You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life!

ABBA is the story of four Swedes taking the world by storm. The group, consisting of Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Agnetha Fältskog, was a pop, disco and glam-rock sensation, topping the charts worldwide in the 70s and early 80s, and their music is still as alive today. Their music appeals to people of all ages, all around the world, making ABBA one of the best selling music artists of all time.

This is where the story... begins 

It all started in June 1966, when Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson met for the very first time. Both had already embarked on successful careers in the music industry; Benny being a part of the pop-rock group The Hep Stars, where he played keyboard and eventually started writing original songs reaching the charts, while Björn was a singer and guitarist in the folk-skiffle group The Hootenanny Singers, for whom he also wrote songs, as well as having a brief solo career of his own. The two immediately started writing music together, and formed a regular partnership as composers not long after. In the spring of 1969, Björn and Benny met the two women who would become the second half of ABBA, Agnetha Fältskog and Norwegian-born Anni-Frid ‘Frida’ Lyngstad. Both had already established solo careers.

Melodifestivalen & Eurovision 

In 1973, following the success of ‘People Need Love’, the group decided to enter Melodifestivalen, the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. ‘Ring Ring’, only placed third in the competition, however, as a single, and the following album with the same name, became ABBAs first major success, topping some of the Swedish charts that year, and earning the group recognition in other European countries. 

The following year, they decided to give Melodifestivalen another shot, for the first time under the name ABBA, an acronym for their four first names. The song they entered in the 1974 selections, ‘Waterloo’, fortunately turned out to be an even bigger hit than ‘Ring Ring’, winning Melodifestivalen and, on 6 April 1974, winning the European judges over in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Brighton, England. And the winner truly takes it all, as ‘Waterloo’ became a major hit, topping the charts all over Europe. However, the stigma that used to come with being winners of ESC, made it difficult for ABBA to be taken seriously in the music industry. Their first European tour was far from as successful as the band had hoped, forcing them to cancel some shows due to the lack of sales. It took them as long as 18 months before their next major hit became reality.

Becoming a sensation

Those crazy years, that was the time

Of the flower-power

In April 1975, ABBA released their third studio album, simply titled ‘ABBA’, and off this release came a series of hits. First to reach the charts worldwide was the song ‘SOS’, followed by ‘Mamma Mia’, both from this third album. Throughout the decade, ABBA went on to produce many other major hits, and already in 1976, the release of their fourth studio album ‘Arrival’, saw some of the group’s greatest hits to date, including songs like ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Fernando’ and ‘Money, Money, Money’. The ‘76 success was then followed by what became an even greater success, a concert tour around Europe and Australia during the first three months of 1977. And, December that same year saw the premiere of their first feature film titled ‘ABBA - The Movie’ as well as the release of the album ‘ABBA - The Album’. 

Don’t stop the rocking, don’t stop the rocking, I said don’t stop the rocking...

Despite Björn and Agnetha’s divorce in 1978 and Benny and Frida splitting up in 1981, ABBA produced numerous new hit singles and albums during the following years. And though the happy double-couple image fell apart, ABBA as a group continued to flourish. They once again went on a major European tour in 1979, this time also hitting the roads of the US and Canada. In 1980, it was Japan’s turn to experience ABBA live, which turned out to be the group’s last few live concerts in front of a paying audience.

Breaking up is never easy

After their eighth studio album, ‘The Visitors’, was released in 1981, the ABBA spark declined. During 1972, Benny and Björn went on to compose music for the musical ‘Chess’, while Agetha and Anni-Frid focused on reviving their solo careers, leading up to an official break at the end of that same year. Though ABBA never officially split up completely, the group never returned after this “break”. However, their music lived on. Throughout the following decades, a series of compilation albums has been released, including ABBA Gold, consisting of all their greatest hits, which has become one of the longest running top 100 albums on the UK Official Albums Chart of all time. ABBA’s final performance as a group (before their reunion in 2016), was at the BBC TV programme The Late, Late Breakfast Show on 11 December 1982. 

Memories, good days, bad ways

They’ll be with me always

Mamma Mia, here we go again!

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus’ Mamma Mia!, a jukebox musical written by Catherine Johnson, premiered at the Prince Edward Theatre in London’s West End on April 6 1999. Premiering exactly 25 years after the Eurovision win, this musical featured many of ABBA’s greatest hits, paving the way for ‘ABBA Gold’ to top the album charts world-wide all over again. The musical, which is unfortunately currently discontinued due to the pandemic as all other West End shows, is the seventh longest-running show in West End history, and, even though it closed in 2015, the Boadway production is still the ninth longest-running show in Broadway history. 

In June 2018, the film adaptation of Mamma Mia! had its world premiere at Leicester Square in London, followed by the 4 July premiere in Stockholm, where all four ABBA members attended. The film received mixed reviews from critics, but nonetheless became popular by audiences. The release of this film saw ABBA Gold, the compilation album originally released in 1992, return to the number one spot on the UK album charts, and on 14 August 2008, the film soundtrack (Mamma Mia! The Movie) hit number one on the US Billboard charts, becoming ABBA’s first chart-topping album in the US.

Ten years later, the sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, with a brand new plot building on the Catherine Johnson’s story, written by Ol Parker premiered. The sequel features eighteen of ABBA’s hit songs, including Eurovision winning ‘Waterloo’. 

Despite all their ups and downs, it is still safe to say that ABBA won’t be forgotten anytime soon...

… So I say

Thank you for the music, the songs I’m singing

Thanks for all, the joy they’re bringing.