Story of ABBA

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My Tribute to Four Swedish Friends
Who conquered The World With Pop Magic in 1970s

ABBA was a Swedish music band in the 1970s, who silently appeared, spread to whole Europe, then US and then the whole world with its sweet pop melodies, lyrics and music.

What I recollect, I think, it was a clear sunny day in December 1976. I was in 6th grade when i visited my friends house who had high fidelity AKAI Deck player with large bass speakers.

His brother had brought some good cassettes from abroad. That was our real fun time. And there it happened. We listened to ABBA. And that was it or me.

I was hooked and could never go unhooked until today.

I started buying my own ABBA albums and would always wait for the next one anxiously.

I was not just a fan but becoming a preacher to share their music with everyone.

Sometime, I get amazed myself, how you get infected by such passion that never leaves you for good.

Their songs are still fresh as they were in 1970s. Dancing Queen, Chiquitita, Fernando, Mama Mia, Super Trooper, Thank You For The Music, and many more.

Three block buster Hollywood musical movies have been made on the story of ABBA.

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FOUR PEOPLE BEHIND ABBA

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Before they were ABBA, they were four very different people with four very different starting points.

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Agnetha Fältskog: The Girl Who Wrote Songs In Her Childhood

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Agnetha Fältskog was born on April 5, 1950, in Jönköping, Sweden.

She started playing piano as a small child and wrote her own songs from an early age.

After school she worked as a telephone switchboard operator at a car company while chasing her music dream.

Her big early break came in 1967 when she released the self-written single "Jag var sa kar" ("I Was So in Love"), which went to number one in Sweden.

By her late teens she was already a solo star.

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Björn Ulvaeus: The Folk Singer with a Business Mind

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Björn Ulvaeus was born on April 25, 1945, in Gothenburg and grew up in Västervik.

He enrolled in business and law studies at Lund University, but music kept pulling at him.

He formed a folk-skiffle group called the Hootenanny Singers, which became popular in Sweden.

His talent for lyrics and his sense of how a song is built later became the backbone of ABBA's sound.

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Benny Andersson: The Keyboard Wizard

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Benny Andersson was born on December 16, 1946, in Stockholm.

He grew up in a musical household where his father and grandfather played accordion, and he picked up the instrument as a boy.

He later became the keyboard player and a songwriter for the Hep Stars, a hugely popular Swedish band that was sometimes called "the Swedish Beatles."

Benny's gift for melody and arrangement became the heart of ABBA.

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Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad: The Deep Voice of the Band

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Anni-Frid Lyngstad was born on November 15, 1945, in Ballangen, Norway.

Her mother was Norwegian and her father was a German soldier stationed there.

Her mother died when Frida was very young, and she was raised mostly by her grandmother, eventually settling in Sweden.

Frida started singing with dance bands as a young teenager.

In 1969 she won a national talent competition, which launched her solo career, and she also entered Sweden's Eurovision selection that year.

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HOW THE FOUR OF THEM MET

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Björn and Benny met in 1966 at a party.

They immediately connected with each other and began writing songs together, and found they made a great team.

Their first notable collaboration, "Hej, gamle man!" (1969), was a hit in Sweden.

Around the same time, romance entered the story.

Björn met Agnetha in 1969 when they appeared on the same TV show, and Benny met Frida around then too, after crossing paths in the Swedish music scene.

Both couples grew serious. Björn and Agnetha married in 1971, and Benny and Frida married in 1978.

The four began appearing on each other's records and doing shows together.

Their first album as a joint project, "Lycka" (1970), featured all four, though it wasn't yet a "group" in any official sense.

They were still figuring out what they could become.

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Stig Anderson: The Manager Who Believed & Had a Vision

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Stig Anderson was the manager and co-founder of Polar Music, their record label.

Stig is also considered a man behind the machine.

He signed Björn and Benny as songwriters and pushed the idea that Swedish pop could succeed internationally, even though Sweden was a small music market.

Stig also wrote or co-wrote lyrics for many early songs, and he is credited alongside Björn and Benny on classics such as "Waterloo," "Dancing Queen," "Mamma Mia," "SOS" and "Fernando."

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Birth of A Name: How ABBA Became ABBA

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In the early 1970s the group released songs under the awkward billing "Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid."

Their 1972 single "People Need Love" gave them a first small taste of success, reaching the Swedish top 20 and even scraping into the American charts.

Their friends and the team around them started calling them "ABBA," a combination of the first letters of their first names: Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid.

It also happened to be the name of a well-known Swedish fish-canning company, so they had to ask permission to use it. The company agreed, and the name stuck.

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The First Real Break: From 'Ring Ring' To 'Waterloo'

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"Ring Ring" (1973)

In 1973 the group entered "Ring Ring" in the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.

It finished third, which was a bit disappointing, but the song became a hit across parts of Europe, and their first album, "Ring Ring," followed that year.

The experience taught them something important: they were close, and they only needed one more push.

"Waterloo" (1974)

They tried Eurovision again in 1974 with "Waterloo," a bright, glam-flavored song written by Benny, Björn and Stig Anderson.

