ABBAWORLD, THE ITINERANT INTERACTIVE ABBA EXHIBITION

The fascination with ABBA is endless, and the expectations are enormous. The ABBAWORLD opening is a major world event, made possible only through intense collaboration with Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid, thus turning ABBAWORLD into the definitive experience of the group, and the only exhibition of its kind officially approved by the members of ABBA.

Your audio-guided tour through 25 unique ABBA rooms. Your journey through ABBAWORLD will take you through more than 25 different ABBA rooms, letting you experience the phenomenon in a completely unique way. All the way through the exhibition, you will be accompanied by your personal audio guide, and thus you can enjoy it at your own pace.

The phenomenon comes alive. The Swedish super group created a legendary sound that sold close to 400 million records, and they made the whole world take to the dance floor. Their sixth sense for creating hits and their perfection when it came to details took the music, stage costumes and the shows to levels that continue to inspire artists of today.

ABBA is once again creating history through this interactive and audio-visual experience of the pop icons. To resurrect the magic of ABBA, ABBAWORLD is using state-of-the-art multimedia technology. The excitement and presence in the time and space of ABBA is recreated in a way no-one thought possible. We welcome you to a mind-blowing journey through the music, memories, and magic of ABBA!

The original Abba memorabilia – contributed by the four icons and others.
A large number of the ABBA treasures on display that have never been shown before are handpicked and previously owned by the four members of the group. There are also hundreds of other original memorabilia - everything from stage clothes, instruments, theatrical props and personal belongings to unique videos, TV interviews and photos from the astonishing career of the band. In addition, there will be a huge amount of ABBA-related items from band members, Stikkan Andersson’s family, the stage crew, fans and other key people from all around the world. On top of that, both newly recorded and old material that has never been shown before will be presented.

Content examples: stage costumes, instruments and personal belongings, gold records and awards, extensive gallery of promotional movies and pictures, exclusive interviews and TV-performance displays, fan-related items, merchandise.

ABBA– a place for total interaction. The phenomenon of ABBA will be brought to life in over 25 spectacular environments and with many interactive highlights including ‘Perform with ABBA’, which will allow fans to get up on stage with their idols as part of a stunning 3D holographic illusion. The ‘Tretow MIX Challenge’ gives visitors a chance to mix songs and re-create the ABBA sound while the ‘ABBA Quiz’ which will test the fans’ knowledge. There is also the opportunity to sing along and dance with ABBA, plus a chance for fans to see themselves in an ABBA video.

Better still, any interactive activities will be recorded on the entrance ticket, and visitors can access them at any time online on http://www.abbaworld.com/, allowing the experience to live on and on, just like the music. On entry to ABBAWORLD, guests will have their photograph taken, and this will appear during a number of the interactive features, for example fans will be able to see themselves on ABBA album covers, posters and other iconic pictures.

It is no coincidence that ABBAWORLD premieres in London. The UK has a special place in the history of ABBA because it was here that global ABBA fever started with the glorious win of Waterloo at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton in 1974. ABBA topped the charts in the UK more times than anywhere else in the world and through the smash hit musical Mamma Mia! and its ten-year success in London, together with the Mamma Mia! movie that became the highest grossing film of all times at the UK box office, a new audience has taken ABBA to their hearts. Later it will be taken to other European countries as well as USA & Australia, to end up as a permanent museum in their home town Stockholm.

CNN report on the ABBAWorld opening:

Official video of the opening:

JANUARY, 30th: SCHOOL'S PEACE DAY. DECLAN GALBRAITH "TELL ME WHY"

On January 30th, School's Peace Day is commemorated. This year as it's Saturday, it'll be celebrated on Friday 29th. The teachers at our school library will be reading and listening to texts, poems & songs related to peace awareness. One of the songs they've chosen is by Declan Galbraith "TELL ME WHY". I include below the video of the song with English lyrics & Spanish subtitles and some information about this young artist.

Declan John Galbraith (born 19 December 1991, Hoo St Werburgh, Kent) is an English singer of Irish and Scottish origin. He and his family are now living in South East England. His grandfather was in a band, played several instruments, and took Declan to Fleadhs (concerts) he was participating in, and the mix of Scottish and Irish musical traditions inspired Declan and became his early musical influence.

