History Music / ABBA

** While Frida's name was often misspelled (see SpellMyNameWithAnS below), Agnetha was lucky if she ever encountered a non-Scandinavian who could correctly pronounce her first or last name. When asked, she would pronounce her first name as AHGH-nyeh-''TAH''. She seemed to accept the pronunciation ahgh-NYEH-tah, which probably sounded better to her than ag-NEE-thuh, which a lot of English-speaking interviewers called her. (She deserves some of the blame for this. During her solo career before ABBA, she added an ''h'' to her given name, which was "Agneta", the standard spelling of the name.) In their early days, the group's promotional material called her "Anna", but that led to some confusion between her and Anni-Frid. And using her middle name -- Åse (pronounced OH-szeh) -- likely wouldn't have helped. Her last name is pronounced FELT-skoog.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** Frida's name was frequently misspelled, even at press conferences.
** Double-s Andersson (Benny) vs. single-s Anderson (Stig).
** Because the group's name is an acronym of their initials, it should be spelled "ABBA" (all caps), not "Abba" as is now common.

[[caption-width-right:350:(left to right): Björn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, and Benny Andersson]]

ABBA did not officially break up-- and despite the two divorces, all four members remained friends-- but by 1983 they had essentially dissolved. The former members would go on to have mixed careers and, despite occasional joint public appearances, refrained from getting back together despite a reported offer in 2000 of $1,000,000,000 (yes, you read that right, that's a ''billion dollars'') to do a reunion tour consisting of 100 concerts. ...Until [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/abba-sing-together-for-first-time-in-more-than-30-years/ June 2016]], when Frida and Agnetha reunited to perform one song ("The Way Old Friends Do") at a party to celebrate Benny and Björn's fifty years of friendship. In 2018, the band stunned fans with the announcement that [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/27/abba-announce-first-new-songs-for-35-years they reunited]] for the recording of two new songs, "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down". These tracks would eventually be released in 2021 as the lead singles of that November's ''Music/{{Voyage|2021}}'', their first album of new material in 39 years; the following year, this album got a concert in a purpose-built venue called the ABBA Arena in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park featuring virtual avatars of the band. Although Benny and Björn have stated they believe ''Voyage'' will ultimately be their final album as a foursome, Frida has suggested that she could be convinced to return for another.

And in terms of popular culture, ABBA never went away. Their music remained popular, selling steadily, and formed the background for the 1994 Australian CultClassic ''Film/MurielsWedding'' - ABBA has always been especially huge in the LandDownUnder. More directly, Benny and Björn collaborated three times in the realm of musical theater. First with lyricist Creator/TimRice on ''Music/{{Chess|1984}}'', and later in the creation of ''Theatre/MammaMia'', a stage musical [[JukeboxMusical based around ABBA songs]]. The musical, opening first in 1999 in London and in New York in 2001 has proved enormously popular with global audiences. In 2008 [[Film/MammaMia a movie version]] was released staring Creator/MerylStreep, Creator/PierceBrosnan and Creator/AmandaSeyfried (who, at 22, was born well after the group dissolved). That film was such a smash hit that it made $100+ million ''before'' it opened in North America, and later spawned an original theatrical sequel, ''Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain'', which released in 2018. Their third stage musical is called ''[[Literature/TheEmigrants Kristina from Duvemåla]]'' (or just ''Kristina'' for short) and is based on the literary epic by Vilhelm Moberg about a group of people who emigrate from Sweden to America in the mid-19th century. The musical was a massive success in Sweden and remains one of the most popular musicals of all time there. It's been translated into English but has not been performed other than in concert. Many fans of the original Swedish version are highly critical of the English translation, citing a huge decrease in the quality of the lyrics, which might have played a role in the show not being brought properly to an English-speaking stage.

ABBA did not officially break up-- and despite the two divorces, all four members remained friends-- but by 1983 they had essentially dissolved. The former members would go on to have mixed careers and, despite occasional joint public appearances, refrained from getting back together despite a reported offer in 2000 of $1,000,000,000 (yes, you read that right, that's a ''billion dollars'') to do a reunion tour consisting of 100 concerts. ...Until [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/abba-sing-together-for-first-time-in-more-than-30-years/ June 2016]], when Frida and Agnetha reunited to perform one song ("The Way Old Friends Do") at a party to celebrate Benny and Björn's fifty years of friendship. In 2018, the band stunned fans with the announcement that [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/27/abba-announce-first-new-songs-for-35-years they reunited]] for the recording of two new songs, "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down". These tracks would eventually be released in 2021 as the lead singles of that November's ''Music/{{Voyage|2021}}'', their first album of new material in 39 years. Although Benny and Björn have stated they believe ''Voyage'' will ultimately be their final album as a foursome, Frida has suggested that that she could be convinced to return for another.

