ABBA

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 – Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-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.