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a, other than Egyptian, and was used from the 2nd century BC until the early 5th century AD. The cult of the goddess Isis, for example, became popular in the Roman Empire, as obelisks and other relics were transported back to Rome. The Romans also imported building materials from Egypt to erect Egyptianstyle structures. Early historians such as Herodotus, Strabo, and Diodorus Siculus studied and wrote about the land, which Romans came to view as a place of mystery.
During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Egyptian pagan culture was in decline after the rise of Christianity and later Islam, but interest in Egyptian antiquity continued in the writings of medieval scholars such as DhulNun alMisri and alMaqrizi. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European travelers and tourists brought back antiquities and wrote stories of their journeys, leading to a wave of Egyptomania across Europe. This renewed interest sent collectors to Egypt, who took, purchased, or were given many important antiquities. Napo
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leon arranged the first studies in Egyptology when he brought some 150 scientists and artists to study and document Egypt's natural history, which was published in the Description de l'gypte.
In the 20th century, the Egyptian Government and archaeologists alike recognized the importance of cultural respect and integrity in excavations. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities formerly Supreme Council of Antiquities now approves and oversees all excavations, which are aimed at finding information rather than treasure. The council also supervises museums and monument reconstruction programs designed to preserve the historical legacy of Egypt.
See also
Glossary of ancient Egypt artifacts
Index of ancient Egyptrelated articles
Outline of ancient Egypt
List of ancient Egyptians
List of Ancient Egyptian inventions and discoveries
Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
British school of diffusionism
Notes
Citation
References
Further reading
deLexikon der gyptologie
External links
BBC History Egyptian
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sprovides a reliable general overview and further links
World History Encyclopedia on Egypt
Ancient Egyptian Science A Source Book Door Marshall Clagett, 1989
Ancient Egyptian Metallurgy A site that shows the history of Egyptian metalworking
Napoleon on the Nile Soldiers, Artists, and the Rediscovery of Egypt, Art History.
Digital Egypt for Universities. Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross references internal and external. Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics.
Priests of Ancient Egypt Indepthinformation about Ancient Egypt's priests, religious services and temples. Much picture material and bibliography. In English and German.
Ancient Egypt at History.com
UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
Ancient Egypt and the Role of Women by Dr Joann Fletcher
Fulllength account of Ancient Egypt as part of history of the world
Ancient Egypt
Civilizations
Egypt
Former empires in Asia
Ancient peoples
History of Egypt
History of the Mediterranean
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Analog Brothers were an experimental hip hop band featuring Tracy "Ice Oscillator" Marrow IceT on keyboards, drums and vocals, Keith "Keith Korg" Thornton Ultramagnetic MCs' Kool Keith on bass, strings and vocals, Marc "Mark Moog" Giveand Raw Breed's Marc Live on drums, violins and vocals, Christopher "Silver Synth" Rodgers Black Silver on synthesizer, lazar bell and vocals, and Rex Colonel "Rex Roland JX3P" Doby Jr. Pimpin' Rex on keyboards, vocals and production. Its album Pimp to Eat featured guest appearances by various members of Rhyme Syndicate, Odd Oberheim, Jacky Jasper who appears as Jacky Jasper on the song "We Sleep Days" and HBomb on "War", D.J. Cisco from S.M., SynthASize Sisters and Teflon.
While the group only recorded one album together as the Analog Brothers, a few bootlegs of its live concert performances, including freestyles with original lyrics, have occasionally surfaced online. After Pimp to Eat, the Analog Brothers continued performing together in various line ups. Kool Keith and Marc
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Live joined with Jacky Jasper to release two albums as KHM. Marc Live rapped with Ice T's group SMG. Marc also formed a group with Black Silver called Live Black, but while five of their tracks were released on a demo CD sold at concerts, Live Black's first album has yet to be released.
In 2008, IceT and Black Silver toured together as Black Ice, and released an album together called Urban Legends.
In 2013, Black Silver and newest member to Analog Brothers, Kiew Kurzweil Kiew Nikon of Kinetic collaborated on the joint album called Slang Banging Return to Analog with production by Junkadelic Music. In addition to all this, the Analog Brothers continue to make frequent appearances on each other's solo albums.
Discography
2000 2005 A.D. single, Ground Control RecordsNu Gruv
2000 Pimp to Eat LP, Ground Control RecordsMello Music Group
2014 Slang Banging Return to Analog, Junkadelic Music
References
External links
Kool Keith's Site
Ultrakeith
Analog Brothers at Discogs
IceT
American hip hop groups
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Motor neuron diseases or motor neurone diseases MNDs are a group of rare neurodegenerative disorders that selectively affect motor neurons, the cells which control voluntary muscles of the body. They include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ALS, progressive bulbar palsy PBP, pseudobulbar palsy, progressive muscular atrophy PMA, primary lateral sclerosis PLS, spinal muscular atrophy SMA and monomelic amyotrophy MMA, as well as some rarer variants resembling ALS.
Motor neuron diseases affect both children and adults. While each motor neuron disease affects patients differently, they all cause movementrelated symptoms, mainly muscle weakness. Most of these diseases seem to occur randomly without known causes, but some forms are inherited. Studies into these inherited forms have led to discoveries of various genes e.g. SOD1 that are thought to be important in understanding how the disease occurs.
Symptoms of motor neuron diseases can be first seen at birth or can come on slowly later in life. Most of these disease
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s worsen over time; while some, such as ALS, shorten one's life expectancy, others do not. Currently, there are no approved treatments for the majority of motor neuron disorders, and care is mostly symptomatic.
Signs and symptoms
Signs and symptoms depend on the specific disease, but motor neuron diseases typically manifest as a group of movementrelated symptoms. They come on slowly, and worsen over the course of more than three months. Various patterns of muscle weakness are seen, and muscle cramps and spasms may occur. One can have difficulty breathing with climbing stairs exertion, difficulty breathing when lying down orthopnea, or even respiratory failure if breathing muscles become involved. Bulbar symptoms, including difficulty speaking dysarthria, difficulty swallowing dysphagia, and excessive saliva production sialorrhea, can also occur. Sensation, or the ability to feel, is typically not affected. Emotional disturbance e.g. pseudobulbar affect and cognitive and behavioural changes e.g. problems in
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word fluency, decisionmaking, and memory are also seen. There can be lower motor neuron findings e.g. muscle wasting, muscle twitching, upper motor neuron findings e.g. brisk reflexes, Babinski reflex, Hoffman's reflex, increased muscle tone, or both.
Motor neuron diseases are seen both in children and in adults. Those that affect children tend to be inherited or familial, and their symptoms are either present at birth or appear before learning to walk. Those that affect adults tend to appear after age 40. The clinical course depends on the specific disease, but most progress or worsen over the course of months. Some are fatal e.g. ALS, while others are not e.g. PLS.
Patterns of weakness
Various patterns of muscle weakness occur in different motor neuron diseases. Weakness can be symmetric or asymmetric, and it can occur in body parts that are distal, proximal, or both... According to Statland et al., there are three main weakness patterns that are seen in motor neuron diseases, which are
Asymmetric dis
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tal weakness without sensory loss e.g. ALS, PLS, PMA, MMA
Symmetric weakness without sensory loss e.g. PMA, PLS
Symmetric focal midline proximal weakness neck, trunk, bulbar involvement; e.g. ALS, PBP, PLS
Lower and upper motor neuron findings
Motor neuron diseases are on a spectrum in terms of upper and lower motor neuron involvement. Some have just lower or upper motor neuron findings, while others have a mix of both. Lower motor neuron LMN findings include muscle atrophy and fasciculations, and upper motor neuron UMN findings include hyperreflexia, spasticity, muscle spasm, and abnormal reflexes.
Pure upper motor neuron diseases, or those with just UMN findings, include PLS.
Pure lower motor neuron diseases, or those with just LMN findings, include PMA.
Motor neuron diseases with both UMN and LMN findings include both familial and sporadic ALS.
Causes
Most cases are sporadic and their causes are usually not known. It is thought that environmental, toxic, viral, or genetic factors may be involved.
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DNA damage
TARDBP TAR DNAbinding protein 43, also referred to as TDP43, is a critical component of the nonhomologous end joining NHEJ enzymatic pathway that repairs DNA doublestrand breaks in pluripotent stem cellderived motor neurons. TDP43 is rapidly recruited to doublestrand breaks where it acts as a scaffold for the recruitment of the XRCC4DNA ligase protein complex that then acts to repair doublestrand breaks. About 95 of ALS patients have abnormalities in the nucleuscytoplasmic localization in spinal motor neurons of TDP43. In TDP43 depleted human neural stem cellderived motor neurons, as well as in sporadic ALS patients spinal cord specimens there is significant doublestrand break accumulation and reduced levels of NHEJ.
Associated risk factors
In adults, men are more commonly affected than women.
Diagnosis
Differential diagnosis can be challenging due to the number of overlapping symptoms, shared between several motor neuron diseases. Frequently, the diagnosis is based on clinical findings i.e.
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LMN vs. UMN signs and symptoms, patterns of weakness, family history of MND, and a variation of tests, many of which are used to rule out disease mimics, which can manifest with identical symptoms.
Classification
Motor neuron disease describes a collection of clinical disorders, characterized by progressive muscle weakness and the degeneration of the motor neuron on electrophysiological testing. As discussed above, the term "motor neuron disease" has varying meanings in different countries. Similarly, the literature inconsistently classifies which degenerative motor neuron disorders can be included under the umbrella term "motor neuron disease". The four main types of MND are marked in the table below.
All types of MND can be differentiated by two defining characteristics
Is the disease sporadic or inherited?
Is there involvement of the upper motor neurons UMN, the lower motor neurons LMN, or both?
Sporadic or acquired MNDs occur in patients with no family history of degenerative motor neuron diseas
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e. Inherited or genetic MNDs adhere to one of the following inheritance patterns autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive, or Xlinked. Some disorders, like ALS, can occur sporadically 85 or can have a genetic cause 15 with the same clinical symptoms and progression of disease.
UMNs are motor neurons that project from the cortex down to the brainstem or spinal cord. LMNs originate in the anterior horns of the spinal cord and synapse on peripheral muscles. Both motor neurons are necessary for the strong contraction of a muscle, but damage to an UMN can be distinguished from damage to a LMN by physical exam.
Tests
Cerebrospinal fluid CSF tests Analysis of the fluid from around the brain and spinal cord could reveal signs of an infection or inflammation.
Magnetic resonance imaging MRI An MRI of the brain and spinal cord is recommended in patients with UMN signs and symptoms to explore other causes, such as a tumor, inflammation, or lack of blood supply stroke.
Electromyogram EMG nerve conduction study NCS T
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he EMG, which evaluates muscle function, and NCS, which evaluates nerve function, are performed together in patients with LMN signs.
For patients with MND affecting the LMNs, the EMG will show evidence of 1 acute denervation, which is ongoing as motor neurons degenerate, and 2 chronic denervation and reinnervation of the muscle, as the remaining motor neurons attempt to fill in for lost motor neurons.
