Original subtitles

And the number one new artist is...

-And the award goes to... -The number one single of the year

Ace of Base!

We would release in Germany, we'd go number 1. Holland, number 1.

-France number one. -Nobody believed in us.

It's not international, or good enough.

Ulf Ekberg holds right wing extremist views.

A German woman went into my house and attacked me and my family.

This doesn't quite fit together.

My interest for everything was lost there.

The whole thing erupted. None of us were ready for that.

It's like a snowball, the snowball getting bigger the whole time.

Yes!

In April 1994 something happens

that would change everything for Ace of Base.

I remember I was going home to my parents.

I took the bus.

And when I stepped off the bus, I'm passing someone at the bus stop.

There was something that wasn't right.

But I couldn't put my finger on it.

That's why I felt the gut feeling, don't go into this normal door.

I went in the backside.

Then I went to sleep.

By the time I woke up, the TV was on.

Something was completely wrong.

Someone was in the house

and put a knife to my throat.

"SHE PUT A KNIFE TO MY THROAT"

GERMAN SPEAKS OF ATTACK

A German woman went into my house and attacked me and my family.

My reptile brain started to speak some kind of German.

I said, "You don't need to".

The way her voice sounded petrified me.

She wasn't talking.

She was growling.

There was a knife to my throat and her firm hand on my hair.

I was led up where my parents slept.

There I lost it. I just screamed "knife".

But then my mother...

I heard a sound from her that I hadn't heard before.

That was the most holy roar I've ever heard.

And that sound would have scared anyone.

I was her little lion cub.

She was an angry lion.

Nobody was to touch her cub.

I can't remember clear.

I know that my father held her and then the police came and took her.

The attack was like a huge wound,

where all my spirit and all my life poured out.

God was the only person who could be very close to me,

without me being scared.

Because people scared me.

It left me as a torn and stained tablecloth and I said,

"God, clean it. Mend it, fix me.

You are the only one who can make me whole again, so please do that."

This was a reset, not being number 1 and top of the world, everything.

Just be Jenny. Who am I? What are my inner dreams?

What am I doing here? And why did this happen to me?

-What are the consequences? -A new address for me.

-Body guards? -They're here.

There are lots of body guards here.

It sort of changed the whole thing.

We've been an innocent pop band

and now we have mad fans doing this,

bringing into our private home.

Yeah, that was a defining moment in Ace of Base's history.

MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS, BERLIN, GERMANY

Yeah, we decided to keep on working,

but with bodyguards, with protection.

Martin, the Bulldog.

And Paul, the Maniac.

And this is Denis the Crazy.

-Denis the Rock Star. -Yeah.

Travelling with security was completely new for us.

We went from travelling five to six people

to becoming ten to twelve, basically.

So it was a very strange time.

They were, you know, significantly famous around the world, I mean...

And heavily so particularly in Latin America.

I remember large crowds in Latin America, large crowds in Asia.

You just don't know how that sort of fandom will manifest itself.

I mean, it changed everything for us.

Made everything much more complicated.

It's not so innocent anymore.

We were stuck with each other. They had their job, I had mine.

I asked them, "How do I do my job?"

They said: "You have to tell me where you're going."

But I can't live like that. I just have to take off sometimes.

Did we veto some things sometimes that people wanted to do?

"We're going to do this, we're going to do that."

And we'd go, "Maybe not".

It took a lot of the fun factor as well, of course.

Because suddenly we had a major threat.

So, Jonas Berggren, how do you feel...

What's it like being in Seoul?

I've got a bit of stage fright.

That doesn't happen very often.

It happens more and more.

Ace of Base are singing.

How did you deal with the pressure of success

as well as gear up for this album?

It affects your life when you're working a lot.

Hi, here we are in Hong Kong.

-Where are we now? -Melbourne.

Being a pop star you never know which day it is.

If it's a weekday or if it's a weekend.

Everything is work. So you lose track of which kind of day it was.

Are you incredibly rich now?

Yes, we're bathing in money.

In one year, we have been travelling, seeing more things

than most of the people in the world see in their whole life.

I like that, it's fantastic.

Merci beaucoup.

So this was the shoe cleaning, Calvin Klein.

Very good. This is how the shoes look now.

Nice and shiny. Oh, they shine and shine.

This is the guy who made his shoes so shiny!

This is the guy who's getting himself ready for...

The World Music Awards.

I loved travelling around the world, meeting new people.

It was, for me, very natural.

But my band members did not appreciate it as much as I did.

So it was tougher for them, for sure.

We're now on the way to World Music Awards,

-ten years anniversary, 1998. -Okay.

In which I will present an award.

So the first time, obviously, we didn't win the award.

I saw this as the opportunity of a lifetime, to just conquer the world.

And my band members were thinking about,

"When can we go home?"

I became a little more open and the Berggren family a bit more closed.

Because they didn't want the world to interfere in their lives,

because they had their integrity.

And it became more and more that the press wanted everything.

And they follow you.

The media attention became...quite tough.

So the fame definitely changed all of us.

I think my band members became more introvert

and I became actually more extrovert.

Some people are not born to be in this world.

l came from no money, and suddenly I have this amazing success

when you're 23 years old.

Have you got any speeding tickets today?

There we go. Into the tunnel.

I started to enjoy my life quite a bit.

More than the others in the band.

I started to buy houses, apartments in New York and London

and houses in Spain. And boats and cars and motorbikes.

I think I got used to living in 250 kilometres per hour.

Meeting Emma, she was already a star. A supermodel.

She understood me.

It's not easy to explain to people how you feel to be super famous.

Super couple, whatever they called us.

It was great. Some of the best times in my youth, for sure.

Maybe I should show where we are.

We are on the sea.

After the tremendous success of Ace of Base's debut album,

both record labels and fans eagerly await a sequel.

And this time, of course, the expectations are sky high.

Let's look at the time...

Let's see what a good Breitling watch can tell us.

It's the twenty-first, right?

And we've been in the studio all night.

We need to go in again tomorrow morning.

The second album was partly chaotic to create.

Everybody wanted to write the next big smash hit.

That put everybody in their studios, working on their own material

to become the next hit writer.

I wrote three songs on the album.

And actually, this is the studio where we're mixing all of them...

We produce them.

I think it's a good key to people's hearts to make positive music,

like pop music is, with catchy melodies.

They are really staying in your head like bubble gums.

The new thing is...Maybe you've heard that me and my sister

are writing songs for the first time.

I was attacked about one and a half year ago.

After that I...There just came a song in my head.

And that was the one that became Ravine.

The song Ravine is a metaphor.

It is about flowers who can't grow if not the sun is there.

I was like a flower that has to be replanted if we can't see the sun.

I was replanted as well.

The girls forced the situation, they demanded

that they should have as many songs as I had on the album.

Since the boys took the whole first album,

it was natural that we wanted in on the second, of course.

This is what the fans want, they want to know us.

They want to hear me and my sister do music.

We suddenly ended up in a competition

on who should have what song.

It was a very complicated album to do.

They weren't like a unit.

It was four different band members and you can see on the front cover.

It's four individual photos.

Because we couldn't have them all four at the same time,

where they approved one photo with all four of them,

so it was a solution like, then we will have to go with this.

I think my brother had a very difficult time,

because he was stuck between his sisters and the business.

Because the business wanted Jonas to write everything.

Suddenly we had 25 songs on the table instead of 8 songs.

And everybody of course thought their song was the best.

So my brother said, "Okay, they get three songs each".

Release party The Bridge, Stockholm, Sweden

Can I just ask why you're so late today?

We had some stuff to do before coming here.

What will you play?

We're starting with a folk song.

And then Lucky Love of course.

What do you mean by a folk song?

A folk song. You'll see. It will be a surprise.

What's it like compared to your first release party?

Is there more pressure now?

We've done our best. The music comes from our hearts.

It's all pretty natural, what's happening now.

We've done what we think is right.

No reason to be nervous about something you couldn't do better.

-Good luck. -Thanks.

Welcome, Ace of Base.

Denniz Pop, how do you feel about this kind of release party?

It's a good feeling. Let's see what happens next.

How many of the songs are yours?

-Four. -Four? What about the rest?

