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Swedish Japanese Dear members; Do you remember what Agnetha Fältskog said in a TV program last year ; 
"...for example, I have been staying home all the time,isolated myself out on Ekerö, which I of course did not do, but instead, it was the media who created this illusion." ( from Nyhetsmorgon on TV4 2004 1218 ) I accidently saw how the media can create this illusion of "the shy and anthropophobic Agnetha", myself. Agnetha herself who has been used to being surrounded by the paparazzi, probably does not care so much about what they have written, I assume. At the same time I know there are extremely many Abba fans around the world who were very disappointed and sad to see Agnetha's grimace in the tabloids. So, I have decided to write what I have seen this evening. I do this on behalf of Agnetha and her fans. |
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A rumour about Abba's reunion was spread a few weeks before the premiere of "Mamma Mia!". My friends and I stood in front of the entrance to the Cirkus on Djurgården to be able to see the ex-members. We all felt chilly and shivered from the cold. 
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Almost everybody thought that "the shy" Agnetha would not show up, but luckily all 4 Abba members showed up with happy faces and waving. There were hysterical screams and flashes from the fans' and journalists' cameras; all gathered just to see the reunion of Abba. A catastrophe unfolded just in front of me, my digital camera did not work in the cold weather so, I could not take pictures of my goddesses, Agnetha and Frida ! I was ready to cry; "Noooooooo, I have been waiting for this moment for 25 years, from the time I saw Abba in concert in Tokyoooo!!!" |
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And then we (2 friends and I) went into the cafe in Hotel Hasselbacken, which is located opposite Cirkus to have a coffee, while we waited for my friend, Taherin. She had gotten hold of a ticket to the premiere at the last minute and was able to watch it together with the Abba members... she was really lucky! About 10 minutes after the performance had started, 3 cameramen came into the cafe and sat down close to us, where we sat. I had seen them outside Cirkus, they took pictures of all the celebrities, who showed up to the premiere among others, the ex-members of Abba. The cameramen were loading the pictures from their digital cameras to their laptops and PowerBooks. The pictures were only of the celebrities, who had just showed up to the theatre. |
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Their Mac screens were full of thumbnails. Now and then, they clicked on the pictures to enlarge them and show each other and discuss things. I was able to have a peep at the occasional picture. I could see hundreds of pictures of celebrities, and they enlarged many pictures of Agnetha, with her adorable smile. I, who was unable to take any pictures of her was very envious when I saw all the pictures and screamed inside of me; "Please, let me have one of those!!!" |
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Well, time moved on and the performance was near the end. We went to the theatre's entrance and waited for Taherin to come out. I saw that the 3 cameramen were also standing in the lobby. |
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We (Taherin, two friends and I) stood outside the theatre and waited for the Abba members to come out. Taherin was able to talk to a nice security guard. He confided to her, "Now after the performance the Abba members will be gathered in the saloon, where neither fans or journalists are allowed to be." There are four entrances/exists： １：main entrance ２：theatre entrance (all of the Abba members took this way) ３：back stage door ４：conveyance door |
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About 40 minutes after the performance had ended Benny went out from the main entrance (1). About 30 minutes after Benny had left I heard "a taxi move to the back stage door (3)", so I went there together with the others. The taxi parked close to the back stage door, some guards stood outside the door and with their transceivers, were in contact with other guards inside. One guard started to argue with one of the cameramen, who I had seen in the hotel. (The guard told us not to come any closer to the taxi and should back off a bit. The cameraman told the guard that it was not his job to tell us where to stand, or something like that.) Everybody excitedly stood waiting for "somebody to sneak away from the back stage door". |
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A little bit later, Frida suddenly showed up. She grabbed the taxi in a hurry and took away. All of us who stood there were surprised, and started to mumble, "Wow, it was Frida !", "Wasn't it Agnetha !?" It seemed that everybody were thinking that it had to be Agnetha who should be the one to sneak away like that. I became really sad, because I could not take any pictures of my sweet Frida ...again! |
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However, how about "the shy" Agnetha then? Did she sneak away? .... No! About 20 minutes after Frida left, Agnetha surprisingly came out of the door (I do not know if it was from door number (2) or (4) ) into the crowds of fans without hiding herself. |
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It means, Agnetha stayed about an hour and a half after the show, and she did not hide from the fans afterwards. |
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Björn was still inside, how ever I had to go home. "Oh, so exiting there will be to see all the nice pictures in tomorrow's tabloid papers!" Wondering which of the pictures I saw in the hotel would be published. I was actually the world's first to see them, the peeping Tom of the pictures!" so I thought in the train back home. |
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But the next day, I was really surprised to see the pictures in the tabloid papers, Expressen and Aftonbladet. The picture on the front page of the Expressen, showed a startled Agnetha with a face of fear, with her hands crossed in front of her chest and it seemed if she protected herself from something. The caption read: "AGNETHA RUNS AWAY IN PANIC FROM THE " MAMMA MIA" PREMIERE"! ↓↓↓↓↓↓ |
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The article continues: "Directly after the show Agnetha showed her famous shyness. A man in the audience raised his arm to take a picture of her with his mobile camera. She raised her arms to protect her face. When the curtain fell, she was in a hurry to sneak away, closely followed by her guards, to a waiting limousine. It was one of the camera men who I saw in the hotel, who wrote this article, and it was probably him who argued with the guard outside the back stage door. |
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The pictures of Agnetha in their laptops, which I was inside the hotel were perfect and complete with her adorable smile. But those happy pictures which he had taken were never published. Instead, they published this picture of Agnetha's terrifying face, which the photographer succeeded in catching in a couple of seconds. He used this picture to exaggerate the point, as if this was the only thing that happened to her during this evening. What happened to all of the beautiful pictures !? |
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Look really carefully at this picture. It was taken in a dark room, so the pictures became very blurry and "out of focus". Here is the photographer's article on the website: "Panic. Into the show everything went well. Agnetha Fältskog smiled at everybody when walking on the red carpet. But after the show several people raised their cameras again - and then it became too much. The Abba star ran away through the back door and ignored the reunion afterwards. I was able to speak to a Swedish lady who sat right behind Agnetha. According to her, the security in the room was excellent, so it was impossible for groups of fans to rush towards Agnetha. Actually, it seemed that Agnetha was not in a panic, but was calm and relaxed thanks to the skilled guards everywhere. Look on the picture from Aftonbladet (below) with "Agnetha in panic". She was startled for a second because some fans raised their cameras towards her. But the audience who seemed to be running towards Agnetha, was actually moving towards the exit. |
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