Abba: the success story of the group and the fate of its members. reference. History of ABBA

ABBA: biography

The Swedish quartet ABBA soared to the top of the charts in English-speaking countries in the mid-70s of the last century and remained at the top of their fame for ten years.

This is the most successful Scandinavian music project and one of the most famous in the world. ABBA's songs are still heard on the radio, and albums continue to be bought up by fans.

History of creation and composition

The group consisted of two guys and two girls, and from the capital letters of the names of the participants, the name of the group was obtained. The young people made up two couples: she was married to Bjorn Ulvaeus, and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were in a civil union for the first time and formalized the relationship only in 1978.

When discussing the name of the musical group, the options “BABA” and “Alibaba” were proposed. In 1976, the second letter was reversed, creating the corporate logo. Interestingly, it was also the name of a Swedish seafood processing company, so we had to ask permission from entrepreneurs to use the brand. Over all the years of ABBA's existence, the composition of the group has not changed.

Agnetha Fältskog was born on April 5, 1950, and began her singing career at the age of 13. At 15, Agneta was a soloist in the Bengt Engharts Orchestra, and at 17 she wrote the song Jag var så kär (I Was So in Love), which became a hit in Sweden. For her creativity, the girl chose the pop music genre. Self-written hits ensured the singer's popularity at home and abroad. Agneta collaborated with German producer Dieter Zimmermann, performing songs in German.

Bjorn Ulvaeus was born on April 25, 1945. At the age of 12, the teenager, together with his cousin Jon Ulfsäter and bass guitarist Tony Root, organized music group. He experimented with styles and took part in competitions. From 1964 to 1974 he performed as a member of the Hootenanny Singers, who recorded 16 albums during this time.

Benny Andersson was born on December 16, 1946, and first appeared on stage at the age of 8 with his father and grandfather playing accordions. At the age of 18, Benny joined Hep Stars as a keyboard player, the most popular rock band in Sweden.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad was born on November 15, 1945, and was orphaned at an early age. She began performing as a danceband pop singer at the age of 13. Together with a jazz group, she performed cover versions of songs by such artists as Glenn Miller and Count Basie. At the age of 18, she created her own group, named Anni-Frid Four in her honor.

Young people, passionate about music, met in the late 60s. First, the male part of the quartet sang (in both senses). Soon the duo Björn & Benny were joined by their friends. Bjorn and Agnetha got married, and Benny and Anni-Frid lived together. Stig Anderson, who became the director of ABBA, played a major role in the formation of the team.

Music

The first song the duo wrote for worldwide fame took third place at the Swedish Melodifestivalen (Eurovision qualifying competition) in 1972. The single People Need Love was released under the authorship of Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid, rose to 17th place in the Swedish charts and became famous in the USA. Not giving up the idea of ​​getting to Eurovision, the group, directed by Stig Anderson, translates the lyrics of the song Ring Ring into English.

This attempt again gave only third place at Melodifestivalen. Another attempt in 1974 brought success. Waterloo, written under the influence of English glam rock, won Eurovision, became a hit number 1 in the UK, and reached number six on the American Billboard Hot 100. Inspired by the success, the winners went on tour in Europe, but were coldly received by the public. Distinctive feature of the ABBA group was the creation of a staged video for each single created.

Only in their native Scandinavia did artists gather crowds of fans even at open-air concerts. In January 1976, the song Mamma Mia topped the English charts, and SOS topped the American charts. Individual singles become more successful than albums in the USA, so in 1975 ABBA collected six of the most popular songs under one Greatest Hits cover.

This album included the composition Fernando, which took first positions in the English-speaking countries of three continents, which in popularity was second only to the song Dancing Queen, included in the Arrival album. In 1977, the musicians who had become superstars again performed concert tour throughout Europe, continuing touring in Australia. ABBA music video director Lasse Hallström made the film ABBA: The Movie about his stay on the Australian continent.

The film was so popular at the worldwide box office that even Soviet viewers got the opportunity to see it, but only in 1981. In 1978-1979 the group was at the peak of its popularity. The team is investing in equipment at the Polar Music recording studio in Stockholm and working on new albums, touring North America.

In 1980, ABBA members, despite the excellent reception in Japan, realized that it was impossible to constantly maintain a monotonous sound. Album Super Trouper, the most famous songs which became The Winner Takes It All and Happy New Year, uses more synthesizers, and the lyrics have become more lyrical. At this time, Bjorn and Agnetha decided to separate, which was reflected in their work.

