The ARRIVAL from SwedenWhat a treat for ABBA’s fans to relive the ageless music of ABBA, which was performed by tribute band Arrival from Sweden to a packed house at the Arena of Stars in Genting Highlands on 25 and 26 December 2010. As the saying goes, nothing beats the original but if you can’t get the original, the second best will do. Arrival just proved that point.
The ageless music of ABBA cuts the generation gap
Although the ABBA stopped performing after the group split up in 1982, its music was able to break the generation gap as can be seen by the crowd who had enjoyed its music at their height in the 70s and 80s with today’s younger music lovers of the like of Lady Gaga.
I was there for the 26 December show. Being a long holiday weekend, Genting was very crowded, especially the family crowd since the year-end long school holidays are still on.
I was told by a Resort World Genting (RWG) staff that the previous night’s show was full house and some of the die-hard ABBA fans had return for another dosage of its music on the second night. 
There are many like me who do not get tired of listening to ABBA’s songs like Eagle, Knowing Me Knowing You, Dancing Queen, Fernando and The Name of The Game. The more you listen to it, the more you get addicted to the magic of ABBA’s music, which had rocked the world since 1971. The Arena of Stars was filled up by both the young and older crowd by 8 pm. For the next 90 minutes or so, over 5,000 ABBA music fans were brought back to the nostalgia of the 70s and 80s.
Full house at the Arena of Stars the two performances
At 8.15 pm inside the amphitheatre, the crowd gave a screaming ovation when The Arrival from Sweden came on stage to perform almost non-stop, giving Tiger as the first number for the night followed by Voulez-Vous, Does Your Mother Know, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight), Super Trouper and a medley of Kisses/Angel/Lay All, Money Money, SOS, When I Kissed The Teacher.
The opening act with "Tiger"
There was another medley of I’ve Been/ Honey Honey/ He Is Yours, the ever popular Knowing Me Knowing You, The Winner Takes It All, Happy New Year, Chiquitita, Mamma Mia, Waterloo and Take A Chance On Me before the group left the stage for a short while.
Arrival returned to give us bonus songs like The Summer Night and Thank You For The Music. The group ended the night with a very popular top of chart number, Dancing Queen, with crowd standing up, clamping their hands and swinging to the music’s tempo.
"Thank you for The Music"
I was wondering if it was the signature of their act to have Dancing Queen as the last song and to invite one of the young audiences to join them on stage. Having tracked their past performances, I noticed that they have done this lately in all their concerts.
It was a worthwhile show, especially when the tickets were affordably priced at RM100, RM70 and RM50 for an international concert in Genting, this is quite rare.
The founder of ARRIVAL from Sweden - Vicky Zetterberg
Founded in 1995 by Vicky Zetterberg (the dark hair lady performer) from Gothenburg, Arrival is the only ABBA tribute band that has the exclusive rights to the ABBA’s name, costumes and original music score from all of ABBA’s greatest hits.
This Swedish group has since toured over 40 countries and appeared in several television and radio shows worldwide. Arrival’s tribute band production, the closest you will ever get to see ABBA, is touted as the next best to the real ABBA.
A familiar pose of ABBA done by ARRIVALArrival has the exclusive right to copy ABBA's original outfits as can be seen in all their concerts. Having enjoyed their performance, as one of the millions of ABBA fans who treasured its collection of LP records, cassette tapes, videotapes, I could not help picking up an ABBA DVD - "ABBA The Definitive Collection' that night for RM30 which was on sale.
"Wishing you all HAPPY NEW YEAR & Prosperous 2011"
