Bøger af Jan Gradvall

ABBA’s position i musikhistorien er uden sidestykke. En svensk popgruppe, hvis popularitet ude i verden bare bliver større og større for hvert år, der går.Hvordan er det muligt? Hvorfor bliver vi aldrig trætte af disse sange?"VEMOD UNDERCOVER" lader detaljerne – i musikken, i de involverede menneskers liv, i tiden – forklare helheden, fra bandets første skridt sammen, over det internationale gennembrud med Waterloo i 1974 og til den sidste indspilning. "VEMOD UNDERCOVER" er en kærlighedserklæring, som får os til at se både bandet og tiden med nye øjne.Jan Gradvall har som Sveriges førende popkulturjournalist fulgt de skandinaviske verdensstjerner Agnetha, Frida, Björn og Benny fra første parket i de sidste ti år.Om forfatteren:Jan Gradvall (f. 1963) er en af Sveriges førende journalister inden for musik og popkultur og skriver bl.a. for Dagens Nyheter. I 2013 medvirkede Jan Gradvall i BBC-dokumentaren The Joy of ABBA, og har siden da beholdt kontakten med de fire og interviewet dem løbende.Det første album, Jan Gradvall nogensinde købte, var Waterloo med ABBA.

Over half a century after their songs were recorded, ABBA's songs still make people the world over dance and sing every day, and their ability to evoke every emotion has made them the ultimate soundtrack to major life events, from birthday parties and weddings to heartbreaks and memorials. Since interviewing the four members of ABBA for an article in 2013 - at which time the band had not been interviewed for 30 years - a relationship was sparked between writer Jan Gradvall and the band, and he was granted unique access for the next decade. He has interviewed each of them exclusively for Melancholy Undercover, and they share their thoughts and opinions with him here more openly than ever before. Gradvall places ABBA at the centre of the musical universe, and alongside his fascinating interviews, he gives readers the socio-cultural context of how the band's sound was formed - including the melancholic hints of Swedish folk music and the dansband culture of their formative years - and shows how the story of ABBA is also the story of Sweden and the internationalisation of pop culture. With around 2 million tickets sold to the ABBA Voyage experience in London since it opened in May 2023, it is undeniable that, in the history of pop culture and music, there has never been a group like ABBA. This remarkably intimate, approved biography brings readers a few steps closer to one of the world's most famously private bands.

With exclusive band interviews and over a decade of deep research, in Melancholy Undercover, renowned music journalist Jan Gradvall explores the secret to ABBA's success.