The same year, the collection Gracias Por La Música was released - hits translated into Spanish. Since 1981, the quartet's activities began to decline. There was a discord within each couple, which also affected their joint creativity. The artists assured fans that changes in their personal lives would not affect the group’s activities, but they failed to maintain good relations within the group.

At the time of the group's collapse, the discography of the musical group consisted of 8 albums. Since 1982, the girls each took up their own solo career, and men - by composing songs for musicals. The musical “Mamma Mia!”, created on the basis of 22 songs by the group, was made into a film of the same name.

The premiere of the film brought together the legendary four in Stockholm in 2008, but even the million-dollar fees offered by eminent impresarios did not entice the aging musicians to resume concert activities. The band members have not officially announced their disbandment, but they no longer play together, and the four of them simply appear in public extremely rarely.

ABBA now

In 2016, the only concert of the reunited group took place in honor of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the musical group. The ensemble members have been counting since the moment Bjorn and Benny met. The ceremony took place in the capital of Sweden.

At the same time, the musicians began preparing for tour own holograms. Together with programmers and designers, the artists plan to prepare the show for 2019 and send their avatars on tour. In 2018, the quartet members recorded a song that received working title"I Still Have Faith In You."

“He will come on stage to play real group musicians. Will concert light, sound and everything else. The only ones who won’t be there “live” are us, but we’ll be there anyway!”

– Benny Anderson said in an interview with Swedish television SVT.

After the breakup of the group, Agneta Fältskog released solo discs for five years, after which she remained silent for almost 10 years. In 1996, the singer returned to show business, Agneta presented a book of memoirs, a collection of her best songs, and in the new century she released the albums “My Coloring Book” and “A”. At the initiative of the BBC television channel, a documentary film “Agnetha: ABBA and Beyond...” was created, dedicated to the biography of the singer. Agneta now lives a quiet life on the Ekerö estate near Stockholm, surrounded by her grandchildren, dogs and horses. Her hobbies include yoga and astrology.

Anni-Frid bears the title of Dowager Princess of Reuss von Plauen, lives in the Alpine village of Zermatt, is friends with the Swedish royal family, and is involved in charity work related to the protection of nature. For several years after the end of the group’s creative activity, the group released solo discs, but the personal tragedy experienced in the late 90s influenced the singer’s worldview. In 1998, Anni-Frid's daughter from her first marriage died in a car accident, and a year later her husband died of cancer.

But Bjorn and Benny continue to play music professionally. They own a production center. Over time, both musicians joined the ranks of the richest representatives of Swedish show business. They are currently working on an English-language production of the musical Chess, which is planned to be shown in the US and UK. Benny also leads a musical group that bears his name - the Benny Andersson Orchestra. Over time, Benny has established himself as a composer and arranger, whose songs become hits. His hits are known not only in Europe and the USA, but also appear on the charts in Asian countries. Among the musician’s popular tracks is the anthem of the 1992 European Football Championship.

You can touch the history of ABBA in the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, located in Cleveland, or in the Swedish Museum ABBA» (Abbamuseet) in Stockholm. The museum, like the group itself, has an official page on "Instagram", where photographs of exhibits and videos of musicians in their prime appear, as well as the latest news about the lives of musicians.

The music of the ABBA group continues to be heard on many stages around the world. Popular hits were used during the Fan Fest festival dedicated to the World Cup in Russian cities.

In 2018, the famous American singer released an album of her own cover versions of ABBA songs. The idea of ​​creating such a disc was inspired by the artist’s experience of participating in the film version of the musical “Mamma Mia!” 2”, where she played the role of the heroine’s mother and sang the hit Fernando. The film will start in Russia in August 2018.

Discography

• 1973 - “Ring Ring”
• 1974 - "Waterloo"
• 1975 - ABBA
• 1976 - "Arrival"
• 1977 - “The Album”
• 1979 - “Voulez-Vous”
• 1980 - “Super Trouper”
• 1981 - “The Visitors”

Clips

• 1974 – “Waterloo”
• 1975 – “Mamma Mia”
• 1976 – “Fernando”
• 1976 – “Money, Money, Money”
• 1978 – “Take a Chance on Me”
• 1980 – “Happy New Year”
• 1981 – “Lay All Your Love on Me”

Ola Brunkert, the country's National Radio (NR) reported on Monday.

