This is my Waterloo
Here we go – the countdown to the camp fest that is Eurovision has begun, with 37 acts preparing to gather in Malmo and try to wow the jury with their latest attempt at sounding modern and contemporary. And it’s 50 years since a bunch of Swedes turned up in Brighton out of the blue and turned pop music upside down – except they didn’t.
Like all myths, the tales of ABBA arriving like a breath of fresh air are about as true as claims that the moon landings were created on a Hollywood backlot. It was all a lot weirder than that.
The four members of ABBA had been knocking around the Swedish music scene since the 1960s. They’d even entered the Swedish competition to pick their Eurovision entry in 1973 and came third. Besides they weren’t even meant to be in Brighton, no one was. Luxembourg had won in 1973, but decided they didn’t want to host it, so in stepped the BBC and it all came to Brighton.
ABBA had spent the previous year getting their act together and had decided that they wanted to be a worldwide sensation like The Beatles. They’d also watched too much Top of The Pops and decided that satin, platform boots and general glam-ness was the way to do it. I guess they were right about that, although it’s a good job they didn’t say anything about being influenced by The Sweet.
Anyone who watched the re-run of the 1974 Eurovision Final on TV will know just how different they were. Just about everything else was either some ballad or a catchy ‘Ding, ding, bang, bang’ slice of Euro folk pap. Olivia Newton-John was the British entry and appeared dressed in a cross between her mum’s nightdress and a set of net curtains, singing about the Salvation Army. The young men who were the Israeli entry sang in Hebrew and dressed like a maths teacher trying to look trendy.
ABBA looked different, sounded different and seemed modern. And naturally the British jury gave them ‘nul points’. Great start, folks, not noticing that this was going to be a worldwide hit.
Except funnily enough, for the next year you couldn’t give ABBA away. They were just another one-hit wonder. It wasn’t until SOS came out over a year later that they really began to make an impact. After that you couldn’t avoid them and idiots said they were bigger than The Beatles.
Although they split up in 1982, they didn’t go away. There is Mamma Mia the musical, the film and the sequel, plus ABBA the museum, the avatars and the virtual reality. They are still everywhere and I blame Brighton. But they did have some damn good songs.
