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ABBA (1972 - 1982) was a Sweden|Swedish pop music
group. They remain the most successful Swedish
music act and were one of the most popular groups
in the world.

ABBA was formed around 1972 with Björn Ulvaeus,
Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, and Anni-Frid
Lyngstad (nicknamed "Frida"). They became widely
known after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song
Contest with "Waterloo." The group consisted of
two couples, Björn and Agnetha along with Benny
and Frida. ABBA split up in 1982.
 
ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters
of each group member's name. It is usually written
ABBA but is sometimes written as a word, Abba. The
first B in the logo version of the name was
reversed on the band's promotional material from
1976 onwards. 

==Before Abba==
Andersson was a member of the Swedish rock/pop
band Hep Stars who were very popular in Sweden
during the 1960s. The band was modeled after
various US and UK groups such as Herman's Hermits,
The Who and The Rolling Stones. The Hep Stars had
a huge following, especially among teenage girls.
Meanwhile Björn Ulvaeus was fronting a skiffle
group called the Hootenanny Singers whose sound
was softer and more easy-listening than the Hep
Stars. The singers crossed paths sometimes and
they decided to write songs together. One of
these, "Isn't It Easy To Say," became a hit for
the Hep Stars and Björn sometimes guested with
the band on tour. It was even suggested that the
two bands merge but this never happened. Stikkan
Anderson|Stig Anderson, manager of the Hootenanny
Singers and founder of Polar Music, saw more
potential in Benny and Björn working together and
encouraged them to write more songs and create an
album which was eventually called Lycka
("Happiness") when released on the Polar label.

Agnetha Fältskog was ABBA's youngest member and a
pop phenomenon in her own right who wrote and
performed Swedish hits while in her teens and had
also played Mary Magdalene in the Swedish
production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Agnetha was
noted by critics and songwriters as an
accomplished composer but she considered it hard
work, writing and performing light pop songs in
the Schlager style, recording cover version|covers
of hit songs and touring Swedish folkparks, the
main "live circuit" at that time. Inevitably she
bumped into the Hootenanny Singers on their
folkpark tours, meeting and eventually falling in
love with Björn. Their marriage in 1971 was the
Swedish celebrity wedding of the year and drew
much publicity.

Housewife Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad was a
part-time cabaret singer who decided to enter a
talent competition and won. Sweden was Dagen
H|changing over from driving on the left side of
the road to the right and a series of spectacular
shows was being aired to encourage people to stay
off the roads on the night of the switchover.
Invited to appear on TV that evening with her
winning song, Frida's musical career took off. She
met Benny Andersson on the wonted folkpark tour.
They became lovers and Benny invited Anni-Frid to
sing backing vocals with Agnetha on the Lycka
album (the two women were uncredited for this
work).

==Early years==
By the early 1970s although Björn and Agnetha
were married they pursued their own separate
musical careers. However Stig was ambitious and
determined to break into the mainstream
international market, a feat previously achieved
by Swedish instrumental guitar group The Sputniks
(their best known hit was "Orange Blossom
Special"). As a result he encouraged Björn and
Benny to write a song for the 1972 Eurovision Song
Contest and it was performed by Lena Anderson.
"Say It With a Song" won third in the contest
selection rounds but was a huge hit in several
countries, convincing Stig he was on the right
track.

Björn and Benny persevered with their songwriting
and experimented with new sounds and vocal
arrangements which brought some success in Japan.
One of the songs they came up with was "People
Need Love," featuring guest vocals by the girls
who were now given much greater prominence than
previously. Everyone involved felt enthusiastic
about the new sound and Stig released it as a
single, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha &
Anni-Frid. The record was a moderate hit, enough
to convince them they were on to something.

The following year they decided to have another
crack at Eurovision, this time with the song
"Ring, Ring." The studio work was handled by
Michael B. Tretow who experimented with a Phil
Spector-like "wall of sound" production technique
that became the wholly new ABBA sound. Stig
arranged an English translation of the lyrics by
Neil Sedaka and they thought this would be a
sure-fire winner. Yet again, it came in third.
Nevertheless the proto-group put out an album
called Ring Ring, still carrying the awkward
naming of Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida. The
album did well and the "Ring Ring" single was a
hit in many parts of Europe but Stig felt the true
breakthrough could only come with a UK or US hit.
Around this time Stig, having tired of the
unwieldy names, started to jokingly refer to the
group privately and publicly as ABBA, which was
also the name of a well-known fish cannery in
Sweden. However, since the fish canners were more
or less unknown outside Sweden Stig came to
believe the name would work in international
markets and it stuck.

==Eurovision and after==
They tried Eurovision Song Contest|Eurovision
again in 1974, now inspired by the growing glam
rock scene in the United Kingdom|UK and tracks
like Wizzard's "See My Baby Jive." Working on
"Waterloo", an unashamedly glam-style pop track
produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall of sound
approach. Now far more experienced, they were
better prepared for the contest and had an album's
worth of material released when the show was held
in Brighton, England. The song won hands down and
catapulted them into British consciousness for the
first time. Now they had a catchy name, ABBA, and
people could buy the whole album (Waterloo)
straight away.

"Waterloo" was a UK hit, ABBA's first number one.
It was released in the United States|US, reaching
#6. Momentum was hard to maintain and follow-up
singles did not do nearly as well. The group was
overstretched and unable to promote the songs
convincingly in any one country. Moreover, most of
their material was still heavily derivative. It
wasn't until "SOS", a song originally written by
Benny and Björn for one of Agnetha's solo
projects, that ABBA scored another UK top ten.
"SOS" consolidated ABBA's presence in the UK and
they were no longer regarded as a one-hit wonder.

Wide success came in 1975 with every release
charting solidly and several more number one hits
including "Mamma Mia." The band even released a
somewhat hubristically titled Greatest Hits album
despite having had only five Top 40 hits in the UK
and the US. This album included "Fernando" (an
earlier version had been a Swedish-language hit
single for Anni-Frid and included on her 1975
Benny-produced solo LP Frida Ensam). Becoming one
of ABBA's best-known tracks, "Fernando" did not
appear on the Swedish or Australian releases of
Greatest Hits. In Sweden the song would wait until
1982's The Singles-The First Ten Years to appear
in an English-language version credited to ABBA;
the track was later included in the Australian
release of their 1976 album Arrival
(ABBA)|Arrival.

Arrival represented a new level of accomplishment
in both songwriting and studio work for ABBA. Hit
after hit flowed from it: "Money, Money, Money,"
"Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Dancing Queen,"
their most enduring and definitive hit. By this
time ABBA were widely popular in the UK, most of
Western Europe and Australia but still had only
moderate recognition and airplay in the US and
"Dancing Queen" remains the only number one ABBA
ever achieved there.