The Swedish vocal and instrumental ensemble ABBA was one of the most successful groups in the history of pop music and the most popular group created in Scandinavia.

The ensemble was created in 1972 and named after the first letters of the performers' names. The quartet consisted of Agneta Fältskog (vocals), Björn Ulvaeus (vocals, guitar), Benny Andersson (keyboards, vocals) and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (vocals).

Their first success in their homeland came in 1972 after recording the song “People Need Love”. In June 1972, the song was released as a single, and this became the "reference point" of the group. In March 1973, the first long-playing album appeared, entitled “Call Me, Call” (Ring Ring). The song of the same name reached the top of the Swedish hit parade.

The victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in England in April 1974 with the song “Waterloo” is considered to be the beginning of the quartet’s international rise. Since the release of “S.O.S.” in 1975, the group’s tunes have reigned supreme on the English charts.

They became the first in Europe to reach number one on the charts in all English-speaking countries (United States, England, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand). You could say that the 1970s were ABBA's time.

Every appearance of ABBA in public became an event, and every new recording of the group became a megahit: “Mamma Mia”, “Dancing Queen”, “Money Money Money”. The last two songs were included in the album “Arrival” (Arrival, 1976), which broke sales records for the quartet not only in Sweden, but throughout the world. The group's records were also released in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria. In the Soviet Union, the Melodiya company released 4 long-playing records.

1977 became the peak year in the ensemble's career, when the beginning of the year was marked by a world tour. In December, the film ABBA - The Movie, shot in Australia, and the album ABBA - The Album were released. After this, the group continued to release records that occupied the first lines of the charts: “Wouldn’t you like it” (Voulez-Vous, 1979), the collection “ABBA Greatest Hits Vol.2”.

In the fall of 1982, the musicians celebrated the tenth anniversary of ABBA with the release of a double collection (ABBA The Singles The First Ten Years), as well as performances on TV in England, Germany and Sweden, after which each of them began recording solo records.

After the breakup of the group, Agneta Fältskog released several discs, her autobiography was published in 1996, and two years later - music album with the best songs. She tried to start a family with doctor Thomas Sonnenfeld, but separated from him in 1993. Now the lead singer of the famous ensemble has retired to her villa on Ekero Island in the suburbs of Stockholm. There she devotes herself to yoga classes, is interested in astrology, keeps several trotters in her own stable, and takes long horseback and foot walks in the mornings.

Frida's daughter Liz-Lott died in a car accident. After a long illness, her second husband, Prince Ruzzo Reus von Plauen, died. Frida herself became an active fighter for environmental protection.

The lives of Bjorn and Benny were much more successful. Both married again and had children. They founded companies and promote young talents in every possible way. Now former members ABBA are considered the wealthiest people in the country's music world. It was they who were approached with a request for cooperation back in 1989 by an Englishwoman, producer Judy Cramer, who came up with the idea of ​​​​creating a performance based on the group’s songs. Premiere of "Mamma Mia!" took place on May 6, 1999, on the 25th anniversary of the Swedish “victory” at Waterloo and became the prologue incredible success musical.

The material was prepared based on information open sources

The quartet's singles topped the charts from the mid-1970s ("Waterloo") to the early 1980s ("One of Us"), and the collections topped the world charts in the 2000s. The band's music remains on radio playlists and their albums continue to sell to this day.

They were the first representatives of continental Europe to reach number one in the charts of all major English-speaking countries (USA, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand).

For their outstanding achievements in music, ABBA was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2010.

History of the group [ | ]

Short description[ | ]

1972-1973: quartet Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida[ | ]

In the early 1970s, although Bjorn and Agnetha were married and Benny and Frida were living together, they continued to pursue their own independent musical careers in Sweden. Stig Anderson wanted to break into the international music market. He, like no one else, believed that they would succeed, and they would be able to compose a song that would become famous throughout the world. He encouraged Benny and Bjorn to write a song for the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest, which was to be performed by Lena Andersson. Song (Swedish) took 3rd place at Melodifestivalen-72, which confirmed Stig’s opinion that he was on the right track.

Reconstruction of the original Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida logo

Benny and Bjorn experimented in songwriting with new sound and vocal arrangements. One of their songs was "People Need Love" with girls' voices to great effect. Stig released this song as a single, credited to Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid. The song reached number 17 on the Swedish charts, which convinced them that they were moving in the right direction. The single also became the first song to chart in the United States, where it peaked at number 114 on the singles chart. Cashbox and 117 places in the chart . The single was later released on . Although, in Stig's opinion, the song should have been a much bigger hit in the US, the small record company Playboy Records did not have the necessary resources to distribute the recording to retailers and radio stations.

IN next year they tried to get into Melodifestivalen with the song “Ring Ring”. Studio processing was handled by Michael Tretov, who experimented with the “wall of sound” technology, which then began to be used in ABBA recordings. Stig commissions the translation of song lyrics from Neil Sedaka ( Neil Sedaka) and Phil Cody ( Phil Cody) into English. They intend to win first place, but only end up third. However, the group releases an album Ring Ring under the same inconvenient name Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida. The album sold well in Scandinavia, and the song Ring Ring became a hit in many European countries, but Stig felt that a breakthrough could only come if the song became a British or American hit.

1973-1974: the appearance of the ABBA name[ | ]

In the spring of 1973, Stig, tired of the awkward name of the group, began calling it privately and publicly as ABBA. This was a joke at first, since “Abba” is the name of a well-known seafood processing company in Sweden. According to Agnetha’s memoirs, “When we decided to call ourselves A-B-B-A, we had to get permission from this company. There they answered us: “We agree, just make sure that we don’t feel ashamed of you.” I don’t think they should be ashamed of the group.” The group also held a competition to select a title in a local newspaper. Options included Alibaba and BABA.

The very first time ABBA's name was found written on paper was during a studio recording session. in Stockholm on October 16, 1973. The first single released under this name was “Waterloo”.

Their next single So Long reached the top 10 in Sweden and Germany, but failed to chart in England. But the next release Honey, Honey managed to break through to 30th place in Billboard Hot 100 chart in the USA.

In November 1974, ABBA embarked on their first international tour to Germany, Denmark and Austria. The tour did not turn out to be as successful as the band had hoped because many tickets did not sell, and due to lack of demand, ABBA were even forced to cancel several concerts, including a pre-planned concert in Switzerland.

The second leg of the tour, which ABBA undertook in Scandinavia in January 1975, was completely different from the first: they sold out houses and finally received the reception they had expected. For 3 weeks in the summer of 1975, ABBA made up for what they had done the previous summer while touring Sweden. They performed 16 outdoor concerts in Sweden and Finland, attracting huge crowds. Their show in Stockholm at Luna Park viewed by 19,000 people.

Despite ABBA's growing popularity, the group's inconsistency of success did not allow its members to completely part with solo projects.

So, at the end of 1975, Frida finished work on her Swedish-language solo album “Frida ensam”. It is noteworthy that this record opened with the song “Fernando”, one of the most successful hits in the history of the group, but in a version in Swedish. Fearing idle speculation, group director Stig Anderson insisted on continuing the ensemble's joint work. The subsequent solo album of the dark-haired lead singer of ABBA, “Something"s Going On", was released only in 1982.

Release of their third album ABBA and third single SOS reached the top 10, and the album peaked at number 13. The band was no longer treated as a one-hit wonder.

Success in Britain was confirmed when Mamma Mia went to number 1 in January 1976. IN THE USA SOS got into the top ten Record World one hundred best songs and became 15 in Billboard Hot 100 and also received an award BMI Award for Most Played Song in 1975.

Despite this, ABBA's success in the States was inconsistent. Although they were able to break into the singles market, having already had four top 30 songs before 1976, the album market was too tough a nut to crack. ABBA's album achieved fewer than 3 singles, only peaking at number 165 on the albums chart Cashbox and at 174 on the chart Billboard 200. The opinion was that in the USA the reason was still the same very bad advertising campaign.

In November 1975, the group released a collection Greatest Hits. It includes 6 songs that reached the Top 40 in the UK and US. It becomes the first album to reach number one in England and includes the song Fernando(which was originally written in Swedish for Frida and appeared on her 1975 solo album). One of the well known and very popular ABBA tracks, Fernando, did not appear on the Swedish or Australian releases of the album Greatest Hits. In Sweden, the song waited until 1982 and appeared on the compilation album The Singles: The First Ten Years. In Australia, the track was released on the 1976 album Arrival. Greatest Hits propelled the group into the top 50 in the US on the best albums list, selling over 1 million copies in the US.