How long do you think they'll stay together?

They're leading separate lives a bit.

With all groups, people will do solo stuff in between.

Then they get back together.

It's very hard to tell what will happen.

I think somebody is likely to do a solo record.

-Who's good enough for that? -I don't know.

-I'm speculating. -Great, thanks.

It was special to see Ace of Base on Swedish soil as global superstars.

But this evening was also coloured by rumours and speculation

that the band members were pulling in different directions.

And around the corner awaited once again months, perhaps years,

of travelling between different countries,

talking about a new album on radio stations and TV shows.

They needed a break, but couldn't stop

because the whole world wanted Ace of Base.

That is a problem with success.

Then people want more of you.

And if you don't have that to give, then things start to go wrong.

And that's in my opinion what happened.

They were just basically tired of each other.

We tried to say that. This is not going to happen, we can't do this.

And they said, "You have to".

Maybe there's another way out of this.

And I called my father, who's an X-ray doctor

and I said, "How do I break my leg?

Because we need a break".

We already had a problem.

The pressure was very high

and Malin wasn't comfortable being in the band.

It was not a good combination.

They didn't really like to be recognised, especially Malin.

So she was very much in the background.

She also wanted to get dressed more

so you couldn't recognise her figure if you saw her around.

Linn sort of... I think she had enough.

I think she sort of started pulling back.

You could see it happening.

That she didn't really want to be a part of it.

For Malin it was very important that she was called Linn,

'cause that was her artist name.

Malin was her private name.

-Could Malin Berggren... -Linn.

The fact that Malin was afraid of flying

made it all much more difficult for her with the touring life.

It wasn't until the third album, Flowers and Cruel Summer

that I noticed what was happening. I think that's when the world noticed.

Linn was blurred out on the cover.

She was in a separate photo that they popped in behind the band.

And she was a favourite amongst many fans.

And they handled it terribly, because they didn't give fans credit

for having brains to pick up what's going on.

And it made it a whole lot worse than it had to be, I think.

And I had to take a step forward and that was super scary.

Ulf is filming my building.

The prettiest skyscraper in town. Yeah, yeah.

We're singing all of Malin's songs. I don't know them.

I've made a documentary.

It's the first time the three of us are performing a song on TV.

It was the three of us once in Gothenburg.

We played once in Gothenburg when Malin didn't want to join in.

Two weeks after you and I broke up.

-Or however long it was. -I don't remember.

It was the three of us performing.

-Malin didn't want to join in then. -There, there.

I saw a Jenny I'd never seen before when she took the step to the front.

She was incredibly strong. She did so well.

People still talk about Malin the most. They want to see Linn.

How can that feel to Jenny?

Jenny is doing it. Linn didn't want to be there.

If Jenny didn't take the reigns, we wouldn't have Ace of Base.

Emma, are you ready to go?

Sure.

-That's good. -Yeah?

Okay, here we go.

I remember the first time I heard the song.

I thought this could be as big as anything else that we had done.

It had the potential of being a really huge hit.

They didn't sell so much CDs any more.

The technique made so you could burn your own CD,

so the bootlegs were all over the place.

The record companies were worried and anxious.

The system was breaking down. And we were in the middle of it.

The third album is a contrast to the reality, right.

We had to show a strong facade out,

but the band was not there anymore.

I see myself there, but I see only half of me.

Because my other half is Linn.

This was our success.

And when I had to do them alone, I felt like I was her warrior.

I was her shield.

And I know that she saw how I struggled,

how much I fought my inner demons each time I went out.

I had to finish the contracts,

or me and Linn would be sued for our assets.

I said to myself, "You just do this for your girl now".

And she's my girl.

I'll continue with this pleasure event.

We are here. We can see Poland.

And here we have this supervisor tower.

-Cool. -How does it feel?

My position in life...

Jonas lying down, speaking on the phone with his mysterious handset.

-With my account, actually. -Account?

It's a very nice wagon.

Here we go...See here.

Who's in here? Jenny? How are you doing?

-Alright. -Are you sunbathing?

Amazing trip actually.

Well, let's go to another wagon and see what's happening there.

-Bye-bye. -Good night.

