A is for ABBA! 50 years since they 嵐／襲撃するd Eurovision, superfan JAN MOIR 明らかにする／漏らすs the ultimate A to Z guide to the greatest pop group that ever lived
Can it really be fifty years ago? Please don't tell me a whole half-century has passed since Abba first appeared on the scene, winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton with a song called Waterloo and then going on to 征服する／打ち勝つ the world for the next five １０年間s ? and counting. And how.
They have sold over 150million 記録，記録的な／記録するs, beginning with a run of perfect pop 攻撃する，衝突するs that began in the Seventies and made international 星／主役にするs of the Swedish group. They were together for only nine years but their end as a group was only the beginning of an 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の 統治する over popular culture that continues to this day.
Their 1992 編集 Abba Gold sold around 30million copies. Seven years later Mamma Mia the musical began a run that went on to 甚だしい／１２ダース over £3billion and was seen by 65million people around the world. The その後の film made over £485million, and its sequel a その上の £325million. The music created by Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad remains uniquely, insanely, wildly popular.
Abba make history with their winning song Waterloo at the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton
'I don't know what it is, it is an enigma to me why these songs keep coming 支援する,' Bjorn Ulvaeus told me when I met him in 2017. 'When we wrote and 記録，記録的な／記録するd them, we thought they might last two years. We didn't 推定する／予想する this after all these years.'
But on and on it goes ? and all of it either 起こる／始まるd, controlled, managed, overseen or 調印するd off by Ulvaeus on に代わって of Abba. At the age of 78 he remains a busy man, with his genial 支配する on the Abba machine showing no 調印する of slackening.
For after the film and the musical （機の）カム the 記録，記録的な／記録する-breaking Abba Museum in Stockholm in 2013 and then in 2017 Mamma Mia! The Party, a hummus and 攻撃する，衝突するs immersive dinner and concert experience 現在／一般に running in both Stockholm and London.
And then, most ambitious of all, ABBA Voyage, featuring 明言する／公表する of the art Abbatars holograms playing in a custom built 3000 capacity 発生地 in east London and with 計画（する）s to go on 小旅行する around the world. Since it opened in 2022 over two million people have seen the show, created by animators and 動議 逮捕（する） c ameras, then 事業／計画（する）d on to a 65m pixel 審査する. It is an elegant, very Abba-tastic way of 改革（する）ing ? by turning the past into the 未来 and staying young for ever.
Ulvaeus always 約束d Abba would never get 支援する together in a 従来の way. 'I couldn't 耐える the 強調する／ストレス of disappointing everyone,' he said. 'And isn't there something good in having the image of four young, energetic people on 行う／開催する／段階? Better than four geriatrics, that is for sure.'
Who could ever have imagined how big Abba would become? The 範囲 of the ambition, the sheer creativity and 発明 of the 事業／計画（する）s, the love that abounds, even now, for their music. There is just something about the hooks and choruses and glittering 生産／産物, often underpinned with a wisp of Swedish melancholy and a 強健な fatalism ? the history 調書をとる／予約する on the shelf, always repeating itself - that the world continues to find irresistible.
The 重要な 構成要素s are the 層d 声のs of Agnetha and Frida, always controlled but still emotional, 提携させるd with the songwriting 技術s of Bjorn and Benny. This two-man, two-woman, coupled up sonic squad pumped out 攻撃する，衝突する after 攻撃する，衝突する until everybody got 離婚d - and then they pumped out a few more.
Whichever way you look at it, Abba are not losers standing small, they are 勝利者s taking all. They have been a joy in my life; I have bought the 記録，記録的な／記録するs, …に出席するd a concert, been to the musical, seen the films, gone to the museum, danced at the party and cried at the Abbatars - because they are still young 反して I have gown old.
Yet perhaps what I love most about Abba is their undimmed, often uncelebrated, but unmistakeable 必須の weirdness. Who else but Abba would 令状 a 攻撃する，衝突する about a tiger with yellow 注目する，もくろむs like 'スポットライトs of the city nights' and an 完全に innocent ditty about kissing a geometry teacher? Or rubberstamp a musical plotline about a hotelier on a Gree k island who doesn't know which of her three lovers is the father of her child? Or think that matching Spandex onesies in shades of blue, purple and white - designed to 代表する a Scandi 主題 of ice, mountains and glacier rivers ? was ever a good idea? Only Abba.
And it all started off with a song called Waterloo, which is 50 years old tomorrow. Come with me now, into the weird and wonderful world of the greatest pop group who ever lived, as we celebrate this momentous event...