In the USA the song Fernando reached top 10 Cashbox Top 100 best songs and became 13th in Billboard Hot 100. The single also reached number one on the chart. Billboard Adult Contemporary, is ABBA's first single to reach the top of any American chart. 2006 hit in Australia Fernando holds the record for being in first place for the longest time (15 weeks, on par with Hey Jude"The Beatles")

Next album Arrival reached a higher level both in the level of lyrics and in the quality of studio work. It received excellent reviews from English music weeklies like Melody Maker And New Musical Express, as well as very good reviews from American critics. In fact, several hits from this disc: Money, Money, Money; Knowing Me, Knowing You and the biggest hit Dancing Queen. The 1977 album Arrival was nominated for an award Brit Awards in the category "Best International Album of the Year". At this time ABBA were very popular in England, much of Eastern Europe and Australia.

However, their popularity in the USA was at a much lower level, and only Dancing Queen managed to become No. 1 on the chart Billboard Hot 100. As it were, Arrival became ABBA's breakthrough in the US, where it peaked at number 20 on the albums chart Billboard.

In January 1977, ABBA went on tour in Europe. At this time, the group's status changes radically, and they become superstars. ABBA begin their long-awaited trip to Oslo, Norway with a show that includes scenes from their self-composed mini-operetta. This concert attracted a lot of media attention from Europe and Australia. ABBA continued the tour through Europe and ended with two concerts in London at the Royal Albert Hall. Tickets for these concerts were only available for ordering through the mail, and, as it turned out later, the mail received more than three and a half million orders for tickets. However, there were complaints that the show was too "sterile and slick."

After the European leg of the tour in March 1977, ABBA performed 11 concerts in Australia. The tour was accompanied by mass hysteria and enormous press attention, which is well shown in the feature film ABBA: The Movie, filmed by the band's video director Lasse Hallström. The world premiere of the film took place in Australia in four major cities December 15. In the artists’ homeland, the film premiered on December 26 in 19 large and medium-sized cities, including Stockholm. Thanks to the group's director, Stig Anderson, the film was also seen in the USSR. In the spring of 1979, he visited Moscow where he negotiated the distribution of the film. According to the recollections of Marianne Hultberg, an employee of the Swedish Embassy in Moscow, on this trip he was accompanied by his wife Gudrun and his closest assistant, secretary and deputy Jorel Hanser. As a result of negotiations, the film was purchased with the right to distribute for five years and from August-September 1981 began to be shown in the Soviet Union.

The Australian tour and the movie based on it contain some fun details. Agnetha played the role of the good-looking blonde and "postcard girl" in the group, a role she rebelled against. Throughout the tour, she appeared on stage in a very tight white leather jumpsuit, which gave rise to one newspaper to write the headline “Show asses Agnety."

In December 1977 in Sweden (in many countries - in January 1978) the album was released The Album. Although the disc was received worse by critics than others, it still contained several hits: The Name of the Game And Take a Chance on Me both of which reached number one in England and number 12 and 3 respectively in Billboard Hot 100 in USA. The album also included the song Thank You for the Music, which was later released in England as a single and was also reverse side on a record with a song Eagle, in places where the song was released as a single.

1978-1979: peak of popularity[ | ]

The single “Summer Night City” recorded in 1978 became the last leader of the Swedish charts for the group: the local public had already become “fed up” with the familiar sound. This circumstance, as well as a relatively weak result in the British chart (fifth place), became the reason for the non-inclusion of this track in the next numbered album Voulez-Vous(April 1979).

Two songs for the new album were recorded at the family studio Criteria Studios in Miami with the help of sound engineer Tom Dowd (with English  -  “Tom Dowd”). The album ranks first in Europe and Japan, in the top ten in Canada and Australia, and in the top twenty in the United States. Interestingly, none of the album's songs reached number one in the UK charts, but every single one of the singles released from it ("Chiquitita", "Does Your Mother Know", "Voulez-Vous" and "I Have a Dream" did) ), made it to the top 5.

In Canada I Have A Dream becomes the band's second No. 1 song on the chart RPM Adult Contemporary, the first song was Fernando.

In January 1979 the group performed the song Chiquitita at the "Music for UNICEF" concert during the UN Assembly. ABBA donated all proceeds from this worldwide hit to UNICEF.

Later that year, the group released their second compilation album Greatest Hits Vol. 2, which was new track"Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" is perhaps their most famous disco hit in Europe.

1980: Japan Tour and Super Trouper [ | ]

In March 1980, ABBA went on tour to Japan. When they arrived at the airport, they were attacked by hundreds of fans. The group gave 11 concerts, attracting full houses, including 6 performances in Tokyo Budokan. This tour turned out to be the last in the quartet's career.