By this time the ABBA sound was synonymous with
European pop and was widely copied by groups like
Brotherhood of Man and later, Bucks Fizz
(band)|Bucks Fizz. Some felt it was necessary to
copy ABBA's sound and two girl/two boy approach to
win Eurovision and the notion seemed validated
when Brotherhood of Man won in 1976 and Bucks Fizz
took the prize in 1981. 

Meanwhile in 1977 ABBA followed up Arrival with
their more complex Abba - The Album which was
released to coincide with Abba - The Movie, a
feature film of their Australian tour. This album
was less well-received by the critics but hits
flowed from it: "Take a Chance On Me" and "The
Name of the Game" both topped the UK charts. This
album also carried the well-known "Thank You for
the Music" which was later released in the UK as a
single (1983) and had been a B-side of "Eagle" in
territories where that song was released as a
single.

==Rise and fall==
By 1978 ABBA was a megagroup. They built Polar
Music Studio, a new state-of-the-art studio in
Stockholm which was used by several other
successful bands (Led Zeppelin's In Through the
Out Door was recorded there). The single "Summer
Night City", their last Swedish number one,
stopped just short of topping the UK charts but
set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with the
album Voulez-Vous. This release marked the
beginning of ABBA's decline in Europe but rather
ironically got them considerably more attention in
the US. The hits still came: "Does Your Mother
Know", "Voulez-Vous", "Chiquitita" and "I Have a
Dream" all charted but with punk music|Punk and
New Wave music|New Wave firming their grip in the
UK many felt ABBA were sounding somewhat dated.

In 1979 ABBA toured the US to huge audiences, but
the breakthrough there was perhaps too little, too
late. 1980's Super Trouper achieved respectable
sales but to fans and critics alike it sounded as
if the group's creativity was winding down. Even
so, the title track along with "The Winner Takes
It All" both topped the UK charts. Super Trouper
and The Visitors (1981) (their final studio album)
show songwriting maturity and depths of feeling
lacking from their earlier recordings. The
Visitors' title track referes to
secret meetings held against the approval of
Communist governments in Soviet satellite states
and other tracks address topics like aging, loss
of innocence, a parent watching her child grow up
and so on. They had left Euro-style light weight
pop behind in their wake but the melodies were
still catchy.

Although now regarded as a group in decline, ABBA
still drew huge audiences into the early 1980s and
might have gone on indefinitely if it not for the
band's personal turmoils: The two married couples
had been drifting apart for years. Songs like "The
Winner Takes It All" and "One Of Us" gave glimpses
of personal issues ABBA's members were facing.
Over time it became unsustainable and the band
split in 1982. That summer Björn and Benny put
two unreleased songs ("The Day Before You Came"
and "Under Attack") onto a double album called The
Singles-The First Ten Years. "The Day Before You
Came" was the last song ABBA ever recorded
together, though many compilations, re-releases
and a live album were later put out by record
companies. Along with pop group Boney M ABBA
remains the most widely-known western group in the
non-European world including India, Africa and
South-East Asia.

==Fashion and videos==
ABBA was widely noted as an epitome of 1970s
fashion for the colourful costumes its members
wore. The videos which accompanied some of their
biggest hits are often cited as being among the
earliest examples of the genre. Most of ABBA's
videos (and ABBA - The Movie) were directed by
Lasse Hallström who would later direct the films
My Life as a Dog, The Cider House Rules and
Chocolat. ABBA made videos because their songs
were hits in so many different countries and
personal appearances weren't always possible. 
Some of these videos became classics because of
the 1970s era costumes and early video effects
(such as overlapping one girl's profile with the
other's full face) never mind the generous use of
blue eyeshadow. In 2005 most of their videos could
be seen on the DVDs ABBA Gold and The Definitive
Collection.

Several ABBA videos were spoofed by others: The
video "Knowing Me, Knowing You" was satirised on
the British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC comedy
show Not the Nine O'Clock News as "Super Dooper." 
The title Knowing Me, Knowing You was also
borrowed for a spoof chat show on BBC starring
Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge who always entered
the studio shouting "Aha!" (an exclamation in the
lyrics). UK comedy duo French and Saunders
parodied ABBA with their song "C'est La Vie", an
homage to "The Winner Takes it All."

==After ABBA==
Björn and Benny wrote the music for the West End
show Chess (musical)|Chess (1984) with lyricist
Tim Rice. Chess ran for three years in London. The
show also opened on Broadway theatre|Broadway in
the US (1988) but the song order, lyrics and
storyline had been tampered with and the show
closed within weeks. 

Björn and Benny, inspired by the successes of
Rice and his former collaborator Andrew
Lloyd-Webber, had long expressed their desire to
write a musical. Their first attempt had been a
"mini-musical", The Girl with The Golden Hair,
performed by the group during their 1977 tour of
Europe and Australia. Excerpts were included in
ABBA - The Movie and ABBA - The Album. Björn and
Benny followed Chess with Kristina från Duvemåla
(1995), directed for the stage by Lars Rudolfsson
and based on the Emigrants tetralogy by Swedish
novelist Vilhelm Moberg. Mamma Mia!, a musical
built around ABBA's songs, had its London premier
in 1999. In 2003 their first musical was given new
life in a Swedish-language version, Chess PÃ¥
Svenska.

Agnetha and Frida each had some moderate solo
success after ABBA split. In 1982 Frida released
her Phil Collins-produced album Something's Going
On and Agnetha followed in 1983 with Wrap Your
Arms Around Me. Both had further releases during
the 1980s but eventually retired.

After I Stand Alone in 1987 Agnetha withdrew from
public life and refused to give interviews. In
April 2004 she emerged to release a disc of cover
songs called "My Colouring Book" which had a
mediocre reception but debuted at number one in
Sweden and number six in Germany. The album went
gold in Finland and sold enough in Great Britain
to get a silver disc award.

Frida released Shine (produced by Steve
Lillywhite) in 1984 in music|1984 but it was not
until 1996 that she released her last album to
date, the Swedish-language Djupa Andetag which had
great success in Sweden but went unknown
internationally. In September 2004 Frida recorded
"The Sun Will Shine Again" with former Deep Purple
member Jon Lord for his latest album, making some
rare appearances on German television.

After being largely forgotten throughout most of
the 1980s ABBA experienced a resurgence. The
attention was often ironic, along the lines of
"they were so wikt:naff|naff they were good," yet
others recognised that while ABBA was often panned
by critics and sneered at by punk rock|punk and
New Wave music|New Wave musicians they were
masters of their art, the three minute pop song.
Björn and Benny were finally recognised in 2001
with an Ivor Novello|Ivor Novello Award for their
songwriting. Many former punk and New Wave
artistes later admitted to levels of fondness and
respect for ABBA they were unwilling to own up to
in their early years.

