Fact: Abba have been immortalised in board game form with a special edition of Monopoly based around the Swedish pop group. Players can buy the band's singles instead of traditional houses and hotels, and original game tokens such as a top hat and car have been replaced with items including a platform boot and a guitar.
Fact: Sharon Osbourne delighted an aspiring male singer in London on Monday night (09Jun14) by giving him around $80 (£50) after he belted out a cover of Abba's I Have A Dream for her as she left a restaurant. The rock matriarch, who served as a judge on Britain's The X Factor, was so impressed, she also took down his phone number and promised to pass it on to her reality show mogul pal Simon Cowell for consideration on one of his talent shows.
Quote: "Punk never got into my heart. You hear the anger now in rap, for example, but it's different and I like that very much. Eminem is one of my favourites." Abba singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad is an unlikely fan of hip-hop.
Quote: "I strained my voice when I first started singing. And it wasn't giving me the results I wanted. I also had little self-confidence and wasn't sure if I could sing well again, so I took some singing lessons to learn how to breathe properly and work my vocals." Veteran Abba star Agnetha Faltskog enrolled in music lessons before launching a comeback to boost her singing voice.
Quote: "There were a couple of years when I did not listen to Abba music at all - I simply couldn't." Former Abba singer Agnetha Faltskog refused to listen to the group's hits after they unofficially split in 1982.
Quote: "I didn't mind doing videos, I can take that, but walking on stage in concert and singing live, that is a bit difficult. And I don't think we sounded or looked very good." Abba star Agnetha Faltskog lacked the confidence to perform in the spotlight during her band's heyday.
Quote: "Sometimes when I am out with my dogs, other dog owners don't 'click'. They talk to me about dogs. In such moments, I am simply me, and that is wonderful." Abba star Agnetha Faltskog gets a secret thrill when she manages to avoid being recognised.
Fact: Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler had the honour of unveiling wax figures of Swedish pop superstars Abba at the Madame Tussauds museum on Saturday (20Apr13). The Total Eclipse of the Heart hitmaker posed for photos with the wax band as the attraction debuted in Berlin, Germany.
Fact: Reclusive former Abba star Agnetha Faltskog has made her first Tv appearance in nine years on Scandinavian talk show Skavlan. The singer chatted about her comeback album and life away from the spotlight on the series, which aired in Sweden and Norway on Friday night (15Mar13).
Fact: Heavy rock guitar great Yngwie Malmsteen is set to become a DJ on his native Sweden's biggest radio station on his birthday. The artist will guest host the Sommar show on Sveriges Radio on 30 June (12). Previous hosts have included Abba star Bjorn Ulvaeus, moviemaker Ingmar Bergman and actor Max von Sydow.
Fact: A real romance is set to give the West End's Mamma Mia! a spark - actor Gary Milner is to join his wife Sally Ann Triplett in the hit Abba musical. Milner will play Sam Carmichael opposite his wife's Donna Sheridan in the production from June (12).
Quote: "We write it, we mix it, we produce it. It's like Abba - we're the younger version of ABBA." N-DUBZ star DAPPY compares the British hip-hop group to Swedish pop stars ABBA.
Quote: "You just can't not like Abba... They're timeless." Genesis star Mike Rutherford is thrilled he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame the same year as ABBA. Both acts were welcomed to the museum on Monday night (15Mar10).
Quote: "I just think it's quite a flabbergasting thing... It's like being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was not on the map, really. And I think we're the only non-Anglo-Saxon act ever to be inducted. I'm not sure, you have to check that - but I think that's true." Abba star BENNY ANDERSSON is thrilled to be among the Hall of Fame's class of 2010 alongside the members of Genesis, The Stooges, The Hollies and music mogul David Geffen.
Quote: "We met in Japan before filming and ended up singing Abba songs." Robert Pattinson found an unlikely karaoke pal in Hugh Jackman.
Quote: "It was slightly embarrassing when all my family came out to visit." Dominic Cooper cringes when he looks back at the outfits he had to wear for Abba musical movie MAMMA MIA!
Quote: "It's lovely to be told, 'Your music has given me so much happiness in my life.' Who wouldn't want to hear that?" BJORN ULVAEUS is proud of his achievements with Swedish group Abba.
