The longtime military man and civil servant had a well-known personal obsession with the Swedish pop band, one that was remembered at his funeral.
Colin Powell was viewed as a serious man dealing with serious matters during his career initially as a soldier and later as the first Black U.S. secretary of state. But he would occasionally move to a lighter side, too. Richard Armitage served as the State Department’s second-ranking official while Powell was secretary of state in the George W. Bush administration. Sweden’s foreign minister, Ann Linde, met with Armitage and Powell and presented the latter with a full CD set of Abba’s music. Powell had long been a fan of the Swedish pop group that rose to stardom during the disco craze of the 1970s thanks to songs like Dancing Queen and Waterloo. “Colin immediately went down on one knee and sang the entire Mamma Mia to a very amused foreign minister of Sweden and to a gob-smacked U.S. delegation. They’d never seen anything like it,” Armitage said Friday at Powell’s funeral. The U.S. Army Brass Quintet played Dancing Queen on Friday at the funeral, AP reported. The ceremony at Washington’s National Cathedral drew a large crowd along with President Joe Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bush, as well as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Former President Bill Clinton did not attend because he is recovering from a severe infection. Former President Donald Trump, who attacked Powell in a statement following his death, did not attend. Powell,84, died on October 18 from complications of COVID-19. He had been vaccinated, but his family said he had been compromised by multiple myeloma, a blood cancer for which he had been undergoing treatment. Powell’s death quickly became another point of debate around vaccinations. For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below. Powell was remembered by family and friends Friday as a principled man of humility and grace whose decorated record of leadership can serve as a model for generations to come. “The example of Colin Powell does not call on us to emulate his resume, which is too formidable for mere mortals,” his son, Michael, said in a touching tribute.