During the 1990s many ABBA tracks were
rediscovered and covered by other artists, such as
Erasure, Ash (band)|Ash and the A-Teens, among
others. The avant-garde band Blancmange
(band)|Blancmange had also covered The Day Before
You Came in the mid-1980s, one of the first bands
to cover an ABBA track.

On April 6th 2004 three former ABBA members
(Björn, Benny and Frida) showed up together in
London for the 30th anniversary of their Eurovison
Song Contest win in 1974, appearing on stage after
the fifth anniversary performance of Mamma Mia!.
In a November 2004 interview with the German
magazine Bunte Björn said a reunion would not
satisfy ABBA's many fans, even though there are
legions of them around the world often clamouring
for one. In February 2005 all four members of ABBA
appeared together in public for the first time
since 1986 at the gala opening of Mamma Mia! in
Stockholm.

==Abba Trivia==

*Songwriters Benny and Björn were unable to write
music down on paper. Only Agnetha could (as
revealed in a Dick Cavett interview with the
group).

*At the height of their success Abba was Sweden's
biggest export, exceeding even Volvo cars.

*While selling their music into Russia during the
late 1970s ABBA was paid in oil commodities
because of an embargo on the rouble.

*The sound track of the successful Australian film
Muriel's Wedding (1994) prominently featured ABBA
songs: The two female leads lip sync "Waterloo"
and the wedding scene is scored to an orchestral
rendition of "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do."

*Another 1994 Australian fillm The Adventures of
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert features a
performance of Mamma Mia! by two drag queen|drag
queens, furthering ABBA's status as a gay icon.

*The ABBA tribute band Björn Again became so
successful that as of 2004 there were five casts
of Björn Again performing in various parts of the
world. The original Björn Again had been touring
for 15 years, longer than the original group.

*A Swedish band, the A-Teens, started their career
in pop music as ABBA Teens, borrowing ABBA's
arrangement of two men and two women. These
Swedish teenagers launched their careers with an
album containing only ABBA covers. 

*techno music|Techno and house music|house remakes
of many original ABBA hits were released under the
name Abbacadabra.

*Mamma Mia! was nominated for a Broadway Tony
Award as Best Musical in 2002.

*In 2000 ABBA were reported to have turned down an
offer of approximately one billion dollars (US) to
do a reunion tour.

* Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary
from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no
reliable source for this information). ABBA's US
sales were 20 million, with UK sales estimated at
25 million.

*In 2005 ABBA's 1976 hit single "Fernando" still
held the record for the most weeks spent at number
one in Australia (along with The Beatles' "Hey
Jude").

*In addition to being an acronym, the name "ABBA"
is also a palindrome. In 1975, ABBA's "SOS" became
the first song with a palindromic title recorded
by a group with a palindromic name to hit the pop
charts.

*ABBA was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of
Fame in 2002.

==Tribute Artists & Bands==
*Richard Clayderman - Plays The Hits Of ABBA 
*Björn Again

==See also==
*ABBA discography - Abba's discography and chart
positions for UK, USA, Germany and Netherlands.
*Music of Sweden
*List of Swedes in music
*Best selling music artists - World's top selling
music artists chart.
*List of number-one hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the Hot
100 (US)
*List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the US
Dance chart

==External links==
*http://www.abbasite.com/start/ AbbaSite.Com -
This site is owned and maintained by "Universal
Music AB" in Sweden.
*http://www.abbaplaza.com/ ABBAPlaza.Com - a fun
ABBA fan site in English and in Dutch.
*http://www.icethesite.com/ icethesite.com - ABBA
and the musicals CHESS, Kristina and more...
*http://www.vocalhalloffame.com/abba3.htm
VocalHallOffame.Com - "Vocal Group Hall of Fame"
page on ABBA.
*http://www.abba-story.com Abba-Story.Com -
Informative site about ABBA.
*http://www.photofeatures.com/abba/index.html
Photo archive of ABBA by Rock Photographer Chris
Walter.
*http://66.235.213.139/~abbagall/index.html Nice
collection of ABBA's pictures
*http://www.abbamail.com/ ABBAmail.Com
Comprehensive ABBA-related site.
start box
succession box |
  before=Anne-Marie David |
  title=Eurovision Song Contest|Winner of the
Eurovision Song Contest |
  years=1974 |
  after=Teach-In 

end box

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

ABBA (1972 - 1982) was a Sweden|Swedish pop music
group. They remain the most successful Swedish
music act and were one of the most popular groups
in the world.

ABBA was formed around 1972 with Björn Ulvaeus,
Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, and Anni-Frid
Lyngstad (nicknamed "Frida"). They became widely
known after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song
Contest with "Waterloo." The group consisted of
two couples, Björn and Agnetha along with Benny
and Frida. ABBA split up in 1982.
 
ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters
of each group member's name. It is usually written
ABBA but is sometimes written as a word, Abba. The
first B in the logo version of the name was
reversed on the band's promotional material from
1976 onwards. 

==Before Abba==
Andersson was a member of the Swedish rock/pop
band Hep Stars who were very popular in Sweden
during the 1960s. The band was modeled after
various US and UK groups such as Herman's Hermits,
The Who and The Rolling Stones. The Hep Stars had
a huge following, especially among teenage girls.
Meanwhile Björn Ulvaeus was fronting a skiffle
group called the Hootenanny Singers whose sound
was softer and more easy-listening than the Hep
Stars. The singers crossed paths sometimes and
they decided to write songs together. One of
these, "Isn't It Easy To Say," became a hit for
the Hep Stars and Björn sometimes guested with
the band on tour. It was even suggested that the
two bands merge but this never happened. Stikkan
Anderson|Stig Anderson, manager of the Hootenanny
Singers and founder of Polar Music, saw more
potential in Benny and Björn working together and
encouraged them to write more songs and create an
album which was eventually called Lycka
("Happiness") when released on the Polar label.

Agnetha Fältskog was ABBA's youngest member and a
pop phenomenon in her own right who wrote and
performed Swedish hits while in her teens and had
also played Mary Magdalene in the Swedish
production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Agnetha was
noted by critics and songwriters as an
accomplished composer but she considered it hard
work, writing and performing light pop songs in
the Schlager style, recording cover version|covers
of hit songs and touring Swedish folkparks, the
main "live circuit" at that time. Inevitably she
bumped into the Hootenanny Singers on their
folkpark tours, meeting and eventually falling in
love with Björn. Their marriage in 1971 was the
Swedish celebrity wedding of the year and drew
much publicity.

