They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, [ 3 ] and are one of the best-selling music acts in the history of popular music. In , ABBA became Sweden 's first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song " Waterloo ", which in was chosen as the best song in the competition's history as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the contest. With the increase of their popularity, their personal lives suffered, which eventually resulted in the collapse of both marriages.
The relationship changes were reflected in the group's music, with later songs featuring darker and more introspective lyrics. A film of the same name , released in , became the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom that year. A sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again , was released in ABBA are among the best-selling music artists in history , with record sales estimated to be between million to million sold worldwide [ 10 ] [ 11 ] and the group were ranked 3rd best-selling singles artists in the United Kingdom with a total of The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin America and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.
In , the group reunited and started working on a digital avatar concert tour. Lundkvist was so impressed with her voice that he was convinced she would be a star.
After going through considerable effort to locate the singer, he arranged for Agnetha to come to Stockholm and to record two of her own songs. This led to Agnetha at the age of 18 having a number-one record in Sweden with a self-composed song, which later went on to sell over 80, copies.
Along with her own compositions, she recorded covers of foreign hits and performed them on tours in Swedish folkparks. Most of her biggest hits were self-composed, which was quite unusual for a female singer in the s. Agnetha released four solo LPs between and She had many successful singles in the Swedish charts. Ulvaeus started writing English-language songs for his group and even had a brief solo career alongside. The Hootenanny Singers and the Hep Stars sometimes crossed paths while touring.
