"FEELING LIKE THE NUMBER 1!"

 ABBA (a little introduce in who is that amazing band)

ABBA was a pop-rock and dance music band formed in Stockolm at the beginning of the 1970s. It was composed by  two couples;  Benny Andersson & Anni-Frid «Frida» Lyngstad and  Björn Ulvaeus & Agnetha Fältskog (For further information about each one of the components of this band, just click in their names. Then, it will appear a page of Wikipedia with lots of interesting facts like that all of them were involved in the music world even after they met together ). The unusual name of this band is because of an acronym of their first names ( Agnetha, Björn , Benny and Anni). Their music conteins catchy melodies, simple lyrics and their own sound with the women as the singers and ,usually, Benny as the guitarist and Björn as the pianist. This band were influenced by other well-known singers and bands as The Beach Boys , The Beatles , Doris Day , Connie Francis or Count Basie. Next, they started using their famous logotype with an upside letter( the second B) since 1976. As their music, the clothes that they wore in their concerts were something never see by these times: sequins, bell bottoms, glitters, and large platforms started been indipensable for them and they became into trendy and fashionable ways to dress. Here it is their official site where you can look for more information and the Wikipedia page(with which I'm really thankful) where I found  thousands of facts that I didn't kow about the band I like the best. Enjoy it :) http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA  http://www.abbasite.com

The meeting

Before the met and decided to make the band, all of them were involved in the amazing world of the music. 

First, Benny Andersson was in a Swedish pop-rock band called The Hep-Stars in which he wrote many songs that became successful. He also wrote the song Hej, Clown for the Melodifestivalen(the festival that in those times and  nowedays sirves as preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest)  in 1969, that finished in the second position and it encouraged him to continue by this way. 

As Benny, Björn started his career in a band. It was called The Hotenanny Singers and it had a contract with Polar Music,where the owner was Stig Anderson,a friend of Björn. 

Sometimes, both bands met together in the concerts and it is how the boys started a friendly relationship. They wrote some songs together(p.e. Isn't Easy to Say)but it wasn't until they wrote in 1969 Speleman (one of the biggest succes of The Hep Stars)when Stig Anderson said that they should write more songs and when he saw the potential of the duo.

Moreover,Agnetha was a really talented singer that wrote her first album when she was only 17 years old. In fact,before she entered into ABBA,four albums and more than 15 singles were published by her. Her style was similar as the one of Connie Francis but the mostly of her songs were from the genre of music called schlager.

And finally, Frida started singing jazz when she was only 13 years old .She also made her own 'big band' called Anni-Frid Four. But her fame came when she won a talented contest that brought her the chance of singing a song for the most popular series in Sweden. After that, she spent her time appearing in the radio and TV.

AND ALL THE MAGIC STARTED THIS 1963 when the fortune smiled them and decided to put them in the exact place at the exact moment...

Frida and Björn were the first of the four components of ABBA in meeting. It happened in the talented contest which I have already talked about. Then, the two grils met at a televison programme in 1968. The next year, Agnetha met Björn in a concert, they became a couple and a few years later(in 1971) they get married. Also in 1969, Benny and Frida met in the Melodifestivalen but they didn't get married until 1978.

Because of the bands of both boys broke up, they started composing together and the girls were sometimes singing in the choir. 

An anecdote of these times was when ,in a holiday in Chipre, they started singing in the beach and finished in front of the Blue Helmets of ONU. Since then , they started being as a band and  doing tours around Sweden. But infortunatly, it didn't work and they get back to their single careers.

NOW PAID ATTENTION BECAUSE THE GENIUS THAT DECIDED TO PUT THEM TOGETHER AS A BAND IS RETOURNING TO THIS STORY!!

And I have said 'RETOURNING' because I have mentioned him at the beginning. Yes...I'm talking about Stig Anderson.
As I have said,  Anderson saw the potential of the boys and encouraged them to continuos writing together. They did it and with all of those songs they also entered in many song lists from countryes far away such as... Japan! Amazing, don't you think?

In 1972 the first succes came to them with the song People Need Love in which the singers were Agnetha and Frida. This song was in the position number 17 in the swedish list of singles and albums. Even in the U.S.A it was ok, unless it didn't have enough publicity. The succes of the song was the last piece that Stig Anderson need to continuos beliving that the four as a band would have succes in the world of music. 

"The girls just came to help their boyfriends. There was no ulterior motive. I could not prove that recording to Benny & Björn, are the girls who operated recording. They should be accredited too ... Throw this disc, let the public become familiar with you, not as an act but as a group. Let the public tell if there is a future for you as a quartet. "
-Stig talking about the launch of 'People Need Love'.

They really believed that their succes only would come when they win the Melodifestivalen and because of this they participated a lot of times. One of them was with the song Ring,Ring that became very popular in Europe. But it wasn't enough, they needed to be announced in the U.S.A.

The funny origin of the band's name

During the spring of 1973 Stig Anderson announced that the band would have a new name: ABBA. It was the result of putting their names together but it also has a funny origin and it was that in Sweden there was a seafood company named the same! At the beginning, the people wasn't happy with that idea and it's because there was a quiz in which people could participate sending a possible name for the band. Obviously none of the names that people sent was as great as ABBA and Stig Anderson, their agent, talked with the seafood company to let them used this name. And,as a consequece, their logotype changed:

        

How did they become so famous?

As soon as they knew they have failed in the 1973's Melodifestivalen, they started preparing for the one of the next year in wich they sang Waterloo AND THEY ABSOLUTLY WON WITH THE MOST NUMBER OF POINTS OBTEINED IN THIS CONTEST: 302! So, it means that they entered in the Eurovision Song Contest!

