ABBA once sang about having wealth in their 1976 song “Money, Money, Money:” “All the things I could do if I had a little money / It’s a rich man’s world.”
In 2000, ABBA was offered a lot of money — $1 billion to be exact — in exchange for reuniting. It would have equated to roughly $250 million per member, but the group firmly turned it down.
ABBA had last performed live in 1982. At that point, it felt clear to the band’s members that it was the end of the road.
“We had a little company, the four of us together,” Benny Andersson recalled to The Guardian in 2021. “Everything ABBA earned went into that company and we split it four ways, no matter who did what. And then, when we said, ‘Well, this is it, guys, let’s do something else for a bit and then we can go back perhaps in a couple of years and see if we’re still alive,’ that was that: we sold the company. We did not expect ABBA to continue, I can promise you that.”
But that didn’t mean ABBA’s name was entirely removed from the public consciousness. Cover bands earned their success, movies incorporated their music and a compilation album called ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits became one of the best-selling albums of all time with some 30 million copies sold. People wanted ABBA.
It’s been widely reported that a $1 billion offer was made to the band in 2000 to reunite, but nothing ever came of it. For one thing, as Bjorn Ulvaeus pointed out to The Guardian, it wasn’t a real offer.
“Someone told us something about a sponsored tour, going on the road, doing a hundred gigs, but it was never put on paper,” he explained. “But then, everyone knew we wouldn’t do it.”
Watch ABBA’s Music Video for ‘Money, Money, Money’
That was likely because performing live had never been ABBA’s favorite part of the job. “No one who has experienced facing a hysterical audience can avoid feeling the shivers in their spine,” Agnetha Faltskog would tell her biographer. “It’s a thin line between celebration and menace.”
As far as ABBA was concerned, they had already checked relentlessly touring the world off their list of things to do.
“We said no because they wanted 250 shows or something, it was incredible,” Faltskog told Radio Times in 2013. “No chance. No chance. We had done it.”
READ MORE: When ABBA Moved Into Making Movies
In many cases, Ulvaeus emphasized to The Sunday Telegraph in 2008, it’s simply best for a band to quit while they’re ahead, regardless of how much money is on the table.
“We will never appear on stage again,” he said. “There is simply no motivation to re-group. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition. I remember Robert Plant saying Led Zeppelin were a cover band now because they cover all their own stuff. I think that hit the nail on the head.”
ABBA’s Eventual Reunification
ABBA did eventually reunite for a tour. Kind of. After many months of development, they debuted Voyage in 2022, a virtual recreation of themselves using avatars. The digital concert experience has been putting on shows ever since, grossing over $100 million in 2023 alone.
Not a billion, but worth all of the hard work.
“I dreamed of this for years,” Anni-Frid Lyngstad, aka Frida, said to the BBC at the premiere of the show. “We love our music, we love to sing.”
Watch a Promotional Clip for ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ Concert
Top 200 ’70s Songs
Looking back at the very best songs from ’70s.
Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
Leave a Comment