It was 50 years ago today - Waterloo by ABBA

JupiterKid

It was 50 years ago on this very date - April 6th 1974 - that ABBA won the Eurovision song contest in Brighton with Waterloo.

Waterloo, the best ever Eurovision winning song in my humble opinion, introduced ABBA to the world, catapulted the Swedish pop band to global fame... and changed the face of pop music forever. 💕🎶 🎶 🎸

It still sounds very fresh and upbeat after half a century. ABBA, however, would go on to make even better songs as the 1970s progressed.

ABBA were without doubt one of the finest pop acts in the history of music and certainly the biggest act of the 1970s. My dear late mum and dad both loved ABBA and played their albums on the car stereo all the time when I was a very young child.

Anyone else here a fan of ABBA?

https://youtu.be/Sj_9CiNkkn4?si=TVQTe_0dtyJ2Y4xm

odyssey06

If you want to go full ABBA & Eurovision…

The entire 1974 contest will be re-aired on BBC4 tomorrow night, and tonight on BBC2 is ABBA night.

NewbridgeIR

Yes, a fan too. Fantastic singles act with three very strong albums (ABBA The Album, Voulez-Vous & The Visitors)

Growing up we had the 1976 Greatest Hits that had Björn reading a paper and Agnetha looking straight into the camera. Nice summary of the early years.

zell12

They wore the incredulous outfits to get tax-relief, only if they could prove garb could only be used in performances, which we see

dxhound2005

The UK gave Sweden Zero. So did Italy, Greece, Monaco and Belgium. Ireand gave them One. 18 countries had a panel of 10 judges who each awarded One point to their choice, not including their own country.

The most Sweden got from any country was 5 from Finland and Switzerland, and they got 24 out of a possible 170. So although the UK still sometimes gets stick for their Nul Point, 9 of the 10 from Ireland didn't see Waterloo as the best song either.

Sid 1984

It never ceases to amaze me how their music has lived on. A testament to the quality of the music.

At a party, stick on ABBA & everyone is up dancing & singing.

I'm a coach driver and it always makes me smile when I've a load of national school kids on & the sing song starts. There is ALWAYS an ABBA song. Their parents weren't even born when ABBA started out!

Princess Calla

Ah you can't beat a bit of ABBA to be fair.

Even their bitter stuff when their marriages were breaking down is great.

I wouldn't say I was a fan, but I definitely enjoy their music, impossible to be grumpy when their poppy stuff is playing.

SuperBowserWorld

The world would be just a little more drab and boring without ABBA's music.

Hippodrome Song Owl

I love ABBA, but I disagree Waterloo is the best Eurovision winning song - agree though it's not ABBA's best either! It is a good song though and has certainly stood the test of time. My father always played ABBA, so I grew up with them too. Everyone loves a bop to ABBA even if you don't love them. Settling in to enjoy the BBC night now.

COVID

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121985816#Comment_121985816

Big Abba fan here, too.

Please don't keep us in suspense regarding a better Eurovision winner than 'Waterloo'.

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121985847#Comment_121985847

That's for a different thread, really, but personally I think there are many better winners! For me these would include Zitti e Buoni, Euphoria, 1944, Hardrock Hallelujah.

Cluedo Monopoly

Great song. Love ABBA

COVID

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121985923#Comment_121985923

Oh.

I thought you were being serious.

My bad.

Hoboo

As my granny used to say, never trust a person who doesn’t like ABBA.

ruth...less

I should have called my last thread 'the name of the game' instead of 'do you like the chase?'...😆😆😆

freshpopcorn

I love ABBA and the Eurovision.

I remember first getting interested in them after Mickey Joe in the 2003 Eurovsion. Which I can't believe is 21 years ago.

My sister had their CD and I was hooked.

They're really stood the test of time.

Tomaldo

Growing up I was a "closet" Abba fan, they were a band my sisters loved. Since they broke up, I came out, I love them. If u offered me a ticket to see them or U2 live, I'd snap your hand off the for the Swedish legends.

silliussoddius

Don't trust anyone who doesn't likr ABBA, or the Bee Gees.

con747

Brotherhood of Man Save Your Kisses For Me was a better song IMO and sold more records AFAIK.

gym_imposter

Abba are if anything underrated

JupiterKid

ABBA were the best and biggest pop music act of the 1970s, no contest. And this was a decade with superb acts I love such as Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Queen, Eagles, ELO, Supertramp, Stevie Wonder, Bee Gees, T-Rex, Carpenters, Bob Marley etc. They are easily one of the greatest pop acts of all time.

Maybe I’m biased as I was exposed to their music all the time as a young kid with my parents and my mum - who loved ABBA especially - playing their albums on cassette in the car stereo on family car journeys.

Their superb album Arrival - one of their best IMO - always brings back memories of early 1980s car journeys from our home in Dublin down to our boat on the Shannon in Athlone.

After they disbanded in 1982 they were very unfashionable in the 1980s and you risked being derided - or worse - if you admitted to liking ABBA, especially as a boy.

Then, in early 1992, pop duo Erasure brought out the EP ABBAesque with that hilarious video of the lads dressed in drag as Frida and Agnetha for their cover of Take A Chance on Me which was a big hit in the charts, a new greatest hits album ABBA Gold was released that Autumn and was a huge success - and ABBA’s time had come again.

https://youtu.be/L-d4J3YUQmU?si=HLjgA5xt9FZ2JWqs

Since then, ABBA’s popularity has never waned and if anything has gone from strength to strength. Music critics who had dismissed ABBA in their heyday changed their minds and belatedly acknowledged just how good their music and lyrics were. In hindsight, it was only really for a decade in the 1980s that ABBA were unpopular.