Housewife Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad was a
part-time cabaret singer who decided to enter a
talent competition and won. Sweden was Dagen
H|changing over from driving on the left side of
the road to the right and a series of spectacular
shows was being aired to encourage people to stay
off the roads on the night of the switchover.
Invited to appear on TV that evening with her
winning song, Frida's musical career took off. She
met Benny Andersson on the wonted folkpark tour.
They became lovers and Benny invited Anni-Frid to
sing backing vocals with Agnetha on the Lycka
album (the two women were uncredited for this
work).

==Early years==
By the early 1970s although Björn and Agnetha
were married they pursued their own separate
musical careers. However Stig was ambitious and
determined to break into the mainstream
international market, a feat previously achieved
by Swedish instrumental guitar group The Sputniks
(their best known hit was "Orange Blossom
Special"). As a result he encouraged Björn and
Benny to write a song for the 1972 Eurovision Song
Contest and it was performed by Lena Anderson.
"Say It With a Song" won third in the contest
selection rounds but was a huge hit in several
countries, convincing Stig he was on the right
track.

Björn and Benny persevered with their songwriting
and experimented with new sounds and vocal
arrangements which brought some success in Japan.
One of the songs they came up with was "People
Need Love," featuring guest vocals by the girls
who were now given much greater prominence than
previously. Everyone involved felt enthusiastic
about the new sound and Stig released it as a
single, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha &
Anni-Frid. The record was a moderate hit, enough
to convince them they were on to something.

The following year they decided to have another
crack at Eurovision, this time with the song
"Ring, Ring." The studio work was handled by
Michael B. Tretow who experimented with a Phil
Spector-like "wall of sound" production technique
that became the wholly new ABBA sound. Stig
arranged an English translation of the lyrics by
Neil Sedaka and they thought this would be a
sure-fire winner. Yet again, it came in third.
Nevertheless the proto-group put out an album
called Ring Ring, still carrying the awkward
naming of Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida. The
album did well and the "Ring Ring" single was a
hit in many parts of Europe but Stig felt the true
breakthrough could only come with a UK or US hit.
Around this time Stig, having tired of the
unwieldy names, started to jokingly refer to the
group privately and publicly as ABBA, which was
also the name of a well-known fish cannery in
Sweden. However, since the fish canners were more
or less unknown outside Sweden Stig came to
believe the name would work in international
markets and it stuck.

==Eurovision and after==
They tried Eurovision Song Contest|Eurovision
again in 1974, now inspired by the growing glam
rock scene in the United Kingdom|UK and tracks
like Wizzard's "See My Baby Jive." Working on
"Waterloo", an unashamedly glam-style pop track
produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall of sound
approach. Now far more experienced, they were
better prepared for the contest and had an album's
worth of material released when the show was held
in Brighton, England. The song won hands down and
catapulted them into British consciousness for the
first time. Now they had a catchy name, ABBA, and
people could buy the whole album (Waterloo)
straight away.

"Waterloo" was a UK hit, ABBA's first number one.
It was released in the United States|US, reaching
#6. Momentum was hard to maintain and follow-up
singles did not do nearly as well. The group was
overstretched and unable to promote the songs
convincingly in any one country. Moreover, most of
their material was still heavily derivative. It
wasn't until "SOS", a song originally written by
Benny and Björn for one of Agnetha's solo
projects, that ABBA scored another UK top ten.
"SOS" consolidated ABBA's presence in the UK and
they were no longer regarded as a one-hit wonder.

Wide success came in 1975 with every release
charting solidly and several more number one hits
including "Mamma Mia." The band even released a
somewhat hubristically titled Greatest Hits album
despite having had only five Top 40 hits in the UK
and the US. This album included "Fernando" (an
earlier version had been a Swedish-language hit
single for Anni-Frid and included on her 1975
Benny-produced solo LP Frida Ensam). Becoming one
of ABBA's best-known tracks, "Fernando" did not
appear on the Swedish or Australian releases of
Greatest Hits. In Sweden the song would wait until
1982's The Singles-The First Ten Years to appear
in an English-language version credited to ABBA;
the track was later included in the Australian
release of their 1976 album Arrival
(ABBA)|Arrival.

Arrival represented a new level of accomplishment
in both songwriting and studio work for ABBA. Hit
after hit flowed from it: "Money, Money, Money,"
"Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Dancing Queen,"
their most enduring and definitive hit. By this
time ABBA were widely popular in the UK, most of
Western Europe and Australia but still had only
moderate recognition and airplay in the US and
"Dancing Queen" remains the only number one ABBA
ever achieved there.


By this time the ABBA sound was synonymous with
European pop and was widely copied by groups like
Brotherhood of Man and later, Bucks Fizz
(band)|Bucks Fizz. Some felt it was necessary to
copy ABBA's sound and two girl/two boy approach to
win Eurovision and the notion seemed validated
when Brotherhood of Man won in 1976 and Bucks Fizz
took the prize in 1981. 

Meanwhile in 1977 ABBA followed up Arrival with
their more complex Abba - The Album which was
released to coincide with Abba - The Movie, a
feature film of their Australian tour. This album
was less well-received by the critics but hits
flowed from it: "Take a Chance On Me" and "The
Name of the Game" both topped the UK charts. This
album also carried the well-known "Thank You for
the Music" which was later released in the UK as a
single (1983) and had been a B-side of "Eagle" in
territories where that song was released as a
single.

==Rise and fall==
By 1978 ABBA was a megagroup. They built Polar
Music Studio, a new state-of-the-art studio in
Stockholm which was used by several other
successful bands (Led Zeppelin's In Through the
Out Door was recorded there). The single "Summer
Night City", their last Swedish number one,
stopped just short of topping the UK charts but
set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with the
album Voulez-Vous. This release marked the
beginning of ABBA's decline in Europe but rather
ironically got them considerably more attention in
the US. The hits still came: "Does Your Mother
Know", "Voulez-Vous", "Chiquitita" and "I Have a
Dream" all charted but with punk music|Punk and
New Wave music|New Wave firming their grip in the
UK many felt ABBA were sounding somewhat dated.

In 1979 ABBA toured the US to huge audiences, but
the breakthrough there was perhaps too little, too
late. 1980's Super Trouper achieved respectable
sales but to fans and critics alike it sounded as
if the group's creativity was winding down. Even
so, the title track along with "The Winner Takes
It All" both topped the UK charts. Super Trouper
and The Visitors (1981) (their final studio album)
show songwriting maturity and depths of feeling
lacking from their earlier recordings. The
Visitors' title track referes to
secret meetings held against the approval of
Communist governments in Soviet satellite states
and other tracks address topics like aging, loss
of innocence, a parent watching her child grow up
and so on. They had left Euro-style light weight
pop behind in their wake but the melodies were
still catchy.