Fact: Abba musical MAMMA MIA! will become the 14th longest running show in Broadway history on Sunday (02Aug09) after it's 3,224th performance.
Fact: Abba star BENNY ANDERSSON stunned locals by performing an impromptu jam session at The Queensbury pub in North London after enjoying dinner with his 15 bandmates.
Quote: "I always listen to Duffy's hit MERCY when I'm in the car. (If Duffy asked to sample Abba's music) and did it cleverly in the way Madonna did. We might well agree to it. She's fantastic." ABBA star BJORN ULVAEUS would consider giving DUFFY the rare honour of re-using the band's tracks.
Quote: "I think he's a bit crazy. I know great singers - I know what a great singer is. I'm just okay. I'm an actress who sings." Meryl Streep laughed at Abba star BENNY ANDERSSON's suggestion she should record an album following her singing turn in MAMMA MIA!.
Quote: "That we got to play the marimba Abba used on SOS just adds to the experience, to the fun." Bobby Gillespie on recording Primal Scream's new album BEAUTIFUL FUTURE at the Stockholm, Sweden studio where ABBA recorded DANCING QUEEN.
Fact: Fans of Abba movie musical MAMMA MIA can now sing along with the film - the hit movie is to be re-released in America on 29 August (08) with song word subtitles.
Quote: "He tried to teach me some dance moves from MAMMA MIA!, at which I completely failed." Keira Knightley couldn't quite grasp the dance moves used by her THE DUCHESS co-star DOMINIC COOPER in the Abba musical.
Fact: Abba has made a triumphant return to the Greek music charts since the opening of new movie musical MAMMA MIA! on Thursday (03Jul08). The quartet now have four of their albums in Greece's iTunes Top Ten.
Quote: "This German journalist asked me what music I liked once and I mentioned Abba. And he said: 'I really don't think you should say that. It's not good for your image.' I thought, 'It may be bad for ABBA's image that I like them, but not for mine!'" Status Quo star FRANCIS ROSSI isn't afraid to admit his love for the Swedish pop band.
Quote: "I didn't realise how many Abba songs I knew. But I knew them all. Every single one of them." MAMMA MIA! director Tom Hanks hates to admit he is familiar with all of the group's hits.
Quote: "He's one of the greatest guys, the real soulful human beings that there are in this business. He loves women and he's genuinely amused by them." Meryl Streep has become a huge fan of Pierce Brosnan after working with the former 007 on the set of new Abba movie musical MAMMA MIA!
Quote: "It was the best time of my life." Pierce Brosnan on filming upcoming Abba movie musical MAMMA MIA! in Greece.
Quote: "I'm the last person you'd expect to see poncing around in platform shoes, tights and sequins. We had to do all these camp, dainty little moves and try to look butch. That was a challenge." Pierce Brosnan on swapping James Bond for Abba in the big screen adaptation of musical MAMA MIA!
Fact: Abba star BENNY ANDERSSON has a cameo as a piano player in movie musical MAMMA MIA! which brings the hits of the 1970s supergroup to life on the big screen.
Quote: "I'm really doing this to embarrass my 20-something-year-old children." Meryl Streep on her upcoming all-singing, all-dancing role in Abba movie musical MAMMA MIA!
Quote: "I am no stranger to Spandex and Lycra. It was actually nice to get out of a suit for a while and let it all go." Colin Firth on stepping into costume for the upcoming movie adaptation of Abba musical MAMA MIA!
Quote: "I was never an Abba fan, but 30 years later when I hear the songs I am animated by some insidious power. It is hard not to want to slip on some Lycra and get up and burst into song." MAMMA MIA movie star Colin Firth on the hypnotic force of Sweden's most celebrated pop group.
Fact: JAY-Z, THE RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS, Abba and HARD-FI have had their hits mixed together by Australian producer TEAM 9 to create The Money Song, available on social networking website, MySpace.com.
Quote: "Abba? From the first bar I ever heard by them, I was an ex-listener". Former Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters is no fan of the 1970s Swedish pop act.
Fact: <p>Abba's 1970s hit MONEY MONEY MONEY has been voted the greatest song ever written about currency in a recent poll. JOHN HIEW of CLERICAL MEDICAL who commissioned the survey says, "Many (money songs) were probably written when the artist's were struggling to make ends meet." </p>