Abba Monopoly Board Game

Are you an Abba fan? I am talking about the Swedish pop group formed in 1974.

The band that sings the unforgettable songs like Dancing queen, Take a chance on me ,Waterloo, The winner takes it all, Money money money, and Mamma Mia. Oh well, I like their songs and the movie Muriel’s Wedding that has lots of Abba songs in it. I was surprised to see their names on sidewalk signs at the bookstores associated with a “monopoly game”.

Apparently, the classic Monopoly game is re-created as an exclusive edition around the iconic ABBA brand.

You know in the classic game, you buy streets, in the  ABBA version, instead of streets you buy ABBA singles, Instead of building houses, you build studios! The 6 tokens are all related to ABBA; the Napoleon hat, a platform boot, a vinyl record, a money bag, a telephone, and Björn’s star-shaped guitar.

The release date was announced on 15th December 2014 on  wind signs. A very good timing to buy as a Christmas gift to an Abba fan friend. The game will be both in Swedish and English, and in limited edition. To learn more please see http://store.universalmusic.com/abba/  Be careful about some websites which are already offering the ABBA Monopoly game even though it is not finalized and definitely not released yet.

The board game was created for the 40^th anniversary of the band. So for the 40^th year let me share with  you some little known facts about the band that you cannot find on outdoor signs for business:

• According to The Official Photo Book, the reason that their outfits looked crazy and sparkly was partly because of tax purposes. Swedish laws allowed only the cost of performance outfits to be tax-deductible. To be different than the normal street clothes, they had to dress a bit crazy.
• The name “ABBA” comes from the initials of the names of the group members. Before they came up with ABBA, the band was known as “Festfolk,” meaning “party people” in Swedish.
• It is thought that everybody in the band is Swedish, but Anni-Frid Lyngstad is not Swedish. She was born in Norway from a German father and a Norwegian mother.
• One of their TV specials for the Australian market in 1976 got more views than the 1969 moon landing. They were really legends then.

Despite all, the group has pledged not to reunite. Björn Ulvaeus has said “we will never appear on stage again” and added that they wanted their fans to remember them as they were young, exuberant, full of energy and ambitious. Luckily fans have lots of videos, movies, and albums to watch or listen to. Now they can also have the Abba Monopoly board game to add to the collection. .