* DualMeaningChorus: Their 2021 comeback single, "Don't Shut Me Down", has lyrics that can be taken as a SillyLoveSong, or as an open letter to their fans who have been waiting for decades to hear them sing again (e.g.: "You asked me not to leave, well here I am again."). Some of the lyrics can also refer to their planned "Voyage" virtual tour where they will use digital avatars ("And now you see another me, I've been reloaded.")

** "I do, I do, I do" can be read as a song about a wedding night, or about romantic sex in general.

* VocalDissonance: The men were this to some. Björn, who was occasionally assumed as AmbiguouslyGay (perhaps the wacky costumes didn't help), has a deeper voice than the [[RatedMForManly bearded]] Benny.

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Considering that Björn, Benny and Stig were all born and raised in Sweden and that none of them traveled to an English-speaking country until after they had started writing songs in English, their precision in English grammar and word usage is quite amazing. However, there are occasionally some (very) minor gaffes:
** "Fernando" has two:
** The lyric "Since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hands" should be "For many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hands." Reason: Björn has acknowledged that he was in a bit of a hurry writing this song. He said he didn't realize that he'd included the Swedish structure "since many years" in the lyric until after the record had been released.
*** "If I had to do the same again, I would, my friend" from the same song is harder to replace, but still sounds wrong. "If I had to" carries more force than the intended "If had to consider doing the same in a similar situation"; sadly, the latter doesn't ''quite'' scan.
** "The Winner Takes It All": The lyric, "The gods may throw a dice," should be "The gods may throw the dice." Reason: "Dice" is plural. "Die" is singular. (It could also be "The gods may throw a die." However, that doesn't rhyme with the next line, "Their minds as cold as ice.") Even if one accepts "dice" as a singular noun, "throw the dice" would still be the less clunky option. The Oxford English Dictionary does today recognise the use of "dice" as a singular term. It was completely wrong during ABBA's period, though a ''very'' common error even among native English speakers.
** Early song "Santa Rosa" has a few lines which indicate Björn's English wasn't quite up to scratch at this point. "Cause I have found no other place where I would stay" and "How I regret the day when I set up to go". "How I wish to see the old house where I used to live" is technically correct but is not something a native English speaker would say. Of course the other novelty about this song is that whichever Santa Rosa he's referring to (there are quite a few places with the name around the world), it's nowhere near Stockholm. (Bjorn and Benny noted that as the song was first intended for the Japanese market, they didn't expect anyone to pick up on it)
** "People Need Love" has the line "People need love to make a good living". A "living" in English tends to mean a well-paid job. Given the song's theme, it seems that what he intended to say was that people need love to have a good life.
** In "Love Isn't Easy (But It Sure Is Hard Enough)" there are a number of examples of this, including the awkwardly phrased line "If I would have to choose I wouldn't let you go", which would have been rendered as 'If I had the choice I wouldn't let you go' if Björn's English had been better at the time.
** In "The Day Before You Came", Agnetha sings both ''doubt'' and later ''undoubtedly'' with a clearly pronounced ''b''. In ''doubt'' and related words, the ''b'' is mute.
** "Just Like That" features the phrase 'predestinated course'. 'Predestinated' is a rarely used English word, and usually relates to the religious doctrine of "Predestination". 'Pre-destined' or 'pre-determined' would be more usual word choices. It's probable the line would have changed had the song been officially released.
** In "Lovers (Live a Little Longer)", Frida pronounces the word "longevity" with a hard "g". It's supposed to be pronounced with a soft "g" (a "j" sound).
** In "Happy New Year", the word "champagne" in the first line is pronounced with a 'Ch' sound instead of an 's'. Oddly enough, she does pronounce "champagne" with an 's' in the Spanish-language version ("Felicidad"), where it is wrong too, because "champagne" wouldn't be used in Spanish (it would be either ''champaña'' ["cham-PAGNA", as in the "sagna" in "lasagna"] or ''champán'' ["cham-PAHN"], both with a 'ch' sound).
** "Put on Your White Sombrero", which is based around cowboy imagery, seems to confuse the sombrero (a traditional Mexican hat) with the Western cowboy hat.

