PETERBOROUGH, February 11, 2025 – Singers’ ABBA Memories
The Music of ABBA evokes memories that connect us across time, place, and culture. At least that is certainly true among the Peterborough Singers, who are having a blast rehearsing for the choir’s March 1st concert.
Especially widespread are memories about the hits of the Swedish pop group connecting with people of all generations. “ABBA was one of my mom’s favourite things to listen to at home,” recalls Ellie Hopkins. “I remember putting on the Greatest Hits album and dancing around the living room with my mom and my little sister.” Mary Adams and Joanne Gray both associate ABBA songs with visits to friends’ houses. “My best friend’s house was very cool, with a bar in the rec room downstairs and a Hi-Fi console,” says Mary. She and her BFF would sing into “air microphones” to “Dancing Queen” and “Take a Chance on Me,” getting the best friend’s mom to play DJ. For Joanne, ABBA songs will forever be associated with ping pong. She would go to her friend’s house to play the game and talk. “ABBA was always on – Fun times!”
Even today, the music’s charm is cross-generational. “One of my daughter’s favourite musicals is Mamma Mia!” explains Katie Carter. “We watch together and sing along, many, many times.”
ABBA is still popular internationally as well as across generations. Indeed, Forbes reported in December 2024 that the group had charted “a brand new top 10 single” in the UK! And Ken Gray, a founding member of the Singers, recalls the band being hugely admired in Asia more than forty years ago. He bought a number of “pirated” ABBA albums in Taiwan in the late 1970s, when that country’s copyright laws offered limited protection for foreign copyright holders. “I think I bought them in the summer or fall of 1978,” he says. “We were towing US Army barges from their base in Taiwan back to the Naval Shipyard in Olongapo Bay, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.”
Some of the choir’s ABBA stories involve connecting with the group’s music after bridging the divide between “highbrow” and “popular” culture. “When I first paid attention to ABBA, my brother, who was then a snobby jazz musician fresh out of music school, told me I shouldn’t like them, so I decided not to look further for a couple of decades,” says Guy Hanchet. But all that changed after Guy was convinced to go to see Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. Sitting in the “nosebleed” section, he became a convert. “I was all geared up to be underwhelmed. But no, the music was so much fun, and the plot was appropriately goofy,” he laughs. “But what really brought it to life was the people who got up and danced in the aisles down where we could barely see them!”
Ellie also loved Mamma Mia! You remember Ellie – the Singer who would dance with her mother and little sister to ABBA around the living room. She has a very special story to end our reminiscences. “When I was twelve or thirteen, my favorite musical was Mamma Mia! So as a birthday present my grandmother flew me to NYC to see it on Broadway. It was absolutely magical!” Hard to beat that!
Music of ABBA: Saturday, March 1, 2025, 2:00 pm, at Emmanuel United Church
To purchase tickets: https://www.peterboroughsingers.com/tickets/
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For more information about the Peterborough Singers contact:
Peg McCracken, Business Manager
705.745.1820 | singers@peterboroughsingers.