ABBA’s Frida is “not a fan” of ‘Eurovision’ anymore.
The Swedish pop icons famously won the song contest in 1974 with mega-hit ‘Waterloo’, but the 75-year-old singer has confessed that she doesn’t like how “technical” the show has become.
Speaking to ‘The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show’ on BBC Radio 2, Frida – whose real name is Princess Anni-Frid, Dowager Countess of Plauen – admitted: “I’m sorry to say no I don’t. I’m not so interested because it has changed so much over the years and it’s not what it was at that time. Now it’s more like a show, it’s very technical and there are some good songs coming out of it, but I cannot say I’m a fan of Eurovision, maybe I shouldn’t say it, but I did it anyway.”
Despite her bandmates Bjorn Ulvaeus, 76, and Benny Andersson, 74, recently declaring that they will be bowing out following the recent release of their first album in almost 40 years, ‘ABBA Voyage’, and their upcoming avatar tour, Frida has insisted “never say never” to them reuniting again.
She said: “I have learnt to say ‘never to say never’ and I’m very surprised that Benny and Bjorn, and I cannot remember that this year we have probably said this must be the last thing we do because also thinking of our ages, you know, we are not young any longer and you never know, but I’m saying you never know so don’t be too sure.”
Meanwhile, Bjorn and Benny – who complete the lineup with Agnetha Faltskog – recently discussed the possibility of them penning the UK’s ‘Eurovision Song Contest’ entry tune, and how they’d want Dua Lipa to sing it.
The pair think it’s “promising” that the ‘Physical’ hitmaker’s management, TaP Music, is to scout a pop star to compete at next year’s show, which will be held at the PalaOlimpico in Turin, Italy after Rome’s Maneskin won the 2021 competition with ‘Zitti E Buoni’.
What’s more, they’ve even said they’d like to see the 26-year-old star herself sing the country’s entry and insisted they would be up for penning the track for the right act.
Appearing on ‘BBC Breakfast’, the pair were asked what they thought of the UK’s “new tactic”, to which Benny replied: “Good.”
And Bjorn said: “Promising.”
Benny continued: “Picking an act is one thing, writing a song is different. So you need both a great song and a good act.”
And when asked if they would consider writing the UK entry, he said: “Oh, a UK entry? I don’t know.”
Benny then turned to his bandmate, who outright said: “No.”
However, the former insisted: “But what’s the risk? You can’t be worse than last.”
Bjorn said: “No, but it needs to be a really good act to write for, yeah.”
Benny then suggested: “Dua Lipa.”
To which, his bandmate agreed: “Yes.”
The 2022 entry song is set to be released on a major record label to further boost the nation’s chances of victory, after UK once again suffered a major blow after James Newman – the brother of ‘Love Me Again’ hitmaker John Newman – scored nil points in May with his performance of ‘Embers’ in Rotterdam.
Listen back to the full interview with Frida here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011d02.