One of the museums I was eager to visit was the Abba Museum which had opened in the last few years since my last visit in 2003. Conveniently it is located in the museum cluster on Djurgarden Island so you dont have to make a special trip to get there.

However it is not included in the tourist pass and you have to pay a steep 215K ($30) for entrance.

The museum is in the two below ground floors. One floor is the Abba Museum, the other is the Swedish Music Hall of Fame

It starts off interesting showing some of the early life of each of the four members.

There are then displays on their two Eurovision entries (the annual European world cup of music). Ring Ring in 1973 which failed to qualify for Sweden, followed by Waterloo in 1974 which was the victorious winner catipulting them to global fame. There was short video clip of them performing Waterloo followed by the score read out leading to their Eurovision victory.

Then the museum went a bit downhill. The job of a museum is to educate the visitor. This didnt really do much and just had lots of memorobilia and album covers in display cases.

At best this can be categorized as a large private collection on display.

They didnt do much to tell the story of Abba after Waterloo, their subsequent albums or singles, success in other countries like Japan or Australia, the solo careers after Abba, lessor known B-Tracks, unreleased material, or tribute acts such as Bjorn Again. Agnetha had a long solo career from the 60s to late 80s, and has just started releasing stuff again, ignored by the museum.

The average person wouldnt learn anything much more than they didnt already know. There have been countless tv documentaries that did a much better job such as "The Winnner Takes It All" about 15 yrs ago available on DVD and on youtube.

The museum then tried to highlight Swedish music thru the decades but still struggled. There were small booth displays for each decade. However aside from some album covers there was no opportunity to sample music from the different artists. Some big names that even I knew of weren't mentioned.

The museum did pickup a bit with the history of audio listening technology with everything from old record players, cassete tapes, walkmans, to mp3 players.

There were more displays of album covers and posters of other artists thru the decades. But to a foreign visitor these would be meaningless and there was no opportunity to sample their music again. As I listen to Swedish music online on http://www.swedishhitradio.com/listen/ I was familiar with a lot of them.

Also missing was any mention of Eurovision other than Abba. Sweden is one the most successful countries with five wins including their first win with Abba in 1974. They then went on to win again in 2015 after my visit to total six wins now (1974, 1984, 1991, 1999, 2012, 2015) and consistently finish in the top ten at Eurovision each year.

The UK only has five wins and none since 1997 with Katrina and the Waves. France hasnt won since 1977, Spains last win was 1969, Netherlands not since 1976 (with an Abba copy act), Italy 1990, Switzerland 1988 with a young Celine Dion, Germany has only won twice, Greece, Turkey, Belgium, Russia, Finland only have one win each, Cyprus, Malta, Iceland, Portugal have never won though they like to try!.

The story of Abba, and Swedish pop music in general, will always be tied to Eurovision and the two cant be seperated. 1974 not only launched their global career with Waterloo, it was a watershed year for the contest and got everyone interested trying to emulate the groups worldwide success leaving a huge impact on Eurovision to this day. It broke the mold of big band ballads and ushered in more mainstream pop music. Waterloo is still voted the best Eurovision song of all time in polls after 41 years!.

Another important aspect of Swedish pop music neglected was Melodifestivalen the national qualification contest for the annual Swedish Eurovision entry. Every major act in Sweden from Abba to Alcazar have participated in Melodifestivalen more than once and gone on to have massive success in Sweden even if they didnt win to qualify for Sweden at Eurovision.

Abba didnt qualify in 1973 with Ring Ring but came back with Waterloo in 1974 when they were up against Olivia Newton John for the UK. Alcazar have never won Melodifestivalen despite subsequent global chart success with each of their entries. The 2014 Eurovision entry for Sweden had participated 14 times before qualifying last year and finished 3rd at Eurovision. Even one of the Abba kids tried competing once. This formula has been modelled by Norway and Denmark which have also had great Eurovision success and wins in recent years.

The Hall of Fame was interesting and had some more well known acts such as Ninah Cherry or Roxette. Another one I recognized was Carola who has participated three times at Eurovision and was one of the six Swedish winners of the contest in 1991.

The gift shop was interesting and had novelty items aside from CDs and DVDs. They were only selling CDs of artists in the Hall of Fame. I was looking for another favourite Lena Phillipsson another artist who participated three times in Melodifestivalen in the late 80s, went on to have a massive career in Sweden in the 90s, before qualifying for Eurovision in 2004 when she finished 6th, but they didnt have her CDs.

The museum is ok if you dont know much about Abba, want to go for a laugh and use some of the interactive displays like the dance floor and karaoke booths. If you are more knowledgeable about the group and Swedish pop music artists and the industry in general you may find it somewhat lacking.

Given that this museum will get worldwide fans attending and they are cashing in by not including themselves in the Stockholm tourist pass they could do a better job of highlighting their national musical heritage.

If you are a fan and planning to visit Stockholm another good site to visit Abba locations is http://www.raffem.com/ABBARelatedPlaces Videos.htm. I looked at the 'Abba Guide to Stockholm' in the giftshop which wasnt as good so that was another wasted opportunity for an interactive exhibit. The bridge from 'The Day Before You Came' was near my hotel.