Although now regarded as a group in decline, ABBA
still drew huge audiences into the early 1980s and
might have gone on indefinitely if it not for the
band's personal turmoils: The two married couples
had been drifting apart for years. Songs like "The
Winner Takes It All" and "One Of Us" gave glimpses
of personal issues ABBA's members were facing.
Over time it became unsustainable and the band
split in 1982. That summer Björn and Benny put
two unreleased songs ("The Day Before You Came"
and "Under Attack") onto a double album called The
Singles-The First Ten Years. "The Day Before You
Came" was the last song ABBA ever recorded
together, though many compilations, re-releases
and a live album were later put out by record
companies. Along with pop group Boney M ABBA
remains the most widely-known western group in the
non-European world including India, Africa and
South-East Asia.

==Fashion and videos==
ABBA was widely noted as an epitome of 1970s
fashion for the colourful costumes its members
wore. The videos which accompanied some of their
biggest hits are often cited as being among the
earliest examples of the genre. Most of ABBA's
videos (and ABBA - The Movie) were directed by
Lasse Hallström who would later direct the films
My Life as a Dog, The Cider House Rules and
Chocolat. ABBA made videos because their songs
were hits in so many different countries and
personal appearances weren't always possible. 
Some of these videos became classics because of
the 1970s era costumes and early video effects
(such as overlapping one girl's profile with the
other's full face) never mind the generous use of
blue eyeshadow. In 2005 most of their videos could
be seen on the DVDs ABBA Gold and The Definitive
Collection.

Several ABBA videos were spoofed by others: The
video "Knowing Me, Knowing You" was satirised on
the British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC comedy
show Not the Nine O'Clock News as "Super Dooper." 
The title Knowing Me, Knowing You was also
borrowed for a spoof chat show on BBC starring
Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge who always entered
the studio shouting "Aha!" (an exclamation in the
lyrics). UK comedy duo French and Saunders
parodied ABBA with their song "C'est La Vie", an
homage to "The Winner Takes it All."

==After ABBA==
Björn and Benny wrote the music for the West End
show Chess (musical)|Chess (1984) with lyricist
Tim Rice. Chess ran for three years in London. The
show also opened on Broadway theatre|Broadway in
the US (1988) but the song order, lyrics and
storyline had been tampered with and the show
closed within weeks. 

Björn and Benny, inspired by the successes of
Rice and his former collaborator Andrew
Lloyd-Webber, had long expressed their desire to
write a musical. Their first attempt had been a
"mini-musical", The Girl with The Golden Hair,
performed by the group during their 1977 tour of
Europe and Australia. Excerpts were included in
ABBA - The Movie and ABBA - The Album. Björn and
Benny followed Chess with Kristina från Duvemåla
(1995), directed for the stage by Lars Rudolfsson
and based on the Emigrants tetralogy by Swedish
novelist Vilhelm Moberg. Mamma Mia!, a musical
built around ABBA's songs, had its London premier
in 1999. In 2003 their first musical was given new
life in a Swedish-language version, Chess PÃ¥
Svenska.

Agnetha and Frida each had some moderate solo
success after ABBA split. In 1982 Frida released
her Phil Collins-produced album Something's Going
On and Agnetha followed in 1983 with Wrap Your
Arms Around Me. Both had further releases during
the 1980s but eventually retired.

After I Stand Alone in 1987 Agnetha withdrew from
public life and refused to give interviews. In
April 2004 she emerged to release a disc of cover
songs called "My Colouring Book" which had a
mediocre reception but debuted at number one in
Sweden and number six in Germany. The album went
gold in Finland and sold enough in Great Britain
to get a silver disc award.

Frida released Shine (produced by Steve
Lillywhite) in 1984 in music|1984 but it was not
until 1996 that she released her last album to
date, the Swedish-language Djupa Andetag which had
great success in Sweden but went unknown
internationally. In September 2004 Frida recorded
"The Sun Will Shine Again" with former Deep Purple
member Jon Lord for his latest album, making some
rare appearances on German television.

After being largely forgotten throughout most of
the 1980s ABBA experienced a resurgence. The
attention was often ironic, along the lines of
"they were so wikt:naff|naff they were good," yet
others recognised that while ABBA was often panned
by critics and sneered at by punk rock|punk and
New Wave music|New Wave musicians they were
masters of their art, the three minute pop song.
Björn and Benny were finally recognised in 2001
with an Ivor Novello|Ivor Novello Award for their
songwriting. Many former punk and New Wave
artistes later admitted to levels of fondness and
respect for ABBA they were unwilling to own up to
in their early years.

During the 1990s many ABBA tracks were
rediscovered and covered by other artists, such as
Erasure, Ash (band)|Ash and the A-Teens, among
others. The avant-garde band Blancmange
(band)|Blancmange had also covered The Day Before
You Came in the mid-1980s, one of the first bands
to cover an ABBA track.

On April 6th 2004 three former ABBA members
(Björn, Benny and Frida) showed up together in
London for the 30th anniversary of their Eurovison
Song Contest win in 1974, appearing on stage after
the fifth anniversary performance of Mamma Mia!.
In a November 2004 interview with the German
magazine Bunte Björn said a reunion would not
satisfy ABBA's many fans, even though there are
legions of them around the world often clamouring
for one. In February 2005 all four members of ABBA
appeared together in public for the first time
since 1986 at the gala opening of Mamma Mia! in
Stockholm.

==Abba Trivia==

*Songwriters Benny and Björn were unable to write
music down on paper. Only Agnetha could (as
revealed in a Dick Cavett interview with the
group).

*At the height of their success Abba was Sweden's
biggest export, exceeding even Volvo cars.

*While selling their music into Russia during the
late 1970s ABBA was paid in oil commodities
because of an embargo on the rouble.

*The sound track of the successful Australian film
Muriel's Wedding (1994) prominently featured ABBA
songs: The two female leads lip sync "Waterloo"
and the wedding scene is scored to an orchestral
rendition of "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do."

*Another 1994 Australian fillm The Adventures of
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert features a
performance of Mamma Mia! by two drag queen|drag
queens, furthering ABBA's status as a gay icon.

*The ABBA tribute band Björn Again became so
successful that as of 2004 there were five casts
of Björn Again performing in various parts of the
world. The original Björn Again had been touring
for 15 years, longer than the original group.

*A Swedish band, the A-Teens, started their career
in pop music as ABBA Teens, borrowing ABBA's
arrangement of two men and two women. These
Swedish teenagers launched their careers with an
album containing only ABBA covers. 

*techno music|Techno and house music|house remakes
of many original ABBA hits were released under the
name Abbacadabra.

*Mamma Mia! was nominated for a Broadway Tony
Award as Best Musical in 2002.