NewbridgeIR

yes 1992 was a turning point although a few seeds were sown in autumn 1988. Telstar released the Absolute ABBA compilation and the NME gave it 10/10.

Hippodrome Song Owl

I'd definitely agree that ABBA are one of if not the greatest pop bands of all time. I was born just as they disbanded, but grew up in a house where they were played constantly without any shame, and I dont think I was even aware they had broken up until I was much older.

I only became aware of ABBA being considered unfashionable, or any stigma attached to liking them, when I was an adult watching documentaries. I found that bizarre - that a band with such obvious musical talent, writing their own songs, with real singing ability, would be looked down on at a time when manufactured pop was so prevalent.

Badly Drunk Boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121986760#Comment_121986760

Don't trust me, then. I also don't like animals, David Attenborough or tea and coffee. 😜

cml387

If anyone does watch the whole 1974 song contest (on BBC 4 tonight), as I did back in the day😋, be prepared for some pretty poor stuff without even Terry Wogan doing the commentary ( he was still doing the radio).

JupiterKid

I'll be watching it this evening. 😁 I wasn't even born - still a year away - but the 1974 Eurovision seems so familiar!

I believe Portugal's entry song was the signal to start their peaceful Carnation Revolution that brought an end to the long Salazar era of dictatorship. Franco in Spain would be gone 18 months later too.

The late, great Olivia Newton John sang the UK's entry, which came 3rd.

JupiterKid

ABBA's songs were just so bloody good, whether they were upbeat or melancholy.

Knowing Me, Knowing You (1977)

https://youtu.be/iUrzicaiRLU?si=TxOEdMy9ivN-a3VM

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121988395#Comment_121988395

ONJ hated the song, apparently, she preferred one of the other entries in the British contest.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121985264#Comment_121985264

Yeah, I find the whole "The UK gave ABBA nothing" discourse a bit odd. It's not unusual for a country not to vote for the winner. For example, in 2007 the UK gave nothing to ultimate winner Serbia and no one ever mentions that.

I also find the whole "ABBA swept the board in Brighton" legend odd as well. Yes, they led the voting from start to finish but it was never a landslide, and it went right down to the last jury. I think France withdrawing at the last minute changed things massively as well, they had a very good song that could have taken votes away from Sweden and others, plus Gigliola Cinquetti from Italy was very popular in France at the time, so she likely would have received decent points from the French jury.

I also think that, like Celine Dion, ABBA's later success wasn't down to winning Eurovision, and if they hadn't won, they'd still have gone on to great success.

gym_imposter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121987993#Comment_121987993

They were the biggest act of the seventies outside America, stateside that title goes to The Eagles

Abba weren't ever massive in the U.S

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121988585#Comment_121988585

She preferred "Angel Eyes", which, to be fair, was a much better song. She didn't hide her dislike of "Long Live Love" either (see attachment.) Still, her unpleasant experience at Eurovision didn't harm her career too much, and she went on to great things. I still can't believe she's gone.

There's a video of YouTube of ONJ performing at a concert in Brighton around 10 years ago. She sang "Love Live Love" in honour of being back in Brighton and introduced it by saying it was the first time since 1974 that she had performed it. She then sang "Angel Eyes", revealing that it was her favourite song from the British selection.

Funnily enough, the winners of the 1974 contest would have success with a (completely different) song called "Angeleyes."

8Apr74 Cambridge Evening News cover cropped.jpg

JP Liz V1

A great band, everyone loves a ABBA tune, party anthems, karaoke favourites

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121985816#Comment_121985816

I agree - I roll when my eyes every time there's a "Best Eurovision Song Ever" poll because it's always ABBA**. And not only is not the best Eurovision song ever, it's not the best song ABBA ever either.

** There's a big fan poll every year called ESC250 and "Waterloo" had never won that, but any poll involving the general public will always end with an ABBA win.

odyssey06

Olivia Newton John was robbed, and ABBA aren't even the best such act to come out of Sweden, compared to Ace of Base!

I'm obliged to post this to ensure this thread in AH has at least one contrarian :)

gym_imposter

Now my life's as good as an ABBA song

bureau2009

It's very simple - class, quality and talent will endure.

They wrote very strong songs which were produced to the highest standard. And their ace card was having two remarkable singers whose voices blended beautifully.

supereurope

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121989394#Comment_121989394

You're terrible Muriel.

cml387

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121989106#Comment_121989106

Good try, but you can't derail an ABBA feelgood thread😁

I agree that Waterloo isn't the best Eurovision OR ABBA song.

I have a personal regard for Beg, Steal or Borrow by the New Seekers which also was a girl boy girl boy ensemble predating ABBA by two years!

gym_imposter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121989106#Comment_121989106

Ace of Base ?

They couldn't sing at all,at least choose Roxette if comparing to a half decent sh1t band

LambshankRedemption

Everytime I see this thread in my feed, I start humming Segeant Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121989991#Comment_121989991

The point is to be contrary and Ace of Base matched the ABBA lineup personnel wise :)

Should have been deducted points at Eurovision 1974 for sending out their conductor dressed as Napoleon. If the French had turned up that year they might have been!

AllForIt

And I say thank you for the Music Abba.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121990694#Comment_121990694

For giving boards to me.

forumdedum

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121985923#Comment_121985923

only know Hardrock Hallelujah and it’s not even in the same league as Waterloo. Untouchable

gym_imposter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121990367#Comment_121990367

Not a fan eh

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121991384#Comment_121991384

I didn't say that… just observing them as a phenomenon. Waterloo took a whole lot of chutzpah to pull off… the music, the outfits… the conductor as Napoleon :)

gym_imposter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121991432#Comment_121991432

I see