ABBA Followers Designate 50 Years Since ‘Waterloo’ Took the World by Storm

It’s been 50 years since ABBA won a serious fight with “Waterloo.”

A half of-century ago on Saturday (April 6), the Swedish quartet triumphed at the 1974 Eurovision Track Contest with the peppy treasure music, which opens: “My my, at Waterloo, Napoleon did renounce, and I own met my future in rather a the same draw.”

The music rang out another time Saturday at London’s Waterloo railway position — additionally named after the 1815 fight that dealt defeat to the French chief — where a choir belted out a rendition for commuters.

In the English coastal city of Brighton, where the 1974 competition became once held, fans were staging a flashmob dance and silent ABBA disco to trace the anniversary.

Eurovision victory grew to change into ABBA into a pop juggernaut, by some distance the most a hit band to earn the pan-continental song contest, which is willing to preserve its 68th edition in Could well additionally honest in ABBA’s home country, Sweden. The Eurovision final will grasp arena Could well additionally honest 11 in Malmö, after Swedish singer Loreen won final yr’s competition with “Tattoo.”

ABBA’s melodic disco pop offered plenty of of thousands and thousands of data worldwide. The stage musical Mamma Mia! in step with its songs is 25 years popular and spawned two motion photos.

The band individuals own no longer performed collectively dwell for four many years, but launched a comeback album, “Voyage,” in 2021. On on daily foundation foundation, fans assist a concert by digital “ABBA-tars” at the hit present Abba Voyage, which opened in London in 2022.

In a thank-you message to fans on Saturday, the four band individuals said it became once “somewhat dizzying and deeply humbling” to know that their songs had been passed down the generations and “peaceable resonate around the sector.”

“Music you look and be taught to love whilst you develop up and even later in life has a style of staying with you without end,” said Agnetha Faltskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. “We piece which own with you and to know that our song has change into a fixed for your lives is an fine part.”

A tribute concert titled “A Birthday party for ABBA” became once plan to grasp arena in Stockholm on Saturday evening that contains outstanding Swedish artists, a 21-individual band and a neat choir. Organizers said it became once a salute to a band that modified the Nordic country’s song scene “without end.”

Swedish public broadcaster SVT, which deliberate to broadcast the concert continue to exist television and on its streaming carrier, said, “April 6, 1974 is regarded as by some to be Sweden’s nationwide song day.”

Gain weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Stamp Up