12 Interesting Facts About ABBA

ABBA was one of the most successful singing bands of the early 70s to the early 80s composed mainly of two Swedish singing couples, whose given names make up the acronym name for the group; Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Anderson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. I suppose everyone from ages 40 up could very well recall their past listening to ABBA songs and for those aged below 40, couldn’t help but appreciate the great song classics left by ABBA.

1. The fusion of two singers-songwriters which was considered the vital part of ABBA happened on a crossroad, at the countryside. The bus with Benny’s group, the Hep Stars and the Hootenanny Singers with Bjorn met up on the way to a concert/party.

2. Agnetha was a self-confessed Connie Francis fan and used to sing and imitate her moves.

3. Anni-Frid Lyngstad was Norwegian by birth fathered by a German soldier who was on assignment at Norway when he met Anni’s mother which sprouted a relationship.

4. Ring Ring was ABBA’s first debut album released in 1973 but their phenomenal song which introduced them to the world was the song Waterloo which they performed in 6 April 1974 at Eurovision held in Brighton, a city on the southern coast of England towards the east.

5. Winning the 1974 Eurovision could have been Agnetha’s best birthday gift which arrived a day late. She was born on 5th April (1950).

6. Eurovision just made things happen faster for ABBA considering certain parts of the world were less interested in it (US and Australia). Note that their first debut album Ring Ring released a year before Eurovision initially met success.

7. Agnetha turned away from the public as an after effect of fame after the ABBA split up causing her to be treated badly by journalists. Staying away from fans and declining interviews earned her the title, “the new Greta Garbo”.

8. The distinguishing feature of ABBA’s music was made possible through the genius of audio engineer Michael Tretow who experimented with various recording techniques.

9. "The Day Before You Came" was the last ABBA song as attested by ABBA’s audio engineer Michael Tretow.

10. ABBA’s second reunion in public after their split up happened after 22 years at the Swedish premier of the film “Mamma Mia” in 4 July 2008.

11. As it was expressed in Bjorn’s very own words; “ ABBA never officially broke up. In 1982, we just said we were going to have a rest and that was it.”

12. “Mamma Mia!”, the musical project Bjorn and Benny had in mind was the very cause of the break from ABBA which eventually led to it’s end. The origin of the phrase is Italian which means “my mother” oftentimes an exclamation or cry of distress owing to danger or being shocked. For ABBA, the shock from the parting came quite a bit late.

References:

ABBA The Book by Jean-Marie Potiez

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Ring_(album)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_B._Tretow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA