Fifty years ago in Famagusta…
It was April 5, 1970, when two Swedish couples were vacationing in Varos. They had come for 11 days in Cyprus to enjoy the Mediterranean sun. Their love was music and so they were hosted in Cyprus in exchange for having fun, as musicians, the battalion of Swedish UN troops based in Cyprus to play for them. It was an agreement they made with a Swedish travel agency.
"You come, host and give a concert for our soldiers."
Ο Bjorn and Agnetha they had just been engaged a few days ago on the plane that brought them to Cyprus.
They rehearsed on his balcony Twiga Tower Hotel where they lived. Finally they give a half hour concert. It was to be the beginning of their music career. The zero point for the band that was to be formed two years later and conquer the world.
They themselves remember years later having played only two of their own songs.
The Swedish travel agency took the photo of couples on the beach for its upcoming travel list.
Frida Lise-Lotte's three-year-old daughter is in the spotlight.
The famous photo taken that summer was published in her tourist list "Fritidsresor".
It shows a Swedish family sunbathing on the sandy beaches of Famagusta with the hotel "Constantia" in the background.
In the photo, of course, were Benny with Frida and behind her is Agnetha.
The concert did not go so well. They played Swedish pop songs of the time and made comic sketches in between. The audience did not seem to get excited.
But to them had entered the seed of creating a band, which at first was called "Festfolket" where in Swedish it means people who party and engaged couples.
The name was changed to ABBA 2 years later and is the culmination of their names.
It is one of the most commercially successful bands in the history of pop music, rising to the top of the charts worldwide around the period 1975-1982. They are also known for their victory at Eurovision in 1974.
The ABBA have sold over 381 million albums and singles worldwide.
The band disbanded in late 1982 and later Benny and Bjorn became very successful in writing music for the theater, while Annie-Fried and Anietta pursued solo careers with mixed success.
In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into a successful musical mamma mia, who traveled around the world. The film of the same name, released in 2008, was first released in the United Kingdom that year.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 2010.
The band was honored on the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, when the success of "Waterloo" was chosen as the best song in the history of the contest.
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