Happy 50th Abba-versary
IT’S 50 years since Abba won a major battle with Waterloo.
A half-century ago on April 6, the Swedish quartet triumphed at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with the peppy love song, which opens: “My my, at Waterloo, Napoleon did surrender, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way.” The song rang out again this
nd year on April 6 at London’s Waterloo railway station – also named after the 1815 battle that dealt defeat to the French leader – where a choir belted out a rendition for commuters.
In the English coastal town of Brighton, where the 1974 competition was held, fans were staging a flashmob dance and silent Abba disco to mark the anniversary.
Eurovision victory turned Abba into a pop juggernaut, by far the most successful band to win the pan-continental music contest, which will hold its 68th edition in May in Abba’s home country, Sweden.
The Eurovision final will take place May 11 in Malmo, after Swedish singer Loreen won last year’s competition with Tattoo.
Abba’s melodic disco pop has sold hundreds of millions of records worldwide since its inception.
The band was formed in Stockholm in 1972 and comprised Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
The beloved stage musical Mamma Mia! based on the band’s songs is 25 years old and spawned two movies.
According to its creators, over 70 million people have seen productions of the show in more than 450 cities around the world, staged in 16 different languages.
“The fact that somehow Abba has managed to touch so many millions of lives around the world, generation after generation and people ask me ‘how does it feel for you to know that?’, and that’s a very good question and very hard to answer,” Ulvaeus, 78, said.
“It’s a very elusive feeling. It’s more to do with gratitude and with humility than pride, because it humbles you to know that so many people have listened to something you’ve created and that they’ve been made happy by it or sad, and that it has meant so much for them in their lives.”
The band members have not performed together live for four decades, but released a comeback album, Voyage, in 2021. Every day, fans attend a concert by digital “Abba-tars” at the hit show Abba Voyage, which opened in London in 2022.
In a thank-you message to fans on April 6, the four band members said it was “slightly dizzying and deeply humbling” to know that their songs had been passed down the generations and “still resonate around the world”.
“Music you discover and learn to love when you grow up or even later in life has a way of staying with you forever,” the members said.
“We share that experience with you and to know that our music has become a constant in your lives is a wonderful thing.”
A tribute concert titled
A Party For Abba took place in Stockholm on April 6 featuring prominent Swedish artistes, a 21-person band and a large choir. Organisers said it was a salute to a band that changed the Nordic country’s music scene “forever”.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which broadcast the concert live on television and on its streaming service, said: “April 6, 1974 is considered by some to be Sweden’s national music day.” – Agencies