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Ace of Base: Happy Nation
For me, Ace of Base will forever remain one of the iconic symbols of the 1990s. It was a sign of a new era, which the famous futurologist and political thinker Francis Fukuyama presumptuously called “the end of history”. The Cold War ended in a convincing victory for the Western democracies, and the Soviet Union collapsed. Everyone in the world expected a new time of peace and prosperity. People in the republics of the former Soviet Union had similar visions of the future, which rested on a great deal of hope. This is no doubt reflected in popular culture, including music.
We greeted the new year of 1993 with Happy Nation by Ace of Base. It seemed to me that it was the anthem of the new age, and that they were singing about us and our present. Now it is obvious that this song has gone far beyond the music of the 1990s and has taken on a prophetic sound.
The album Happy Nation was released on November 2, 1992 in Denmark, its title song was repeatedly re-released and achieved top success. Happy Nation is included in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the best-selling debut albums ever, with 23 million copies sold. Why did the song expect such success? The musical part is too primitive for that, and the lyrics seem to be too strange and at least have many interpretations.