*In 2000 ABBA were reported to have turned down an
offer of approximately one billion dollars (US) to
do a reunion tour.

* Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary
from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no
reliable source for this information). ABBA's US
sales were 20 million, with UK sales estimated at
25 million.

*In 2005 ABBA's 1976 hit single "Fernando" still
held the record for the most weeks spent at number
one in Australia (along with The Beatles' "Hey
Jude").

*In addition to being an acronym, the name "ABBA"
is also a palindrome. In 1975, ABBA's "SOS" became
the first song with a palindromic title recorded
by a group with a palindromic name to hit the pop
charts.

*ABBA was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of
Fame in 2002.

==Tribute Artists & Bands==
*Richard Clayderman - Plays The Hits Of ABBA 
*Björn Again

==See also==
*ABBA discography - Abba's discography and chart
positions for UK, USA, Germany and Netherlands.
*Music of Sweden
*List of Swedes in music
*Best selling music artists - World's top selling
music artists chart.
*List of number-one hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the Hot
100 (US)
*List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the US
Dance chart

==External links==
*http://www.abbasite.com/start/ AbbaSite.Com -
This site is owned and maintained by "Universal
Music AB" in Sweden.
*http://www.abbaplaza.com/ ABBAPlaza.Com - a fun
ABBA fan site in English and in Dutch.
*http://www.icethesite.com/ icethesite.com - ABBA
and the musicals CHESS, Kristina and more...
*http://www.vocalhalloffame.com/abba3.htm
VocalHallOffame.Com - "Vocal Group Hall of Fame"
page on ABBA.
*http://www.abba-story.com Abba-Story.Com -
Informative site about ABBA.
*http://www.photofeatures.com/abba/index.html
Photo archive of ABBA by Rock Photographer Chris
Walter.
*http://66.235.213.139/~abbagall/index.html Nice
collection of ABBA's pictures
*http://www.abbamail.com/ ABBAmail.Com
Comprehensive ABBA-related site.
start box
succession box |
  before=Anne-Marie David |
  title=Eurovision Song Contest|Winner of the
Eurovision Song Contest |
  years=1974 |
  after=Teach-In 

end box

	Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

ABBA (1972 - 1982) was a Sweden|Swedish pop music
group. They remain the most successful Swedish
music act and were one of the most popular groups
in the world.

ABBA was formed around 1972 with Björn Ulvaeus,
Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, and Anni-Frid
Lyngstad (nicknamed "Frida"). They became widely
known after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song
Contest with "Waterloo." The group consisted of
two couples, Björn and Agnetha along with Benny
and Frida. ABBA split up in 1982.
 
ABBA is an acronym formed from the first letters
of each group member's name. It is usually written
ABBA but is sometimes written as a word, Abba. The
first B in the logo version of the name was
reversed on the band's promotional material from
1976 onwards. 

==Before Abba==
Andersson was a member of the Swedish rock/pop
band Hep Stars who were very popular in Sweden
during the 1960s. The band was modeled after
various US and UK groups such as Herman's Hermits,
The Who and The Rolling Stones. The Hep Stars had
a huge following, especially among teenage girls.
Meanwhile Björn Ulvaeus was fronting a skiffle
group called the Hootenanny Singers whose sound
was softer and more easy-listening than the Hep
Stars. The singers crossed paths sometimes and
they decided to write songs together. One of
these, "Isn't It Easy To Say," became a hit for
the Hep Stars and Björn sometimes guested with
the band on tour. It was even suggested that the
two bands merge but this never happened. Stikkan
Anderson|Stig Anderson, manager of the Hootenanny
Singers and founder of Polar Music, saw more
potential in Benny and Björn working together and
encouraged them to write more songs and create an
album which was eventually called Lycka
("Happiness") when released on the Polar label.

Agnetha Fältskog was ABBA's youngest member and a
pop phenomenon in her own right who wrote and
performed Swedish hits while in her teens and had
also played Mary Magdalene in the Swedish
production of Jesus Christ Superstar. Agnetha was
noted by critics and songwriters as an
accomplished composer but she considered it hard
work, writing and performing light pop songs in
the Schlager style, recording cover version|covers
of hit songs and touring Swedish folkparks, the
main "live circuit" at that time. Inevitably she
bumped into the Hootenanny Singers on their
folkpark tours, meeting and eventually falling in
love with Björn. Their marriage in 1971 was the
Swedish celebrity wedding of the year and drew
much publicity.

Housewife Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad was a
part-time cabaret singer who decided to enter a
talent competition and won. Sweden was Dagen
H|changing over from driving on the left side of
the road to the right and a series of spectacular
shows was being aired to encourage people to stay
off the roads on the night of the switchover.
Invited to appear on TV that evening with her
winning song, Frida's musical career took off. She
met Benny Andersson on the wonted folkpark tour.
They became lovers and Benny invited Anni-Frid to
sing backing vocals with Agnetha on the Lycka
album (the two women were uncredited for this
work).

==Early years==
By the early 1970s although Björn and Agnetha
were married they pursued their own separate
musical careers. However Stig was ambitious and
determined to break into the mainstream
international market, a feat previously achieved
by Swedish instrumental guitar group The Sputniks
(their best known hit was "Orange Blossom
Special"). As a result he encouraged Björn and
Benny to write a song for the 1972 Eurovision Song
Contest and it was performed by Lena Anderson.
"Say It With a Song" won third in the contest
selection rounds but was a huge hit in several
countries, convincing Stig he was on the right
track.

Björn and Benny persevered with their songwriting
and experimented with new sounds and vocal
arrangements which brought some success in Japan.
One of the songs they came up with was "People
Need Love," featuring guest vocals by the girls
who were now given much greater prominence than
previously. Everyone involved felt enthusiastic
about the new sound and Stig released it as a
single, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha &
Anni-Frid. The record was a moderate hit, enough
to convince them they were on to something.

The following year they decided to have another
crack at Eurovision, this time with the song
"Ring, Ring." The studio work was handled by
Michael B. Tretow who experimented with a Phil
Spector-like "wall of sound" production technique
that became the wholly new ABBA sound. Stig
arranged an English translation of the lyrics by
Neil Sedaka and they thought this would be a
sure-fire winner. Yet again, it came in third.
Nevertheless the proto-group put out an album
called Ring Ring, still carrying the awkward
naming of Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida. The
album did well and the "Ring Ring" single was a
hit in many parts of Europe but Stig felt the true
breakthrough could only come with a UK or US hit.
Around this time Stig, having tired of the
unwieldy names, started to jokingly refer to the
group privately and publicly as ABBA, which was
also the name of a well-known fish cannery in
Sweden. However, since the fish canners were more
or less unknown outside Sweden Stig came to
believe the name would work in international
markets and it stuck.

