The Story of Abba, Swedens Top pop Band

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10 March 2010

ABBA is undoubtedly one of Swedens top known pop bands in the world to this day. It has been over 20 years since they released their last album and the band split up, however their songs are still heard on the radio today.

All of this success leads us to question, who was ABBA, and how did the whole thing begin? All of the members of ABBA were fairly well established artists in the music scene in Sweden prior to forming the group.

The group itself consisted of two couples, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and Bjrn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fltskog. Andersson and Ulvaeus had worked together prior to meeting the girls and forming the band, while the girls had previously worked as solo artists.

The first song they released together as a band was People Need Love, which became a top hit in Sweden almost immediately after its release. At this point the band was simply called Bjrn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. Later, in an effort to shorten the name of the band, while continuing to incorporate all of the members names, the abbreviation ABBA was decided upon.

"The first song they released together as a band was People Need Love"

In the months following the success of People Need Love the band was asked to represent Sweden in the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest. It was here that they performed Ring Ring, a song from their first album ever recorded together. While the band did not win this completion, in fact they placed third overall, this would mark the beginning of their success together.

Ring Ring was a huge success right from the beginning; it climbed to the top of charts in Sweden and hit many European countries as well. It would be at the 1974 Eurovision Contest that ABBA would reach its highest success story yet. They took the contest by storm with the song Waterloo, winning first place and having the song hit number one in Europe and reaching top ten in the United States.

The third and fourth albums of this group also hit high on the world charts. Some of their most successful songs that we still hear on the radio today include Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, and Fernando. At this stage in their career ABBA had officially become the first band in history to have recorded their musical hits in three different languages.

In the early 80s ABBA had produced eight albums together however the lifestyle was proving to be too much for them. Andersson and Lyngstad got divorced in 1981 and the band made the decision to split up shortly after that in 1982. The band had been together for ten years at this point but they were all struggling to find the balance between their personal and professional lives.In the 1990s ABBAs success was still running high as their songs were being played in many major movie productions.

When the ABBA Gold album was released in 1992 it sold over twenty five million copies worldwide.

In the late 90s Benny Andersson and Bjrn Ulvaeus produced the musical Mamma Mia! together and it was a huge success in its original release in London.

Years later Mamma Mia was adapted into a major motion picture, reintroducing a whole new generation to ABBAs music. Fast forward to the year 2010 and it is still safe to say that when one of ABBAs big hits begins to play over the radio people of all ages can be heard singing along to the catchy beats and upbeat lyrics.

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Tags: sweden, abba, benny andersson, anni-frid lyngstad, björn ulvaeus, agnetha fältskog, people need love, eurovision song contest, ring ring, dancing queen, mamma mia,
Posted In: Biographies, Entertainment History,

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