ABBA is a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972, and included: Agneta Agneta, Bjorn Ulveus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Fried Frida. The name of the group comes from the first letter in each of the first names of its members. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in popular music history, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1982. ABBA won Eurovision in 1974. They are the most successful group to enter the competition.
The birth of the group
The history of the group began in June 1966 when Bjorn Ulveus met Benny Andersson. Björn was then a member of the Hootenanny Singers, a famous Swedish folk group, and Benny played keyboards in Sweden's most popular band of the sixties, The Hep Stars.
In the same year, they recorded the first track together to become a professional composer duo in the late sixties.
In the spring of 1969. Bjorn and Benny met two attractive women who eventually became not only the beautiful half of the team, but also their brides. Agneta Fältskog was then recognized as a soloist when she released her debut single in 1967. Annie-Fried Lyngstad, known as "Frida", began her musical career some time later than her friend. Agneta and Bjorn were married in June 1971, while Frida and Benny only in October 1978.
In the fall of 1969, Bjorn and Benny wrote the music for the Swedish film Inga. Two songs from this film were released on the disc in the spring of 1970 - She’s My Kind Of Girl (the song later appeared on the EBBI album - Ring Ring) and Inga Theme. None of these tracks had any success.
Despite the setbacks, it was decided that Bjorn and Benny should record a large disc. An album titled Lycka (Happiness) was recorded in June-September 1970.
The early 70s are a period of uncertainty for the future members of the ABBA group. Benny left his previous band The Hep Stars, Bjorn recorded an album with his band The Hootenanny Singers, but he understands that further collaboration with them is futile. Moreover, Bjorn and Benny would like to collaborate with each other as songwriters and performers …
On March 29, 1972, in Stockholm, at the Metronome recording studio, four people who we know today as the ABBA group met. Bjorn and Benny wrote the song People Need Love. The first song is in English. They were inspired by the recordings of the British band Blue Mink, where the music carried optimistic messages of harmony and love between people. When People Need Love came out on the single, the artists listed were "Bjorn & Benny, Agneta & Annie-Fried" because the ABBA name didn't exist yet. Then they had not yet thought about creating a group, and Frida and Agneta continued their solo careers and had contracts with different labels. And the song People Need Love became a fairly well-known hit in Sweden and reached # 17 on the charts in Sweden in August. Of course, this fact made the whole four very happy, and they decided that they should start recording together. In the fall of 1972, they began work on their first album, Ring Ring.
First successes
In 1973 a team called Bjorn / Benny / Agneta / Frida took part in the Swedish selection for the Eurovision Song Contest (February 1973) with the song "Ring Ring", still in the Swedish version. The final of the Swedish Eurovision Song Contest has been scheduled for 10 February. Unfortunately, the song took only 3rd place in the competition. This happened due to the then rules for choosing a song - the song was chosen by the jury.
Benny: "Even when I saw the faces of the jury members, I realized that they would never choose a song that has a serious chance of being liked by millions of people." Janne Schaffer, former ABBA guitarist, adds: "I remember everyone sitting in the dressing room. I have never seen such despondency and despair."
The man who took over the production of ABBA videos was the young director Lasse Hallstrom. The first clips he directed were created in 1974, they were "Waterloo" and "Ring Ring".
Over time, clips became an important part of the group's promotion. All of them were low-budget and filmed very quickly, sometimes it happened that two videos were filmed in one day.
Career peak
In 1974, immediately after winning the Waterloo Eurovision Song Contest, ABBA is doing everything to prove that they are not the star of one hit. Unfortunately, in those days, every team that won the Eurovision Song Contest was considered a one song group, and that's the end. The team, however, is making ambitious plans to conquer the first lines of the world charts. ABBA set out to prove that she can afford more than one hit. Work on the third album began on August 22, 1974. In the beginning, they recorded three songs: So Long, Man In The Middle and Turn Me.
The album was originally supposed to appear before Christmas. But due to the tight touring schedule, the release date was postponed to the spring of 1975. The album contained songs that can be said to have formed a good image of the band in Europe. The songs from the third album helped to take the band seriously. This was mainly due to two hits: "S. O. S" and "Mamma Mia".
In March 1976, the band went on tour in Australia, the country where the real ABBA mania reigned.
At the same time, the musicians began work on the album Arrival, which was released in October 1976, and a few months later, another single, Knowing Me Knowing You. The album hit the first places in the charts in Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Mexico and South Africa.
1979 was rich in singles. At the end of May, the four went to Spain. Their tour was preceded by the release of the Spanish version of "Chiquitity", all concerts were sold out. After returning from the Iberian Peninsula, ABBA recorded another single Rarytasa, the true fans of the group are ready to give a lot for it, because it was released in only 50 copies. The band's next single, Does Your Mother Know / Kisses Of Fire, burst into the charts, reaching # 4 in the UK and # 19 in the US.
The group's last single, released in December 1979, "I Have A Dream, Take A Chance On Me (Live). In addition, the album" ABBA Greatest Hits Vol. 2 "- a collection of hits from the years 1975-79. In 1981, ABBA released their last album, entitled" The Visitors ".
It is also worth mentioning two very important collections of the group. The collection ABBA Gold was released on September 21, 1992. It has been realized with a fantastic circulation of over 22 million copies worldwide. The collection includes 19 tracks, including Dancing Queen, Waterloo, Chiquitita. On October 5, 1993, in Stockholm, the band received a platinum disc for ABBA Gold. As the disc sold great, the second part of the compilation, More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits, was released in 1993. It was originally planned to release on this album, recordings previously unreleased, but ultimately, however, the collection included their most famous songs.
Breakup of the group
ABBA has never officially announced the breakup of the group, but the collective has long been considered to have ceased to exist.
Their last joint appearance as one collective took place on the air of The Late, Late Breakfast Show on December 11, 1982.
In January 1983, Agneta began recording a solo album, while Frida had already released her own album Something's Going On a few months earlier. The album was very successful. Bjorn and Benny started writing songs for the musical "Chess" and their new project with the group "Gemini". And the ABBA group was “put on the shelf”. Bjorn and Benny for a very long time denied the fact of the breakup of the group in their interviews. Frida and Agneta have said several times that ABBA will certainly come back to record a new album in 1983 or 1984. However, there was no longer a relationship between the members of the group that was conducive to working together. Since then, the Swedish four did not appear in public in full force (with the exception of January 1986) until July 4, 2008, when the Swedish premiere of the musical Mamma Mia! Took place.