==Eurovision and after==
They tried Eurovision Song Contest|Eurovision
again in 1974, now inspired by the growing glam
rock scene in the United Kingdom|UK and tracks
like Wizzard's "See My Baby Jive." Working on
"Waterloo", an unashamedly glam-style pop track
produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall of sound
approach. Now far more experienced, they were
better prepared for the contest and had an album's
worth of material released when the show was held
in Brighton, England. The song won hands down and
catapulted them into British consciousness for the
first time. Now they had a catchy name, ABBA, and
people could buy the whole album (Waterloo)
straight away.

"Waterloo" was a UK hit, ABBA's first number one.
It was released in the United States|US, reaching
#6. Momentum was hard to maintain and follow-up
singles did not do nearly as well. The group was
overstretched and unable to promote the songs
convincingly in any one country. Moreover, most of
their material was still heavily derivative. It
wasn't until "SOS", a song originally written by
Benny and Björn for one of Agnetha's solo
projects, that ABBA scored another UK top ten.
"SOS" consolidated ABBA's presence in the UK and
they were no longer regarded as a one-hit wonder.

Wide success came in 1975 with every release
charting solidly and several more number one hits
including "Mamma Mia." The band even released a
somewhat hubristically titled Greatest Hits album
despite having had only five Top 40 hits in the UK
and the US. This album included "Fernando" (an
earlier version had been a Swedish-language hit
single for Anni-Frid and included on her 1975
Benny-produced solo LP Frida Ensam). Becoming one
of ABBA's best-known tracks, "Fernando" did not
appear on the Swedish or Australian releases of
Greatest Hits. In Sweden the song would wait until
1982's The Singles-The First Ten Years to appear
in an English-language version credited to ABBA;
the track was later included in the Australian
release of their 1976 album Arrival
(ABBA)|Arrival.

Arrival represented a new level of accomplishment
in both songwriting and studio work for ABBA. Hit
after hit flowed from it: "Money, Money, Money,"
"Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Dancing Queen,"
their most enduring and definitive hit. By this
time ABBA were widely popular in the UK, most of
Western Europe and Australia but still had only
moderate recognition and airplay in the US and
"Dancing Queen" remains the only number one ABBA
ever achieved there.


By this time the ABBA sound was synonymous with
European pop and was widely copied by groups like
Brotherhood of Man and later, Bucks Fizz
(band)|Bucks Fizz. Some felt it was necessary to
copy ABBA's sound and two girl/two boy approach to
win Eurovision and the notion seemed validated
when Brotherhood of Man won in 1976 and Bucks Fizz
took the prize in 1981. 

Meanwhile in 1977 ABBA followed up Arrival with
their more complex Abba - The Album which was
released to coincide with Abba - The Movie, a
feature film of their Australian tour. This album
was less well-received by the critics but hits
flowed from it: "Take a Chance On Me" and "The
Name of the Game" both topped the UK charts. This
album also carried the well-known "Thank You for
the Music" which was later released in the UK as a
single (1983) and had been a B-side of "Eagle" in
territories where that song was released as a
single.

==Rise and fall==
By 1978 ABBA was a megagroup. They built Polar
Music Studio, a new state-of-the-art studio in
Stockholm which was used by several other
successful bands (Led Zeppelin's In Through the
Out Door was recorded there). The single "Summer
Night City", their last Swedish number one,
stopped just short of topping the UK charts but
set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with the
album Voulez-Vous. This release marked the
beginning of ABBA's decline in Europe but rather
ironically got them considerably more attention in
the US. The hits still came: "Does Your Mother
Know", "Voulez-Vous", "Chiquitita" and "I Have a
Dream" all charted but with punk music|Punk and
New Wave music|New Wave firming their grip in the
UK many felt ABBA were sounding somewhat dated.

In 1979 ABBA toured the US to huge audiences, but
the breakthrough there was perhaps too little, too
late. 1980's Super Trouper achieved respectable
sales but to fans and critics alike it sounded as
if the group's creativity was winding down. Even
so, the title track along with "The Winner Takes
It All" both topped the UK charts. Super Trouper
and The Visitors (1981) (their final studio album)
show songwriting maturity and depths of feeling
lacking from their earlier recordings. The
Visitors' title track referes to
secret meetings held against the approval of
Communist governments in Soviet satellite states
and other tracks address topics like aging, loss
of innocence, a parent watching her child grow up
and so on. They had left Euro-style light weight
pop behind in their wake but the melodies were
still catchy.

Although now regarded as a group in decline, ABBA
still drew huge audiences into the early 1980s and
might have gone on indefinitely if it not for the
band's personal turmoils: The two married couples
had been drifting apart for years. Songs like "The
Winner Takes It All" and "One Of Us" gave glimpses
of personal issues ABBA's members were facing.
Over time it became unsustainable and the band
split in 1982. That summer Björn and Benny put
two unreleased songs ("The Day Before You Came"
and "Under Attack") onto a double album called The
Singles-The First Ten Years. "The Day Before You
Came" was the last song ABBA ever recorded
together, though many compilations, re-releases
and a live album were later put out by record
companies. Along with pop group Boney M ABBA
remains the most widely-known western group in the
non-European world including India, Africa and
South-East Asia.

==Fashion and videos==
ABBA was widely noted as an epitome of 1970s
fashion for the colourful costumes its members
wore. The videos which accompanied some of their
biggest hits are often cited as being among the
earliest examples of the genre. Most of ABBA's
videos (and ABBA - The Movie) were directed by
Lasse Hallström who would later direct the films
My Life as a Dog, The Cider House Rules and
Chocolat. ABBA made videos because their songs
were hits in so many different countries and
personal appearances weren't always possible. 
Some of these videos became classics because of
the 1970s era costumes and early video effects
(such as overlapping one girl's profile with the
other's full face) never mind the generous use of
blue eyeshadow. In 2005 most of their videos could
be seen on the DVDs ABBA Gold and The Definitive
Collection.

Several ABBA videos were spoofed by others: The
video "Knowing Me, Knowing You" was satirised on
the British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC comedy
show Not the Nine O'Clock News as "Super Dooper." 
The title Knowing Me, Knowing You was also
borrowed for a spoof chat show on BBC starring
Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge who always entered
the studio shouting "Aha!" (an exclamation in the
lyrics). UK comedy duo French and Saunders
parodied ABBA with their song "C'est La Vie", an
homage to "The Winner Takes it All."

==After ABBA==
Björn and Benny wrote the music for the West End
show Chess (musical)|Chess (1984) with lyricist
Tim Rice. Chess ran for three years in London. The
show also opened on Broadway theatre|Broadway in
the US (1988) but the song order, lyrics and
storyline had been tampered with and the show
closed within weeks. 

