Bjorn Ulvaeus issues verdict on Donald Trump and Theresa May using Abba’s music
He said Abba has ‘never allowed our music to be used for party political reasons’.
Bjorn Ulvaeus has knuckled down on denying Donald Trump the use of Abba’s tracks in his campaigns, saying the group has “never allowed our music to be used for party political reasons”.
The Swedish group demanded in the summer that the now US President-elect stopped using videos which featured the “unauthorised” use of their hits including The Winner Takes It All and Dancing Queen.
However, singer Ulvaeus wished Theresa May “good luck” if she wants to dance to Dancing Queen again.
The former prime minister made headlines after she shimmied on stage to the song ahead of her keynote speech to the Conservative conference in 2018.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday about Mr Trump, Ulvaeus said: “We’ve never allowed our music to be used for party political reasons, and that was just one of them.
“It has happened before in various countries and various politicians. We just don’t want our music in that context.”
But asked if he had an issue with Mrs May dancing to the band’s hit, the 79-year-old added: “No, I mean if she wants to dance to Dancing Queen – good luck.”
At the time, Ulvaeus told The Andrew Marr Show he thought Mrs May was “very brave” to come out dancing to his tune.
He added: “It’s a lady with not a lot of rhythm in her, braving and doing something like that. I was kind of touched actually.”
The Abba star, who is president of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, also said he feels musicians need to be protected as artificial intelligence (AI) seeps more into the industry.
Ulvaeus, who co-founded Abba and has written many songs over his career, said he is using AI music generators in a new project and is “very excited” about how it could become a “great tool” for songwriters.
He also employed technology for Abba Voyage, a virtual concert that takes place in a purpose-built 3,000-seat arena in east London and features motion-captured versions of the band.
However, Ulvaeus feels AI models should be transparent when using music and they should share income generated with the industry.
“These AI models owe their existence to songs that I and millions of other human songwriters have written, and the tech companies who make them, they should ask us if we want to be trained on, that’s one thing,” he said.
“They should also share the income that they get from their AI models with the music industry, and that’s a very important thing – transparency and respectful copyright.”
He said there is an ongoing debate within the industry about how this could work, but he is optimistic a solution will be found.
Reflecting on whether he feels audiences will care if their music is produced by AI, he said: “I think they will care about the human story.
“There will always be fans who want more than just to listen to the song on the radio, and for them, I think the human story will still remain very, very important.
“But for people listening to playlists, passive listening, there might be one or two AI-generated songs they love, and there’s nothing we can do about that. We have to live with it.”