By contrast, the NCS in these patients is usually normal. It can show a low compound muscle action potential CMAP, which results from the loss of motor neurons, but the sensory neurons should remain unaffected.
Tissue biopsy Taking a small sample of a muscle or nerve may be necessary if the EMGNCS is not specific enough to rule out other causes of progressive muscle weakness, but it is rarely used.
Treatment
There are no known curative treatments for the majority of motor neuron disorders. Please refer to the articles on individual disorders for more details.
Prognosis
The table below lists life expectanc
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y for patients who are diagnosed with MND.
Terminology
In the United States and Canada, the term motor neuron disease usually refers to the group of disorders while amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is frequently called Lou Gehrig's disease. In the United Kingdom and Australia, the term motor neurone disease is used for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, although is not uncommon to refer to the entire group.
While MND refers to a specific subset of similar diseases, there are numerous other diseases of motor neurons that are referred to collectively as "motor neuron disorders", for instance the diseases belonging to the spinal muscular atrophies group. However, they are not classified as "motor neuron diseases" by the 11th edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems ICD11, which is the definition followed in this article.
See also
Spinal muscular atrophies
Hereditary motor and sensory neuropathies
References
External links
Motor neuron diseases
Rare dise
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ases
Systemic atrophies primarily affecting the central nervous system
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An abjad , ; also abgad is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with true alphabets, which provide glyphs for both consonants and vowels. The term was introduced in 1990 by Peter T. Daniels. Other terms for the same concept include partial phonemic script, segmentally linear defective phonographic script, consonantary, consonant writing, and consonantal alphabet.
Impure abjads represent vowels with either optional diacritics, a limited number of distinct vowel glyphs, or both. The name abjad is based on the Arabic alphabet's first in its original order four letters corresponding to a, b, j, d to replace the more common terms "consonantary" and "consonantal alphabet", in describing the family of scripts classified as "West Semitic".
Etymology
The name "abjad" is derived from pronouncing the first letters of the Arabic alphabet order, in its original order. This ordering matches that of the older Phoenician, Hebrew a
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nd Semitic protoalphabets specifically, aleph, bet, gimel, dalet.
Terminology
According to the formulations of Peter T. Daniels, abjads differ from alphabets in that only consonants, not vowels, are represented among the basic graphemes. Abjads differ from abugidas, another category defined by Daniels, in that in abjads, the vowel sound is implied by phonology, and where vowel marks exist for the system, such as nikkud for Hebrew and arakt for Arabic, their use is optional and not the dominant or literate form. Abugidas mark all vowels other than the "inherent" vowel with a diacritic, a minor attachment to the letter, a standalone glyph, or in Canadian Aboriginal syllabics by rotation of the letter. Some abugidas use a special symbol to suppress the inherent vowel so that the consonant alone can be properly represented. In a syllabary, a grapheme denotes a complete syllable, that is, either a lone vowel sound or a combination of a vowel sound with one or more consonant sounds.
The antagonism of abjad versus
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alphabet, as it was formulated by Daniels, has been rejected by some scholars because abjad is also used as a term not only for the Arabic numeral system but most importantly in terms of historical grammatology also as a term for the alphabetic device i.e. letter order of ancient Northwest Semitic scripts in opposition to the 'south Arabian' order. This caused fatal effects on terminology in general and especially in ancient Semitic philology. Also, it suggests that consonantal alphabets, in opposition to, for instance, the Greek alphabet, were not yet true alphabets and not yet entirely complete, lacking something important to be a fully working script system. It has also been objected that, as a set of letters, an alphabet is not the mirror of what should be there in a language from a phonological point of view; rather, it is the data stock of what provides maximum efficiency with least effort from a semantic point of view.
Origins
The first abjad to gain widespread usage was the Phoenician abjad. Unlike
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other contemporary scripts, such as cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Phoenician script consisted of only a few dozen symbols. This made the script easy to learn, and seafaring Phoenician merchants took the script throughout the thenknown world.
The Phoenician abjad was a radical simplification of phonetic writing, since hieroglyphics required the writer to pick a hieroglyph starting with the same sound that the writer wanted to write in order to write phonetically, much as man'ygana kanji used solely for phonetic use was used to represent Japanese phonetically before the invention of kana.
Phoenician gave rise to a number of new writing systems, including the widely used Aramaic abjad and the Greek alphabet. The Greek alphabet evolved into the modern western alphabets, such as Latin and Cyrillic, while Aramaic became the ancestor of many modern abjads and abugidas of Asia.
Impure abjads
Impure abjads have characters for some vowels, optional vowel diacritics, or both. The term pure abjad refers to
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scripts entirely lacking in vowel indicators. However, most modern abjads, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Pahlavi, are "impure" abjadsthat is, they also contain symbols for some of the vowel phonemes, although the said nondiacritic vowel letters are also used to write certain consonants, particularly approximants that sound similar to long vowels. A "pure" abjad is exemplified perhaps by very early forms of ancient Phoenician, though at some point at least by the 9th century BC it and most of the contemporary Semitic abjads had begun to overload a few of the consonant symbols with a secondary function as vowel markers, called matres lectionis. This practice was at first rare and limited in scope but became increasingly common and more developed in later times.
Addition of vowels
In the 9th century BC the Greeks adapted the Phoenician script for use in their own language. The phonetic structure of the Greek language created too many ambiguities when vowels went unrepresented, so the script was modifie
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d. They did not need letters for the guttural sounds represented by aleph, he, heth or ayin, so these symbols were assigned vocalic values. The letters waw and yod were also adapted into vowel signs; along with he, these were already used as matres lectionis in Phoenician. The major innovation of Greek was to dedicate these symbols exclusively and unambiguously to vowel sounds that could be combined arbitrarily with consonants as opposed to syllabaries such as Linear B which usually have vowel symbols but cannot combine them with consonants to form arbitrary syllables.