The Swedish pop group were 早期に adopters of Spandex, ever cheerful in its unforgiving 支配する
A is for At Waterloo, where Napoleon did indeed 降伏する. 'And I have met my 運命 in やめる a 類似の way,' sing Abba. But how 類似の? By 存在 driven so mad with haemorrhoids and dysuria like the tiny tyrant that it 影響する／感情d Agnetha's 裁判／判断 about the placement of the French cavalry? This 平行の is never fully explained, but Abba have their first 攻撃する，衝突する with this cheerful song about death, 破壊 and the French emperor's 敗北・負かす.
B is for Bella Donna, the 指名する of the Greek island hotel run by Donna (Meryl Streep) in Mamma Mia! The Movie (2008). 'Two of your three possible fathers can't make it,' she tells her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) on the eve of her wedding. に引き続いて this paternity bombshell, Sophie should be a basket 事例／患者 with daddy 問題／発行するs. Instead, she later puts on a bikini and sings 'Lay All Your Love On Me'.
B is for Bella Donna, the 指名する of the Greek island hotel run by Donna ( Meryl Streep ) in Mamma Mia! The Movie (2008)
C is for crazy. See above. C is also for 衣装s. All of Abba's 衣装s are on 陳列する，発揮する in the Gold Room of the Abba Museum in Stockholm. There you will learn why Bjor n's 壇・綱領・公約 boots had the highest heels ? because he was the shortest.
D is for disco wonderland. Some 50 years on, Abba-主題d disco nights are still insanely popular. There is a 小旅行するing Abba Disco Bingo Wonderland and Abba Disco Boat Parties in the UK, while a 33-date Gimme Gimme Gimme Disco 小旅行する is 現在／一般に selling out in America.
E is for the everlasting, eternal and evergreen Abba 控訴，上告.
F is for Fernando. What the heck is going on here? This song sounds like a love ballad but is 現実に a conversation between two former Mexican 革命のs reminiscing around a campfire. 'Since many years I 港／避難所't seen a ライフル銃／探して盗む in your 手渡す,' they sing to each other. Is that a good or a bad 開発? It is never explained.
G for guest 外見. Cher gets out of a ヘリコプター at the end of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) for no good 推論する／理由 どれでも. She is wearing a blonde wig and to the bafflement of all, 開始する，打ち上げるs into Fernando. 'The songs were harder to sing than I imagined. I thought that they were like poppy songs, but some of them are as hard as hell,' she 認める later. See Pierce Brosnan, below.
Cher gets out of a ヘリコプター at the end of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) for no good 推論する／理由 どれでも
H is for heartbreak. Abba were once two married couples. After having two children, Agnetha and Bjorn 分裂（する） up in 1979, followed by Benny and Anni-Frid three years later. Yet the break-ups led only to more 攻撃する，衝突するs, with the poppier songs of the 早期に years 存在 取って代わるd by darker, more introspective numbers. 'But tell me, does she kiss like I used to kiss you?' Bjorn makes Agnetha sing on 勝利者 Takes All, 解放（する）d in 1980. 'It wasn't about us,' he （人命などを）奪う，主張するd, 'but it did make her cry.' Hardly surprising. Within a week of their 分離, Bjorn was dating Agnetha-lookalike Lena Kallersjo, a Swedish TV presenter. Two years later, they were married and had two children together.
I is for I Am The Tiger. 'And if I 会合，会う you, what if I eat you,' goes one 詩（を作る）. It's a song that goes for the ジャングル-ular.
J?is for jumpsuits. Abba were 早期に adopters of Spandex, ever cheerful in its unforgiving 支配する. They also wore lace-up dresses, peek-a-boo all-in-ones, Grecian tunics, Spandex flamenco trousers, capes, velvet chokers and beany hats ? いつかs all at once. The girls were almost as bad.
Benny Andersson,?Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Faltskog and Bjorn Ulvaeus after their 1974 勝利，勝つ
K is for Knowing Me, Knowing You. Immortalised by Alan Partridge and known as 'the 離婚 song' within the group. K is also for keyhole. When Donna locks herself in the loo in the first film, her pal Rosie (Julie Walters) sings Chiquitita to her through the keyhole. 'Now I see you've broken a feather, I hope we can patch it up together,' Julie warbles.
L is for lawyers. Abba are famously strict about other artists 見本ing and 記録，記録的な／記録するing their 初めの 構成要素 ? in the past they have 脅すd to 告訴する. Only three artists have been given 許可 to use their work; The Fugees used The 指名する Of The Game on their song Rumble In The ジャングル; Madonna 見本s Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! at the beginning of her 攻撃する，衝突する Hung Up; and a group called 98 Degrees use a bit of Dancing Queen on 飛行機で行く With Me.
