A*Teens on reuniting, relationships and Eurovision hopes: ‘It’s quite fun to be in our bubble!’

If there’s anything more iconic than making a music comeback after 20 years, it’s doing so with a song titled “Iconic”.

In fairness, the new single from Swedish pop group A*Teens lives up to its name. Produced by the creative team behind Loreen’s Eurovision-winning single “Tattoo”, “Iconic” is an absolute pop stonker, a sort of Steps-meets-Calvin Harris floor-filler. It’s got more than its writers and producers in common with “Tattoo”; it could also be the song that takes the band to Eurovision, the song contest where they circuitously began.

Formed in 1998 to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of ABBA winning Eurovision with “Waterloo”, teens Amit Paul, Dhani Lennevald, Marie Serneholt and Sara Lumholdt entered A*Teens as an ABBA tribute group.

But after their slew of ABBA covers reached the top 40 around the world – “Mamma Mia” hit number one in their homeland – the group decided to stick about for a bit, releasing original hit singles including “Upside Down”, “Floorfiller” and “A Perfect Match”. They toured with Britney Spears, became huge in South America, and were one of the defining acts of the early 2000s. In 2006, after years of touring and amidst a changing music industry, they took a break, pursuing solo careers.

In 2024, they reunited to mark 25 years since they were formed, and perform at Melodifestivalen, Sweden’s Eurovision act selection contest. The buzz of being on stage never went again, and they’ve been chasing the high ever since.

Now, they’re back at Melodifestivalen, this time as contestants. On 7 March, they will take on 11 other musicians as they vie to become this year’s Eurovision act for Sweden, a country which ties with Ireland for the most Eurovision wins in history. No pressure.

We caught up with the group to talk reunions, relationships and their response to Eurovision’s controversial year ahead.

Hey A*Teens! “Iconic” is your iconic return to music after two decades away. Can you describe how the group’s artistry has changed over the course of 20 years?

Amit Paul: I love the fact that you brought in the artistry because I think there’s a certain element of maturation and evolution that we’ve gone through. We spent last year touring quite a bit and a lot of these moments after the shows we were like, ‘We’re meant to do this.’ There’s a certain way of showing up on stage that’s really humbling and I don’t think we ever had that calm when we were teenagers. We didn’t have that level of calm and looking people in the eye and really meeting the audience in that particular way. Being able to channel that energy has been bliss. 

Dhani Lennevald: That’s a question that we were asking ourselves as well when we got back together. [It’s] a different thing, just celebrating the old music and revisiting that and performing with these songs [at] throwback festivals. To open the chapter of actually releasing new music together, that was the main thing for us because we knew already that we love spending time together and doing this A*Teens thing again.

We just really wanted to make new music, but we didn’t know what that would be. We were like, ‘OK, so what is A*Teens today?’. It was nothing that we could define until we heard it. That’s what we felt when we heard “Iconic”; we were like, ‘OK, this is a big pop chorus, it has a lot of Swedish ID in it, very catchy.’ We just felt that this is what A*Teens is today. We still want to keep that A*Teens DNA of releasing uplifting feel good songs.

You said you knew you loved spending time with each other in the group, but how has your relationship changed over two decades? You were teens before, now you’re adults with adult lives.

Marie Serneholt: It’s such a privilege that we get to do this and revisit our teens and do it all over again but with a bigger appreciation. I’s hard to describe but I’m super grateful that we are here again, that we get to do what we love the most, but to do this as adults and have our history together.

Dhani: And have a different perspective. When we got casted for A*Teens we were supposed to do this for like one year, right? Just [to] celebrate Abba’s 25th anniversary since they won in [Eurovision] with “Waterloo”. Going from that to recording our original songs and spinning that on for multiple years was just a blessing by itself. Then to have a 20-year break and have the luxury to do this again? That’s why it feels like a luxury now. I hope that it shines through that we are just doing it for the fun of it and just because we love it, not because we are like, ‘Oh we need to have a number one otherwise it’s not going to happen!’, you know?

