How popular were Abba in the seventies, and how popular have they been since then?. I know they have been very popular here in the UK.
Do you know if the American cast members of this film had heard much of their music before they did this film?.
I grew up in the USA and I'm a big ABBA fan. Although ABBA probably became known outside of Sweden when they won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 singing Waterloo, I did not learn about them until 1976.
I planned to attend one of their live concerts in 1979 in Chicago. Unfortunately, I did not attend due to a death in the family. Little did I know they would never tour the USA again.
I got the impression that ABBA did not seem as popular in the USA like they seemed to be in other countries. Even Billboard magazine printed that "the members of ABBA consider America to be their only failure."
According to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame web site, while ABBA only sold 10 million records in the USA, they are estimated to have sold 350 million worldwide. And from what I read on the internet, at the peak of their worldwide popularity, "ABBA ranked second only to automaker Volvo as Sweden’s biggest money-making export".
During the early 1990s, ABBA was re-introduced to a worldwide audience with their release of their "Gold – Greatest Hits" CD that sold 6 million copies in the USA and 26 million worldwide. A few years later, the "Mamma Mia" musical play has been seen by over 60 million theater goers worldwide.
It's a huge country. You can barely make a ripple and still be a massive hit and make millions. ABBA did well here in the late 70s on the pop charts. They had a few big hits and maybe not the sustained career they had elsewhere, but it was big and noticeable. Everybody remembers Dancing Queen and at least two or three other hits. In the 70s, there were countless new albums per week. Now it's a much shorter list. Their time on the pop charts lasted about 3-4 years here.
shareVERY popular in the U.S!
shareI never thought about it like that hah, always just assumed they were a worldwide sensation. Good question, interesting replies. Gustavo Woltmann
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