ABBA win Eurovision in Brighton and the world learns their name
On 6 April 1974 four Swedes in satin and platform boots sang Waterloo at the Brighton Dome, with a conductor dressed as Napoleon. Sweden had never won the contest. Pop was about to change hands.
Footage: ABBA - Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest 1974 First Performance), published by AbbaVEVO on YouTube
- 24
- Points
- 0
- Sweden's Eurovision wins before this
- Napoleon
- Conductor dressed as
- Best Eurovision song ever
- Voted in 2005
Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad had entered Sweden's selection the year before with Ring Ring and lost. For 1974 they came back with a louder, glam-rock song about surrendering to love the way Napoleon surrendered at Waterloo, and they had worked out that the contest, watched across Europe, was the one stage that could get a Swedish group out of Sweden.
The contest was held in Brighton because Luxembourg, the previous winner, could not afford to host it twice. ABBA went on eighth, in costumes that were spectacular even for 1974, and the conductor Sven-Olof Walldoff walked to the podium in a Napoleon hat and coat. Waterloo won with 24 points. Olivia Newton-John, singing for the United Kingdom, came fourth.
Within weeks Waterloo was number one in Britain and across Europe, and in the top ten in the United States. It was Sweden's first Eurovision victory and the start of the most successful pop group the continent has produced: eight years of hits, well over 150 million records, and a legacy that includes the entire Swedish songwriting industry that followed. In 2005, at the contest's fiftieth anniversary, Waterloo was voted the best Eurovision song of all time.
Who was there
Where
Sources
- Eurovision Song Contest 1974 · Wikipedia
- Waterloo (ABBA song) · Wikipedia
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