Björn Ulvaeus has ruled out any upcoming ABBA biopics in the near future.
Despite the success of biopics like Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody and Elton John’s Rocketman, Ulvaeus has vetoed the chances of an ABBA biopic appearing any time soon.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Ulvaeus said: “I don’t think we would want that actually, I certainly know myself I wouldn’t want an actor – not while I’m alive – to play me on the big screen and I don’t think the others would like that either.”
You can watch the interview below:
Earlier this week (April 18), Ulvaeus gave an update on the band’s forthcoming avatar tour, promising that it “still sounds very much ABBA.”
Back in 2017, it was announced that the band would reunite in digital form in 2019, performing as “Abbatars” for the first time since they split in 1982.
When the reunion tour was then delayed, the Swedish pop icons announced back in 2018 that they would be sharing two new tracks: ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’, which was then expanded to five new tracks as a reward to fans waiting for the reunion tour due to COVID-related delays.
In a new interview with The Times, Ulvaeus discussed how Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad’s vocals were now in a lower pitch – “about one tone lower, perhaps” – but promised that the sound fans would hear on the tour would still be “very much Abba.”
Discussing the process of creating the avatars, Ulvaeus said the band were “photographed from all possible angles” and made to “grimace in front of cameras”.
“They painted dots on our faces, they measured our heads,” he added.
Elsewhere, Ulvaeus slammed the streaming economy last week, saying that songwriters are “last in line for streaming royalties”.
Writing in The Guardian, Ulvaeus said a new royalties model is needed if the industry is to see any kind of “risk-taking” or “creativity” from artists whose writing, he said, is being affected by the pressures of the “dysfunctional” current model.
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