In August, 1998, a legendary music producer

Dag, Denniz Pop, Volle passes away, only 35 years old.

Perhaps it's from here on that the magic of Ace of Base starts to fade.

The fourth album, you can see like now maybe there's an end of this.

We were still living on extra time.

Every minute more that people would actually enjoy our music

was just an extra bonus.

We just did it, because to do it.

There was no joy whatsoever in the fourth album.

AFTER THE RELEASE OF THEIR FOURTH ALBUM, DA CAPO,

I think Jonas and I felt that when we did our comeback tour in 2007,

that there was something missing.

We thought we sounded like a bad cover band of ourselves.

The secret source of the band is actually that we have two girls

that have two very different voices, singing together.

So we wanted to have a fourth member in the band.

And Jenny didn't agree on that.

I said that I will not replace her.

Maybe we should call Linn and ask her if she wants to be replaced.

I said to Jonas and Ulf, "Just call her".

And they never called her. They didn't.

It was definitely a lot of tensions for a long time.

It's a very sensitive topic, of course.

They called me into an office. "You're in the hot chair now, Jenny.

Either you're in or out."

But I don't want to replace her. I'm not going to replace her.

When it's Ace of Base it should be the four of us.

Me, Jonas, Ulf and Linn, we're Ace of Base.

We wanted to her to be in the band, but we wanted a fourth member.

Nobody can ever replace her.

Not by my side, not in my heart.

Why did they not listen?

Hi, everyone! We're in Stockholm, freezing cold, just in TV4.

For a full crowd, a show here in Sweden.

-And play guitar. -And sing...

Golden Ratio.

You have to check it out. We're going to put...

a link on the Facebook site.

I think maybe next time we see you is in Mexico.

Water for Life. See you then. 11 December.

I remember hearing that they were coming back, and we were all like,

"Oh, that's interesting." But then it was two different women.

And we wanted the same faces and the same voices, really importantly.

Both of those sisters have such distinct voices.

I was feeling kind of left out.

And I asked God, "What am I supposed to think of this?

What am I supposed to think of them?

Because I feel replaced and I feel deceived."

And then I got like a clear voice, like nothing else was existing,

"You should love them." And I said, "That I can do".

I think it was a really poor choice to call that Ace of Base,

because it wasn't Ace of Base.

You can't take away both of the lead singers and call it the same thing.

Looking at all that has happened,

you have to keep in mind that me and Linn never quit Ace of Base.

This was not a decision that we had.

We keep thinking that we're Ace of Base, all four of us.

Sometimes, there's other forces splitting up the band,

like managers, record companies or media.

But here I think we completely created that split ourselves.

The school example of what you want to do if you want to destroy a band.

Ace of Base has never received proper recognition in Sweden.

One might think that Sweden's third largest pop export ever

would have a natural place in the Swedish Music Hall of Fame.

But Ace of Base has never won the favour of critics.

However, they achieved something greater.

They created timeless songs that conquered the entire world.

I'm a lot on the road still, almost as much when I had the band.

I travel 150 to 200 days a year.

I have businesses in Asia and the US and South America.

I'm very much into the tech industry

and I'm still working with music on computers.

I go to the Amazon at least four times a year.

I have a lot of communication with local communities

and the indigenous people down there.

I want to make a change.

We have left a legacy through the music,

but I'd like to leave a legacy of doing some good as well.

For me, I came out of a complete nightmare of my life.

I found the meaning of life and I found a family, which I didn't have.

I created something that I love to work with, my passion.

I had the honour and privilege to work with people I loved,

even though it was not without tensions, for sure.

Every day I have new challenges

and I take them on like I did with Ace of Base.

For me that gives me energy every morning when I wake up.

It's very exciting.

There is this seriously damaged side that has been whole.

There is one part of me that has been weak.

It has become strong.

That's good.

And it became stronger and stronger.

The more I did things, the more I put myself on the line,

the stronger I became.

Whether it's working on new songs with Jonas

or performing the big hits on stage, I'm full of power.

I have developed so much from the little girl I was when I was 19

till when I was now a mother of two and a full-grown vocalist.

It's so interesting that it's me, of all,

that is still standing.

