Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad created the Swedish ensemble ABBA in Stockholm in 1972 (formerly known as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida). The group’s name is an acronym made up of the palindrome first letters of their first names. They became one of the best-selling musical acts in the history of popular music, dominating the charts across the globe from 1974 to 1982 and in 2021. They are one of the most well-known and prosperous musical groups of all time.
With the song “Waterloo,” they became Sweden’s first Eurovision Song Contest champions in 1974. In 2005, as part of the competition’s 50th anniversary celebration, it was picked as the finest song in the competition’s history. Fältskog and Ulvaeus and Lyngstad and Andersson were two married couples that made up the band throughout its most productive years. Their personal lives worsened as their fame grew, which ultimately led to the dissolution of both marriages. The group’s music reflected the changes in their relationships, with later songs containing lyrics that were darker and more introspective. Following ABBA’s breakup in December 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus continued to enjoy success as songwriters of music for stage productions, musicals, and motion pictures, while Fältskog and Lyngstad focused on solo endeavors.
A compilation called ABBA Gold was released ten years after the group disbanded and quickly rose to global bestseller status. Mamma Mia!, a stage musical featuring ABBA’s songs that premiered in 1999 and has since toured the world, is still one of the top 10 longest-running shows on both Broadway (which ended in 2015) and the West End as of April 2022. (still running). The same-named movie, which debuted in 2008, ended up earning the most money in the UK. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the sequel, was published in 2018.
The band came back together in 2016 and got to work on a concert tour featuring digital avatars. In 2018, news of newly recorded songs was released. On November 5, 2021, Voyage, their first brand-new album in 40 years, was released to rave reviews from critics and strong global sales. In May 2022, ABBA Voyage, a concert residency featuring the band as digital avatars, debuted in London.
The group was ranked third best-selling singles artists in the United Kingdom with a total of 11.3 million singles sold as of 3 November 2012. ABBA is one of the most successful musical acts in history, with record sales estimated to be between 150 million and 385 million worldwide. The first non-English-speaking group to consistently top the charts in English-speaking nations, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Republic of Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, was ABBA. They are both the best-selling band from continental Europe and the best-selling band ever from Sweden.
In the UK, ABBA had eight straight albums that peaked at number one. The trio recorded a number of their hit songs in Spanish and experienced similar success in Latin America. In 2002, ABBA was admitted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. As the first and only recording artists from a non-Anglophone nation, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. Their song “Dancing Queen” was admitted into the Grammy Hall of Fame by the Recording Academy in 2015.
The Swedish group ABBA, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, received four nominations, including the coveted Record of the Year and Album of the Year awards for Voyage and “Don’t Shut Me Down,” respectively.
Rolling Stone magazine stated that Voyage is “on par with their great 1970s run” in their album preview piece. Heartbreak and sequin-studded pantsuits, two of the greatest trends of the 1970s, are combined in a way that harkens back to the era when Norse gods dominated the radio.
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