In November 1980 they were released new album Super Trouper, which reflected some change in the band's style, with greater use of synthesizers and more personal lyrics. The album received over 1 million orders even before its release, which was a record. The main favorite of this album was the single The Winner Takes It All, which reached number one in the UK charts. In the US it peaked at number 8 Billboard Hot 100. The song was written as if about the family problems of Agnetha and Bjorn. Next song Super Trouper, also hit #1 in England, but failed to reach the top 40 in the US. Another track from the album Super Trouper, Lay All Your Love on Me, released in limited edition in some countries, reached the top Billboard Hot Dance Club Play and number 7 on the UK Singles Chart.

Also in June 1980, ABBA released a compilation album of their hits in Spanish Gracias Por La Musica. It was released in Spanish-speaking countries, as well as Japan and Australia. The album became very successful, and together with the Spanish-language version Chiquitita was a breakthrough for their success in South America.

1981: Benny and Frida's Divorce, album The Visitors [ | ]

In January 1981, Bjorn married Lena Calerso, and the band's manager, Stig Anderson, celebrated his 50th birthday. ABBA prepared a gift for him for this event by recording a song Hovas Vittne, dedicated to him and released in an edition of only 200 copies on red vinyl records. This single is now the most coveted item among collectors.

In mid-February, Benny and Frida announced that they were going to divorce. It later became known that their marriage had been experiencing problems for quite some time. Benny met another woman, Mona Norklit, whom he married in November of that year.

Bjorn and Benny were writing songs for the new album throughout early 1981 and began working in the studio on recording in mid-March. At the end of April the group took part in a television program Dick Cavett Meets ABBA, where she performed 9 songs. This became their last live performance in front of an audience. The recording of the new album was halfway through when the studio bought a new digital 32-track tape recorder to replace the 16-track analogue one. Recording continued throughout the fall in order to release it in time for Christmas.

1982: Group breakup[ | ]

ABBA never officially announced the end of their activities, but the group has been considered broken up for a long time.

Their last appearance as a group was on a British television program (in live from Stockholm via satellite) December 11, 1982.

In January 1983, Agnetha began recording a solo album, while Frida had already released her own album, Something's Going On, a few months earlier. The album turned out to be very successful. Bjorn and Benny began 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 denied the fact that the group had broken up in their interviews (“Who are we without our girls?! Brigitte Bardot’s initials?”). Frida and Agnetha said several times that ABBA would certainly get together again to record a new album in 1983 or 1984. However, the group members no longer had relationships conducive to teamwork. In addition, the relationship with Stig Anderson has reached a dead end. Since then, the Swedish foursome have not appeared in public in full force (with the exception of January 1986) until July 4, 2008, when the Swedish premiere of the musical film Mamma Mia! took place. .

1983-1993: oblivion? [ | ]

In the mid-to-late 1980s, the group's work found itself in the shadow of music new era. Compositions in the style of synth-pop, which the Swedish quartet had a hand in popularizing at the beginning of the decade (for example, the track “Lay All Your Love on Me”), and new wave eclipsed disco and traditional pop in the form in which ABBA interpreted it in in his creativity.

An attempt to improve the sales situation undertaken by the Polar Music label and embodied in ABBA Live(the first and only official “live” release of the group in almost 30 years), turned out to be a failure. Even the skill of the group's studio engineer M. Tretov did not save the album from record low results in the charts and negative reviews from critics.

1993-2006: ABBA Gold and onwards[ | ]

By the early 1990s, the Swedish quartet had generally fallen off the radar of music criticism, and the new generation, who grew up on the music of the second half of the 1980s, was hardly familiar with his work. It is all the more remarkable to trace how ABBA again found its listener.

On June 11, 1992, the Irish rock band played a concert at the Ericsson Globe arena in Stockholm. Unexpectedly for everyone present, at the end of the performance Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andresson came on stage and performed the song “Dancing Queen” together with Bono.

In the summer of 1992, the British duo Erasure released a mini-album Abba-esque, which included four songs originally performed by ABBA: "Lay All Your Love on Me", "SOS", "Take a Chance on Me" and "Voulez-Vous". The release unexpectedly turned out to be extremely successful, entering the top 5 of the European charts and topping the UK chart. For this reason, many other artists, following Erasure, have recorded their own cover versions of ABBA songs.

Finally, by the fall of 1992, the Polygram label realized that the potential of the group’s creativity had not yet been lost, and decided to release a collection called ABBA Gold.

