Monocle’s Fernando Augusto Pacheco speaks with two pop music legends – Jenny Berggren and Ulf Ekberg – from Swedish group Ace of Base. They meet in Copenhagen to discuss their legacy as one of the best-selling bands in the 1990s, as well as their recent documentary for Viaplay. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly.
This time I speak with two pop music legends, Jenny Bergren and Ulf Ekberg from the Swedish group Ace of Bass.
We met in Copenhagen, where the band first had its major break.
We discussed their recent documentary with Viaplay and the legacy of the band.
First of all, we're meeting Copenhagen and I think that's a very special place for Ace of Base.
Right?
Is that here where the band actually took off?
Right?
This was where everything started to explode.
It was a small explosion first and then became bigger explosion and the massive explosion.
Denmark was the first country that believed in us.
And against all odds we got a record deal here.
And suddenly also the Danish people started to love our music.
Our first real experience, I have a shark position outside of Sweden, was in Denmark in May 1992.
And it took off from there.
And the Danish just embraced us as part of the culture.
They just loved us.
And when we released, all the chihuahuans became number one and W4 and then happiness was number one.
So it just became our home market, kind of.
We are Swedish, but nobody cared about us in Sweden.