An Oral History Of The A*Teens, The ABBA Cover Band That Defined Y2K Pop

By Brennan Carley


In 1998, Britney Spears traveled to Stockholm to record songs for her debut album, ...Baby One More Time, with producers like Max Martin and Rami Yacoub. She was one of several stars at the time who ventured to the Swedish city to capitalize on the words and sounds of its burgeoning pop scene. Months later, at a dance school only a number of miles away, a team of record label executives convened to audition a crowd of 100 teenagers for an assignment they called the “ABBA Teens,” a homage to Sweden’s most popular musical export.


That year, ABBA were celebrating their 25th anniversary as a crowd, though they hadn’t released new music in nearly two decades. Beloved by an older generation of Swedes, ABBA were known around the world for their outrageous (and tax-evading) costumes, and also their massive hits like “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo.” Their songs hadn’t although been repurposed into a long-running Broadway musical, which later inspired a blockbuster movie franchise starring Meryl Streep. ABBA weren’t, for lack a higher end word, cool. Nevertheless the ABBA Teens were meant to change that by introducing the foursome’s hits to a new wave of music consumers: pop-savvy pre-teens discovering their taste as they came of spending age.


One name change later, the four singers chosen became the A*Teens. Their first album, The ABBA Generation, topped the charts in Sweden and sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Yet it was their all-originals follow-up, 2001’s Teen Spirit, that broke the sort in non-Swedish markets. “Bouncing off the Ceiling (Upside Down)” pierced the Billboard Hot 100 and became their biggest hit to date, catapulting the A*Teens from starting act to headliners. They toured the globe. They became Radio Disney mainstays, playing concerts across the United States with other popular early-aughts acts like the Baha Boys and Aaron Carter. Teen Spirit went to No. 50 on the U.S. Chart yet captured the hearts and attention of young listeners around the world.


On the surface, things seemed brilliant for the foursome, however soon following the release of their third studio album Pop ’til You Drop!, the categorize quietly disbanded without much notice. Fans were treated to a Greatest Hits album in 2004 and then… silence. It took up until 2006 for a member to acknowledge publicly that the A*Teens were no more; it took several more for the sort to reunite as friends, willing to revisit the whiplash six years that changed their lives forever.


While ABBA has seen their own cultural resurgence in recent years due in large part to the success of the star-studded Mamma Mia! movies, the A*Teens’ impact lives on, having given early possibilities to producers and songwriters who went on to work with major talents like Avicii, Zara Larsson, and Lady Gaga. 20 years right following the release of Teen Spirit, the album that crystallized that legacy, MTV News Zoomed with each member of the sort along with because the creative team who helped shape them into global superstars. (Members of ABBA rejected to comment.) This is the oral history of the A*Teens, a teenaged cover musical group not built to last that somehow overcame all expectations to be one of the most beloved and successful groups of pop’s pre-fab era.


In 1998, nearing the 25-year anniversary of ABBA’s official formation at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, Stockholm Records started discussing plans to celebrate while injecting new life into the Swedish group’s back catalog.


Ola Håkansson (founder, Stockholm Records): I used to work with Agnetha [Fältskog, from ABBA], so I know the members quite well. I had a corporation called Stockholm Records and the idea was attempt to launch Swedish artists internationally. Niklas was the marketing manager, and he came up with this idea: "What if we do something with the ABBA catalog?"


Niklas Berg (marketing manager, Stockholm Records): We had a concept and we had tour dates, because we were tying it to the anniversary. I bribed this one tour sponsor. I promised them we could be No. 1 on the charts, otherwise they didn’t have to pay for it. I mentioned to my manager, "This must work."


Anders Johansson (A&R, Stockholm Records): We ended up trying a show school in Stockholm. We began off attempting to find kids with a singing background, however a problem we have here with Swedes is that people love being successful however also comfortable. With the recording industry, being comfortable isn't a good thing.


Berg: The idea was to have people 10 to 11 years old. However any time we began to meet these people, we thought, "Oh, you couldn't put a 10-year-old girl on tour." Once we met Amit, Sara, Dhani, and Marie, we mentioned, "This is much better,” because they were 14 and 15 years old.


Håkansson: We went down there with a camera and mentioned, "We're going to put with each other compiled an audience that will sing and dance ABBA music." They sang a song a cappella. We picked out Marie, Dhani, Sara, and Amit. Could sing and so could move, and so they were young and really enthusiastic.


