The four members of ABBA have performed together on stage for the first time in three decades.

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Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson threw a private party in Stockholm on the weekend to celebrate their 50th anniversary of working together as songwriters.

Their former wives were also in attendance to celebrate the milestone and took to the stage to perform the ABBA hit ‘The Way Old Friends Do’. The two songwriters joined the singers to perform the final verse of the song, the first time all four have performed together since 1986.

The mega-selling group slpit up in 1982, but reunited briefly four years later when they appeared on the Swedish version of the TV show ‘This is Your Life’ which was honouring their long term manager Stig Anderson.

ABBA’s career kicked off 1972, two years later they achieved global recognition when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest. The band has sold over 380 million albums during their career.

Even when the marriages within the band ended the music continued with their divorces inspiring some of their biggest hits. Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltskog split up in 1979, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad ended their marriage two years later.

It’s often been stated that the bands hit ‘The Winner Takes It All’ was about the Ulvaeus-Faltskog divorce but the songwriters have said the songs lyrics are not that specific.

Bjorn Ulvaeus has noted that the tune ‘If it wasn’t for the nights’ was inspired by the couples break-up. The 1981 song ‘When All is Said and Done’ was a reflection on Andersson and Lyngstad’s break-up. The pain of their divorces is also captured on the tune ‘One of Us’ – which was their last number one hit.

After ABBA broke up Andersson and Ulvaeus continued making music together writing the hit musicals ‘Chess’ and ‘Kristina’. The duo also worked on the development of the musical ‘Mama Mia’ which saw their ABBA hits turned form the musicals story line.

OIP Staff