On April 6, 1974, Waterloo represented Sweden in the nineteenth edition of the Eurovision Song Contest held in Brighton Dome, UK. And it was like a party! The members of ABBA wore unusual clothes that were never seen before and also the director of the orchestra was dressed as... Napoleon!

The winning gave them the famous that they were loocking for and they starting doing tours,going to record signings and being more and more well-know... UNTIL NOWADAYS.

"After the April 6, 1974, the Eurovision Song Contest is dead, thankfully. The days of cute boys and girls singing a song gone. We now expect more than that: a good song, a good show, a good outfit. ABBA introduced a new formula and we can only be happy for it. "

-Disc Magazine, the day after ABBA's victory in Eurovision.

Their discography

                                                         

     1) Ring Ring(1973)

      -Ring Ring

      -Another Town,Another Train

      -Disillusion

      -People Need Love

      -I Saw It In The Mirror

      -Nina, Pretty Ballerina

      -Love Isn't Easy(But Is Sure Is Hard    Enough)  

      - Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother

 -He Is Your Brother

 -She's My Kind Of Girl

 -I Am Just A Girl

  -Rock'n Roll Band    

2) Waterloo(1974)      

-Waterloo

-Sittin' In The Palm Tree     

-King Kong Song

-Hasta Mañana

-My Mamma Said

-Dance(While The Music Still Goes On)

-Honey,Honey

-Watch Out

-What About Livingstone?

-Gonna Sing You My Love Song

-Suzy-Hang-Around

3)ABBA(1975)                          4)ARRIVAL(1976)

-Mamma Mia                                -When I Kissed The Teacher

-Hey,Hey, Helen                           -Dancing Queen

-Tropical Loveland                        -My Love, My Life

-S.O.S                                          -Dum,Dum,Diddle

- Man In The Middle                     -Knowing You,  Knowing Me

-Bang-A-Boomerang                     -Money,Money,Money

-I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do         -That's Me

-Rock Me                                     -Why Did It Have To Be Me?

-Intermezzo No.1                           -Tiger

-I've Been Waiting For You            -Arrival

-So Long 

5)The Album(1977)                      6)Voulez-Vous(1979)                          

-Eagle                                             -As Good As New

-Take A Chance On Me                 -Voulez Vous

-One Man, One Woman                 -I Have A Dream

-Move On                                      -Angeleyes

-Hole In Your Soul                         -The King Has Lost His Crown

-Thank You For The Music            -Does Your Mother Know?

-I Wonder(Departure)                    -If It Wasn't For The Nights

-I'm A Marionette                          -Chiquitita

                                                      -Lovers(Live A Little Longer)

                                                      -Kisses Of Fire

7)SUPER TROUPER(1980)                                                           8)The Visitors(1981)

                                                       -Super-Trouper                      -The Visitors(Crackin' Up)    

-The Winner Takes It All         -Head Over Heels

-On and On and On                -When All Is Said And Done

-Andante,andante                    -Soldiers                

-Me and I                                -I Let The Music Speak

-Happy New Year                   -One Of Us

-Our Last Summer                   -Two For The Price Of One                 

-The Piper                               -Slipping Through My Fingers

-Lay All Your Love On Me     -Like An Angel Passing Through 

-The Way Old Friends Do        My Room

And here I let you the videoclip of my favorite song of ABBA(Dancing Queen) and a link of a video od Youtube that conteins a lot of their songs from the recopilation album called ABBA Gold .  ABBA Gold!
What do you think about it?

                                             

                                             Why did they break up the band?

This awesome band started having a really bad luck because of many unfortunately accidents and problems with fame and alcohol. Even both of the couples divorced. Personally, I prefer to take in my mind this group for how it really was: four crazy and awesome members from one of the best band of the history :)

"They were underestimated by serious critics and treated only as a small group of cheerful pop. Many idiots still think that way, but they were much more. "

- Tim Rice.



Mamma Mia! (The musical and the film)

Mamma Mia! is a musical based in the songs of the swedish band ABBA that was released in 1999, written by Catherine Johnson with the help of Benny, Björn and Frida. It conteins several songs of the band such as: "Money, Money, Money", "Thank You for the Music", "Dancing Queen", "Lay All Your Love on Me", "Super Trouper", "Voulez Vous", "SOS", "Knowing Me, Knowing You", "The Winner Takes It All", "Take a Chance on Me" and(obviously)"Mamma Mia".
Since it was released in 1999 in London, almost 54 millions of people have seen it(one of them was me )!

Also in 2008 Phyllida Lloyd directered a film about this musical that in the new generations(as mine) is more well-known than the musical. But both of them are completly
amazing, I swear. And finally there is something so funny about the musical and it is that in a moment of it, the characters were the strange clothes that ABBA used to wear in their concerts!

THE ARGUMENT of the film is about the wedding of a girl called Sophie. She has never known who is his father and she has always lived in an greek island with her ambicious and adorable mother called Donna, that is the owner of an hotel over there. Sophie don't want to get married without have finded her real father because she thinks that knowing that she will know who is really she. And because of that she invites to the wedding the three lovers that her mother had , confident that she will recognise his real father when she sees him. But it could be harder than she though...


Let's go with Sophie in this adventure where you will find the true fact about knowing yourself and sharig the best moments with the most unusual and the crazyest characters that could live in a island... and that sing at every moment!







I hope you have learned something new about this unique band and if you didn't know about it ,now you will find and enjoy their songs as creative as they are .And then, just remember when you are listening to them to

'FEEL LIKE A NUMBER ONE!'

Andrea Martínez Cazorla