Amit Paul (member, A*Teens): I was brought up in an academic residence, nevertheless I routinely had music with me. I was playing the piano As soon as I was 4, and we were habitually singing. My main passion came through Lasse Kühler’s dance school, where we were discovered. I joined there Whenever I was 13 on a whim. I spent almost all my time, apart from studying, at the dance school. I quit all sports and just did that.


Sara Lumholdt (member, A*Teens): I did the choir there as well, so it was everything from ballet, tap, show dance, jazz, choir, and jitterbug. I wasn't there for that long before we got the audition.


Dhani Lennevald (member, A*Teens): began there As soon as I was 7 because my older sister danced and I was like, "I don't wish to play football and hockey. Fuck that. I'd like to do this." If I was 14, the head of the school called me and mentioned, "I would like you to come next weekend. We have a little bit audition."


Marie Serneholt (member, A*Teens): I've known since I was very young that I wanted to entertain. Our dance teacher mentioned a record agency wanted to hold a big casting for a secret project. It was just supposed to be an album, and we were going to tour in Sweden for a summer. It was not supposed to be anything bigger.


Lumholdt: There were two different auditions. On the opening, I sang “The Rose” by Bette Midler. On the next, I sang “Mamma Mia.” That's where they teamed us with each other. They put a song on and they're like, “OK, dance around, have fun!” They wanted to be able to see chemistry in the categorize. We had such good fun. No one really knew how big it was going to become.


Håkansson: We put with each other the sort like The Monkees. It was not something we do in Sweden. You can't do a Monkees here. That's not the right thing to do.


Serneholt: When we got cast, TV shows like [American] Idol didn't exist. We were the opening categorize in Sweden that was cast.


Berg: We had really big plans from the begin, so we had to discuss with them, "Are you ready to be well known It was a foolish question. Needless to say they were not prepared.


Håkansson: Radio DJs remembered ABBA. However the young kids, they did not have a clue. They heard [A*Teens’] “Mamma Mia,” and so they saw this young, nice musical group and mentioned, "That's a good thing." However the guys at the radio mentioned, "This is a ABBA song. I don't wish to play it." For me, the big challenge was how to persuade the gatekeepers to give it a chance.


Berg: In April of 1999, we released “Mamma Mia,” and yes it went No. 1 on the chart. I think it sold 225,000 copies just in Sweden.


Lennevald: As soon as we released it, we were called ABBA Teens. The complete concept was supposed to be ABBA, however teens that make more updated versions so the new generation can connect to it. Thanks to growing up in Sweden, you don't think it's impossible. “I can do this because ABBA did it.”


Serneholt: I remember as soon as we went to the States, each person thought that we were the kids of ABBA. A lot of the young kids didn't know about ABBA. They heard our songs and so they thought that these were original songs. They had no idea they were covers.


Berg: The name “ABBA” was owned by the record firm at that time. So I discussed to a guy and I mentioned, “Could we do this? Because we are not ABBA.” He mentioned, “Yes, however you need converse with Björn [Ulvaeus from ABBA].” So I had a very short meeting with Björn, and he mentioned, "Yeah, it sounds good. No problem."


A month later, there was an article in the Swedish papers saying, "[ABBA’s] Benny Andersson: This isn't OK." And people came to me and mentioned, "Are you ridiculous? How could you begin ABBA without asking ABBA?" In the end, this was the best thing to happen because we took so much PR from ABBA that we were No. 1 on the single charts in Sweden. They all began talking about us. And we had to change the name.


Håkansson: A manager came up with the idea of A*Teens and some dots. [I thought it was] clever, because A is a top grade in the U.S.


Serneholt: The record organization felt like there would be a future for this order with original songs. Like, “We have something here.” We changed the name as soon as we released “Super Trooper.”


In 1999, just one year soon after their beginning auditions, A*Teens released their first album, The ABBA Generation. It debuted at the best of the Swedish charts, going double platinum there and gold in the U.S.


Lumholdt: Marie and I got to go to Varberg, a little city outdoor Gothenburg, where we had to record the album straight away. This was in December 1998, so it was only eight weeks [after the auditions]. I still have my old folders from back then with all of the text and lyrics. We recorded six songs. It was just my and Marie’s voices at first, needless to say, as the ABBA songs weren't featuring much of the boys’ singing.


Serneholt: We didn't think; we just sang. It had a very different sound to the old ABBA songs, although we just did it. I just sang it, however a lot stronger, because they wanted it to be aggressive.


Paul: That album was really our learning process. By the time we came in, the only thing that was missing on the tracks were our voices. There was zero flexibility.


