ABBA- 50 Years Later?

By: Greg Rector

ABBA ruled the music world for several years. You can laugh all you want but starting on April 6th, 1974 when the Swedish supergroup won the Eurovision Song Contest they started their remarkable run of hit songs and to this day they sell albums like no one else 400 million and counting.

Waterloo was such a great song and when Agnetha and Anna-Frid hit the stage and belted out their songs everyone alive couldn’t help but love their voices. They were so popular that for years and years, they ranked second on Sweden’s Gross Domestic Product list after Volvo. In 2005 Waterloo was selected as the best song ever in 50 years of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Now add to their hit songs from 1974 until 1982 and then the Momma Mia movies and stage productions and then add to the list of money they brought in from their first album in 40 years Voyage which is the successor to The Visitors album.

Go ahead and tell me how Eminem or Jay-Z are dominant rappers. Go ahead and tell me all the rest of the “Supergroups” in rock and roll are raking the cash like Abba still does. Neither can compare to ABBA and the raking in of money. Not even The Beatles can compare to the Swedish quartet. The group turned down an offer for 1.5 billion to go out and tour just over a decade ago.

Have their lives been happy? Much like with another supergroup of the 1970s Fleetwood Mac, they divorced each other and have endured various personal tragedies.

Agnetha Fältskog lost her mother to suicide and for years and years has had an aversion to flying. Anna-Frid Lyngstad was accused of not being Swedish enough because she was born in Norway and her father turned out to be a Nazi soldier which saw her being attacked by so many no minds out there. We never choose our parents and then she lost her daughter in a car accident.

So while they lived great lives they suffered plenty of attacks and yet both of the ladies are amazing looking and if they ever did reunite onstage I would be there in a heartbeat. I am a huge fan of Anna-Frid Lyngstad and I had a poster of her on my wall as a teenager. Much like my distaste for Pam Ewing and my preference for Linda Gray on Dallas, I was again the only guy I knew who loved Anna-Frid Lyngstad while the rest of my pals were all over Agnetha.

When they released this song I was so happy to see Anna-Frid to be the lead singer of an ABBA song finally.

“When All Is Said And Done” remains my favorite ABBA song.

Please remember there is a huge marketplace for songs from outside the U.S.A. ABBA has owned the European market and was number one in Canada Australia and many other countries for all those years they came back with The Voyage the numbers they sold in the U.K. alone were astronomical.

You can spend 66 Pounds to see The Voyage in London, England.

Sorry fans of The Beatles but no concert venue was built for them. No one has done this for Jay-Z or Eminem either. ABBA continues to be loved by millions of music fans and I count myself one of those fans.

So let me know which ABBA song is your favorite in the comments.