2006-2008: Mamma Mia! [ | ]

In April of this year, it became known that ABBA had reunited to record new songs and subsequently conduct a “virtual tour”, during which holograms of the band members would perform on stage. The working title of one of the two recorded compositions, entitled “I Still Have Faith In You,” was also presented. The album's release date has not been announced

The ABBA group was founded by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, musicians, authors and performers of songs. They met in 1966, at one of the summer parties, and even then decided that it was worth continuing to work together. At that time, Benny was a member of the group Hep Stars (Sweden) as a keyboard player, and Bjorn was a member of the Hootenanny Singers - he was a guitarist and singer. During one of the concerts in Malmö, Benny Anderson met Anni-Frid Lyngstad, a singer who had been singing since the age of 13 in various groups. She even performed at song festivals in Venezuela and Japan. Around the same time, Bjorn saw on TV a performance by another singer, Agnetha Fältskog, who performed her own song. He decided that he would meet her no matter what.

The legendary quartet first met in full in Stockholm, during the recording of a television program, and already in 1970 they began singing together. Almost at the same time as their common debut, the album “Lycka” by Benny and Bjorn was released. These were songs performed in Swedish, and Frida and Agnetha were backing vocalists during the recording of the songs. Already in 1971, the talented Benny and Bjorn were hired by Polar as producers. This was due to a coincidence - the previous producer of the company, B. Bernhag, a close friend of Stig Anderson, the head of Polar, died. Stig invited Bjorn Ulvaeus to fill the vacant position, however, he agreed on the condition that he would work with his co-author Benny Andersson. At first, they even split their salaries.

The commission of the famous Eurovision Song Contest rejected the group's candidacy with the song "Ring Ring", and in 1973, February, they recorded this song in German, Swedish, English and Spanish. The new hit quickly gained popularity and topped the charts in Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sweden and even South Africa. And already in March of the same year, the first album under the same name “Ring Ring” was released. In 1974, at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton (England), the ABBA group won an absolute victory with their song “Waterloo” (by a margin of 20 to 1). This song began a sequence of unprecedented super hits - 18 consecutive hits in the top ten in Britain. Eight hits of the quartet took first place. In 1976 these were the compositions Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Fernando, in 1977 - Knowing Me, Knowing You, as well as The Name Of The Game, in 1978 it was the hit Take A Chance On Me, and in 1980 - songs Super Trouper and The Winner Takes It All. The group's albums also led the way, starting with the collection "Greatest Hits", which was released in Sweden in 1975. ABBA's overseas achievements were somewhat more modest - in April 1977, the hit Dancing Queen topped the local charts for only a week. Three of the group’s albums went gold in the United States; only “The Album,” released in 1977, reached platinum.

The quartet performed their song Dancing Queen for the first time for the Swedish King, on the eve of his wedding in the royal family in 1976. They made their first tour of Britain in 1977, then more than 3 million applications were received for the performance of the popular foursome at the Albert Hall, which seats 11 thousand people. The tour ended in Australia in March of the same year. Material for a film about a group called “ABBA” was also filmed here. It was in Australia on December 15 that the film premiered. In its homeland, ABBA presented a film about itself in 1977, on Christmas evening. In 1979, on January 9, the ABBA group took part in a charity event organized by UNICEF in New York City, and they donated all the proceeds from their single Chiquitita to the organizers. The group's first performance in North America took place in Canada, in the city of Edmonton, it was 1979, on September 13. This tour continued until mid-November and ended in Europe.

In 1981-1982 the group noticeably reduced its activity. In December 1982, the group released their last single, recorded with the full band. It was "Under Attack", but the band's last single was "Thank You" For The Music".

The group's popularity was revived in 1992, as well as all disco music. All the hits of the popular quartet were released on two CDs by Polydor. Even cover versions of the group's hits were published; Erasure published a mini-album "ABBA-esque". Around the same period, the group Bjorn again from Australia became popular, using the style and image, as well as the style of sound and playback of the ABBA group.

Information leaked to the media that in 2000 ABBA refused the offer of performances around the world with the “old lineup”. They were offered $1 billion for a round-the-world tour.

ABBA is one of the most successful groups in the history of pop music and the most popular group created in Scandinavia.

(vocals), (vocals, guitar), (keyboards, vocals) and (vocals) took the music world by storm, breaking into the charts across the planet in the 70s.

