Video: Legends of the 1990s: Members of the cult Swedish pop group "Ace of Base" then and now
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
In the 1990s. their hits “All That She Wants”, “The Sign”, “Happy Nation”, “Don’t Turn Around” sounded from everywhere. "Ace of Base" was called one of the most popular European bands of the twentieth century. Their first album sold 23 million discs and was recognized as the best-selling debut album, hitting the Guinness Book of Records. In the 2000s. two soloists left the group, and since then the popularity of "Ace of Base" has declined. What they are doing now, and what they look like these days - further in the review.
The band was founded by Swedish musicians Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg. At first, their band was called "Kalinin Prospect" ("Kalinin Avenue"), but when they were joined by Berggren's sisters Jenny and Lynn, the group changed its name to "Ace of Base". The name of the group was a play on words, so there are several options for translating it. One of them is the "ace of trump", the other is the "studio aces" (their first studio was in the basement).
Their first single "Wheel of Fortune" was not successful - in Sweden it was considered too simple and uninteresting. But the next song - "All That She Wants" - took first place in the charts of 17 countries, and the first album of the same name sold a record circulation of 23 million copies. Two more songs from this album - "The Sign" and "Don't Turn Around" - also topped the first lines of the charts. The group became popular not only in Europe, but also in the USA, Russia and Asia. And in Israel 55 thousand people gathered at their concert in 1993.
Even the scandal that broke out in 1993, when one of the Swedish newspapers reported that Ulf Ekberg was a member of a neo-Nazi organization, did not prevent the group's ascent to the musical Olympus. He himself did not deny this fact, while claiming that he had never been a racist. Later, the musician did not like to recall this episode of his biography: "".
Surprisingly, the Ace of Base group has always enjoyed greater popularity abroad than at home. In Sweden, their album "The Sign" was recognized as the worst album of the year, and in the United States in just one year, it sold 8 million copies. True, this glory also had a downside. In 1994, a mentally unstable fan broke into Jenny Berggren's house and stabbed the singer's mother.
After the release of their second album "The Bridge" in 1995 and a round-the-world tour, the band took a break for 2 years, performing again only in 1997 at a concert dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Swedish princess Victoria. The next year they released their third album, Flowers, in which the main vocals were no longer performed by Lynn Berggren, but by her sister Jenny. The singer herself explained this by the fact that she damaged her vocal cords.
At the beginning of the new century, the popularity of "Ace of Base" began to decline. In 2007, blonde Lynn Berggren, who was called the face and voice of the group, left the band, deciding to devote all her time to her family. She surprised fans before with her statements that she never wanted to be a singer, and since 1997 she tried to keep in the shadows all the time - at concerts she forbade to illuminate her with spotlights, in the videos she kept away from the rest of the participants, in the photo her image was blurred … At that time, there were persistent rumors that, allegedly, after the deafening success of the group, Lynn developed phobias - she was afraid to appear in public, refused photo shoots and filming in videos, she was credited with glossophobia (fear of public speaking) and fear of the camera. The rest of the group did not comment on this information or said that she was simply shy by nature. Nowhere is anything written about Lynn Berggren's life now, and she has remained the most mysterious of all the members of "Ace of Base".
After Lynn left, the trio continued to tour actively: in 2007 they gave several concerts in Russia, Estonia and Lithuania, in 2008 they went on a world tour again, but their old hits at all performances were much more successful than new songs. In 2009 the second soloist left the group. Jenny Berggren explained this with her decision to pursue a solo career. In 2010 her debut album was released. These days, Jenny is a frequent guest on television, she records new songs and performs with old ones.
Since that time, the group "Ace of Base" continued to perform in a renewed line-up, having accepted two new soloists into the team. But in 2013 the renewed group "Ace of Base" nevertheless disbanded.
The band members periodically visit Russia, where they are invited to concerts in the wake of the popularity of music in the 1990s. Ulf Ekberg says: "".
And here in the 1990s. had their own groups, which became a symbol of that era: Group "Kar-Man", or the story of why the famous "exotic-pop-duet" broke up.
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