{"id":2452548,"date":"2019-12-23T21:15:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-24T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=318066"},"modified":"2019-12-23T21:15:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-24T04:15:00","slug":"mamma-mia-abba-mania-returns-to-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/mamma-mia-abba-mania-returns-to-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamma Mia! ABBA Mania returns to Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Kirbi Long of ABBA Mania. The tribute act will play a Christmas Day show at the Wheeler Opera House.<\/strong>
Courtey photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

If seeing an ABBA tribute band on Christmas isn\u2019t on your list of holiday-season entertainment options, maybe it should be. You\u2019ll have had your fill of \u201cJingle Bells\u201d and the like by Christmas, and what better excuse is there to break out some flashy bell-bottoms and a sequined headband, put the holiday madness behind and dance into the final week of the decade with a show that\u2019s just pure fun?<\/p>\n

ABBA Mania, an ABBA tribute show that\u2019s been touring for 20 years, last performed at the Wheeler Opera House in March. With multiple costume changes, a dazzling light show, hip choreographed dancing and an infectious energy level, the foursome playing the \u201970s super-pop group and their band kept the audience on their feet and singing along throughout their exhaustive catalog of chart hits.<\/p>\n

Which, by the way, were all released within a few years. Agnetha, Anni-Frid (Frida), Benny and Bjorn (ABBA is an acronym of their first names) became a band \u2014 and two couples \u2014 in the early 1970s. The Swedish group broke out big in 1974 when they won the Eurovision Song Contest with \u201cWaterloo\u201d and were arguably the most popular band in the world when their string of hits climbed various countries\u2019 charts through the end of the decade.<\/p>\n

ABBA never reunited after declaring a temporary break in 1982 \u2014 but their music was soon revived and still lives on with numerous covers, compilation albums and, perhaps most influential for younger generations, the 2008 film \u201cMamma Mia!\u201d<\/a> (an adaptation of the 1999 Broadway musical of the same name).<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the lasting appeal of the music of a band that hasn\u2019t recorded or performed in 38 years?<\/p>\n

Beyond their striking look and outrageous costumes, ABBA was \u201cone of the greatest bands in history,\u201d said Kirbi Long, who plays Agnetha in ABBA Mania. A freelance singer and dancer, Long wasn\u2019t always a big ABBA fan, but has grown to appreciate their work in the five-and-a-half years she\u2019s been with the tribute project.<\/p>\n

\u201cLyrically they\u2019re a lot of fun, and the melodies they do are insane \u2014 to hear them singing together is beautiful,\u201d said Long, who played Frida for four years before switching roles. \u201cTheir music surpassed everything. Bjorn and Benny wrote all the songs, and the women had such star power.\u201d<\/p>\n

ABBA obsession is even more keenly felt outside of the U.S., said Long, whose troupe has toured the Caribbean and Central America. A separate cast based in England tours Europe, where perhaps ABBA mania is the strongest. The band\u2019s international appeal can be explained by the universality of their music, Long said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFernando\u201d (a No. 1 hit in 13 countries) doesn\u2019t sound like a Swedish song, she noted, and other songs touch on arrangements or rhythms that are familiar to other cultures \u2014 yet most of them have a universal sing-along appeal that everyone can get into.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made popular a variety of music that touches different languages and cultures in a way that other bands haven\u2019t been able to do,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

Another Latin-flavored tune, \u201cChiquitita,\u201d is Long\u2019s favorite, not just for the beautiful harmony but especially for the lyrics, which are about two women coming together in grief and one comforting the other.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly what makes the music great, ABBA has a way of making all their music happy, but when you really listen there\u2019s a driving force beneath it: the hope it brings to people,\u201d Long said.<\/p>\n

But while ABBA Mania faithfully reproduces the words and songs of its namesake, Long and Amy Edwards (Frida) inject their own choreography and plenty of audience interaction in the performance \u2014 imbuing it with more of a concert feel than a musical theater experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to encompass their spirit while paying tribute to them,\u201d said Long, who never did a tribute show before ABBA Mania. \u201cAnd I love that because I can encompass the character and also put a little bit of my spirit into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of this comes together for a show whose appeal spans generations. Decades after discovering ABBA as a child, listening to the albums my mother used in her aerobics classes, I took my 8-year-old daughter to ABBA Mania\u2019s unforgettable show at the Wheeler last winter. Along with two good friends and their young daughters, we started our own mother-daughter tradition, singing and dancing and laughing the night away \u2014 \u201chaving the time of our lives,\u201d indeed.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirbi Long of ABBA Mania. The tribute act will play a Christmas Day show at the Wheeler Opera House.Courtey photo If seeing an ABBA tribute band on Christmas isn\u2019t on your list of holiday-season entertainment options, maybe it should be. You\u2019ll have had your fill of \u201cJingle Bells\u201d and the like by Christmas, and what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 00:52:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}