You may not be able to name another Swedish pop group or musician off hand except for ABBA, but that doesn’t mean the Nordic giant’s impact on pop music stops there. The founder of IKEA may be Swedish but the company itself is owned by a Netherlands-based foundation.

IKEA didn’t even sell it’s now-famous flat-pack furniture until 1956 when the concept was created by a technical design drafter named Gillis Lundgren. There’s no way to compile a list of things Sweden is famous for without including IKEA - even though it isn’t actually Swedish! IKEA - an acronym for the founder’s initials (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm on which he grew up (Elmtaryd), and the farm’s town (Agunnaryd) - was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad when he was just 17 as a mail-order business. That doesn’t mean Swedish design is bland color is a big part of design, too, in textiles. In the Nordic country, walls are typically white and furniture is functional and innovative but simple in appearance. In Sweden, design often incorporates traditional crafts like Sami craftsmanship. Swedish design is part of the broader Scandinavian design trend that started in the early 20th century. If you’re familiar with IKEA, you already have a good idea of the famous Swedish design: an emphasis on clean, simple lines and function over design with a truly minimalist approach. In 2018, Spotify began to branch out into live music in the United States by hiring producers to launch Latin and urban concerts, events, and performances after success in the UK. Today, Spotify is worth an estimated $26 billion with more than 200 million active users around the world and a massive library of more than 35 million songs. Did you know Spotify is one of many things Sweden is famous for? Spotify has grown into a household name since it was founded in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon in Stockholm as a response to piracy in the music industry. There’s a good chance you have the Spotify app on your phone. Stockholm is home to ABBA: The Museum which has had more than 1.5 million visitors since opening in 2013.

The group continues to sell 1 million albums a year! ABBA hasn’t faded from the Nordic country’s memory, despite breaking up more than 30 years ago. ABBA is one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time and they were the first group from a non-English-speaking nation to reach success in the English-speaking world with hits like “Dancing Queen,” “Mamma Mia,” and “Waterloo.” Perhaps Sweden’s most famous export is ABBA, the Stockholm pop group that dominated the world in the 1970s.

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