Words to Abba’s When I Kissed the Teacher were rewritten for the latest film release – but it’s not the first time a musical has been adapted for modern tastes Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is being embraced this summer as the perfect film to warm the cockles of a news-weary audience. From the Greek sunshine to the nostalgic Abba soundtrack, and Cher’s camp swagger, everything about the film has been engineered to make the audience feel cosy. But could the Abba tracks themselves have been tweaked to put us more at ease? The lyrics to Lily James and Celia Imrie’s ritzy rendition of When I Kissed the Teacher (recently described as “a pop homage to low level sexual harassment”) were changed for the film – prompting fears that even Abba have to be “woke-ified” for modern consumption. The gender of the teacher who kisses the student in the song has been switched from male to female and a key phrase altered. Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus says this isn’t a response to the predatory tales revealed by #MeToo, but simply a tactic to avoid a “horrible” key change. “She had to be a woman. Simple as that,” he has said. Continue reading...
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