ABBA fans can take a trip down memory lane when Dancing Dream: The Tribute to ABBA performs on Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve, in the Aria Ballroom at MGM Springfield.
Showtime is 9 p.m. leaving plenty of time to ring in the New Year at other MGM events before the clock hits midnight.
Founded in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, the Swedish pop group is considered one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, releasing eight studio albums between 1973 and 1981. Generating 20 hits on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, ABBA has sold more than 150 million records worldwide, while some sources estimate the sales to be over 385 million. ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 at The Dome in Brighton, UK, giving Sweden its first triumph in the contest. The band disbanded in December 1982.
The Dancing Dream tribute band had its origins with two singers hailing from Poland but living in the United States, Halina Ulatowski and Agnes Jawien, who in 2009 started performing their tribute show as a duet called the ABBA Girlz.
“From 2005 to 2008 we both sang in a dance wedding band, and there were not a lot of polish dance clubs where we could perform, so the band eventually split. We lost our day jobs and needed to do something. I remember back in 1974 being glued to a black and white television set watching Eurovision. ABBA won for Sweden after performing ‘Waterloo’ and I fell in love with them,” Ulatowski said about the inspiration behind starting ABBA Girlz.
As luck would have it, the Broadway-based movie “Mamma Mia” featuring the music of ABBA, was released at the same time the tribute band was forming in 2009. As a result, there was a growing demand for an ABBA tribute group, resulting in the singers forming a 6-piece live band. Since then, Dancing Dream has performed over 300 concerts all over the United States and in Canada.
It wasn’t just the movie, however, that helped launch ABBA Girlz to greater success.
“Late night star Stephen Colbert, who at the time hosted ‘The Colbert Report,’ had us on his show on June 23, 2012, where we performed a funny skit with him. Because of his large audience, our appearance on the popular show helped to get us noticed even more,” Ulatowski said.
As the tribute band began to catch the attention of more ABBA fans, both new and old, they also came to the attention of ABBA’s record label.
“Universal Music Group contacted us in 2015 telling us to that we could not legally use the ABBA name, so we changed from ABBA Girlz to Dancing Dream. Our new name reflected the titles of two of my favorite ABBA songs, ‘Dancing Queen’ and ‘I Have a Dream,’ and we took ‘dancing’ and ‘dream’ from the titles and put them together to form our new name,” Ulatowski said.
Fans can expect to hear all of ABBA’s biggest hits and more during the show including “Winner Takes It All,” “Knowing Me Knowing You,” “Fernando,” “Super Trouper,” “Voulez-Vous,” “Chiquitita,” “Honey Honey,” “Waterloo,” “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia,” “When I Kissed the Teacher” and so many other unforgettable songs from the extensive ABBA catalog.
Ulatowski no longer performers in the band, which still features Jawien, and has stepped away to take on the role of manager and coordinating the group’s bookings, travel arrangements and “just wearing a lot of different hats,” she noted.
“I think what initially made ABBA so popular with fans were the melodies and lyrics to their songs. The melodies are timeless, and every listener can find something in their lyrics to be uplifted by. Beyond the movies bringing a new audience to ABBA’s music, they are more popular than ever today because of Instagram and TikTok,” Ulatowski said.
Tickets for the ABBA tribute show range from $84 to $127 and are available at mgmspringfield.com.