Lennevald: The ABBA songs were what they were. You don't hope to interfere also much with the creative segment of it, because you're just, like, walking into the museum in Paris and being like, "Oh, Mona Lisa needs to be repainted. I think this needs a little bit mustache."


Paul: The international expansion didn't really begin up until 1999. That fall, we did an efficiency in San Francisco in front of the Universal Categorize managers. It was Aqua, and then it was us, then it was S Club 7. Soon after that, they accepted us and pushed us into the world.


Serneholt: All of a sudden, each person wanted us. I think we had 300 travel days a year. Daily was offered. That happened so speedily, however I was so thrilled. This was my dream.


Paul: At the initial show in Sweden, there were several thousand people in this town square. Those audiences were growing. Towards the end, it was 10, 15, 17,000 people in the crowd.


Lumholdt: When we were signed up to go tour with *NSYNC, that's once we were like, “Oh shit, this is big.” We got [Britney Spears’s dance coach] Wade Robson to do our choreography. We were kids having fun, enjoying tour, singing, dancing, traveling. No one really thought of it as a job.


Serneholt: We were sitting on a plane on our way to Chile to perform and so they instructed us, “You guys are really big in South America.” As soon as we landed at the airport, it seemed like a movie, with thousands of fans. There was a van that was riding next to us with a TV reporter hanging out the window. We had armed security day and night. I got a little scared because so several people were attempting to grab us. I lost my shoe, and then I saw that a reporter noticed my shoe and contained it up on the news.


As the A*Teens became a world commodity, the pressure was on for Stockholm Records to strike while the iron was hot. In the middle of touring with acts like *NSYNC, Britney Spears, and Aaron Carter, the musical group started work on what would become their first all-original album, 2001’s Teen Spirit.


Håkansson: I wanted them to prepare another ABBA album because there were some songs I wanted to record. They mentioned, "No, we aspire to do this thing," because they were young. I mentioned, "OK, fine."


Serneholt: I think we all already knew while in the opening summer [of 1999] that we were going to get into the studio again to record a new album with original songs.


Johansson: To understand Teen Spirit, you've got to take yourself back to Stockholm around that time, 1999 to 2000. Stockholm was booming. Each person was in town making pop music. [Renowned producer] Denniz Pop had passed away, however Max Martin was taking it to the next level.


Paul: We were a big thing in Sweden at that time. However there wasn't a lot of room for artsy development. You came into the studio, you delivered, and then you were out again.


Serneholt: It was a lot of fun recording it, although we did it quite fast. Instantly once you heard “Halfway Around the World” as well as “Upside Down,” you knew they were going to be singles.


Johansson: There was a lot of competition out there, so we required to be quick. I was running around studios because I knew, “If they send that song to Nick Carter for Backstreet Males, he'll steal that one.” It was a really good time for pop. People call it a factory — yeah, there was a certain factory mode to it, nevertheless I think in a good way.


far because the writing on that record, I had some briefs that I sent out. There was a camp down in southern Sweden where they came up with “Upside Down” any time whenever they played around with the Motown sound. Later on, we had “Halfway Around the World” come in, and then “Sugar Rush,” then “Firefly” — that was Marie and my main go to song. I think we cut about 20 songs.


Lennevald: That was Whenever I began to work a lot with RedOne [who went on to produce Lady Gaga’s “Just Dance,” “Bad Romance,” and more]. We did a song with Savan Kotecha, also, one of the most skilled writers I've ever met [who went on to work with Ariana Grande].


In 2002, the A*Teens released their third album, Pop ’til You Drop!, in the U.S. The next year, they put out New Arrival for the international market, which recycled six Pop songs and would become their final studio album. All of the while, they toured the world.


Paul: We did not have a lot of exposure to sex, contraband, and rock and roll. We were quite held and protected. One could mention that's boring, yet I'm very grateful for it today. There were a few other Swedish acts — I don't hope to say any names — that were signed to other labels and so they were ground down into dust. There was nothing left of those whenever they came out of it.


Johansson: We saw that with people that we toured with. You saw it with Nick Carter. You saw it with Aaron Carter, with Beyoncé with the breakup of Destiny’s Child. And Britney, certainly — we did a bunch of tours with her.


Paul: It wasn't that she didn't desire to hang out with us. It was that there was physically no time. The way that they worked her was insane.


Lennevald: One time, me, Marie, and Sara were in Beverly Center on a day off in 2003. We walked around and then we just saw, far away, a big categorize of people shouting and taking photos. We went into a store and then five minutes later, these two big guys came indoor. We turned around and in came Britney. Then she saw us and was like, "…A*Teens?!" We were like, "Britney fucking recognizes us! This is amazing!"


