My ABBA-Tour Adventure - Part 1
September 2023: About 4,000 miles away from my home in Central Florida, an excited hush enveloped the London, England, theater as I eagerly anticipated a concert experience that was decades in the making. As I waited, I reflected on the events of my life where ABBA’s music had inspired me and brought me to this moment.
The path that led me to take that journey began in 1976, when my 12-year-old self in southern Illinois first heard the song “Dancing Queen.”
With perfect harmonies and catchy lyrics, ABBA quickly became the soundtrack of my young life.
I endeavored to learn as much as I could about this group formed by two couples, devouring every album and book I could find about them.
A piano/vocal songbook (that I still play today) helped me improve my keyboard skills.
I sang along with their records as their music soothed my young soul.
The occasional teasing of my classmates for my musical tastes did not bother me.
In 1982, when I graduated from high school and started college in Oklahoma, the lyrics of “I Wonder”, talking about leaving a boring hometown to pursue adventures, inspired me.
Meanwhile, in Sweden, the two ABBA couples who had recently divorced quietly stopped recording new music and disbanded.
While I was in college, I met and married my college sweetheart, and we moved to Florida after finishing our degrees. Over the next few decades, I found solace in ABBA’s music as I navigated my job, marriage, and ordinary life.
I heard stories that the former members of ABBA adamantly insisted they would never reunite for a concert, but their influence never really disappeared. In fact, it grew:
The ABBA Gold albums kept their hits in the spotlight.
Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, the men of ABBA, were part of the creative force behind Chess the Musical.
When cover bands became the rage, I enjoyed the opportunity to pick up overtime shifts doing crowd control for an ABBA tribute band at Epcot for a little extra pocket money.
Gradually, I realized the public perception of ABBA had evolved from the “guilty pleasure” of my youth to a popular group that different generations within families enjoyed.
Fast-forward to the early 2000s, when I started hearing rumors of a musical based on ABBA's music. I’ll admit, when I first heard about Mamma Mia: The Musical, I was skeptical. How are they going to tie together a sampling of ABBA songs into a believable plot?
Some might consider the story a little far-fetched; but I thought it stitched together ABBA songs with a fun energy that balanced out the plot imperfections. The release of the movie DVD gave me an excuse to throw a “Mamma Mia Sing-along” party at my house in 2009.
Fast-forward again to September 2021, when Björn and Benny announced that ABBA had reunited to create new music, as well as a unique concert experience called ABBA Voyage. It would feature digital representations of their younger selves, called “ABBA-tars,” in a custom venue in London. They shared two of the songs from the new album, “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down.” I was thrilled! ABBA was back!
My first thought was, “Why London? It’s so far away?”
But the more I thought about it, my attitude changed to, “Why not London? This is a great excuse to travel to a place I’ve never been.”
And with that, I had a new dream… to experience the ABBA Voyage concert event in London.
For the record, my late husband was not an ABBA fan. He tolerated my love of ABBA, and begrudgingly accompanied me to a few ABBA tribute band concerts and the live version of Mamma Mia: The Musical in Orlando. When I shared my interest in flying to Europe for this trip, he encouraged me to find another traveling companion.
Challenge accepted! I decided this would be a fun girls’ trip, so I talked with several of my lady friends and family members. Finally, in early 2023, my oldest brother’s wife, Donna, who lived in the Washington D.C. area and had just retired, agreed to join me in my “ABBA nerd-dom”.
As the plans evolved, I realized I wanted to do more than just see a single concert. I dreamed of an epic European adventure based on the lyrics of ABBA songs:
The mention of Glasgow in “Super Trouper” pointed me to Scotland.
The references to Paris in “Our Last Summer” beckoned me to France.
ABBA: The Museum in Stockholm became too tempting to skip. I introduced the idea to Donna as a “plot twist” that added a flight from Edinburgh to Stockholm.
The excursion needed a catchy name, so I dubbed it “Dinah and Donna’s ABBA-tour European Adventure.” We selected for late August through mid-September.
The calendar pages turned as we anticipated our journey, unaware of the plot twists on the other side of the pond.