and we used to work for months on end in the studio and tried everything out.

Every time we had recorded something that we were really proud of, we were, you know, so eager to get out there and perform it and I think that comes across - see the energy and the pride and the happiness that we felt.

If I was to dance which very rarely happens - to an ABBA track - it would have been .....Voulez Vous actually. That's a really a good disco number that we did.  Voulez Vous has the edge because it's slightly quicker. Dancing Queen is quite slow for a disco number.  It works but Voulez Vous is where the DJs say that it's the right tempo. It was so fantastic.


[Performances]


Christmas Eve is the big thing in Sweden, It's when Santa comes and when the kids get all the presents.  We never worked, we absolutely .... everything stopped and was a big family thing. We our parents come up to our house, so the house would be full with friends and parents and Santa Claus would come to Linda, our eldest daughter and all of those Christmasses I remember so well and they were so fantastic.

We used to call each other on New Year's Eve. It was more like that you know - now .... a new year ... what are we going to do and everything lined up before us.

Agnetha, a friend now - someone I once loved and with whom have two grand-children.
Benny is a friend whom I can trust 100%.
Anni-Frid is great fun.
All three of them are, you know, my really good friends.

Merry Christmas, all UK fans of ABBA. I can't tell you how proud and happy I am to be sitting here 40 years after we wrote those songs and they're still being played. It's fantastic!  Merry Christmas!

Thanks to Chris Williams c/o ABBAtalk.
YouTube link c/o Nina Ríos