ABBA
are one of the greatest pop outfits in history. Their blend of lush orchestrations and light, bouncy europop was both unique and commercially appealing, taking much of the world by storm.
The band name is a
member-centric acronym
?
A
gnetha Faltskog,
B
jorn Ulvaeus,
B
enny Andersson, and
A
nni-Frid Lyngstad.
Their meteoric rise was sparked by their
famed Eurovision performance
of original song
“Waterloo”
, which caused them to win the 1974 competition in Sweden.
In the eight years that followed, the group achieved legendary success, with eight consecutive number-one albums and
nine chart-topping singles
in the UK alone. ABBA also topped the pop charts at least once in
nine other countries
overseas. Their success in the US was more mild, but they still had
20 songs that placed
on the Billboard 100 in their brief 8-year tenure.
In their first five years, ABBA barely toured with Andersson
claiming the band
had performed live no more than two dozen times before embarking on their
only international tour
in 1979.
Their later years were marred by personal issues ? the group, built on the back of two relationships, strained under two subsequent divorce proceedings. Their last studio album,
The Visitors
, explored darker issues through bleak and intensely personal lyricism. The group dissipated the following year.
Beyond their hit singles, ABBA have been immortalized in the ultra-successful Broadway musical and subsequent film
Mamma Mia
, inspiring
a 2018 reunion
that included releasing their first new material in over 35 years with the
Grammy-nominated
“I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” ? a #1 song in both
Sweden and Switzerland
.