THE WINNER TAKES IT ALL
It’s an incredible 50 years since ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest. We take a look back at the amazing success, and often turbulent love lives, of the Swedish superstars
On 6 April it will be exactly 50 years since the UK judges at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton famously awarded “nul points” to the platform-heeled, satin-clad entry from Sweden. Half a century later, that score seems more than a little ironic given ABBA’S current status as one of the world’s most-loved artists – with eight consecutive No1 albums in the UK and the Hollywood-actor-packed Mamma Mia! films and West End show to prove it.
The group – made up of Agnetha Fältskog, who turns 74 this week, Björn Ulvaeus, 78, Benny Andersson, 77, and Anni-frid Lyngstad (Frida), 78 – were introduced to the Brighton Dome stage in 1974 by the British announcer as the entry from “a country full of mountains, lakes and forests”. But few people could have anticipated what was to come in the following three minutes – and the subsequent 50 years.
“Well, actually I had a £20 bet on it, in Brighton, at 20/1,” Benny once said of their Eurovision performance.
“There were some good songs, but I did think ours was better. I was standing there, and I’m good at mental arithmetic, so I knew exactly the moment where we would win even if we got no more votes and I told the others, ‘That’s it, we’ve done it.’”
Prior to that momentous night, Benny and his then girlfriend Frida were touring as a cabaret band with Björn and Agnetha, who were also a couple, performing covers of other artists. But, as Benny later said, they weren’t particularly happy about it.
“It was so f**king embarrassing,” he once said in a very unabba-like response. “But in the middle of the set, we would sing a 10-minute medley of songs from that record [the 1970 album Lycka by Benny and Björn], and that was the only bit we felt good about. That was the bit we liked, never mind about the
‘A tear or two welled up in Agnetha’s eyes. the words really Affected her’
audience, we knew that we liked those 10 minutes.”
By the early 70s, the foursome were wondering how to “make people outside Sweden know we exist?” They entered their own song, Ring Ring, in the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest selection festival, Melodifestivalen, but came third. The following year, they re-entered with Waterloo and the rest, as they say, is history – but also still very much “now”.
There’s a whole new, younger generation of fans thanks to the Mamma Mia! films, West End show and the ABBA Voyage virtual concert residency with holographic avatars (named, of course, Abbatars).
Adding to the current ABBA fever is a heavily rumoured appearance at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö in May (which they have denied).
For a group with such a high public profile, ABBA were and still are a relatively drama-free foursome – if you ignore their in-band marriages and subsequent divorces, which became the subject of some of their most popular songs. In 1971, Björn and Agnetha married and went on to have two children together, a girl and a boy, but they split up seven years later. Reports said the break-up left Agnetha “mangled”, and Björn had moved on within a matter of weeks. The ABBA track The Winner Takes It All, released on the 1980 Super Trouper album, included the lyrics, “But tell me, does she kiss like I used to kiss you?” sung by Agnetha, and was later voted the best break-up song of all time.
Writing about the track in his book, Bright Lights Dark Shadows: The Real Story Of ABBA, author Carl Magnus Palm said Agnetha “put in what unquestionably ranks as her best ever performance on record”. He also added, “As Björn would remember, when he gave her the lyrics in the recording studio, ‘a tear or two welled up in her eyes. Because the words really affected her’.”
In her own book, As I Am, Agnetha admitted that their portrayal of a “happy divorce” was purely a front.
‘WE TALKED AND TALKED AND FINALLY AGREED A DIVORCE WAS THE BEST SOLUTION’
“Obviously, we all know there are no such things as happy divorces, especially when there are children involved,” she said.
Agnetha chose to keep her second marriage in 1990 private, and it was said that it only became public knowledge when she got divorced for a second time three years later.
Bandmates Benny and Frida also married, saying their “I dos” in 1978 after around a decade of dating. They split up soon after Björn and Agnetha in 1980, and officially divorced the following year. According to some articles, Benny had met someone else (TV producer Mona Nörklit, who he married in 1981), but Benny insisted he and Frida were “still good friends”.
After their split, Frida spoke to a newspaper about what happened, saying, “We simply grew out of each other. It came down to our different goals in life. We have always been honest and talked about everything. We talked and talked and finally, we agreed that a divorce would be the best solution.
“There was a lot of tears and a lot of discussions. But there was no way back. Breaking up became a necessity.”
Following the two divorces, the band took what turned out to be a 40-year break from music. Their last major appearance together was with Noel Edmonds on his Late, Late Breakfast Show in 1982, which a newspaper described recently as “awkward”, given the band’s personal relationships at the time.
While ABBA’S audience has clearly changed, their appeal hasn’t. Half a century on from their breakout moment in Brighton, the acknowledgements and
accolades are still coming their way. last month, all four members were each awarded the royal order of vasa – commander of the first class by the royal orders of knighthood, the swedish equivalent of the british honours system. it was the first time the medals had been handed out in almost half a century and the timing was unlikely to be just a coincidence.
More than 30 years after their eurovision win, Waterloo was also voted the best song ever performed at the competition during a special 50th anniversary show held in copenhagen in 2005.
and, of course, there’s now ABBA Voyage, which premiered in 2022 at a black-tie event attended by sweden’s king carl Xvi Gustaf and Queen silvia renate, who showed up to celebrate their country’s pop royalty.
the announcement of abba’s comeback in the form of holographic “abbatars” became one of the biggest pop culture stories of the year (or maybe even of the decade) when it was announced in 2021. it even forced bbc radio to move its 6pm news bulletins to play two new tracks from abba’s Voyage album – Don’t Shut Me Down and I Still Have Faith In You.
speaking to radio 2’s Zoe ball about their new songs, frida said she didn’t think they had anything to prove. “if i compare it to how it was 40 years ago, it’s a bit of a difference because i would say i don’t take it that seriously as i would do earlier on, when i was younger, because then it meant so much. but as benny said in an earlier interview, we don’t have to prove anything. so we have just done it for the fun of it and that’s a good feeling actually. and then, when people like it, as they seem to do, then, of course, it’s wonderful.”
abba are nothing if not Marmite, and even the most respected music critics can appear a little perplexed by their secret ingredient, but most are in agreement with abba fans everywhere – it’s all about the lyrics.
“i think the melancholy was there from day one, there is a strain of melancholy through all that work,” benny once recalled. “it is dressed up as pop, but it was never just pop.”