ABBA! Back in the 70s and 80s they were phenomena. With the group’s smash hit Waterloo, which won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, along with hits like Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and The Winner Takes It All, just to name a few. So where did it all begin? Who were the real ABBA?
For the group it all began in 1974 Eurovision Song Contest in England when they performed their winning song Waterloo. Sir Terry Wolgan held this exciting event where ABBA’s worldwide fame began. “They were amazing. I saw a spark from them as soon as they stepped on stage.” Well, sir T certainly liked them, but the rest of the country had a different opinion and rewarded them zero points. Shocking! But ABBA proved us all wrong, winning the contest and became an overnight sensation.
“I remember hanging out with my mate at Piccadilly when ABBA turned up. A wave of people came from nowhere”, Lilly Johnson recalled of the band’s success. London wasn’t the only place hit by ABBA fever. Everywhere did.
ABBA had become giants in the music industry. Everyone wanted to be them. The boys were geniuses at song writing while the girls had beautiful recording voices selling over 375 million albums, making them the fourth most popular band in the music industry’s history.
Waterloo was a hit receiving praise from music critics across the globe. The LA times said it “captures the spirit of mainstream pop quite effectively…an immensely enjoyable and pleasant project.” It got to #1 in 9 countries.
However, ABBA’S first European tour in November 1974 didn’t kick off to great start and was a great disappointment for the band. Concerts were cancelled because of the lack of seats sold. In January 1975, their luck started to change for better during touring through Scandinavia. They played in sell-out arenas and finally got the recognition they deserved. During the summer of ’75 ABBA performed sixteen open aired concerts in Sweden and Finland. Gröna Lund in Stockholm had a massive audience of 19,200 people just to see ABBA perform.
The single “SOS” made a big impact in the UK reaching #6 in the charts in 1975. Further success came for the band when “Mamma Mia” was released and hit the #1 spot in the UK charts. “Mamma Mia was such a fun song to dance and listen to. I would sing down my hairbrush to it. My older brother couldn’t stop dancing to it whenever it came on the radio”, Anni- Loniona told Loud about listening to Mamma Mia as a teen in Stockholm.
August 1976. Yes! ABBA disco, pop music “Dancing Queen” was released. ABBA performed this single for the first time at the Swedish Royal Variety Performance on the 18th June 1976, the evening before Sweden’s royal wedding, and was a tribute to Siliva Sommerlath, Sweden’s future queen. It became known as ABBA signature song and was very popular with everyone. It made the #1 spot in 18 countries worldwide.
“Money, Money, Money” how we wish we had it and ABBA certainly did have it along with the fame, the screaming girls and boys and let’s not forget those amazing outfits that they performed in the 70s and 80s. This was definitely a smash hit. No doubt about it. This single showed the world Björn and Benny’s amazing skills as song writers and how they were able to write such a piece of dramatic song writing.
October 1979. One of my all-time favorite ABBA song was released, “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme (A Man after Midnight)”. It had a sexual vibe to it about a woman who longs for relationship and shows that happy endings in the movie and in real life aren’t the same. It is the Swedish pop group biggest disco hit ever!
The songs “The Winner takes it all” 1979 and “When All Is Said and Done” 1981 were written on the experience of the heartbreak which was in ABBA because of the divorces of Benny & Anni- Frid and Björn & Agnetha. “It was a sad time for the group and their friends and family. Björn and Agnetha had two children from the marriage, so it was heartbreaking to hear they were filing for divorce in 1980. It was such a hard time for everyone. And of course Benny & Anni- Frid had divorced the year before, so everyone was shocked by their decision to stay together. They were so brave to not let that sort of heartbreak bring them down.”, a close personal friend of ABBA’s revealed to us.
These two songs were so emotional and so powerful. “The gods may throw the dice, Their minds as cold as ice.” Wow. Such beautiful lyrics used in the songs on the divorces. No wonder that this song was and still is ABBA’s greatest hit.
The tissues came out across the world when ABBA decided to call it a day in 1982. 10 years together. 8 albums. 375 million records sold. A movie. ABBA’s last performance was on British TV show The Late, Late Breakfast Show on the 11th December 1982 and was live from Stockholm.
Even though ABBA wasn’t together, their music still lived on. In 1999, ABBA’s music was transmitted into a musical and then a movie in 2008. The premiere of the film was the first all four members had been together since 1986.
So where are all the ABBA members now? Anni- Frid is living in Switzerland with the title of Her Serene Highness Princess Anni-Frid Synni Reuss, Countess of Plauen because of her marriage to Heinrich Ruzzo, a German nobleman. Björn and Benny are still writing songs together and helped to produce Mamma Mia: The Movie! And have said the Daily Mail they are up to do a sequel. Agnetha lives a quiet life in Sweden and now has 3 granddaughters.
And so this chapter on ABBA closes. Well for now anyways.
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