Mamma Mia!, the musical based on the songs of ABBA had its first premiere already in 1999, and since then has toured countless countries in many different language versions. The musical features many of ABBA’s biggest hits, including “Waterloo”, the group’s winning song in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest.
Many ABBA hits have been covered in Finnish in the 70’s, but hearing them in new translations felt fresh and at times surprising. The musical has previously been set on stage in Finland in the Swedish Theatre (Svenska Teatern) in Helsinki in 2014, fully as a Swedish-language version. Now the version in Finnish served as an opener for a brand-new theater as well: the Amfi theater of Messukeskus, the Expo and Convention Centre in Helsinki, hosting various trade shows.
Finland’s 2002 Eurovision star Laura in the main role
The main role in the musical, the role of middle-aged Donna is played by Laura Voutilainen. She represented Finland in the ESC in 2002 with her funky dance song “Addicted to you”. Laura has been in the music business since 1993 and performed a variety of styles. She is not an actress, but was perfectly credible in her role of Donna.
In other female roles can be seen Nina Tapio, Johanna Kokko and Petra Pääkkönen as Donna’s daughter Sofia. The father candidates are played by Veeti Kallio, Arne Nylander and Vallu Lukka.
The show was its best during the big dance numbers and choir setups, for example during “Voulez-vous”, “Lay all your love on me” and “Super trouper”. The choreographies were brilliant and all the humoristic moments were there, inbetween the sweet emotions and empathy.
New Finnish lyrics crafted by Paula Vesala
Finnish is the 17th language the musical has been performed in. All the songs are translated by the songwriter and singer (Paula) Vesala – currently just using her last name as an artist. She has written songs to many popular Finnish artists, and has one credit for the national final Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK): in 2012, she wrote the lyrics to Stig‘s song “Laululeija”. Mamma Mia! is the second musical where Vesala works with songs by the ABBA men Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus: she has also translated the musical Kristina från Duvemåla from Swedish to Finnish for its 2012 show in the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki.
Vesala faced some challenges in the MM! translation, which she worked on already in 2014.
– Swedish and English have lots of words consisting of one syllable only, which you can use for efficient lyrics. In Finnish, they same word quite often takes up three syllables. You can’t fit a lot of information there. “Knowing me, knowing you” in particular was very difficult to translate, she explains.
ABBA hits in Finnish since the 1970’s
This is not the first time that the ABBA hits are being interpreted in Finnish. During the group’s active years, many of their hits were recorded in Finnish-language cover versions by popular singers – many of who are Eurovision artists or have competed in the national final. For example, Ami Aspelund (ESC 1983) has covered “Waterloo”, Marion Rung (ESC 1964 and 1973) has covered “Dancing queen” (as “Prinsessa”), Monica Aspelund (ESC 1977) has covered “My love, my life”, Seija Simola (ESC 1978) has covered “Fernando” – and so on.
More ABBA to be expected later in 2018: the movie sequel, a virtual concert tour and two new songs
The fans of ABBA live exciting times right now. Chess, the musical written by ABBA’s Björn and Benny, and lyrics by Tim Rice, first premiered in 1984. Now a new stage version premiered in London’s West End.
There will be a movie sequel to Mamma Mia!, titled Mamma Mia: Here we go again, premiering on 20 July 2018.
The biggest and most unexpected news broke about ABBA as a group. On 27th April, ABBA’s press release said the group had been in the studio, recording new songs after 35 years. One of the new songs, “I still have faith in you” will premiere in a TV special by NBC in December 2018. The special will be called ABBA: Thank You for the Music, An All-Star Tribute. The two-hour special will feature the brand-new song “sung” by “abbatars”, a virtual ABBA: a digital representation of the band in 1979. The special — which will be broadcast around the world — also will feature “specially invited artists” playing ABBA classics.
The second song, “Don’t shut me down”, will be released in the first half in 2019. According to ABBA’s manager Görel Hanser, the new songs will be released in physical format. One of the songs has Agnetha Fältskog in lead, the other has Frida (Anni-Frid Lyngstad) in lead. It has also been confirmed that there is footage of the group members in studio working on the new songs.
Video: Mamma Mia! The Finnish cast performing “Dancing queen” and “Waterloo”