Abugidas developed along a slightly different route. The basic consonantal symbol was considered to have an inherent "a" vowel sound. Hooks or short lines attached to various parts of the basic letter modify the vowel. In this way, the South Arabian abjad evolved into the Ge'ez abugida of Ethiopia between the 5th century BC and the 5th century AD. Similarly, the Brhm abugida of the Indian subcontinent developed around the 3rd century BC from
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the Aramaic abjad, it has been hypothesized.
The other major family of abugidas, Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, was initially developed in the 1840s by missionary and linguist James Evans for the Cree and Ojibwe languages. Evans used features of Devanagari script and Pitman shorthand to create his initial abugida. Later in the 19th century, other missionaries adapted Evans's system to other Canadian aboriginal languages. Canadian syllabics differ from other abugidas in that the vowel is indicated by rotation of the consonantal symbol, with each vowel having a consistent orientation.
Abjads and the structure of Semitic languages
The abjad form of writing is welladapted to the morphological structure of the Semitic languages it was developed to write. This is because words in Semitic languages are formed from a root consisting of usually three consonants, the vowels being used to indicate inflectional or derived forms. For instance, according to Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, from the Arabic ro
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ot DhB to slaughter can be derived the forms he slaughtered, you masculine singular slaughtered, he slaughters, and slaughterhouse. In most cases, the absence of full glyphs for vowels makes the common root clearer, allowing readers to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from familiar roots especially in conjunction with context clues and improving word recognition while reading for practiced readers.
By contrast, the Arabic and Hebrew scripts sometimes perform the role of true alphabets rather than abjads when used to write certain IndoEuropean languages, including Kurdish, Bosnian, and Yiddish.
Comparative chart of Abjads, extinct and extant
See also
Abjad numerals Arabic alphanumeric code
Abugida
Gematria Hebrew English system of alphanumeric code
Numerology
Shorthand constructed writing systems that are structurally abjads
References
Sources
External links
The Science of Arabic Letters, Abjad and Geometry, by Jorge Lupin
Arabic orthography
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An abugida , from Ge'ez , sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudoalphabet, is a segmental writing system in which consonantvowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is secondary. This contrasts with a full alphabet, in which vowels have status equal to consonants, and with an abjad, in which vowel marking is absent, partial, or optional although in less formal contexts, all three types of script may be termed alphabets. The terms also contrast them with a syllabary, in which the symbols cannot be split into separate consonants and vowels.
Related concepts were introduced independently in 1948 by James Germain Fvrier using the term and David Diringer using the term semisyllabary, then in 1959 by Fred Householder introducing the term pseudoalphabet. The Ethiopic term "abugida" was chosen as a designation for the concept in 1990 by Peter T. Daniels. In 1992, Faber suggested "segmentally coded syllabically linear phonographic script", an
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d in 1992 Bright used the term alphasyllabary, and Gnanadesikan and Rimzhim, Katz, Fowler have suggested aksara or ksharik.
Abugidas include the extensive Brahmic family of scripts of Tibet, South and Southeast Asia, Semitic Ethiopic scripts, and Canadian Aboriginal syllabics. As is the case for syllabaries, the units of the writing system may consist of the representations both of syllables and of consonants. For scripts of the Brahmic family, the term akshara is used for the units.
Terminology
In several languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, abugida traditionally meant letters of the Ethiopic or Geez script in which many of these languages are written. Ge'ez is one of several segmental writing systems in the world, others include IndicBrahmic scripts and Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. The word abugida is derived from the four letters, , bu, gi, and da, in much the same way that abecedary is derived from Latin letters a be ce de, abjad is derived from the Arabic a b j d, and alphabet is derived from the name
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s of the two first letters in the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. Abugida as a term in linguistics was proposed by Peter T. Daniels in his 1990 typology of writing systems.
As Daniels used the word, an abugida is in contrast with a syllabary, where letters with shared consonants or vowels show no particular resemblance to one another, and also with an alphabet proper, where independent letters are used to denote both consonants and vowels. The term alphasyllabary was suggested for the Indic scripts in 1997 by William Bright, following South Asian linguistic usage, to convey the idea that "they share features of both alphabet and syllabary."
General description
The formal definitions given by Daniels and Bright for abugida and alphasyllabary differ; some writing systems are abugidas but not alphasyllabaries, and some are alphasyllabaries but not abugidas. An abugida is defined as "a type of writing system whose basic characters denote consonants followed by a particular vowel, and in which diacritics denote
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other vowels". This 'particular vowel' is referred to as the inherent or implicit vowel, as opposed to the explicit vowels marked by the 'diacritics'.
An alphasyllabary is defined as "a type of writing system in which the vowels are denoted by subsidiary symbols not all of which occur in a linear order with relation to the consonant symbols that is congruent with their temporal order in speech". Bright did not require that an alphabet explicitly represent all vowels. Phagspa is an example of an abugida that is not an alphasyllabary, and modern Lao is an example of an alphasyllabary that is not an abugida, for its vowels are always explicit.
This description is expressed in terms of an abugida. Formally, an alphasyllabary that is not an abugida can be converted to an abugida by adding a purely formal vowel sound that is never used and declaring that to be the inherent vowel of the letters representing consonants. This may formally make the system ambiguous, but in practice this is not a problem, for then the
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interpretation with the neverused inherent vowel sound will always be a wrong interpretation. Note that the actual pronunciation may be complicated by interactions between the sounds apparently written just as the sounds of the letters in the English words wan, gem and war are affected by neighbouring letters.