I reflect on it a lot.

I miss them each time I go up, so that's the truth.

Because we are us.

And we should be four, but it's only me.

You're one-hit wonders and then you're out.

Or you do it for a lifetime.

And I'm the lifetime girl.

Well, we have a prize-giving today from the record company,

Playground and Warner.

It's going to be fantastic to meet

whoever is going to be on this little gathering.

Some of my band members will be there.

I haven't seen Jenny and Jonas together for the past 15 years,

so it's a big moment.

I've been missing them a lot. I've been thinking about them a lot.

I'm very excited.

-Hi, how's it going? -Welcome.

This is very nice. We used to stay here in the nineties.

-Really at Diplomat? -Yeah.

Hi there. Long time no see. Shit. You alright?

-Yeah, great. -Hi.

Hello. Long time no see.

How are you? This is cool.

-Do you recognise this? -I do.

-Didn't we both have one? -Yes, in 1994.

-I can fit into it again. -Incredible.

You look great. Big and strong.

So where's your sister? Is she...

-She's putting on makeup. -Thanks.

This is amazing. I didn't expect you to come to Stockholm.

So nice. Will you stay for a few days or what's the plan?

We're heading back tomorrow. I'm working.

Okay.

Just a quick stop and then back again.

You'll have to enjoy this beautiful evening in Stockholm.

-Everything's terrific. -Great.

Come on. Don't be shy.

I thought you siblings were having a little hug.

So...Here we are.

Shall we take a photo then, if somebody has a camera?

-Let's just socialise. -Will get a picture later.

Is this how you socialise, standing like this?

I always stand like this when I socialise.

I tend to have my kids around.

Today it's the bigger boys.

Big brother then. Ulf was the little brother.

-I have quite a tall son. -I like it.

-Little brother. -Yes.

In Sweden a gold record is equivalent to 4 million streams.

I've handed out loads of those.

But I've never handed over a gold record for 4 billion streams before.

That's your position in the world now. Incredible.

-Wow. -Amazing.

-Jonas. -Thank you.

I've been in contact with Jonas Berggren several times

while working on this documentary.

He has declined an interview,

but he never really closed the door on participating in some other way.

And when he suddenly appears on our very last day of filming,

it somehow feels typical for a band

that has always been full of surprises.

But what about Malin Berggren?

Linn has a desire not to be in the spotlight and limelight anymore.

So I wouldn't even start to talk about where she is right now.

There is a lot of love between me and my sister.

I honoured my sister by saying that my sister is not here right now.

I'm her shield, to keep her out of the eye.

Because she doesn't want to be in the eye.

And to our great surprise, Malin has written a letter

that she wants Jenny to read.

It may not answer all our questions,

but it's the first time in over 20 years

that Malin has talked about Ace of Base at all.

For my sister to read:

To Ulf: You wanted light. God bless you.

Jenny, my co-pilot and master of struggling,

had got the best voice ever.

Listen to her chorus in Memories Forever.

It is so wonderful.

And to my hardworking brother Jonas:

He also has the best voice ever.

Listen to the beginning of Happy Nation.

He has always been the sweetest, most protecting and caring

big brother me and Jenny could have had.

He has always struggled and fought for our sake

from the very beginning.

He has worked in the best interest of those involved with Ace of Base.

They both make me so proud.

To my beautiful, kind family of singing philosophers:

Keep singing, life goes on.

Jonas, keep making melodies

that change our hurting world into a better place.

We were all of our joy.

Nobody in Ace of Base has forced me to sing.

To all of you out there who have loved the music:

Thank you.

Joy and strength. Linn.

They were not one-hit or two-hit wonders.

When you get three in a row, you know,

you're helping define the pop sound of the 1990s.

I think, in terms of songs, those were the generational songs.

Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, Katie Perry.

That all gets its roots in Ace of Base.

I mean, it opened every door for Sweden as a music nation.

There was a world before Ace of Base and a world after Ace of Base.

How many years is it now?

-30 years. -30 years?

And we're talking about it like it was yesterday.

That's not a song, that's a cultural phenomenon, for sure.

Subtitles: Anna Townend plint.com