>> ABBA/Henrik Montgomery/TT/EPA
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden awarded knighthoods to the members of the pop group ABBA – one of the most famous Swedish music groups in history.
The award ceremony took place in Stockholm The band members don't often appear in public together, but this time they reunited to receive the awards. This is reported by The Guardian.
Benny Andersson, Agnetha Feltskog, Anna-Frid Lyngstad and Björn Ulvaeus were awarded the Royal Order of the Vasa for “outstanding achievements in Swedish and international music”.< br>
This is the first case of awarding such a high order in the last 50 years. Sweden stopped awarding royal orders to its citizens in 1975, only foreigners could receive them. However, in 2022, the parliament reviewed this practice and returned the opportunity to Swedes to receive royal awards.
Pop music legends were recognized by King Carl XVI Gustaf on Friday for their cultural influence, which has given Swedish pop music a huge world audience, the publication says.
ABBA band/Wikipedia
ABBA is one of the most popular musical groups in the history of pop music. After winning Eurovision in 1974, the group topped the world charts until the early 1980s, released 8 albums, with total sales of over 380 million copies. The band broke up in 1982, but reunited to record the album “Voyage”, which was released in 2021.