The fundamental principles of an abugida apply to words made up of consonantvowel CV syllables. The syllables are written as a linear sequences of the units of the script. Each syllable is either a letter that represents the sound of a consonant and its inherent vowel or a letter modified to indicate the vowel, either by means of diacritics or by changes in the form of the letter itself. If all modifications are by diacritics and all diacritics follow the direction of the writing of the letters, then the abugida is not an alphasyllabary.
However, most languages have words that are more complicated than a sequence of CV syllables, even ignoring tone.
The first complication is syllables that consist o
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f just a vowel V. This issue does not arise in some languages because every syllable starts with a consonant. This is common in Semitic languages and in languages of mainland SE Asia; for such languages this issue need not arise. For some languages, a zero consonant letter is used as though every syllable began with a consonant. For other languages, each vowel has a separate letter that is used for each syllable consisting of just the vowel.
These letters are known as independent vowels, and are found in most Indic scripts. These letters may be quite different from the corresponding diacritics, which by contrast are known as dependent vowels. As a result of the spread of writing systems, independent vowels may be used to represent syllables beginning with a glottal stop, even for noninitial syllables.
The next two complications are sequences of consonants before a vowel CCV and syllables ending in a consonant CVC. The simplest solution, which is not always available, is to break with the principle of writin
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g words as a sequence of syllables and use a unit representing just a consonant C. This unit may be represented with
a modification that explicitly indicates the lack of a vowel virama,
a lack of vowel marking often with ambiguity between no vowel and a default inherent vowel,
vowel marking for a short or neutral vowel such as schwa with ambiguity between no vowel and that short or neutral vowel, or
a visually unrelated letter.
In a true abugida, the lack of distinctive marking may result from the diachronic loss of the inherent vowel, e.g. by syncope and apocope in Hindi.
When not handled by decomposition into C CV, CCV syllables are handled by combining the two consonants. In the Indic scripts, the earliest method was simply to arrange them vertically, but the two consonants may merge as a conjunct consonant letters, where two or more letters are graphically joined in a ligature, or otherwise change their shapes. Rarely, one of the consonants may be replaced by a gemination mark, e.g. the Gurmukhi addak.
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When they are arranged vertically, as in Burmese or Khmer, they are said to be 'stacked'. Often there has been a change to writing the two consonants side by side. In the latter case, the fact of combination may be indicated by a diacritic on one of the consonants or a change in the form of one of the consonants, e.g. the half forms of Devanagari. Generally, the reading order is top to bottom or the general reading order of the script, but sometimes the order is reversed.
The division of a word into syllables for the purposes of writing does not always accord with the natural phonetics of the language. For example, Brahmic scripts commonly handle a phonetic sequence CVCCV as CVCCV or CVCCV. However, sometimes phonetic CVC syllables are handled as single units, and the final consonant may be represented
in much the same way as the second consonant in CCV, e.g. in the Tibetan, Khmer and Tai Tham scripts. The positioning of the components may be slightly different, as in Khmer and Tai Tham.
by a special de
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pendent consonant sign, which may be a smaller or differently placed version of the full consonant letter, or may be a distinct sign altogether.
not at all. For example, repeated consonants need not be represented, homorganic nasals may be ignored, and in Philippine scripts, the syllablefinal consonant was traditionally never represented.
More complicated unit structures e.g. CC or CCVC are handled by combining the various techniques above.
Familyspecific features
There are three principal families of abugidas, depending on whether vowels are indicated by modifying consonants by diacritics, distortion, or orientation.
The oldest and largest is the Brahmic family of India and Southeast Asia, in which vowels are marked with diacritics and syllablefinal consonants, when they occur, are indicated with ligatures, diacritics, or with a special vowelcanceling mark.
In the Ethiopic family, vowels are marked by modifying the shapes of the consonants, and one of the vowelforms serves additionally to indicate final c
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onsonants.
In Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, vowels are marked by rotating or flipping the consonants, and final consonants are indicated with either special diacritics or superscript forms of the main initial consonants.
Tna of the Maldives has dependent vowels and a zero vowel sign, but no inherent vowel.
Indic Brahmic
Indic scripts originated in India and spread to Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Mongolia, and Russia. All surviving Indic scripts are descendants of the Brahmi alphabet. Today they are used in most languages of South Asia although replaced by PersoArabic in Urdu, Kashmiri and some other languages of Pakistan and India, mainland Southeast Asia Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, Tibet Tibetan, Indonesian archipelago Javanese, Balinese, Sundanese, Philippines Baybayin, Buhid, Hanunuo, Kulitan, and Aborlan Tagbanwa, Malaysia Rencong, etc..
The primary division is into North Indic scripts used in Northern India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia, and Russ
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ia and Southern Indic scripts used in South India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. South Indic letter forms are very rounded; North Indic less so, though Odia, Golmol and Litumol of Nepal script are rounded. Most North Indic scripts' full letters incorporate a horizontal line at the top, with Gujarati and Odia as exceptions; South Indic scripts do not.
Indic scripts indicate vowels through dependent vowel signs diacritics around the consonants, often including a sign that explicitly indicates the lack of a vowel. If a consonant has no vowel sign, this indicates a default vowel. Vowel diacritics may appear above, below, to the left, to the right, or around the consonant.
The most widely used Indic script is Devanagari, shared by Hindi, Bihari, Marathi, Konkani, Nepali, and often Sanskrit. A basic letter such as in Hindi represents a syllable with the default vowel, in this case ka . In some languages, including Hindi, it becomes a final closing consonant at the end of a word, in this case k. The inherent vowe
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l may be changed by adding vowel mark diacritics, producing syllables such as ki, ku, ke, ko.