Sara Lumholdt: We’re definitely not pressured by anyone else. The decision was from us and the relationship between us is deeper than ever. I think anyone that would be on the outside wouldn’t get it. We know each other way much more now than we did before. There’s a lot of things that happen and when you’re older, you’re wiser, but also you can discuss things, talk about [things] more openly, [about] the way we feel and where we’re going, your worries. [It] then is joyful to be able to do it again with these people that know me inside and out and they will support me through everything. That is something that we don’t take for granted. We’re not pushed forward by someone else. We do say yes and no to things that we believe in our hearts [are] right and wrong. That is what is pulling us forward. 

So how did you go from deciding to reunite to perform at Melodifestivalen in 2024, to competing on it in 2026?

Marie: When we did that performance two years ago, I think we all thought that it would be a one-off thing. We would do this performance as a celebration to our 25 years together. I remember us having dinner here in Stockholm after a rehearsal with some record company people and other people that we worked with back then. It was one of the guys that we work with who said, ‘OK, just prepare yourselves that when you get off that stage on Saturday, you are going to want to do this more. You’re going to be overwhelmed. You’re going to be surprised [by] the feelings that you’re going to feel’. We were like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, OK, whatever.’ But he was so right. 

Dhani: We got off [stage and] we were like, ‘We want more!’

Marie: The whole feeling, not only performing and being on stage together, but hanging out, doing this as a group, doing interviews. Everything is just so addictive and we enjoyed it so much. Not long after that we started to discuss, should we maybe do a few shows together? We had a lot of our fans flying in from all over the world to see us for five minutes on stage in Malmö. We got so much attention for that performance and we started to get requests to go to South America to do shows. We were a bit like, ‘who [is] going to want to see us?’ Seeing us on stage for five minutes doing some highlights from our songs [is] one thing, but performing a show, who’s going to want to see that? We started to perform a little bit and we loved it so much and we wanted to do it more. Last year we did a few legs of touring all over the world which was just amazing.

Dhani: That’s also how we [decided on whether we should] release new music or not because we wanted to keep touring. We talked to LiveNation and our teams and stuff. They’re like, ‘Could you consider [releasing] new music? Because you can’t just keep touring.’ We were like, it’s so much fun. We have so much fun together. Let’s see!

Sara: We can’t stop now. You can’t get rid of us yet!

Marie: We’ve also felt when we are performing that we are better than ever because we have really landed in ourselves and we have a distance to [performing in the past in a] very healthy way I think. We’re just doing this out of joy, not because we need to do it. We have our lives going on outside of this.

Considering your renewed energy and love for performing, how are you feeling about your chances of winning Melodifestivalen and getting to Eurovision 2026

Amit: That’s such a hard question. We’ve been taking things very much step by step and one thing at a time. I’ve been watching the competition and I’m definitely sitting there with my little mental notebook saying, ‘We could probably beat them! That’s not a good enough song!’ There’s a competition devil in me for sure. But first and foremost, what I’m the most proud of, is the energy that we bring. I think that was a fear of mine when we were starting to talk about new music, that they would sneak in [a] performance or [a] thing that [we] had to do some other pressure or whatever. I think we really haven’t gone there. We’ve just been true to one another. We’re really looking out for another. I mean Sarah was super sick the week before we did the first [Melodifestivalen round]. We’re just able to look out for another and care for another and I think that’s the energy that we want to bring. 

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Marie: It’s quite fun to be in our bubble!

Sara: In this climate of the world at the moment, we [hope we] can shine a light through and bring joy to everyone and show the genuine joy between us four. I think that is a strong contender in the final. No matter what we do, we’re just going to do our thing and then we’ll see how far it goes. That’s all we can do. 

Lastly, if you do make it to Eurovision 2026, this year is going to look different. Five countries are boycotting the contest [over the EBU’s decision to allow Israel to remain in the competition]. Were you hesitant about competing given that?

Amit: We’ve had those conversations amongst ourselves and like Sara said, there are a lot of things in the world that you wish were different. I think the intent and the core of the Eurovision Song Contest is to bring people together and do that around music and I think that’s an ethos that we can definitely stand by. There’s a lot to say I think and for us at the moment, I don’t think we have so much more to say [other] than the notion of bringing people together through music and [to] carry that light. That’s our intention.

A*Teens’ new song “Iconic” is streaming now.

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