‘Benny’ and the original ‘Frida’ from BABBA have passed their musical talents onto their children, two of who have played in their iconic Aussie tribute band.
Unlike real-life Frida and Benny, Michael Ingvarson and Grabiela Favretto are still happily together, and their daughter Jade has even filled in as ‘Agnetha’.
“I feel like it’s definitely in their blood,” Ingvarson said last Friday, ahead of BABBA’s next show at Sphinx Hotel on 1 June.
“My daughter’s doing a gig in Geelong tonight funnily enough.”
The proud father spoke to the Indy while carting a PA and subwoofer down the highway in the family Volvo for his daughter, who performs under stage name Jade Alice.
“She studied at (Victorian College of the Arts) doing interactive composition,” he said.
“She’s been releasing her own singles and doing music with me ever since.”
While Jade will be busy elsewhere during the Sphinx show, the couple’s son Ben will get behind the drums.
Ben studies jazz drumming, while their youngest, Nicola, is a music captain at her school.
“She plays guitar, piano and trumpet and she’s actually the principal vocalist in the Victorian State Schools Spectacular,” Ingvarson said.
The children grew up around music and practicing on a baby grand piano and drums in the living room, he said.
Last month BABBA played for about 800 University of Melbourne students, most only a little older than Ingvarson’s children.
“The uni-age kids right now are going mental for ABBA!” he said.
“They were singing louder almost than the band. It was packed in with 800 of them all around the sides and the balconies – it was just going off!”
Despite original ABBA fans getting on in years the band’s music was undergoing resurgence thanks to movies like Mamma Mia, Ingvarson said.
After a quarter century playing Benny Andersson, Ingvarson is probably the closest young fans will get to seeing him live.
His band BABBA mimics the originals onstage, down to their Swedish accents.
“We feel like we do justice to their songs by playing them correctly with the right harmonies in the right places,” he said.
And for Ingvarson the accolades don’t come bigger than from Molly Meldrum, the man “responsible” for making ABBA “go worldwide”.
The legendary Australian music guru once described BABBA as “dare I say it, as good as ABBA”.
“He played such a huge role in getting ABBA known in Australia,” Ingvarson said.
“He had a good ear for quality, Molly. ABBA do so say they owe so much to Molly for playing them on Countdown. When he did it just really connected.”
Ingvarson co-founded BABBA not long after he finished studying music at the University of Melbourne.
Two decades later the band is still going with numerous Australian and international tours under its belt.
“At our peak, we were doing 180 shows a year,” Ingvarson said.
The band was a regular fixture in Geelong in its early days, he said.
“At one stage we’d play down there every Friday.”