In many of the Brahmic scripts, a syllable beginning with a cluster is treated as a single character for purposes of vowel marking, so a vowel marker like i, falling before the character it modifies, may appear several positions before the place where it is pronounced. For example, the game cricket in Hindi is cricket; the diacritic for appears before the consonant cluster , not before the . A more unusual example is seen in the Batak alphabet Here the syllable bim is written bamaivirama. That is, the vowel diacritic and virama are both written after the consonants for the whole syllable.
In many abugidas, there is also a diacritic to suppress the inherent vowel, yielding the bare consonant. In Devanagari, is k, and is l. This is called the virma or halantam in Sanskrit. It may be used to form consonant clusters, or to indicate that a consonant occurs at the end of a word. Thus in Sanskrit, a default vowe
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l consonant such as does not take on a final consonant sound. Instead, it keeps its vowel. For writing two consonants without a vowel in between, instead of using diacritics on the first consonant to remove its vowel, another popular method of special conjunct forms is used in which two or more consonant characters are merged to express a cluster, such as Devanagari kla. Note that some fonts display this as followed by , rather than forming a conjunct. This expedient is used by ISCII and South Asian scripts of Unicode. Thus a closed syllable such as kal requires two aksharas to write.
The Rng script used for the Lepcha language goes further than other Indic abugidas, in that a single akshara can represent a closed syllable Not only the vowel, but any final consonant is indicated by a diacritic. For example, the syllable sok would be written as something like s, here with an underring representing and an overcross representing the diacritic for final . Most other Indic abugidas can only indicate a very li
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mited set of final consonants with diacritics, such as or , if they can indicate any at all.
Ethiopic
In Ethiopic or Ge'ez script, fidels individual "letters" of the script have "diacritics" that are fused with the consonants to the point that they must be considered modifications of the form of the letters. Children learn each modification separately, as in a syllabary; nonetheless, the graphic similarities between syllables with the same consonant are readily apparent, unlike the case in a true syllabary.
Though now an abugida, the Ge'ez script, until the advent of Christianity ca. AD 350, had originally been what would now be termed an abjad. In the Ge'ez abugida or fidel, the base form of the letter also known as fidel may be altered. For example, h base form, hu with a rightside diacritic that doesn't alter the letter, hi with a subdiacritic that compresses the consonant, so it is the same height, h or where the letter is modified with a kink in the left arm.
Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
In
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the family known as Canadian Aboriginal syllabics, which was inspired by the Devanagari script of India, vowels are indicated by changing the orientation of the syllabogram. Each vowel has a consistent orientation; for example, Inuktitut pi, pu, pa; ti, tu, ta. Although there is a vowel inherent in each, all rotations have equal status and none can be identified as basic. Bare consonants are indicated either by separate diacritics, or by superscript versions of the aksharas; there is no vowelkiller mark.
Borderline cases
Vowelled abjads
Consonantal scripts "abjads" are normally written without indication of many vowels. However, in some contexts like teaching materials or scriptures, Arabic and Hebrew are written with full indication of vowels via diacritic marks harakat, niqqud making them effectively alphasyllabaries. The Brahmic and Ethiopic families are thought to have originated from the Semitic abjads by the addition of vowel marks.
The Arabic scripts used for Kurdish in Iraq and for Uyghur in
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Xinjiang, China, as well as the Hebrew script of Yiddish, are fully vowelled, but because the vowels are written with full letters rather than diacritics with the exception of distinguishing between a and o in the latter and there are no inherent vowels, these are considered alphabets, not abugidas.
Phagspa
The imperial Mongol script called Phagspa was derived from the Tibetan abugida, but all vowels are written inline rather than as diacritics. However, it retains the features of having an inherent vowel a and having distinct initial vowel letters.
Pahawh
Pahawh Hmong is a nonsegmental script that indicates syllable onsets and rimes, such as consonant clusters and vowels with final consonants. Thus it is not segmental and cannot be considered an abugida. However, it superficially resembles an abugida with the roles of consonant and vowel reversed. Most syllables are written with two letters in the order rimeonset typically vowelconsonant, even though they are pronounced as onsetrime consonantvowel, rather
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like the position of the vowel in Devanagari, which is written before the consonant. Pahawh is also unusual in that, while an inherent rime with mid tone is unwritten, it also has an inherent onset . For the syllable , which requires one or the other of the inherent sounds to be overt, it is that is written. Thus it is the rime vowel that is basic to the system.
Meroitic
It is difficult to draw a dividing line between abugidas and other segmental scripts. For example, the Meroitic script of ancient Sudan did not indicate an inherent a one symbol stood for both m and ma, for example, and is thus similar to Brahmic family of abugidas. However, the other vowels were indicated with full letters, not diacritics or modification, so the system was essentially an alphabet that did not bother to write the most common vowel.
Shorthand
Several systems of shorthand use diacritics for vowels, but they do not have an inherent vowel, and are thus more similar to Thaana and Kurdish script than to the Brahmic scripts. T
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he Gabelsberger shorthand system and its derivatives modify the following consonant to represent vowels. The Pollard script, which was based on shorthand, also uses diacritics for vowels; the placements of the vowel relative to the consonant indicates tone. Pitman shorthand uses straight strokes and quartercircle marks in different orientations as the principal "alphabet" of consonants; vowels are shown as light and heavy dots, dashes and other marks in one of 3 possible positions to indicate the various vowelsounds. However, to increase writing speed, Pitman has rules for "vowel indication" using the positioning or choice of consonant signs so that writing vowelmarks can be dispensed with.
