A new documentary series chronicling the rise and fall of Ace of Base, one of the biggest Swedish pop band exports of all time, following in the tradition of fellow Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers ABBA and Roxette, is coming this winter.
Featuring unseen home movie footage and new interviews with members of the band, their business team, music executives, artists and cultural critics, Ace of Base: All That She Wants debuts in full Dec. 5 on Viaplay, a streaming service that hosts Nordic and European TV series and films.
The Swedish quartet — Ulf Ekberg and the siblings Jonas, Jenny and Malin Berggren — first saw success in America with “All That She Wants,” a No. 2 Hot 100 hit and Pop Airplay No. 1, but follow-up single “The Sign” rocketed them to the top of the Hot 100. It was a ubiquitous, era-defining, reggae-flavored dance-pop smash in the mid ‘90s, and remains the longest-leading No. 1 ever on the Pop Airplay chart (it dominated for 14 weeks in 1994).
Ace of Base scored seven top 40 Hot 100 hits throughout the decade, including “Don’t Turn Around” (another Pop Airplay topper) from their U.S. debut album, The Sign, a repackaging of their European debut Happy Nation that topped the Billboard 200 when released by Arista. Naturally, Arista founder and industry legend Clive Davis is one of the interviewees in this docu-series, which also features sit-downs with Wyclef Jean, Nigerian-Swedish singer Dr. Alban (“It’s My Life”), the group’s manager, lawyer, A&R, bodyguard and one of their backup dancers to provide the full picture of their “warts-and-all” story. Ace of Base: All That She Wants also includes an interview with Billboard executive digital director Joe Lynch, i.e., the person writing this article.
In addition to their own hits, Ace of Base helped crack open the door for Swedish artists such as Robyn and The Cardigans to make inroads in the States — not to mention pop producers Denniz Pop and Max Martin, who would permanently shift the direction of commercial pop in America via their work with Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC.
You can check out the trailer below and the full three-part documentary on Dec. 5.
