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"Mag-da-le-na!" ABBA composer Benny Andersson performed a reworked version of the band's hit "Mamma Mia" on Sunday to rally support for left-wing opposition candidate Magdalena Andersson.
"I thought, why not come and play for Magdalena?" Benny Andersson said from a piano set up at the Social Democrats' party headquarters, hours after polls opened.
The 79-year-old then launched into the melody of the famous song as supporters gathered in central Stockholm. "Mag-da-le-na!" the crowd sang along, to the amusement of Andersson, leader of the opposition Social Democrats.
Swedes are voting in a tight race that will see either the left-wing opposition reclaim power or the far right enter government for the first time.
Polling stations opened across Sweden at 8:00 a.m. local time (6:00 a.m. GMT) on Sunday for a general election that has tightened dramatically in its final days. Andersson's left-wing bloc had long held a comfortable lead over Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's four-party alliance, which includes the far-right Sweden Democrats, but the gap narrowed to a dead heat in the closing stretch of the campaign.
Kristersson has pledged cabinet posts to the Sweden Democrats if his bloc wins a majority, including the migration portfolio for party leader Jimmie Akesson. Speaking to reporters after casting her own ballot earlier that day, Andersson said the election would decide which direction the country should take, warning voters that the alternative could be a government dominated by the Sweden Democrats.
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