ABBA super fan called to stage at Sunday’s Grammy Awards has Santa Rosa connection

After Cole Harksen’s home in Iowa burned suddenly on Christmas in 2018, he found solace in his longest love, ABBA, which led him to a summer in Santa Rosa that would change his life.

In 2019, he joined Santa Rosa’s Summer Repertory Theater and performed “Mamma Mia!,” the jukebox musical based on the Swedish pop group’s hits.

ABBA, he said, reminded him of the joy of simply being alive. And that fandom, four years later, led him to the stage during Sunday’s 65th annual Grammy Awards.

Harksen, 24, who now lives in Los Angeles, was part of a roundtable of fans discussing their favorite album-of-the-year nominees in pre-recorded segments aired during the telecast. Then the group, including Harksen, took the stage as host Trevor Noah presented the award — which ultimately went to Harry Styles.

“It was a dream opportunity,” Harksen said. “If it wasn’t for the skills I gained that summer in Santa Rosa as an actor and as a human being, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity.

“That summer changed my life,” he added.

Harksen, a fitness studio manager at SoulCycle, spotted a random Google Form in late January, sent out by one of many online artist fan pages he follows, seeking fans of a variety of musical artists. Though he didn’t know what it would be for, he quickly feted ABBA as his muse in the form.

The next day, he received a call from a producer for an interview, and after a series of chats, he was chosen as ABBA’s “superfan representative” after a nationwide search, Harksen said.

“I didn’t know it was for the Grammys until I received an email that said I was chosen,” Harksen said with a laugh. “I was completely shocked.”

During an eight-hour filming session in Los Angeles, Harksen hung around the roundtable to prop up his favorite Swedish quartet. The group was nominated for its 2021 album “Voyage,” its final studio album and the first in 40 years — which shot to No. 1 in 18 countries.

“Seriously, I’ve loved ABBA since I was a fetus,” Harksen said. “My mom used to play ABBA around the house. Every occasion was an ABBA occasion. They brought all of us so much joy.”

At the Grammys, held inside Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena, he and the other chosen fans were called to the stage when the Album of the Year winner was chosen, which was a complete surprise, he said.

Though he didn’t meet ABBA that night, whose members weren’t in attendance, he met Beyoncé and Harry Styles and sat near Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo.

“It was cool to see artists I love at their most human and vulnerable level,” Harksen said. “It was a dream come true.”

After his house burned down in 2018, it left him in deep depression. But it was ABBA that pulled him out of the dark. A student of musical theater, he auditioned at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music as part of Santa Rosa’s Summer Repertory Theater’s audition tour.

He performed in “Mamma Mia!,” “Bonnie & Clyde” and “Pippin.”

“He’s such a passionate young artist,” said James Newman, artistic director of Summer Repertory Theater. “We’re so glad to be a small part of his journey.”

“That was the best summer of my life,” Harksen said.

Though not victorious in their very first Album of the Year nomination, ABBA will remain No. 1 in Harksen’s heart.

“Like their song, ‘Little Things’ — you don’t appreciate the little things in life until you don’t have them,” Harksen said. “We don’t appreciate those little things until ... we don’t have a house or a roof over our head. It was a full circle moment.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mya Constantino at mya.constantino@pressdemocrat.com. @searchingformya on Twitter.