On April 6, 1974, in Brighton, England, ABBA won the contest.

Overnight, they went from a Swedish act to an international sensation.

"Waterloo" hit number one in the UK and many other countries.

Decades later, in 2005, a fan vote at the Eurovision 50th anniversary show named "Waterloo" the best song in the contest's history.

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The Early Albums That Built A Route To Success

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Here is a quick look at the studio albums that built the ABBA phenomenon:

- Ring Ring (1973): Their debut, with an innocent, catchy sound.
- Waterloo (1974): The album that introduced them to the world.
- ABBA (1975): Featuring "SOS" and "Mamma Mia." "Mamma Mia" became a number one in Australia after fans fell in love with the music video.
- Arrival (1976): A major milestone with "Dancing Queen," "Money, Money, Money" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You."
- ABBA: The Album (1977): Another popular numbers "The Name of the Game" and "Take a Chance on Me." It accompanied their Australian tour and the film "ABBA: The Movie."
- Voulez-Vous (1979): Their disco-inflected era, with "Chiquitita," "Does Your Mother Know," "Voulez-Vous" and "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!"
- Super Trouper (1980): Including "The Winner Takes It All" and "Super Trouper."
- The Visitors (1981): A darker, more mature record, with "One of Us" and "When All Is Said and Done."

They also released hit compilations, including "Greatest Hits" (1975), which topped the UK chart, and "The Singles: The First Ten Years" (1982).

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How Many Records Did ABBA Sell?

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Although now exact, but estimates for ABBA's worldwide sales range from about 150 million - 400 million records.

What is clear is that ABBA is one of the best-selling music bands of all time.

Their compilation "ABBA Gold" has sold tens of millions of copies and is one of the best-selling albums in history.

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ABBA's Biggest Accomplishments

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Over their career and since, ABBA has racked up an impressive list of achievements:

- Winning Eurovision 1974 with "Waterloo."
- Nine UK number-one singles.
- A US number-one with "Dancing Queen" in 1977.
- Multiple chart-topping albums across the world.
- Induction into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame (2002).
- Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2010).
- The ABBA Museum in Stockholm, opened in 2013.

- The musical "Mamma Mia!," which debuted in London in 1999 and has been seen by tens of millions of people worldwide.
- The "Mamma Mia!" movie (2008) and its sequel "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again" (2018), both box-office hits.
- A triumphant comeback album, "Voyage," in 2021.
- The ABBA Voyage concert experience in London, starring digital "ABBAtars" of the four members.

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Few Famous Songs And Who Created Them

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ABBA's songwriting was a team effort.

Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus wrote nearly all of the group's songs.

Benny usually led on melodies and arrangements, and Björn usually led on lyrics.

Stig Anderson contributed to several early hits, often with ideas for titles or hooks, and is officially credited on some of them.

Here are some of the best known:

- "Waterloo" (1974): Written by Benny, Björn and Stig Anderson.
- "SOS" (1975): Written by Benny, Björn and Stig Anderson.
- "Mamma Mia" (1975): Written by Benny, Björn and Stig Anderson.
- "Fernando" (1976): Written by Benny, Björn and Stig Anderson.
- "Dancing Queen" (1976): Written by Benny, Björn and Stig Anderson.
- "Money, Money, Money" (1976): Written by Benny and Björn.
- "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (1976): Written by Benny, Björn and Stig Anderson.
- "Take a Chance on Me" (1977): Written by Benny and Björn.
- "Chiquitita" (1979): Written by Benny and Björn.
- "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" (1979): Written by Benny and Björn.
- "Voulez-Vous" (1979): Written by Benny and Björn.
- "The Winner Takes It All" (1980): Written by Benny and Björn.
- "Super Trouper" (1980): Written by Benny and Björn.
- "Thank You for the Music" (1977): Written by Benny and Björn.

Frida and Agnetha delivered the lead vocals, often trading lines or blending harmonies that became ABBA's signature sound.

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The Hard Times Behind The Glitter

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The ABBA story isn't all rosy & rosy, perhaps like many other success stories.

Behind the music, the four faced real struggles.

The Pressure of Fame

Becoming international superstars meant constant touring, interviews and recording sessions.

Agnetha has spoken about her stage fright and her fear of flying, which made long tours difficult.

The relentless schedule, plus intense media attention, took a toll on everyone, especially the parents among them.

Heartbreak and Divorce

The two ABBA marriages came apart as the group's fame peaked.

Björn and Agnetha separated in 1978 and divorced in 1980.

Benny and Frida divorced in 1981.

Ironically, some of ABBA's most emotionally powerful songs, such as "The Winner Takes It All," came out of this painful period.

Björn has said the song was not literally about his divorce, but the emotion in it was real.

Money and Taxes

Sweden's tax rates at the time were very high, and the band and their management dealt with complicated financial arrangements.

These issues added stress to a group already living in the spotlight.

Critics and Changing Tastes

Critics sometimes commented at ABBA as too polished or too "pop."

As the 1980s began, musical tastes shifted toward new wave and synth-pop.

