World of Chig   

12.5.04
ABBA-tastic

You must, must, must tape tonight's semi-final, even if you're planning to buy the DVD of this year's Eurovision double bill. (The first ever Eurovision DVD is released on 7 June in Turkey - I'm guessing it's the same all over Europe.)

There is, however, one part of tonight's show that won't be on the DVD. The title explains itself:

ABBA - Our last ever video.

We were priviledged to see the world premiere of this 5 minute film last night in the press centre, a few hours before it was shown to the public in the second dress rehearsal. Svante Stockselius, the EBU's Eurovision big cheese, said that they had approached ABBA to get together for this year's 30th anniversary of Waterloo's win, but they had said no. However, the band themselves mentioned that they had an idea for a project. A Swedish director then took charge, with some assistance from all four ABBA members, and an appearance from Rik Mayall! I won't say any more, because it would spoil the surprise, but tape it when it is shown as part of tonight's show, because you will want to play the dialogue a few times. It's hilarious, it's cute, and it draws a nice, neat line under ABBA's career. Svante, who just happens to be Swedish too, was clearly quite close to tears over the film itself and the reaction in the Press Centre. We loved it, and so will you.

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