Abba stars Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson have reached an out of court settlement with another writer who had sued them in a dispute over the credits for a musical.
Carl-Johan Seth sued former Abba types Ulvaeus and Andersson over a musical they wrote called 'Kristina From Duvemala'. Seth wrote the first draft of the show, which tells the story of Swedish immigrants to the US in the 19th Century, and claimed he should, as a result, be credited as the main writer of the show. But Ulvaeus and Andersson argued that Seth was not credited as such because, in reality, the script he had created was unusable, and an alternative written by the show's director Lars Rudolfsson and dramatist Jan Mark had been used instead.
The dispute went to court in Sweden last year, and the judge found in the Abba duo's favour. But Seth more or less immediately announced his intention to appeal. However, that appeal is now off after the three men announced an out of court settlement had been reached yesterday. Specifics of the settlement have not been revealed, but in a joint statement the three men said: "We are glad that we have agreed and that we can continue to be friends".
Although the musical was first staged back in 1995, the dispute over who wrote it gained momentum more recently amid reports a Broadway production was in the pipeline.