
ABBA
Nationaliteit: Zweden
ABBA is een Zweedse popgroep, die in 1972 in Stockholm gevormd werd door Agnetha Fältskog (zang), Björn Ulvaeus (gitaar en zang), Benny Andersson (piano en zang) en Anni-Frid Lyngstad (zang). ABBA is een van de succesvolste bands ter wereld met meer dan 200 miljoen verkochte albums (en ruim 400 miljoen platen in totaal). Het succes begon toen ABBA in 1974 het Eurovisiesongfestival won met het nummer Waterloo.
De naam ABBA is een acroniem, bestaande uit de eerste letters van de voornamen van de leden. Op de platenhoezen staat de eerste B vaak in spiegelbeeld. Dit beeldmerk werd in 1976 voor het eerst toegepast op de hoes van de single Dancing Queen, en is ontworpen door Rune Söderqvist. Door de B's naar de A's te keren wilde Söderqvist ook benadrukken dat ABBA uit twee stellen bestaat.
Stig Anderson was in de jaren 70 en 80 de manager van de groep. In 1983 laste ABBA een pauze in, die leidde tot het uiteenvallen van de formatie. In april 2018 nam ABBA twee nummers op: I Still Have Faith in You en Don't Shut Me Down. Deze werden op 2 september 2021 uitgebracht. Ook werden er die dag een hologramconcertreeks voor 2022 en een nieuw album, genaamd Voyage aangekondigd. Het album kwam op 5 november 2021 uit.
ABBA ( AB-ə [ˈâbːa]) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are among the most renowned and commercially successful musical groups in history.
In 1974, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with their song "Waterloo". In 2005, 'Waterloo" was chosen as the best song in the competition's history during its 50th anniversary celebration. During their peak, ABBA comprised two married couples: Fältskog and Ulvaeus, and Lyngstad and Andersson. As their fame grew, their personal lives suffered, leading to the dissolution of both marriages. These relationship changes were reflected in the group's later music, which featured darker and more introspective lyrics. After ABBA disbanded in December 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus continued their success writing music for stage, musicals, and movies, while Fältskog and Lyngstad pursued solo careers. Ten years after the group's breakup, the compilation ABBA Gold was released and became a worldwide best-seller. In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into Mamma Mia!, a stage musical that toured globally. As of October 2024, it remains one of the ten longest-running productions on Broadway (closed in 2015) and the West End (still running). A film of the same name, released in 2008, became the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom that year. A sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, was released in 2018.
ABBA have sold an estimated 150 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling acts in the history of popular music. The group are ranked as the third best-selling singles artist in the United Kingdom, with a total of 11.3 million singles sold as of November 3, 2012. In May 2023, ABBA received the BRIT Billion Award, which honours artists who have surpassed one billion UK streams in their careers. They were the first group from a non-English-speaking country to achieve consistent success on the charts in English-speaking countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. ABBA is recognised as the best-selling Swedish band of all time and the best-selling band originating from continental Europe. The group achieved eight consecutive number-one albums in the UK and also enjoyed significant success in Latin America, recording a collection of their hit songs in Spanish. ABBA was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010, becoming the first recording artists to receive this honor from outside an Anglophone country. In 2015, their song "Dancing Queen" was inducted into the Recording Academy's Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2024, the United States Library of Congress included the album Arrival (1976) in the National Recording Registry, recognising it as a work "worthy of preservation for all time based on its cultural, historical, or aesthetic importance in the nation's recorded sound heritage".
In 2016, the group reunited and started working on a digital avatar concert tour. Newly recorded songs were announced in 2018. Voyage, their first new album in 40 years, was released on 5 November 2021, to positive critical reviews and strong sales. ABBA Voyage, a concert residency featuring ABBA as virtual avatars, opened in May 2022 in London.