“What’s the name of the game?” ABBA, Northernness and Pop Culture
19-20 mars 2026, salle G04, Université de Lorraine, Nancy
Programme:
Thursday, March 19
9:30 Welcome and opening words
10:00-11:00 Keynote address by Henrik Smith-Sivertsen, Senior Researcher at the Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen
“Pretty much the title, I guess, ‘Waterloo’” – the phonetic musicality of ABBA’s lyrics
Chair: Jeremy Tranmer
11:00-11:30 Coffee
11:30-13:00 Panel 1: Sounds and Songwriting
Chair: Henrik Smith-Sivertsen
Martin Knust, Linnæus University, Växjö
How to Write an ABBA Song: Influences, Models and Swedishness
Ville Vokkolainen, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio
Inside the Musical Form: Reframing Contemporary Music Analysis through ABBA’s Sonic Constructions
Giuseppe Pantano, Université de Lorraine, Roma Tre University.
The Piper and Its Enchanting Tune: Intermediality and Transmediality in ABBA’s The Piper (1980)
13:00-14:30 – LUNCH –
14:30-15:30 Panel 2: Reception and commercialization
Chair: Jean-Philippe Heberlé
Stéphane Sawas, INALCO, Paris
Des îles grecques au désert australien : nouveaux ancrages territoriaux des chansons d’ABBA au cinéma
Jan-Olof Gullö, Royal College of Music, Stockholm; Thomas Floren, Dalarna University, Falun; Bo Westman, Royal College of Music, Stockholm
Transforming Failure into Fame: ABBA 1973–1974
– Coffee break –
16:00 Informal roundtable: “ABBA and Me”
Friday, March 20
10:00 Welcome/coffee
10:30-12:00 Panel 4: Fandom and Cultural Impact
Chair: Barbara Barreiro Leon
Lars Kaijser, Stockholm University
Shaping History Through Exhibitions: On the changing biography of ABBA at ABBA The Museum
Shanika Ranasinghe, independent researcher, London
‘You Owe Me One’?: the gift-debt and tensions created by ABBA’s 35-year gap
Michael Rauhut, University of Agder, Kristiansand
Thank You for the Music: The East German Response to ABBA at the Crossroads of Politics and Fan Culture
12:00 – 13:30 – LUNCH –
13:30-15:00 Panel 5: Beyond Pop
Chair: Claire McKeown
Gittit Pearlmutter, independent researcher
From Romantic Heartbreak to Social Alienation: Portishead’s Reinterpretation of ABBA’s “S.O.S.”
Rose Barrett, Université de Lorraine
Gimme Gimme Gimme My Life Now: ABBA and Nationalteatern’s paradoxical poetic relationship
Sverker Hyltén-Cavallius, National Collections of Music, Theatre and Dance, Stockholm
“Cut out Stikkan!” – ABBA as the commercial Other of Swedish progg
– Coffee break –
15:15-16:15 Roundtable presentation
ABBA in Practice: Tribute, Photography, and Intergenerational Memory in the UK
Dr Barbara Barreiro Leon (University of Aberdeen), Lisa Brunzell (independent), Dr Shane Strachan (University of Aberdeen)
Chair: Rose Barrett
16:15 Closing remarks