ABBA

What can I say?  I can’t even come close to scratching the surface on all that could be said in a single blog post.  If you were alive anywhere on the planet in the 70s, you remember ABBA.  Some of us associate the name with the exotic or Swedish, others recall the flashy clothing, yet others are brought back to the disco floor.  For a decade Agnetha Faltskog, Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Usually just referred to as “Frida”) dominated the international charts.  If you note the bold letters, their name was derived from the first initial of each of their first names. Bjorn and Agnetha were a married couple as Benny and Frida would eventually become.

Last week, a bunch of us were at AWT during one of my sets and the subject of ABBA came up.  By popular demand, a date and time slot was chosen and today I will be Djing a show dedicated to ABBA at 2 PM Second Life time.  (Pacific Time, USA)

All four displayed great talent before forming ABBA in 1972 in their native Sweden.  Agnetha had a #1 record in Sweden at age 17 (1967), which I will play during my set today.  Benny was a member of the Hep Stars, known as the Swedish Beatles, at age 18.  Bjorn was a member of the Hootenanny Singers, a Swedish folk group, at the age of 18 too.  Frida had a rather successful solo career for about five years before forming ABBA.

Their breakthrough came when they entered their song, “Waterloo,” into the Eurovision competition in 1973.  It eventually won and Europe had its new sensation.  It didn’t take the rest of the world long to hear about ABBA.  They topped the charts worldwide until their break up in 1983 and sold over 375 million records.  They still sell upwards of 3 million a year and are inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Both couples were divorced prior to ABBA’s break up.  They went on to successful careers both as performers and writers.  In 2000, they are reported to have turned down a 1 billion US dollar deal to do a reunion tour.  It wasn’t until 2004 that all four members were seen together briefly.  There have been a few other occasions where they have come together briefly in public, including the premier of the movie Mama Mia, originally a musical stage production.  Mama Mia has helped keep their music popular today.