Björn and Benny, inspired by the successes of
Rice and his former collaborator Andrew
Lloyd-Webber, had long expressed their desire to
write a musical. Their first attempt had been a
"mini-musical", The Girl with The Golden Hair,
performed by the group during their 1977 tour of
Europe and Australia. Excerpts were included in
ABBA - The Movie and ABBA - The Album. Björn and
Benny followed Chess with Kristina från Duvemåla
(1995), directed for the stage by Lars Rudolfsson
and based on the Emigrants tetralogy by Swedish
novelist Vilhelm Moberg. Mamma Mia!, a musical
built around ABBA's songs, had its London premier
in 1999. In 2003 their first musical was given new
life in a Swedish-language version, Chess PÃ¥
Svenska.

Agnetha and Frida each had some moderate solo
success after ABBA split. In 1982 Frida released
her Phil Collins-produced album Something's Going
On and Agnetha followed in 1983 with Wrap Your
Arms Around Me. Both had further releases during
the 1980s but eventually retired.

After I Stand Alone in 1987 Agnetha withdrew from
public life and refused to give interviews. In
April 2004 she emerged to release a disc of cover
songs called "My Colouring Book" which had a
mediocre reception but debuted at number one in
Sweden and number six in Germany. The album went
gold in Finland and sold enough in Great Britain
to get a silver disc award.

Frida released Shine (produced by Steve
Lillywhite) in 1984 in music|1984 but it was not
until 1996 that she released her last album to
date, the Swedish-language Djupa Andetag which had
great success in Sweden but went unknown
internationally. In September 2004 Frida recorded
"The Sun Will Shine Again" with former Deep Purple
member Jon Lord for his latest album, making some
rare appearances on German television.

After being largely forgotten throughout most of
the 1980s ABBA experienced a resurgence. The
attention was often ironic, along the lines of
"they were so wikt:naff|naff they were good," yet
others recognised that while ABBA was often panned
by critics and sneered at by punk rock|punk and
New Wave music|New Wave musicians they were
masters of their art, the three minute pop song.
Björn and Benny were finally recognised in 2001
with an Ivor Novello|Ivor Novello Award for their
songwriting. Many former punk and New Wave
artistes later admitted to levels of fondness and
respect for ABBA they were unwilling to own up to
in their early years.

During the 1990s many ABBA tracks were
rediscovered and covered by other artists, such as
Erasure, Ash (band)|Ash and the A-Teens, among
others. The avant-garde band Blancmange
(band)|Blancmange had also covered The Day Before
You Came in the mid-1980s, one of the first bands
to cover an ABBA track.

On April 6th 2004 three former ABBA members
(Björn, Benny and Frida) showed up together in
London for the 30th anniversary of their Eurovison
Song Contest win in 1974, appearing on stage after
the fifth anniversary performance of Mamma Mia!.
In a November 2004 interview with the German
magazine Bunte Björn said a reunion would not
satisfy ABBA's many fans, even though there are
legions of them around the world often clamouring
for one. In February 2005 all four members of ABBA
appeared together in public for the first time
since 1986 at the gala opening of Mamma Mia! in
Stockholm.

==Abba Trivia==

*Songwriters Benny and Björn were unable to write
music down on paper. Only Agnetha could (as
revealed in a Dick Cavett interview with the
group).

*At the height of their success Abba was Sweden's
biggest export, exceeding even Volvo cars.

*While selling their music into Russia during the
late 1970s ABBA was paid in oil commodities
because of an embargo on the rouble.

*The sound track of the successful Australian film
Muriel's Wedding (1994) prominently featured ABBA
songs: The two female leads lip sync "Waterloo"
and the wedding scene is scored to an orchestral
rendition of "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do."

*Another 1994 Australian fillm The Adventures of
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert features a
performance of Mamma Mia! by two drag queen|drag
queens, furthering ABBA's status as a gay icon.

*The ABBA tribute band Björn Again became so
successful that as of 2004 there were five casts
of Björn Again performing in various parts of the
world. The original Björn Again had been touring
for 15 years, longer than the original group.

*A Swedish band, the A-Teens, started their career
in pop music as ABBA Teens, borrowing ABBA's
arrangement of two men and two women. These
Swedish teenagers launched their careers with an
album containing only ABBA covers. 

*techno music|Techno and house music|house remakes
of many original ABBA hits were released under the
name Abbacadabra.

*Mamma Mia! was nominated for a Broadway Tony
Award as Best Musical in 2002.

*In 2000 ABBA were reported to have turned down an
offer of approximately one billion dollars (US) to
do a reunion tour.

* Estimates of ABBA's total worldwide sales vary
from 140 to 500 million (there seems to be no
reliable source for this information). ABBA's US
sales were 20 million, with UK sales estimated at
25 million.

*In 2005 ABBA's 1976 hit single "Fernando" still
held the record for the most weeks spent at number
one in Australia (along with The Beatles' "Hey
Jude").

*In addition to being an acronym, the name "ABBA"
is also a palindrome. In 1975, ABBA's "SOS" became
the first song with a palindromic title recorded
by a group with a palindromic name to hit the pop
charts.

*ABBA was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of
Fame in 2002.

==Tribute Artists & Bands==
*Richard Clayderman - Plays The Hits Of ABBA 
*Björn Again

==See also==
*ABBA discography - Abba's discography and chart
positions for UK, USA, Germany and Netherlands.
*Music of Sweden
*List of Swedes in music
*Best selling music artists - World's top selling
music artists chart.
*List of number-one hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the Hot
100 (US)
*List of Number 1 Dance Hits (United States)
*List of artists who reached number one on the US
Dance chart

==External links==
*http://www.abbasite.com/start/ AbbaSite.Com -
This site is owned and maintained by "Universal
Music AB" in Sweden.
*http://www.abbaplaza.com/ ABBAPlaza.Com - a fun
ABBA fan site in English and in Dutch.
*http://www.icethesite.com/ icethesite.com - ABBA
and the musicals CHESS, Kristina and more...
*http://www.vocalhalloffame.com/abba3.htm
VocalHallOffame.Com - "Vocal Group Hall of Fame"
page on ABBA.
*http://www.abba-story.com Abba-Story.Com -
Informative site about ABBA.
*http://www.photofeatures.com/abba/index.html
Photo archive of ABBA by Rock Photographer Chris
Walter.
*http://66.235.213.139/~abbagall/index.html Nice
collection of ABBA's pictures
*http://www.abbamail.com/ ABBAmail.Com
Comprehensive ABBA-related site.
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succession box |
  before=Anne-Marie David |
  title=Eurovision Song Contest|Winner of the
Eurovision Song Contest |
  years=1974 |
  after=Teach-In 

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