ABBA 1974: Waterloo and Eurovision victory
 Just as in 1972 and 1973, Ulvaeus, Andersson, and manager Stig Anderson believed in the possibilities of 'using' the Melodifestivalen and Eurovision tv contests as a way to get the music business aware of the band and Bj?rn, Benny and Stig as composers. In late 1973, the composers were invited by Swedish television to contribute a song for the 1974 contest, and from a number of newly written compositions, the foursome chose the upbeat Waterloo; the group was now inspired by the growing glam rock scene in England. Waterloo was an unashamedly glam-style pop track produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall-of-sound approach.
ABBA won their national heats on Swedish TV on February 9, 1974, and with this third attempt were far more experienced and better prepared for the international contest. With an album's worth of material released when the show was held at the Brighton Dome in England on April 6, 1974, the song won and catapulted them into British consciousness for the first time—and to the top of the charts all over Europe.
Winning the ESC gave ABBA the chance to tour Europe and perform on major TV shows; thus the band saw the Waterloo single climb the charts in most countries. Waterloo was ABBA's first UK #1 single. In the US, it reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, paving the way for their first album there (their second album, Waterloo, but now billed as ABBA)—although it only peaked at #145 on the Billboard 200 album chart.
ABBA's follow-up single, Honey, Honey, reached #27 in the US, and was a Top 3 hit in Germany. However, in the UK, a cover version of the song by the act Sweet Dreams made #10 on the chart. This was primarily because ABBA's British record company, Epic, decided to re-release Ring Ring (albeit in a remixed format) instead. It failed to reach the Top 30, increasing growing speculation that the group were simply Eurovision one-hit wonders.
Music sample:
Waterloo (1974)
An unashamedly glam-style pop track now credited to the catchy name ABBA.
S.O.S. (1975)
Third single from their self-titled 1975 album, which put the band back on the worldwide charts.
Mamma Mia (1975)
One of the first songs to make a breakthrough in the United Kingdom.
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1974 Tour
In November 1974, ABBA embarked on their first European tour, playing dates in Denmark, West Germany, and Austria. It wasn't as successful as the band had hoped, since most of the venues didn't sell out, and due to a lack of demand, they were even forced to cancel a few shows, including a sole scheduled concert in Switzerland. The second leg of the tour which took them through Scandinavia in January 1975 was entirely different: they played to full houses and finally got the reception they hoped for. For three weeks in the summer of 1975, ABBA compensated for the Swedish tour they had tentatively scheduled for the previous summer, but had to cancel after their Eurovision triumph. They played sixteen open-air dates in Sweden and Finland, attracting huge crowds. Their Stockholm show at the Gr?na Lund amusement park was seen by an estimated audience of 19,200.
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