LONDON — It’s 50 years since ABBA received a serious battle with “Waterloo.”
A half-century in the past on Saturday, the Swedish quartet triumphed on the 1974 Eurovision Track Contest with the peppy love tune, which opens: “My my, at Waterloo, Napoleon did give up, and I’ve met my future in fairly an analogous approach.”
The tune rang out once more Saturday at London’s Waterloo railway station — additionally named after the 1815 battle that dealt defeat to the French chief — the place a choir belted out a rendition for commuters.
Within the English coastal city of Brighton, the place the 1974 competitors was held, followers have been staging a flashmob dance and silent ABBA disco to mark the anniversary.
Eurovision victory turned ABBA right into a pop juggernaut, by far essentially the most profitable band to win the pan-continental music contest, which is able to maintain its 68th version in Could in ABBA’s dwelling nation, Sweden. The Eurovision remaining will happen Could 11 in Malmö, after Swedish singer Loreen received final 12 months’s competitors with “Tattoo.”
ABBA’s melodic disco pop bought tons of of thousands and thousands of data worldwide. The stage musical “Mamma Mia!” based mostly on its songs is 25 years outdated and spawned two motion pictures.
The band members haven’t carried out collectively stay for 4 a long time, however launched a comeback album, “Voyage,” in 2021. Day-after-day, followers attend a live performance by digital “ABBA-tars” on the hit present “Abba Voyage,” which opened in London in 2022.
In a thank-you message to followers on Saturday, the 4 band members mentioned it was “barely dizzying and deeply humbling” to know that their songs had been handed down the generations and “nonetheless resonate world wide.”
“Music you uncover and be taught to like once you develop up and even later in life has a approach of staying with you endlessly,” mentioned Agnetha Faltskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. “We share that have with you and to know that our music has turn out to be a relentless in your lives is a superb factor.”
A tribute live performance titled “A celebration for ABBA” was set to happen in Stockholm on Saturday night that includes outstanding Swedish artists, a 21-person band and a big choir. Organizers mentioned it was a salute to a band that modified the Nordic nation’s music scene “endlessly.”
Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which deliberate to broadcast the live performance stay on tv and on its streaming service, mentioned “April 6, 1974 is taken into account by some to be Sweden’s nationwide music day.”
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Related Press author Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.