Fan love never stopped, but the group felt the changing wind.

Personal Losses

Frida, in particular, endured devastating loss.

She lost her mother when she was a toddler, and in 1998 her daughter Lise-Lotte died in a car accident in Canada.

A year later, in 1999, her husband Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen passed away.

Agnetha also faced hard personal events, including family losses and an unsettling stalking experience in the 1990s, which contributed to her decision to live a quieter, more private life.

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How Did ABBA Break up?

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Here's a surprise: ABBA never officially broke up. They simply stopped.

After "The Visitors" (1981), the group recorded a few more songs, including "The Day Before You Came" and "Under Attack."

Their final public performances as a group came in late 1982, including a British TV appearance in December.

After that, the members said they were taking a break to pursue other interests, and that break stretched on for decades.

The reasons were a mix of exhaustion, divorces, changing musical tastes and a feeling that they'd done what they set out to do.

Over the following years, the four moved on to individual projects, while offers to reunite poured in.

For a very long time, they kept saying no.

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Life After ABBA: What Each Member Did Next

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Agnetha Fältskog

Agnetha launched a solo career with albums such as "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" (1983), "Eyes of a Woman" (1985) and "I Stand Alone" (1987).

She later released the album "My Colouring Book" (2004) and the well-received "A" (2013), which included a duet with Gary Barlow.

She has lived a fairly private life in Sweden.

She was married to Björn from 1971 to 1980, and later to Thomas Sonnenfeld from 1990 to 1993.

She has two children with Björn: Linda (born 1973) and Christian (born 1977).

Björn Ulvaeus

Björn kept writing, co-creating the musical "Chess" with Benny and lyricist Tim Rice, and later helping bring "Mamma Mia!" to the stage and screen.

He also served as president of CISAC, an international organization for songwriters' rights, and has been involved with other music and hospitality ventures in Stockholm.

After Agnetha, he married Lena Källersjö in 1981.

They have two daughters, Emma and Anna, and Björn also has his children with Agnetha, Linda and Christian.

Benny Andersson

Benny continued composing and producing, writing the musical "Kristina Fran Duvemala" with Björn, and leading his own folk-pop group, Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO).

He also runs a recording studio in Stockholm and has been involved in hospitality, including a hotel in the city. After his marriage to Frida, he married Mona Nörklit in 1981.

He has children from his earlier relationships and marriage, including Peter, Heléne, Ludvig and Alexander.

Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad

Frida released solo albums, including "Something's Going On" (1982), produced by Phil Collins and featuring the hit "I Know There's Something Going On," and "Shine" (1984).

She later stepped back from music, married Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen in 1992, and became a princess by marriage, known formally as Her Serene Highness Princess Anni-Frid Reuss of Plauen.

She has also been involved in environmental causes.

Her son Hans and her late daughter Lise-Lotte came from her first marriage to Ragnar Fredriksson.

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The Family Circle

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ABBA is also a family story. Here is a quick snapshot:

- Agnetha: Children Linda and Christian (with Björn).
- Björn: Children Linda and Christian (with Agnetha); daughters Emma and Anna (with Lena Källersjö).
- Benny: Children Peter and Heléne from earlier relationships, and Ludvig and Alexander with his wife Mona Nörklit.
- Frida: Son Hans; daughter Lise-Lotte (who passed away in 1998).

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The Comeback Nobody Expected: ABBA Today

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For decades, fans wondered whether the four would ever perform together again.

The answer came in a big way.

In 2018 they announced they had recorded two new songs, and in 2021 they released "Voyage," their first studio album in forty years.

It featured the singles "I Still Have Faith in You" and "Don't Shut Me Down," and it topped charts in many countries, including the UK.

Then came ABBA Voyage, a groundbreaking concert experience at a purpose-built arena in London that opened in 2022.

Instead of the four members performing live, it features digital versions of them, the "ABBAtars," created using motion capture of the four members and a team of special-effects experts.

They perform alongside a live band for a show that feels like a time machine to the 1970s.

The four members have said they don't plan to tour in person, and each continues to pursue individual interests while sharing in the group's ongoing legacy.

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Why ABBA Still Matters

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Let me take this liberty to express that I spent my childhood listening to ABBA songs especially in my school days. I never knew then what becoming fan was like, until I became one.

I was completely head over heels in love with the band (excuse my pun).

I never knew, that it was not only me. It was becoming a global phenomenon.

There were crazy fans for their music all over the world.

And interestingly, it has caught up with the new generations as well.

The interest in ABBA has resulted in three block-buster movies and Broadway musical Mama Mia.

The songs are brilliantly crafted: instantly catchy, emotionally honest, and packed with melodies that stay with you. They sound joyful, yet many of them carry real sadness underneath.

That mix, along with Agnetha and Frida's heart piercing voices, and Benny and Björn's songwriting craft, keeps new generations discovering ABBA every year.

This article on IdeasBeat is my small tribute to the Band I loved most and fell in love with.
Thank you for the music, ABBA. I still cherish and enjoy it today.

For more you can also read about ABBA on Wiki.