For most ABBA fans, “The Winner Takes It All” is the perfect song to break up with. What some don’t know is that the authenticity came from the band’s real-life situation.
IN ABBA: THROUGH TIME, documentary about the Swedish band premiering Saturday, May 11 on the CW, takes viewers back to 1980 when they recorded one of their biggest hits — and realizes how difficult it was for the band to pull it off.
“One thing we learned is that everything starts with a song,” says Björn Ulvaeus, 79, in the documentary. “I think great music is created from human experience. Deep emotions. Writing lyrics is something between a song and a melody. It would evoke not only the mood – but sometimes the images in me.”
Ulvaeus came up with the lyrics for “The Winner Takes It All” one day in the studio and the band immediately connected with it. At the time, Ulvaeus had recently divorced Agnetha Fältski – with whom he had a daughter, Linda Elin, now 51, and a son, Peter Christian, now 47 – after seven years of marriage.
ABBA in Stockholm in 1974.
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“I’m a very sensitive person and I really tried to put my life experience and my feelings, everything, into this song,” says Fältskog, 74.
Ulvaeus adds: “Going through a divorce is difficult because everyone would know who did it. That of course occupied my mind. But in our case there was no single winner.”
“The Winner Takes It All” was featured on their hugely successful album Super Trouper album in 1980. The same year they released the album, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson’s marriage began to fall apart and they decided to separate.
“It wasn’t just music. It was love. It was a life we lived together. All four of us, sort of,” says Lyngstad, 78, while Andersson, 77, adds: “It was powerful. One of our best I think .”
Although the band managed to keep things professional amid relationship issues, it suddenly became too difficult to perform the song.
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ABBA in London in May 2022.
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“We could feel that the song suddenly became a bit heavy. It wasn’t so much fun to record anymore. There was something in the atmosphere. A bit tragic,” says Fältskog.
Ulvaeus adds: “We had an explosive story and a creative period… and then it stopped.”
The band broke up in 1982, with Fältskog admitting that it was too difficult to sustain the band. In 2022, the band made a rare red carpet appearance together for the premiere of their virtual concert series, which was in support of the band’s studio album A journeytheir first release in 40 years.
ABBA: AGAINST OWN, directed by James Rogan, explores the journey of love, struggle, fame and epic songs that is ABBA.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education