Profile and Story. Their labels are Polar (Sweden), Polydor, (Germany/The Netherlands), Atlantic (United States/Canada), Universal (USA), Epic (UK/Italy), Vogue (France), Discomate, RCA (Australia/South America/Mexico), PolyGram, Carnaby, Sunshine (Rhodesia-Zimbabwe) and Ariston/Dig It (Italy). Pop rock, Euro disco, europop and synthpop are their genres. The story was written on Wikipedia, ABBA is Swedish singer (Band Group Musician). They were active 1972–1982 (Stockholm, Sweden). For their first Eurovision, ABBA entered with "Ring Ring" but failed to qualify as the 1973 Swedish entry; it came third in the preliminary round. Stig immediately started planning for the 1974 contest. Ulvaeus, Andersson, and Stig believed in the possibilities of using Melodifestivalen and Eurovision TV contests as a way to make the music business aware of the band and Andersson, Ulvaeus and Stig as composers. In late 1973, they were invited by Swedish television to contribute a song for the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and from a number of newly written compositions, the foursome chose the upbeat "Waterloo"; the group was now inspired by the growing glam rock scene in England. "Waterloo" was an unashamedly glam-style pop track produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall-of-sound approach.  ABBA won their national heats on Swedish TV on 9 February 1974, and with this third attempt were far more experienced and better prepared for the international contest. Winning the Eurovision Song Contest gave ABBA the chance to tour Europe and perform on major TV shows; thus the band saw the "Waterloo" single climb the charts in many European countries. "Waterloo" was ABBA's first number one single in big markets such as the UK, Germany and Australia. In the US, it reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, paving the way for their first album and their first trip as a group there. Albeit a short promotional visit, it included their first performance on American TV, The Mike Douglas Show. The Waterloo album only peaked at No. 145 on the Billboard 200 album chart, but received unanimous high praise from the US critics: Los Angeles Times called it "a compelling and fascinating debut album that captures the spirit of mainstream pop quite effectively . . . an immensely enjoyable and pleasant project", while Creem characterized it as "a perfect blend of exceptional, lovable compositions".ABBA's follow-up single, "Honey, Honey", reached No. 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was No. 2 in Germany. However, in the UK, ABBA's British record company, Epic, decided to re-release a remixed version of "Ring Ring" instead of "Honey Honey", and a cover version of "Honey Honey" by the act Sweet Dreams reached No. 10. Both records debuted on the UK chart within one week of each other. "Ring Ring" failed to reach the Top 30 in the UK, increasing growing speculation that the group were simply Eurovision one-hit wonders..... reference and read more detail ABBA on Wikipedia | PLAY ON WIDESCREEN TV
|
ABBA