M is for the 会合 Bjorn has every Tuesday morning with his personal existential therapist. They talk for two hours in the gazebo in the garden of his home on a 私的な island off Stockholm. 'We just talk about life, about 存在. いつかs for a whole 開会／開廷／会期 we don't even talk about me.'
N is for the nightmare 耐えるd by Agnetha when she had an 事件／事情／状勢 with a man who had been her stalker. 'I felt I could not resist anymore. I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to know him,' she has said of the man who was 16 years her junior. Dutch forklift driver Gert 先頭 der Graaf had been obsessed with Agnetha since childhood and stalked her for two years. She complained to the police, but in 1997, they started a romantic 関係. Within two years, they had parted and by 2000, Agnetha was 捜し出すing a 法廷，裁判所 order to have him 国外追放するd. Later she was 軍隊d to 捜し出す 法廷，裁判所 保護 from him.
O is for One Of Us and another Abba oddity. The 公式の／役人 Abba website 蓄える／店 sells One Of Us Is Crying T-shirts and caps. Is it me or is that weird? Where would you wear such a thing? (I still want one). O is also for the Order of Vasa (指揮官 of the First Class) which all four members were awarded recently by the Swedish 政府 for their 'longevity and successful 約束／交戦 within the 成し遂げるing arts'.
P is for politics. In 2008, American 上院議員 John McCain used Take A Chance On Me as his （選挙などの）運動をする song when he was the 共和国の／共和党の 大統領の 候補者. In a rare Abba 行方不明になる, he lost the race to Barack Obama, who chose 調印するd, 調印（する）d, 配達するd by Stevie Wonder as his 主題.
Q is for the Queen Elizabeth II. Even she liked Dancing Queen, one of the greatest pop songs ever written. From its irresistible piano glissando 開始, it 逮捕（する）s the glory of dancing and the sheer joy of living in three perfect minutes. Agnetha once said: 'It's often difficult to know what a 攻撃する，衝突する will be. The exception was Dancing Queen. We all knew it was going to be 大規模な.'
R is for 王族. Abba are not just pop 王族, they have a real princess in their 中央. 屈服する 負かす／撃墜する to Princess Anni-Frid Reuss, the Dowager Countess of Plauen - 肩書を与えるs acquired from her marriage to スイスの aristocrat Heinrich Ruzzo.
S is for Sam in Mamma Mia, played by Pierce Brosnan. No one knew that Pierce could sing ? that is mostly because he can't. Yet I loved his rendition of When All Is Said And Done, even if he sounded like a 耐える with a thorn in its paw. 'He has a lovely Irish timbre in his 発言する／表明する,' argues Bjorn. 'I never understood the 批評.'
No one knew that Pierce Brosnan could sing ? that is mostly because h e can't
T is for Theresa May who told 砂漠 Island レコード listeners that she once danced to Abba in a pair of ゆらめくd trousers and a yellow blouse with '抱擁する voluminous sleeves'. 'My husband and I are sort of the Abba 世代,' she said, before choosing Dancing Queen as her favourite 跡をつける.
U is for ありそうもない Abba fans, see above. This club also 含むs Axl Rose, Brian May ('Abba are unquestionably immortal') and the Foo 闘士，戦闘機s drummer Dave Grohl. 'Oh my god, I'm such a big ABBA fan,' he said. When the group 解放（する）d I Still Have 約束 In You in 2021 he was thrilled. 'I listened to the new song and cried like a baby. I'd 派手に宣伝する for them any time.'
V?is for Voyage, the Abbatar hologram show held in a 目的-built 円形競技場 in London with 500 moving lights, 291 （衆議院の）議長s and a 妨げる／法廷，弁護士業 selling mojitos on tap. Speaking of booze…
The group 再会させる for the 開始する，打ち上げる of Abba Voyage in London
W is for whisky, which Bjorn drank copiously when 令状ing the lyrics for The 勝利者 Takes It All. 'The first 成果／努力 was too stiff and metrical,' said Benny, who 注ぐd out the （テニスなどの）ダブルス and waited for the 魔法 to happen. 'I was drunk and the whole lyric （機の）カム to me in a 急ぐ of emotion in one hour,' Bjorn said later.
X is for X 率d. 'In our lives, we have walked some strange and lonely treks, わずかに worn but dignified and not too old for sex,' sing Agnetha and Frida on When All Is Said And Done. That's やめる enough of that, ladies.
Z is for an unfortunate zebra-print velvet blazer worn by Benny at the 高さ of Abba's fame. Let's overlook that and 簡単に say thank you for the music instead.
Z is for an unfortunate zebra-print velvet blazer worn by Benny at the 高さ of Abba's fame. Let's overlook that and 簡単に say thank you for the music instead.
