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ABBA Museum to Open in Stockholm

The Beatles museum in London is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city. Swedish entrepreneurs have decided to borrow from the idea and are planning to open an entire museum dedicated to one of the most successful bands in music history ? ABBA. The band?s members have given their blessing to the project and the mayor of Stockholm says the museum should be up and running by 2008.

It was not easy for organizers to convince the former members of the band to originally agree on a museum. However, after two years of attempts, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Reuss finally gave the go ahead. The ABBA stars will not have anything to do with the planning of the museum but have agreed to donate the material such as clothing worn during concerts, original lyrics and other memorabilia. Organizers are also scouring other sources to try and find more material.

The museum is expected to attract 500,000 visitors a year and will be a huge boost for Stockholm?s tourist industry. Visitors will be treated to great interactive features such as a recording studio to create their own ABBA song and enjoying the experience of being part of a crowd of 50,000 during a live ABBA show. "We think this will be a fun and swinging museum to visit," the former band members said in a joint statement.