TOP HONOUR: ABBA receive their awards from Sweden’s monarchs
Photo credit: X-Abba Updates
Sweden s best-known and never forgotten pop export, ABBA received official and royal recognition 50 years on from their Eurovision victory with Waterloo.
On May 30 they received one Sweden’s one of most prestigious knighthoods, Order of the Vasa, given in recognition of personal efforts for Sweden or Swedish interests, as well as the “successful performance of public duties and assignments.”
Along with all orders of nobility this was phased out for the country’s own citizens in 1975 but was still awarded to foreigners.
Sweden’s parliament restored the practice in 2022 and Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Bjorn Ulvaeus received the Vasa order from King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia their “outstanding efforts in Swedish and international music.”
They were the first Swedish citizens to receive the Order of Vasa knighthoods in practically half a century.
Agnetha was married to Bjorn and Anni-Frid to Benny, but both couples broke up within a year of each other in 1980 and 1981 respectively. The last time they performed live was on Noel Edmonds’ Late Late Breakfast Show in the UK in November 1982.
The success of Mamma Mia, which followed on from Waterloo in 197, demonstrated that ABBA weren’t doomed to fade away as one-hit wonders, eventually selling more than 400 million singles and albums.
Despite ABBA’s “uncoolness” for the next couple of decades, the Mamma Mia! musical, which premiered in London in April 1999, revived interest in the group and subsequent film adaptations have reintroduced the group’s music to younger generations.
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Originally from the UK, Linda is based in Valenca and is a reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering local news. Got a news story you want to share?
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