* BareYourMidriff: A few of Agnetha and Frida's outfits do this.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

--> Look at me now, will I ever learn?
--> I don't know how but I suddenly lose control

* BittersweetSeventeen: "Dancing Queen". The lyrics suggest how that being 17 is the key to being free in dance, and yet can also be interpreted as retrospectively wishing the singer could be 17, despite how peppy it is:

* IconicLogo: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ABBA-Logo.svg Theirs]] renders their name in [[UsefulNotes/{{Fonts}} News Gothic Bold]] (using Adobe scanning) in all-caps with the first B reversed.

* RefrainFromAssuming:
** "Mamma Mia" is not called "Here I Go Again" or "How Can I Resist You".
** "I Have a Dream" is often mistaken as "I Believe in Angels".
** Regarding the Spanish-language versions of their songs, "Conociendote, conociendome" (the Spanish-language version of "Knowing Me, Knowing You") is not called "Sola tu, sola yo". (It doesn't help that the phrase "Sola tu, sola yo" takes the same place in the song as the phrase "Knowing Me, Knowing You" does in the original.)

** ''Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain'', the 2018 sequel to the 2008 film adaptation

* ''Theatre/MammaMia'' (1999) [written by Björn and Benny, with Catherine Johnson; film adaptation in 2008]

->''"It was very unfashionable to like Abba at that time. Their songs are beautifully crafted and the production was always immaculate, everything beautifully tuned in time, and the girls' voices were fabulous."''

* NiceHat:
** Frida in the "Money Money Money" video wears a black antebellum hat that gives her some "mysterious woman" vibes.
** Agnetha in the "Waterloo" video wears a blue swimming cap-like bonnet with shimmering glittery, especially noticeable in the remastered version of the video.

* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: Frida would sometimes use more masculine clothes in comparison to Agnetha's more conventionally femenine looks. This became more pronounced during the band's last years, when Frida [[BoyishShortHair cut her hair short]] to the point that it looked worthy of a punk rocker. Interestingly enough, this was inverted with the outfits they are shown wearing in the video for "Happy New Year" ([[http://www.geofffield.com.au/site/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/the-winner-takes-it-all-by-abba.jpg seen here]]), where Agnetha wore a suit, tie and pants (all pink), while Frida wore a purple suit with a pencil skirt.

And in terms of popular culture, ABBA never went away. Their music remained popular, selling steadily, and formed the background for the 1994 Australian CultClassic ''Film/MurielsWedding'' - ABBA has always been especially huge in the LandDownUnder. More directly, Benny and Björn collaborated three times in the realm of musical theater. First with lyricist Creator/TimRice on ''Theatre/{{Chess}}'', and later in the creation of ''Theatre/MammaMia'', a stage musical [[JukeboxMusical based around ABBA songs]]. The musical, opening first in 1999 in London and in New York in 2001 has proved enormously popular with global audiences. In 2008 [[Film/MammaMia a movie version]] was released staring Creator/MerylStreep, Creator/PierceBrosnan and Creator/AmandaSeyfried (who, at 22, was born well after the group dissolved). That film was such a smash hit that it made $100+ million ''before'' it opened in North America, and later spawned an original theatrical sequel, ''Film/MammaMiaHereWeGoAgain'', which released in 2018. Their third stage musical is called ''[[Literature/TheEmigrants Kristina from Duvemåla]]'' (or just ''Kristina'' for short) and is based on the literary epic by Vilhelm Moberg about a group of people who emigrate from Sweden to America in the mid-19th century. The musical was a massive success in Sweden and remains one of the most popular musicals of all time there. It's been translated into English but has not been performed other than in concert. Many fans of the original Swedish version are highly critical of the English translation, citing a huge decrease in the quality of the lyrics, which might have played a role in the show not being brought properly to an English-speaking stage.

* ''Theatre/{{Chess}}'' (1984) [written by Björn and Benny, with Creator/TimRice]

** Agnetha was stalked in the '90s. The guy said he was in love with her since he was 6. Interestingly, this actually turned into a relationship which lasted years! Awkwardly, [[FunnyAneurysmMoment years earlier]], Agnetha had played a stalker in one of her solo videos, "I Won't Let You Go".

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOBZixsd-fI "Lay All Your Love On Me"]]

* ConceptAlbum: Most of ''Music/TheAlbum'''s second side is devoted to a three-part suite "The Girl With The Golden Hair". There are three other progressive tracks on the LP, these being "Eagle", "The Name Of The Game" and "Hole In Your Soul", which suggests that the Björn & Benny were listening to a lot of prog at the time.

