The carefully made documentary tells about the sister band’s wild rise and the flip side of success.
For entertainment the world loves to tell stories about artists whose possibilities were not believed at first.
In Finland, we always remember record companies that once received Dingo’s demo tape but did not react to it. They will be comforted by watching a recent documentary about Ace of Base, because even in Sweden, which is considered the super country of pop, the band’s potential was not realized.
Ace of Base’s heyday was between 1992 and 1999, during which time they became the third most successful Swedish band of all time, behind Abba and Roxette.
The band the hits were in the style of a fusion of white Nordic pop and reggae, which was quite unusual in the early 1990s. Especially in the Swedish music industry, it was not considered interesting. Ace of Base eventually ended up with a Danish record company, which paved the way for success first in Europe and then in the United States and around the world.
It soon became apparent that the band’s rough neighborhood charisma, which Swedish gatekeepers thought was unstylish or even embarrassing, was charming in the rest of the world. The Swedish public also noticed the band with a little delay.
Ace of Base was also very popular in Finland, although the critics were not very enthusiastic about it here either. Partly it was because the band drifted into the same 90s Eurodance category with various humor characters, although in hindsight you can see and hear differences in the bands and their musical style.
Three-piece document All That She Wants tells about the birth of Ace of Base from Gothenburg and their journey to international stars. The rise was huge, but there were also enough setbacks.
The original line-up of Ace of Base was formed by Berggren’s siblings Malin, Jenny and Jonas mixed Ulf Ekbergwhose past as a teenage brawler in a far-right skinhead gang came as a surprise to both the band’s audience and the other members of Ace of Base and the band’s label manager, who is Jewish.
The scandal tarnished the band’s sympathetic image, but Ekberg’s remorse and open accounting were taken seriously, and the band even received grace on Israeli radio channels. Little by little, however, the band’s tight ranks began to break down, and the reason was the usual thing for successful bands, i.e. the distribution of money.
As songwriters, Jonas Berggren and Ulf Ekberg received a larger share of the income than Malin and Jenny Berggren, who the record company wanted to bring to the front row as the front images of the band. At the same time, publicity and the narrowing of private life began to oppress the women of the band, while the male bandmates were having fun on their luxury yachts, drinking champagne and enjoying stardom.
Jens Von Reisin In the documentary series directed by Abundant and partly unprecedented material has been worked with care and thought.
Based on the documentary, it is easy to understand how the situation ended up in the end, where the band’s original vocal soloists had left the band, and the music made with the new soloists was no longer of interest to only a fraction of the previous audience.
All That She Wants, Viaplay.