Seeing Ace of Base’s Jenny Berggren is the closest you’ll get to a return tour

THEY are the Swedish quartet who dominated the charts but refuse to reform for one final tour. ABBA? No. Seeing Jenny Berggren live is the closest you’ll get to an Ace of Base reunion.

Ulf Ekberg, siblings Jenny, Malin and Jonas Berggren of Swedish pop group 'Ace of Base'.

THEY are the Swedish quartet who dominated charts around the world who steadfastly refuse to reform for one final tour.

ABBA? Yes, but also Ace of Base — officially the third highest selling Swedish act behind ABBA and Roxette with 30 million album sales.

Featuring siblings Jenny, Malin and Jonas Berggen as well as Ulf Elkberg, Ace of Base scored a global No. 1 with the Euro-reggae flavoured All That She Wants in 1992, and topped the charts in Australia again (and the US) with The Sign the following year. Other hits included Beautiful Life, Lucky Love, Life is a Flower, Always Have Always Will and covers of Bananarama’s Cruel Summer and Aswad’s Don’t Turn Around.

By 1998 the hits had dried up but the band kept making music. However when Jenny and Malin left were replaced by two new singers, the resulting album didn’t sell.

Ace of Base were officially put out to pasture.

And that is where they will remain.

Jenny Berggren ... Ace of Base won’t re-form, she says.

INTENSE TOLL

While Jenny Berggren is now touring as a solo act, playing Ace of Base hits, it’s the closest anyone will get to seeing the band live again. Ever.

“We won’t re-form,” Berggren says. “There haven’t even been offers because I think people know it’s such a far out idea. But money isn’t a reason for us to do it. If people do not want to work together you can’t really force that with money. It’s a choice in our hearts rather than about money on the table. We’re finished working together but we’re not finished being family together. We have a lot of fun plans in the future but no musical plans.”

Berggren says their five years of intense fame took their toll, as the band chased their hits around the world.

“We were on the road together for 300 days a year for seven years. It was really boring and tiring at the end. You needed something else, you needed your friends, but all the time you just met the same people. It was nice but it wasn’t actually what you needed in the end. After a couple of years knowing you were forced into it that makes it difficult, it becomes a trial.

“And you don’t want that, you want the beauty of it and that’s what we’re doing now, giving the beauty of free choice to each other, to do whatever we want to do. I want to go out and play live, they give me that freedom, they don’t want to go out there so I give them that freedom. We’re free now and we love the way we live our lives now.”

‘It was really boring and tiring at the end’ ... Ace of Base members in 1996.

NEW LIVES

Berggren says her brother is still writing music (”that’s what he’s made of”), her sister is “not in music at all”) and Elkberg is working in “something related to Guitar Hero in gaming.”

She released her autobiography, which translated to Winning the World, in Swedish and has spent the last five years doing lecture tours expanding on its themes.

“I want to teach people to just relax and enjoy their lives instead of looking at everybody else’s all the time. The grass is not greener. I’ve looked from the highest peak and it wasn’t green at all! That’s what I’m trying to teach people, to bloom wherever god plants them. And it works.

“I enjoyed having those years of fame in my history and as a platform to move on and expand into other things. I loved those days but it was a big struggle as well. For me, I choose what I want to do right now so I love that part of my life.”

Berggren admits she’s still unable to walk around the streets of Sweden without being recognised, helped by an appearance on a Swedish music reality TV show last year that translates as So Much Better.

“Before I didn’t like it (public attention), it was too much. Now it’s nice. People like me. Back in the day some people in Sweden didn’t like us, didn’t like their own pop stars, but they’ve come around, now they like me again.

“I’d rather be the more cultural person here, do my lectures, and be a pop star abroad. Sweden is so tiny in one way, and also tiny and narrow minded in many ways. I’d rather spread my wings abroad.”

Jenny Berggren performing live on stage.

ON TOUR

Her Australian visit, as part of a 90s Mania package tour (with Amber, Black Box, Haddaway and La Bouche) will see her play Ace of Base hits and potentially songs from her 2010 solo album (My Story) and some covers of Swedish acts.

Ace of Base were one of the first bands hit maker Max Martin cut his teeth on, co-producing 1994’s Beautiful Life.

“Max hasn’t changed at all, but everyone else has changed around him. When you get famous everything else changes but not your heart. You can see he’s been cutting off from the public eye but it’s hard to stay away when he’s so talented and so successful. He’d always say the most difficult thing is to make simple music. He has classical training, but he’s always trying to make everything as simple as possible.”

While Berggren is planning on new English music soon (“Today you can just release a song, you don’t need to have an album, I like that concept a lot”) touring the world allows her to meet those Ace of Base fans who grew up with their hits.

“I meet people who fell in love to our songs and you meet their kids and they’re as tall as me,” she laughs. “That’s fantastic. I’m very proud of what Ace of Base did. In one way I’d love to have those days back but being on tour by myself right now I do get the best things back. I get to meet people who’ve been touched by the music, they’ve had our music in their veins for 25 years. That’s so cool you can be part of someone’s musical history.”

SEE 90s Mania: HQ Adelaide September 1, Trak Melbourne September 2, Eaton’s Hill Brisbane September 3, Metro City Perth September 9, Luna Park Big Top Sydney September 10.

Originally published as Seeing Ace of Base’s Jenny Berggren is the closest you’ll get to a return tour