* EverythingsBetterWithSparkles: When the average person thinks of ABBA, said person will surely think of sparkly costumes.

* ChristmasSongs: "Happy New Year" was supposed to be this at the production stage, but was changed to a New Year's song for some reason.

* ConceptAlbum: Most of ''ABBA/TheAlbum'''s second side is devoted to a three-part suite "The Girl With The Golden Hair". There are three other progressive tracks on the LP, these being "Eagle", "The Name Of The Game" and "Hole In Your Soul", which suggests that the Björn & Benny were listening to a lot of prog at the time.

ABBA did not officially broke up-- and despite the two divorces, all four members remained friends-- but by 1983 they had essentially dissolved. The former members would go on to have mixed careers and, despite occasional joint public appearances, refrained from getting back together despite a reported offer in 2000 of $1,000,000,000 (yes, you read that right, that's a ''billion dollars'') to do a reunion tour consisting of 100 concerts. ...Until [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/abba-sing-together-for-first-time-in-more-than-30-years/ June 2016]], when Frida and Agnetha reunited to perform one song ("The Way Old Friends Do") at a party to celebrate Benny and Björn's fifty years of friendship. In 2018, the band stunned fans with the announcement that [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/27/abba-announce-first-new-songs-for-35-years they reunited]] for the recording of two new songs, "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down". These tracks would eventually be released in 2021 as the lead singles of that November's ''Music/{{Voyage|2021}}'', their first album of new material in 39 years. Although Benny and Björn have stated they believe ''Voyage'' will ultimately be their final album as a foursome, Frida has suggested that that she could be convinced to return for another.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/best_deepcut_abba_songs_sheffield_8.jpg]]

ABBA did not officially broke up-- and despite the two divorces, all four members remained friends-- but by 1983 they had essentially dissolved. The former members would go on to have mixed careers and, despite occasional joint public appearances, refrained from getting back together despite a reported offer in 2000 of $1,000,000,000 (yes, you read that right, that's a ''billion dollars'') to do a reunion tour consisting of 100 concerts. ...Until [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/abba-sing-together-for-first-time-in-more-than-30-years/ June 2016]], when Frida and Agnetha reunited to perform one song ("The Way Old Friends Do") at a party to celebrate Benny and Björn's fifty years of friendship. In 2018, the band stunned fans with the announcement that [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/27/abba-announce-first-new-songs-for-35-years they reunited]] for the recording of two new songs, "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", which were released in 2021, and "Just A Notion" released a month later; in the meantime, the two songs expanded to five, and then to a whole new album, titled ''Music/{{Voyage|2021}}'', which was released in November 2021. The album was accompanied by the band officially announcing their breakup.

ABBA never officially broke up-- and despite the two divorces, all four members remained friends-- but by 1983 they had essentially dissolved. The former members would go on to have mixed careers and, despite occasional joint public appearances, refrained from getting back together despite a reported offer in 2000 of $1,000,000,000 (yes, you read that right, that's a ''billion dollars'') to do a reunion tour consisting of 100 concerts. ...Until [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/abba-sing-together-for-first-time-in-more-than-30-years/ June 2016]], when Frida and Agnetha reunited to perform one song ("The Way Old Friends Do") at a party to celebrate Benny and Björn's fifty years of friendship. In 2018, the band stunned fans with the announcement that [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/27/abba-announce-first-new-songs-for-35-years they reunited]] for the recording of two new songs, "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", which were released in 2021, and "Just A Notion" released a month later; in the meantime, the two songs expanded to five, and then to a whole new album, titled ''Music/{{Voyage|2021}}'', which was released in November 2021.

ABBA never officially broke up-- and despite the two divorces, all four members remained friends-- but by 1983 they had essentially dissolved. The former members would go on to have mixed careers and, despite occasional joint public appearances, refrained from getting back together despite a reported offer in 2000 of $1,000,000,000 (yes, you read that right, that's a ''billion dollars'') to do a reunion tour consisting of 100 concerts. ...Until [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/abba-sing-together-for-first-time-in-more-than-30-years/ June 2016]], when Frida and Agnetha reunited to perform one song ("The Way Old Friends Do") at a party to celebrate Benny and Björn's fifty years of friendship. In 2018, the band stunned fans with the announcement that [[https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/27/abba-announce-first-new-songs-for-35-years they reunited]] for the recording of two new songs, "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", which were released in 2021, and "Just A Notion" released a month later; in the meantime, the two songs expanded to five, and then to a whole new album, titled ''Voyage'', to be released in November of 2021.