Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again

They’re baaa-aack . . . sort of.

Chirping some of the most infectious pop tunes of all time, including “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia” and “Take a Chance on Me,” the team of two boys and two girls has conquered its native Sweden and the rest of Europe, as well as other global outposts. All that’s missing is the outlandish outfits that added to the original ABBA’s iconic stature in the ‘70s.

It isn’t the long-retired ABBA, of course, but the A*Teens, which is . . . what? The secret offspring of Bjorn and Agnetha and Benny and Frida?

“Some people think that we actually are their children, which is not true,” says A*Teen Marie Serneholt, 17, the blond counterpart to dark-haired Sara Lumholdt, 15. The boys are Dhani Lennevald and Amit Paul, both 16. The group is an opening act on the Britney Spears tour that comes to Southern California this weekend.

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If the idea of innocent adolescents traversing the adult terrain of such songs as “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” seems strange, just be glad that the original idea--initiated to mark the 25th anniversary of ABBA’s career-making victory in the Eurovision Song Contest--didn’t go through.

“The marketing manager of Stockholm Records came up with the idea of ABBA Kids. . . . Small children doing ABBA songs to get the ABBA catalog popular,” says Ola Hakansson, president of the Swedish record label. “But we found out we had to go up in age.”

A few years anyway. And it turned out to be high-concept, Swedish style: Channel some of the most beloved and durable songs of the pop era through a group that will appeal to the booming youth-pop market. Adding a helpful tail wind is the current ABBA revival represented by the hit musical “Mamma Mia,” which comes to the U.S. soon after setting records in London.

The company found its teens in 1998 through auditions at a Stockholm performing arts school and quickly put the group, then called the ABBA*Teens, into the studio to record their debut album, “The ABBA Generation.”

It went to the top of the charts in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, prompting ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to call label chief Hakansson--an old friend and former artist who once toured with Ulvaeus before ABBA was formed--and ask him to remove ABBA from the name. So the A*Teens were born.

The album has now sold 3 million copies worldwide, and the four are currently trying to transfer their success to the problematic promised land of the United States, where ABBA is more cult than culture.

Group’s Second Album Will Include New Songs

The album, released through MCA Records, has sold about 145,000 copies so far, and the group has received most of its U.S. exposure through such youth outlets as Radio Disney and the Nickelodeon cable channel, which will air a 30-minute A*Teens special in August.

“If we hit in the USA it feels like we have taken the whole world,” says Serneholt, who has been acting and performing for virtually her entire life. “USA is so big, and it feels like Europe and Sweden are so inspired by the USA. So it feels good.”

While the slickly produced collection doesn’t reveal much in the way of the performers’ personality and originality, those close to the project quickly sensed there might be a future here. The A*Teens have already recorded several tracks for a second album--all of them written by teams of young Swedish writers and producers.

“A lot of people may think that when we don’t have the ABBA material to lean on that something strange will happen, but what I’ve heard so far is very encouraging,” says Hakansson.

“It’s another step. . . . Most of the teen bands in the U.S. like Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync and Britney are already produced by Swedish producers and Swedish songwriters, so it’s of course in that direction. But maybe we try to make it a little more ABBA-ish. It’s pop, definitely.”

“I hope that we can be a group for a long time,” says Serneholt. “We have known each other for like six years, so we are really good friends. We never have big fights or anything. It really feels like we are a group. I hope for a long future.”

BE THERE

A*Teens open for Britney Spears. (See concert information on Page 12.) A*Teens will also make an in-store appearance at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Wherehouse, 3850 Barranca Parkway, Irvine.