ABBA museum to open in Stockholm

ABBA fans will have a chance to say "Thank you for the Music" when an interactive museum dedicated to the Swedish supergroup opens in central Stockholm in 2009. The ABBA Museum, to be situated in a 100-year-old customs warehouse on the waterfront, will give fans a chance to dance and sing karaoke to the band's music, see their original outfits and instruments and record favorite ABBA songs in a replica studio, organizers said Tuesday. "It will be a pearl shining on this quay," said Ulf Westman, a leading promoter of the museum. "When you walk out, you should be singing and smiling and wanting to go back in again." It took organizers almost two years to persuade former ABBA band members _ Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Reuss _ to agree to the idea. They will not participate in the project, but have donated their costumes and material for the exhibits. Most of the money for the $5.8-million museum will come from company sponsors, Westman said. Entry will cost at most $29, he said.