Paul: I had braces at the time. We were touring, then I came house, and I would have two weeks for being in the studio, for doing the exams that I needed to do for high school, and for getting my braces tightened.


Lumholdt: Marie and I got feedback on our website about what we were wearing and what we looked like. We did not Facebook. We did not have social media. We had comments on our website. People were discussing whether or not we had consuming food disorders. Are we gaining weight? All of a sudden, it wasn't just having fun being on tour. It just went straight from joyful to, speedily, something else.


In 2004, the musical group released Greatest Hits, which held three new songs, including one single. The musical group quietly went on hiatus. The A*Teens’ breakup was officially reported in 2006, two years right after they parted ways privately.


Lennevald: With Greatest Hits, we were all like, "Isn't it time to move on — maybe?" We had such cute success. Are we really going to be that musical group that just forces things out? It came obviously to us to take a break.


Paul: We didn't really grow our relationships [within the group]. We missed those years in the basement, growing with each other. There were different visions, and then some different incentives, and different goals.


Lumholdt: We were still doing really well. The record organization didn't want us to stop. I don't think our parents really wanted us to stop, either — we as teenagers mentioned, “We don't wish to do this anymore.” That didn't come from anywhere except us. We were the ones who sat down and mentioned, “We can't lie anymore. We can't pretend that we're having a good time. Slowly, the magazines are going to notice that we're not the same crazy, fun, happy teenagers that we were three years ago.” That’s any time we determined we couldn’t go on.


Paul: This passive-aggressive silent breakup, it's a really Swedish, conflict-avoiding way of dealing with it.


Serneholt: We got to be piece of the music industry once it was really blooming, so you would sell records. Yet we also were piece of the record industry going down. You can feel at the end that it's not as fun working in this industry. It had changed a lot.


Johansson: By the third album, it was pretty clear that they wanted to go do other things. Times were changing. [Justin] Timberlake was teaming up with Pharrell and Timbaland. The sounds were so different. As in each big trend, it's pretty clear once it passes the expiration date.


Lennevald: There wasn't ever a fight. In that way, A*Teens must have been the most boring musical group ever. People really wanted to angle it like, "Oh yeah, they're splitting up. They're arguing." We're like, "No, it's fine. Call it quitting, or that we're taking a break.”


Paul: It was such an intense period. Getting spit out on the other end was interesting. I refer to it because the perfect and the worst time of my life.


Serneholt: I lived with my parents and I didn't move out up until several years soon after we ended A*Teens, While I was 25. I just wanted to land a little and spend time with my family member because we were away so much.


Lumholdt: We were four kids that had grown apart within six years. We began off being best companions, nevertheless there wasn't once for us to be creative. We were a product. We performed, we interviewed, we did what we required to do to get the CDs and tours sold and booked. That's it.


Paul: Coming out of that whole thing was... There were so several gifts. Right now that I have two kids, it's a different life. The last few years, [A*Teens] has been beginning to come up again and I have been dealing with it. Some of the imprints that it's made on me as a solitary have began to feel urgent to look at it.


Lumholdt: When we finished, I wasn't ill, although I had really bad health. I was only 20 and I had the body of a 45-year-old. It was a lot of work, travel, and bad consuming food habits. My God, we ate McDonald's I-don't-know-how-many times a week. I had to write my will and testament in the same week as I got my health checked and yes it was sort of like, "Wait, what? I'm 20 years old and I'm dying." [Afterwards,] I got a dog. I got my own apartment. I moved away from the city. I had to push the stop button.


Håkansson: I think that they should have done another. We had another good record that we may do with ABBA songs. Nevertheless I think any time as soon as they look back, they mention, "This was a great experience.” It was a good ending of the story for me as well.


After parting ways, all four members eventually returned to music, however only one remains in the industry today.


Lumholdt: I went to Los Angeles. I attempted to do [music with the stage name] Sara Love, which was a really fun journey. A lot of these songs, they’re still my favorites, and they're unreleased. I went to Stockholm Records with my demos. They didn't want because it seemed like Lady Gaga, and that was before Lady Gaga was well known. I came up with [the song] “Glamour Bitch,” and so they were like, “No, it's never going to work.”


I had an excellent record — 10 astonishing songs. I would certainly release them if I would find them because that's the problem now: I don't actually know where they are. I tried again in 2012, for Melodifestivalen [Sweden’s version of Eurovision]. It wasn't just me singing on the stage; it was more for proving that I was worthy of being a segment of the pop group.


I did not have any interest in doing more. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. However I'm really happy I got the possibi