The Swedish quartet turned Eurovision winners into global pop fixtures before fading away.
If you need one song to explain ABBA, it's probably 'Mamma Mia', that mix of heartache and a beat you can't sit still to. 'Chiquitita' shows their softer side, but it's still unmistakably them.
They wrote songs that became part of the furniture in the late '70s, 'Dancing Queen' played at every wedding, 'The Winner Takes It All' on every breakup mixtape. Their music traveled from Stockholm to Tokyo to American radio stations without losing its Swedish accent. Even after they stopped recording, those songs kept showing up in movies and on dance floors.
They started as four solo artists who teamed up in 1972, won Eurovision with 'Waterloo' two years later, and spent the rest of the decade touring and releasing hits. By the early '80s, the grind of constant work and public scrutiny wore them down, and they quietly stopped making new music together.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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