Just a few weeks after the spectacular opening of the “Abba Voyage” concert show in London, Abba musician Björn Ulvaeus had another premiere to celebrate. This time in Stockholm at home. This time, however, the audience is likely to have had a significantly lower average age than was the case at the hologram show in the English capital. Because Björn Ulvaeus has turned to one of the most famous children’s book characters in the world: Pipi Longstocking.
A colorful musical
Ulvaeus has a story written by Astrid Lindgren with Abba colleague Benny Andersson, in which Pipi visits a circus with her friends Tommy and Annika and meets the circus princess Miss Carmencita, the tightrope walker Elvira and the world’s strongest man, the “strong Adolf”. rewritten into a musical. Now “Pippi på Cirkus” (“Pippi in the circus”) celebrated its premiere in front of almost 12,000 people on Tuesday evening (12.07) in the Stockholm event house “Cirkus”, which is appropriately located in the immediate vicinity of Stockholm’s Abba Museum.
For the musical, Ulvaeus mainly contributed the lyrics, the music comes from Abba colleague Benny Anderson, so the usual division of labor. Some songs are actually supposed to be reminiscent of the Abba sound. The premiere audience reacted very euphorically to the performance and gave long stocking actress Ida Breimo and the entire ensemble great applause. Accordingly, Ulvaeus was satisfied with the way the premiere went: “People clearly loved it. From my point of view, it went very, very well.” The musical is scheduled to be shown in the Swedish capital until August 14 this year and then pause until next summer. It will be performed again in 2023 with English and German subtitles.
Björn Ulvaeus appears with a new girlfriend
But Björn Ulvaeus also made headlines with his appearance on the red carpet. The 76-year-old didn’t run across it alone, but holding hands with his new girlfriend Christina Sas, who works in the Abba label environment. Ulvaeus and his second wife Lena Kallersjö announced their divorce after 40 years of marriage in February. Ulvaeus told the Swedish entertainment medium “Hänt”: “I’m here with Christina, my partner Christina.”