Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Definitive Biography of ABBA

by Carl Magnus Palm

Bright Lights Dark Shadows is the ultimate account of the rise and fall of a legendary group and a biography of great perception.

This new paperback edition of the best-selling ABBA book includes details of ABBA the phenomenal ninth and final album and the revelatory concert experience in London.

Genres: Music

704 pages, Paperback

Published March 18, 2025

Reviews

[Tom Axworthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abba, the Swedish phenomenon of the 1970s is still making music and selling tickets 50 years after they astonished the world by winning the Eurovision contest in 1974 with Waterloo. In London avatars portray the group in their prime and the Abba Voyage show regularly sells out.Carl Magnus Palm has updated his original history of the group many times as Abba just keeps going and his latest upgrade includes the Avatar show, the new 2021 Voyage album which the group released to suport the Abba Voyage show which opened in 2022 ( the group had last been together in a recording studio in 1982) and the Mamma Mia theatre musicals and movies which have had tremendous sales.This is a straight forward history which outlines the solo careers and various love matches of Agnetha Faltskog, Anni- Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson in Sweden before they came together as a group in 1973-1974 along with the story of their driven manager Stig Anderson who dreamed that a Swedish group would some day break out internationally.This Abba certainly did- and are still doing- though many Swedish musicians and their followers intially sneared that Abba was too commercial. Abba has had many Bright Lights but also Dark Shadows as the marriages of Agnetha and Bjorn, then Frida and Benny broke up but through all the joys and sorrows Abba created music which is still giving pleasure to millions.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A total whopper of a book! I'd heard good things about this one, and it had been updated & re-issued to include recent events in the ABBAverse so this was the perfect time to dive into that world. Realised how much I didn't know about them!

[Simon Pitfield · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clear account of the original career of the band, although the more recent update feels a bit more rushed and distanced from the principal participants. Irritants include the poor editing/proofreading and the lack of an index.