Development
As the term alphasyllabary suggests, abugidas have been considered an intermediate step between alphabets and syllabaries. Historically, abugidas appear to have evolved from abjads vowelless alphabets. They contrast with syllabaries, where there is a distinct symbol for each syllable or consonantvowel combinat
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ion, and where these have no systematic similarity to each other, and typically develop directly from logographic scripts. Compare the examples above to sets of syllables in the Japanese hiragana syllabary ka, ki, ku, ke, ko have nothing in common to indicate k; while ra, ri, ru, re, ro have neither anything in common for r, nor anything to indicate that they have the same vowels as the k set.
Most Indian and Indochinese abugidas appear to have first been developed from abjads with the Kharoh and Brhm scripts; the abjad in question is usually considered to be the Aramaic one, but while the link between Aramaic and Kharosthi is more or less undisputed, this is not the case with Brahmi. The Kharosthi family does not survive today, but Brahmi's descendants include most of the modern scripts of South and Southeast Asia.
Ge'ez derived from a different abjad, the Sabean script of Yemen; the advent of vowels coincided with the introduction or adoption of Christianity about AD 350. The Ethiopic script is
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the elaboration of an abjad.
The Cree syllabary was invented with full knowledge of the Devanagari system.
The Meroitic script was developed from Egyptian hieroglyphs, within which various schemes of 'group writing' had been used for showing vowels.
List of abugidas
Brahmic family, descended from Brhm c. 6th century BC
Ahom
Assamese
Balinese
BatakToba and other Batak languages
BaybayinIlocano, Pangasinan, Tagalog, Bikol languages, Visayan languages, and possibly other Philippine languages
BengaliBengali, Assamese, Meitei, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Kokborok, Khasi, Bodo language
Bhaiksuki
BrahmiSanskrit, Prakrit
Buhid
BurmeseBurmese, Karen languages, Mon, and Shan
Chakma
Cham
DevanagariHindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Nepali, Konkani and other languages of northern India
Dhives Akuru
GranthaSanskrit
GujaratiGujarti, Kachchi
Gurmukhi scriptPunjabi
Hanuno
Javanese
KagangaLampung, Rencong, Rejang
KaithiBhojpuri and other languages of northern and eastern India
KannadaKannada, Tulu, Konkani, Kodava
Kawi
Khmer
Khojki
Kh
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otanese
Khudawadi
KolezhuthuTamil, Malayalam
Kulitan
Lao
Leke
Lepcha
Limbu
Lontara'Buginese, Makassar, and Mandar
Mahajani
MalayalamMalayalam
MalayanmaMalayalam
MarchenZhangZhung
Meetei Mayek
Meroitic
ModiMarathi
MultaniSaraiki
NandinagariSanskrit
NewarNepal Bhasa, Sanskrit
New Tai Lue
Odia
Pallava scriptTamil, Sanskrit, various Prakrits
PhagspaMongolian, Chinese, and other languages of the Yuan dynasty Mongol Empire
RanjanaNepal Bhasa, Sanskrit
SharadaSanskrit
SiddhamSanskrit
Sinhala
Sourashtra
Soyombo
Sundanese
Sylheti NagriSylheti language
TagbanwaPalawan languages
Tai Dam
Tai Le
Tai ThamKhn, and Northern Thai
Takri
Tamil
Telugu
Thai
Tibetan
TigalariSanskrit, Tulu
TirhutaMaithili
Tocharian
VatteluttuTamil, Malayalam
Zanabazar Square
Zhang zhung scripts
Kharoh, from the 3rd century BC
Ge'ez, from the 4th century AD
Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
CreeOjibwe syllabics
Blackfoot syllabics
Carrier syllabics
Inuktitut syllabics
Pollard script
Pitman shorthand
Fictional
Tengwar
Ihathv Sabethired
Abugidalike sc
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ripts
Meroitic an alphabet with an inherent vowel Meroitic, Old Nubian possibly
Thaana abugida with no inherent vowel
References
External links
Syllabic alphabets Omniglot's list of abugidas, including examples of various writing systems
Alphabets list of abugidas and other scripts in Spanish
Comparing Devanagari with Burmese, Khmer, Thai, and Tai Tham scripts
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ABBA , are a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fltskog, Bjrn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and AnniFrid Lyngstad. The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names arranged as a palindrome. One of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, they became one of the bestselling music acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1983, and in 2021.
In 1974, ABBA were Sweden's first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Waterloo", which in 2005 was chosen as the best song in the competition's history as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of the contest. During the band's main active years, it consisted of two married couples Fltskog and Ulvaeus, and Lyngstad and Andersson. 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 latter compositions featuring da
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rker and more introspective lyrics. After ABBA separated in December 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus continued their success writing music for multiple audiences including stage, musicals and movies, while Fltskog and Lyngstad pursued solo careers.
Ten years after the group broke up, a compilation, ABBA Gold, was released, becoming a worldwide bestseller. In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into Mamma Mia!, a successful musical that toured worldwide and, as of November 2021, is still in the topten longest running productions on both Broadway closed in 2015 and the West End still running. A film of the same name, released in 2008, became the highestgrossing film in the United Kingdom that year. A sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, was released in 2018.
In 2016, the group reunited and started working on a digital avatar concert tour. Newly recorded songs were announced in 2018. Voyage, their first new album in 40 years, was released on November 5, 2021. ABBA Voyage, a concert residency featuring ABBA as virtual a
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vatars dubbed 'ABBAtars' is due to take place in London from May to December 2022.
