The Swedish royals awarded ABBA a prestigious knighthood in 2024
Credit: backgrid
NEED TO KNOW
- Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden attended a special performance of Mamma Mia! The Party in Stockholm on Thursday, March 19
- The performance benefited Silvia’s charity, the World Childhood Foundation, and honored her 50th anniversary as Queen of Sweden
- The Swedish monarchs awarded ABBA the Royal Order of Vasa in 2024
Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden put on their dancing shoes for a special performance of Mamma Mia! The Party in Stockholm.
The royal couple, known for their love of Swedish pop group ABBA, whose discography the beloved musical is built on, attended a showing of the four-hour performance on Thursday, March 19.
Credit: backgrid
Marking the occasion, Silvia, 82, wore a colorful pink blazer, vibrant red trousers and matching ballet flats. The event benefited her charity, the World Childhood Foundation, and honored her 50th year as Queen.
An Instagram video shared by the charity, set to ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” shows Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf, 79, embracing and dancing on stage. The couple laughs and smiles widely as Silvia twirls in a fuchsia feather boa.
Queen Silvia’s daughter, Princess Madeleine, 43, attended the event with her husband, Christopher O’Neill. Also present were King Carl XVI Gustaf’s sister, Princess Christina, and her husband, Tord Magnuson, as well as Princess Benedikte of Denmark and her daughter, Princess Nathalie zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg.
“An unforgettable evening with Mamma Mia The Party to celebrate Mom – our very own Dancing Queen 💃🪩” Madeleine captioned an Instagram carousel from the performance.
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“Mom – you are a passion like no other,” she wrote in Swedish. “And have been for 50 years! It warms my heart to see how all the guests came together around your heart’s desire and chose to support @Worldchildhoodfoundation.”
Mamma Mia! The Party opened in London in 2019 and has since welcomed more than 700,000 guests across over 1,500 performances, according to What’s on Stage. The immersive dinner theatre production takes audience members to Nikos Taverna, a fictional restaurant on the Greek island of Skopelos, where the first Mamma Mia! movie was shot in 2007.
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Attendees can expect a four-course Greek dinner, live music and a post-show ABBA disco.
Queen Silvia and King Carl XVI Gustaf presented all four members of ABBA — Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — with the Royal Order of Vasa, a prestigious Swedish knighthood, in 2024.
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