Introducing ABBA to the world

And here was the strategy that ABBA’s manager had in mind.

With Björn and Benny, ABBA’s manager knew he had a talented songwriting team.  And with Agnetha and Anna-Frid’s dynamic presence as singers, he knew he had the means to sell whatever creative song the band put together.  But how could he get his Swedish four-piece to make the leap beyond their borders and get noticed across the rest of the continent…and beyond?

Well, each year in Europe, there was a songwriting competition held called the Eurovision Song Contest.  Participating countries would select finalists from their own countries to compete against each other in a live broadcast.

ABBA’s manager planned to have his band take one of their brightest, catchiest songs—and that right there would be enough to make them stand out from the dramatic ballads that Eurovision seemed to feature at that time—and then they would make their song more accessible by singing it not in Swedish, but in English.

It was a brilliant bit of marketing.  Because when ABBA bounded on the Eurovision stage to play their new song on the 6th of April in 1974 (competing against among other contenstants, an established artist representing England that year, Olivia Newton-John), they would be singing their entry in a language that would open up their music to the record buyers of Great Britain and elsewhere.  And it worked.  As a single, “Waterloo” shot to #1 in the U. K. where it stayed for two weeks…and then went on to become a hit around the world.