Over half a century after their songs were recorded, ABBA's songs still make people the world over dance and sing every day, and their ability to evoke every emotion has made them the ultimate soundtrack to major life events, from birthday parties and weddings to heartbreaks and memorials.
Since interviewing the four members of ABBA for an article in 2013 - at which time the band had not been interviewed for 30 years - a relationship was sparked between writer Jan Gradvall and the band, and he was granted unique access for the next decade. He has interviewed each of them exclusively for The Book of ABBA, and they share their thoughts and opinions with him here more openly than ever before.
Gradvall places ABBA at the centre of the musical universe, and alongside his fascinating interviews, he gives readers the socio-cultural context of how the band's sound was formed - including the melancholic hints of Swedish folk music and the dansband culture of their formative years - and shows how the story of ABBA is also the story of Sweden and the internationalisation of pop culture.
With around 2 million tickets sold to the ABBA Voyage experience in London since it opened in May 2023, it is undeniable that, in the history of pop culture and music, there has never been a group like ABBA. This remarkably intimate, approved biography brings readers a few steps closer to one of the world's most famously private bands.

Portrait

Jan Gradvall is an award-winning writer and Sweden's most respected music journalist. He has written several books on pop culture and helped found the Swedish Music Hall of Fame. He has a uniquely close journalistic relationship with ABBA, appearing in two BBC documentaries about them, before writing this book.