“Mamma Mia!” ABBA fans inside Rahway, NJ’s UCPAC auditorium this Saturday, May 16, 2026 evening are ready to party to a Jersey performance by the premier Swedish ABBA tribute band, Arrival from Sweden.
The lights dim and the sound of a helicopter ushers in Hanrik Robinsson as ABBA keyboardist “Benny” along with three female back-up singers. After Daniel Palmqvist as guitarist “Björn” joins musicians on bass, drums, and saxophone on stage, the ensemble plays the dynamic ABBA overture, “Gammal Fäbodpsalm.”
The crowd claps to the beat of the drums as Madelene Johansson and Veronika Eriksson take the stage as lead singers “Agnetha” and “Frida.” Launching into “Voulez-Vous,” the pair cries, “People everywhere/A sense of expectation hangin’ in the air,” as they get music lovers clapping, cheering, and dancing in the aisles on this Eastern-influenced disco number.
Eriksson tells the crowd — many of whom are wearing ABBA costumes — “We want all of you to raise your hands and join us on the ‘Mamma Mia’ dance.” Here, music lovers stand and dance at their seats with fingers in the air as Johansson raises her arms and sings, “Mamma Mia, here I go again,” on the 1975 pop hit, “Mamma Mia.”
Palmqvist, Johansson, Eriksson, and Robinsson are featured on the rocking “Does Your Mother Know?” on an arrangement that features a wailing Daniel Palmqvist electric guitar solo.
Johansson announces, “Let’s see all the hands up in the air!” as she and the band launch into the upbeat ABBA electronic dance tune, “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).” Then, the ensemble segues into “Super Trouper” where eight-part vocals support Veronika Eriksson as she sings lead on this upbeat pop-rock tune.
Johansson acknowledges, “Bjorn and Benny wrote so many great songs but we can’t play them all for you tonight, so we put some of our favorites into medleys, and here’s a special one just for you.” Starting off with the syncopated pop tune, “Kisses of Fire,” Johansson is backed by the vocal choir on the rhythmic “Angel Eyes,” before belting out the minor-key disco tune, “Lay All Your Love on Me,” to avid cheers and applause.
Eriksson asks the crowd, “Do you know what ABBA stands for?” and goes on to explain that it is an acronym based on the names of the four original group members — “Agnetha, Björn, Benny, and Anni-Frid, also known as Frida.”
Following up with the 1977 #1 soft rock hit, “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” music lovers sing along with the group on the song’s catchy “Knowing me, knowing you, aha/There is nothing we can do” chorus before Johansson and Eriksson sing together in Swedish and English on the minor-key ABBA pop confection, “S.O.S.”
The Arrival from Sweden vocalists exit the stage, leaving the instrumentalists to perform “Intermezzo #1,” a dynamic fusion piece which features Palmqvist on guitar and Robinsson on keyboards. When the singers return, the vocal trio supports Johansson’s smooth voice on the country-like ballad, “I’ve Been Waiting.”
After Johansson and Eriksson segue into the upbeat pop tune, “Honey, Honey,” Johansson and Palmqvist sing together on the power two-step, “He’s Your Brother.”
Eriksson announces, “Here’s a song about something we all want,” as the group presents its interpretation of “Money, Money, Money” where Johansson and Eriksson dance while the crowd happily joins in singing the song’s staccato “Money, money, money/Must be funny/In the rich man’s world” refrain.
Eriksson explains, “I’m going to start this next one in Swedish,” before she and the band perform the 1976 folk-pop tune, “Fernando,” where she croons “Varför sörjer du Fernando” in Swedish before singing the song in English.
The crowd cheers and Arrival from Sweden continues with “The Name of the Game” where Johansson and Eriksson vocalize together, “What’s the name of the game?/Does it mean anything to you?” on this funky 1977 rock ballad.
Segueing into the slow rocking and powerful “Eagle,” Johansson and Eriksson sing and dance before Robinsson renders a wailing synthesizer solo and Palmqvist is featured on an extended guitar solo.
Robinsson reveals, “Our next song is one of my favorites and it’s about winning and losing.” Background vocals ring out as Robinsson plays the keyboard intro to the 1980 ABBA folk-rocker, “The Winner Takes It All.” Johansson sings solo center stage, her clear sweet soprano filling the theater as she performs with emotion, “The winner takes it all/The loser’s standing small/Beside the victory/That’s her destiny.”’
The crowd hoots and hollers and the group swings into the energetic two-step, “Chiquitita,” where Johansson and Eriksson sing to one another before music fans lift their arms and clap their hands overhead with Johansson on the song’s appealing coda.
The musicians follow up with a jubilant rendition of ABBA’s 1974 Europop hit, “Waterloo,” where concertgoers clap and sing along to the song’s infectious “Waterloo/Couldn’t escape if I wanted to” chorus. Then, Palmqvist and Eriksson sing together on the swinging show tune, “Why Did It Have to Be Me?”
The group concludes tonight’s show with the 1978 pop hit, “Take a Chance on Me,” where seven-part vocals support Johansson and Eriksson who perform back to back before singing and dancing together to enthusiastic cheers and applause.
“Thank you and goodnight!” announces Palmqvist as he and his bandmates leave the stage but soon return to perform an encore of ABBA’s 1976 #1 hit, “Dancing Queen.” Music lovers happily sing along on the tune’s popular “You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life” refrain before the band members wave, take a final bow, and exit the stage to the sound of the roaring crowd.
After the show is over, vocalists Veronika Eriksson and Madelene Johansson share their thoughts backstage on their experience performing for the Jersey crowd at UCPAC. Declares Veronika, “I could really feel the energy right from the start with the audience; they were standing up and dancing from the first song, so it was great!” Madelene agrees, explaining, “The audience was fantastic — they were dancing and looking so happy, and we had a great time on stage,” prior to concluding, “We had a beautiful evening together!”
To learn more about Arrival from Sweden, please go to themusicofabba.com. For information on upcoming performances at UCPAC — including The Dizzy Gillespie All Stars on June 6, jazz saxophonist Vincent Ingala on June 13, and R&B singer Brian McKnight on October 17 — please click on ucpac.org.
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