The Swedish ensemble's first success came in 1972 after recording the song “People Need Love.” And the beginning of the quartet’s international popularity is considered to be the victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with the song “Waterloo”. Then there was the single “S.O.S.”, which brought the group to the top of the English charts, then “Mamma Mia”, “Dancing Queen”, “Money Money Money” and many other compositions that are still remembered and loved all over the world.

ABBA became the first group in Europe to achieve leading positions in the charts of all English-speaking countries. The 70s even began to be called the “ABBA” decade. Every appearance of the quartet in public was an event, and a new recording was a hit. In the fall of 1982, with the release of the collection “The First Ten Years,” the musicians celebrated the tenth anniversary of the group, after which each of them began a solo career. AiF.ru tells how life turned out for the members of the legendary quartet after the collapse of the group. Agnetha's remarkable music career began when she was just 15 years old. Long before the creation of the ABBA group, the singer managed to appear in many musical groups

and become popular in Sweden.

Agnetha Fältskog. Photo: www.globallookpress.com After the breakup of the legendary four, Fältskog recorded several solo discs in Swedish and, and then disappeared from the world of music for a long time. The girl admitted more than once that she was tired of singing and was even afraid to approach the microphone. It took her several years to recover from a busy touring schedule and pressure from the press.

In 1996, the singer broke her silence and released an autobiography, and two years later, a music album with her best songs. In 2004, Agnetha recorded the collection “My Coloring Book”, composed of cover versions of hits of the 60s, which was especially warmly received music critics and immediately entered the top 10 of many European countries. In 2013, the Swedish star finished work on the album “A”, which included only new compositions. After the record was released, fans of the Swedish four-piece became interested in Agnetha again, and the BBC television company made a documentary film “Agnetha: ABBA and Beyond...” dedicated to the singer’s life.

Currently former soloist The popular quartet continues to engage in musical creativity. Lives in the suburbs of Stockholm, enjoys yoga, astrology, horse riding and often sings popular hits of his youth with his grandchildren.

10 years before the appearance of ABBA, Björn Ulvaeus began performing on stage and had already worked with many successful Swedish groups. In addition to music, Björn has always been interested in foreign languages. It is interesting that at the time of the global popularity of the Swedish four, he was the only one of them who spoke English.

Benny, Anni-Frid, Agnetha, Bjorn. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Björn Ulvaeus and his bandmate Benny Andersson provide an example true friendship: starting a joint creative activity long before the ABBA group, they are still successfully collaborating. Former soloists worked on the project of the group “Gemini” in the late 80s, writing several compositions for the group. And in 1989, the producer turned to them Judy Kramer, who came up with the idea of ​​​​creating the musical “Mamma Mia!” based on the band's songs.

Today, Bjorn and Benny are considered one of the wealthiest people in show business in their country: they founded their own companies and are involved in producing. However, now Ulvaeus has begun to pay less attention to music, and devotes himself more to social activities.

Bjorn Ulvaeus. Photo: www.russianlook.com

Benny Andersson is known to the world not only as the former lead singer of ABBA, but also as a composer, producer, and arranger. He first appeared on stage at the age of eight and still remains true to his talent.

Benny Andersson. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Benny is great at creating both individual works, as well as music for feature films. His first attempt at working with the big screen took place in the early 70s, when he wrote the composition for the Swedish film “The Seduction Of Inga”, which was never released. However, Benny's soundtrack was released in Japan and became a top ten hit. After the breakup of ABBA, Andersson wrote the music for the film Mio in the Land of Faraway, based on famous book Astrid Lindgren“Mio, my Mio”, and in 1992 - a popular opening melody for the European Football Championship held in Sweden.

Currently, the former lead singer of ABBA continues to write music for films and leads the Benny Andersson Orchestra, which is very popular in Sweden.

Not everyone knows that one of the soloists legendary group has long been officially called Her Serene Highness the Princess Anni-Fried Reuss von Plauen. In 1992, the popular singer married a German prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen. Unfortunately, seven years later her husband died of cancer, and a year earlier her beloved daughter died in a car accident.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

After the breakup of the group, the singer released several solo albums, but now she is only involved in charity work and is an honorary member of various public organizations, finances a fund to help orphans and sponsors a music festival in Switzerland. Anni-Frid is a close friend of the Swedish royal family and is one of the richest people in her country.

In an interview, the Swedish star states that she does not miss ABBA, as she has a new life that brings a lot of joy.