When 7 years old he insisted on singing spontaneously at the annual Rochester Dickens Festival, a two-day event where people were invited to dress up in Victorian costumes to celebrate the life and times of the famous author Charles Dickens and his links with their town. Little Declan, dressed up as a chimney sweep, started singing. Soon after this he started to enter local talent contests and within a year he had won 15 titles and more than £1,000.
As a result of his success in the talent shows, the major recording companies soon heard about Declan and he was signed to his first recording contract in England. His first recording was ‘Walking in the Air’, which was released on a special Christmas Hits album, also featuring Westlife, Elton John and Elvis Presley. Declan loves to sing to live audiences and among some of performances included the Queen’s Jubilee at St Paul’s Cathedral, when he sang ‘Amazing Grace’ accompanied by the St Paul’s Choir and singing in front of more than 22,000 people at an Elton John concert.
His first self-titled album, Declan, with Irish traditional songs and some specially written material became charted in the U.K. and Ireland. Within the year of release it had 200,000 copies in Germany.

Discography
Albums
Declan (2002)
Thank You (2006)
You and Me (2007)
Singles
"Tell Me Why" (2002)
"Love of My Life" (2007)
"Ego You" (2007)

Links:

Declan's official website:

http://www.declan-music.de/

Video "TELL ME WHY" (with English lyrics)


Video "TELL ME WHY" (with Spanish subtitles)

"SOLDIER OF LOVE", SADE'S NEW SONG IN 10 YEARS

Helen Folasade Adu, OBE, (born 16 January 1959, so she's 51 today), better known as Sade (pronounced /ʃɑːˈdeɪ/ shah-DAY), is a British Nigerian singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer. She first achieved success in the 1980s as the frontwoman and lead vocalist of the popular Brit and Grammy Award winning English group Sade.

Sade was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Her middle name, Folasade, means honor confers your crown.Her parents, Bisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer in economics of Yoruba background, and Anne Hayes, an English nurse, met in London and moved to Nigeria. Later, when the marriage ran into difficulties, Anne Hayes returned to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, England, taking four-month-old Sade and her older brother Banji to live with her parents. Living in Colchester, Essex, Sade read a good deal, developed an interest in fashion, acquired a taste for dancing and listened to soul artists like Curtis Mayfield, Donny Hathaway, and Marvin Gaye.

Sade's discography
1984: Diamond Life
1985: Promise
1988: Stronger Than Pride
1992: Love Deluxe
1992: Remix Deluxe
1994: The Best of Sade
2000: Lovers Rock
2002: Lovers Live
2010: Soldier of Love

Today we premiere her latest video "SOLDIER OF LOVE":

Links:

Audio "SOLDIER OF LOVE"+lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5MnESIaRME

Video "SOLDIER OF LOVE", Sade:

Audio "SOLDIER OF LOVE", Sade (+lyrics):

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY: THE SIMPSONS, 20 TODAY!

The Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional city of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition.
The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with the producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and was an early hit for Fox.
Since its debut on December 17, 1989 the show has broadcast 449 episodes and the twenty-first season began airing on September 27, 2009.The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 26 and July 27, 2007, and grossed US$527 million worldwide.
The Simpsons has won dozens of awards since it debuted as a series, including 25 Primetime Emmy Awards, 26 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award. Time magazine's December 31, 1999 issue named it the 20th century's best television series, and on January 14, 2000 the Simpson family was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Simpsons is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009 it became the longest American primetime entertainment series, and have influenced many adult-oriented animated sitcoms.

THE ULTIMATE GLOBAL ISSUE: CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. It can be a change in the average weather or a change in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.
In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, climate change usually refers to changes in modern climate. It may be qualified as anthropogenic climate change, more generally known as global warming.

Factors that can shape climate are climate forcings. These include such processes as variations in solar radiation, deviations in the Earth's orbit, mountain-building and continental drift, and changes in greenhouse gas concentrations. There are a variety of climate change feedbacks that can either amplify or diminish the initial forcing. Some parts of the climate system, such as the oceans and ice caps, respond slowly in reaction to climate forcing because of their large mass. Therefore, the climate system can take centuries or longer to fully respond to new external forcings

Meanwhile the United Nations Climate Change Conference is being held at Copenhagen with little success in taking decisions as talks are at a deadlock. Below enclosed are diagrams, pictures and even jokes on the issue:

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