Neither Agnetha Fltskog, neither Bjrn Ulvaeus, neither Benny Andersson neither Anni-Frid Lyngstad, None of the members of ABBA have physically reappeared this Saturday at the Eurovision 2024 final to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their victory in this ‘Waterloo’ contest.
Very evasive with this type of meeting, the group had already assured that will not attend the appointment, but some surprise was expected at the last moment due to the opportune coincidence that the round anniversary of his favorite song took place in Sweden.
Instead, it has been a trio of former Eurovision champions who have performed the song: the Swedish Carola and Charlotte Perrelli and the Austrian Conchita Wurst.
The last time that the four members of this Swedish benchmark appeared together was in May 2022, when they presented the band’s latest album, ‘Voyage’, and the London show starring their band members. holographic “abbatares”.
Precisely this has been the mechanism that ABBA has used to return to public life also this Saturday at Eurovision 2024. With the real voices of all four members of the group, His avatars have revived his memories of what it was like and what that emblematic victory meant, the first for his country of the seven it currently accumulates.
‘Waterloo’ won the victory in 1974 in Brighton (United Kingdom) with a proposal that set the tone for what from then on began to be considered “Eurovision”.
Supported by an orchestra conductor dressed as Napoleon, in honor of the protagonist of the battle that served as a sentimental metaphor for the song, They presented a modern and contagious production, with a simple but iconic choreography, a star-shaped guitar designed for the occasion and a colorful costume.
“That locker room was so tight!” Fltskog’s avatar complained when remembering the moment of victory.
That was also the first year in which Eurovision allowed participating countries to They would sing in another language that was not the official one of their territories. They chose to perform the song in English, reaching number 1 in countries such as the United Kingdom or federal Germany and having an impact in territories as far away from the festival as South Africa or the United States.
They had already published two albums, including the self-titled ‘Waterloo’ (1974) shortly before, and in the following seven years they released another six with hits such as ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Take A Chance On Me’, ‘Super Trouper’, ‘Chiquitita’ or ‘The Winner Taken It All’.
As of 1982 they announced their separation, but they had already sown the seed of exporting Swedish talent to the rest of the world, with Roxette, Europe, The Cardigans, Ace of Base, Robyn, Swedish House Mafia, Lykke Li, Aviciio the producer Max Martin, something that has precisely celebrated the start of this Saturday’s gala.
In it there has been another reappearance of justice, that of the veteran Bjrn Skifs, of the group Blue Swede, to sing their version of the song ‘Hooked On a Feeling’, with which they achieved the first number one with a dry label in the US, precisely the same year as the victory of ‘Waterloo’, which partially silenced the dimension of this feat.
