ABBA

Abba was formed in 1970 under the name ”festfolket” (the party people). They have always had the same members: Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulveus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad with their initials forming the acronym ABBA. ABBA has sold over 400 million cd’s worldwide. And they keep selling 2-4 million more each year. Abba had their breakthrough with the song “Waterloo” in 1974. Abba’s follow-up single, “Honey, Honey”, peaked at number 27 on the US billboard hot 100, and was number 2 in Germany. This increased the growing speculations that the group was simply Eurovision “one-hit wonders”. However in 1975 they released a new single, “Fernando”, and it took the world by storm, hitting number 1 in thirteen countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia. The single sold over 10 million copies and it stayed on the Australian charts for 40 weeks.

In January 1977, Abba embarked on a grand tour. They were now superstars, especially in Europe and Australia. Two years later, Ulvaeus and Fältskog announced they were getting divorced and in 1981 Andersson and Lyngstad did the same. This created tension in the group. Their last public performance together as Abba was on a British TV program, 11 December 1982. But even though they have never officially announced the end of the group, it has been considered to be dissolved for a long time. They have only been seen together all four, publicly, two times since 1983: in a TV-show 1986 and on the Swedish premiere of the movie “Mamma Mia” 2008.

In 2000, they were offered approximately US$1 1,000,000,000 to do a reunion tour of 100 concerts. That’s US$10’000’000 per concert! They turned it down and by that we got it confirmed: They must hate each other. Really really hate each other. Nothing more than a black void full of burning loathe and very pointy needles. However Björn and Benny, who have all the rights to the songs, are still working together creating wondrous magic.

By Jesper & Isak