ABBA is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with record sales estimated to be between 150 million to 385 million sold worldwide and the group were ranked 3rd bestselling singles artists in the United Kingdom with a total of 11.3 million singles sold by 3 November 2012. ABBA were the first group from a nonEnglishspeaking country to achieve consistent success in the charts of Englishspeaking countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They are the bestselling Swedish band of all time and the bestselling band originating in continental Europe. ABBA had eight consecutive numberone albums in the UK. The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin America and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish. ABBA were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002. The group were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame i
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n 2010, the first and only recording artists to receive this honour from outside an Anglophone country. In 2015, their song "Dancing Queen" was inducted into the Recording Academy's Grammy Hall of Fame.
History
19581970 Before ABBA
Member origins and collaboration
Benny Andersson born 16 December 1946 in Stockholm, Sweden became at age 18 a member of a popular Swedish poprock group, the Hep Stars, that performed, among other things, covers of international hits. The Hep Stars were known as "the Swedish Beatles". They also set up Hep House, their equivalent of Apple Corps. Andersson played the keyboard and eventually started writing original songs for his band, many of which became major hits, including "No Response", which hit number three in 1965, and "Sunny Girl", "Wedding", and "Consolation", all of which hit number one in 1966. Andersson also had a fruitful songwriting collaboration with Lasse Berghagen, with whom he wrote his first Svensktoppen entry, "Sagan om lilla Sofie" "The tale of Little Sophie
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" in 1968.
Bjrn Ulvaeus born 25 April 1945 in Gothenburg, Sweden also began his musical career at the age of 18 as a singer and guitarist, when he fronted the Hootenanny Singers, a popular Swedish folkskiffle group. Ulvaeus started writing Englishlanguage songs for his group, and even had a brief solo career alongside. The Hootenanny Singers and the Hep Stars sometimes crossed paths while touring. In June 1966, Ulvaeus and Andersson decided to write a song together. Their first attempt was "Isn't It Easy to Say", a song was later recorded by the Hep Stars. Stig Anderson was the manager of the Hootenanny Singers and founder of the Polar Music label. He saw potential in the collaboration, and encouraged them to write more. The two also began playing occasionally with the other's bands on stage and on record, although it was not until 1969 that the pair wrote and produced some of their first real hits together "Ljuva sextital" "Sweet Sixties", recorded by Brita Borg, and the Hep Stars' 1969 hit "Speleman" "Fidd
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ler".
Andersson wrote and submitted the song "Hej, Clown" for Melodifestivalen 1969, the national festival to select the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. The song tied for first place, but revoting relegated Andersson's song to second place. On that occasion Andersson briefly met his future spouse, singer AnniFrid Lyngstad, who also participated in the contest. A month later, the two had become a couple. As their respective bands began to break up during 1969, Andersson and Ulvaeus teamed up and recorded their first album together in 1970, called Lycka "Happiness", which included original songs sung by both men. Their partners were often present in the recording studio, and sometimes added backing vocals; Fltskog even cowrote a song with the two. Ulvaeus still occasionally recorded and performed with the Hootenanny Singers until the middle of 1974, and Andersson took part in producing their records.
AnniFrid "Frida" Lyngstad born 15 November 1945 in Bjrksen in Ballangen, Norway sang from the ag
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e of 13 with various dance bands, and worked mainly in a jazzoriented cabaret style. She also formed her own band, the AnniFrid Four. In the middle of 1967, she won a national talent competition with "En ledig dag" "A Day Off" a Swedish version of the bossa nova song "A Day in Portofino", which is included in the EMI compilation Frida 19671972. The first prize was a recording contract with EMI Sweden and to perform live on the most popular TV shows in the country. This TV performance, amongst many others, is included in the 3hour documentary Frida The DVD. Lyngstad released several schlager style singles on EMI without much success. When Benny Andersson started to produce her recordings in 1971, she had her first numberone single, "Min egen stad" "My Own Town", written by Benny and featuring all the future ABBA members on backing vocals. Lyngstad toured and performed regularly in the folkpark circuit and made appearances on radio and TV. She met Ulvaeus briefly in 1963 during a talent contest, and Fltskog du
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ring a TV show in early 1968.
Lyngstad linked up with her future bandmates in 1969. On 1 March 1969, she participated in the Melodifestival, where she met Andersson for the first time. A few weeks later they met again during a concert tour in southern Sweden and they soon became a couple. Andersson produced her single "Peter Pan" in September 1969her first collaboration with Benny Bjrn, as they had written the song. Andersson would then produce Lyngstad's debut studio album, Frida, which was released in March 1971. Lyngstad also played in several revues and cabaret shows in Stockholm between 1969 and 1973. After ABBA formed, she recorded another successful album in 1975, Frida ensam, which included a Swedish rendition of "Fernando", a hit on the Swedish radio charts before the English version was released.
Agnetha Fltskog born 5 April 1950 in Jnkping, Sweden sang with a local dance band headed by Bernt Enghardt who sent a demo recording of the band to Karl Gerhard Lundkvist. The demo tape featured a song w
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ritten and sung by Agnetha "Jag var s kr" "I Was So in Love". 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 numberone record in Sweden with a selfcomposed song, which later went on to sell over 80,000 copies. She was soon noticed by the critics and songwriters as a talented singersongwriter of schlager style songs. Fltskog's main inspiration in her early years was singers such as Connie Francis. 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 selfcomposed, which was quite unusual for a female singer in the 1960s. Agnetha released four solo LPs between 1968 and 1971. She had many successful singles in the Swedish charts.
During filming of a Swedish TV special in May 1969, Fltskog met Ul
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vaeus and they married on 6 July 1971. Fltskog and Ulvaeus eventually were involved in each other's recording sessions, and soon even Andersson and Lyngstad added backing vocals to Fltskog's third studio album, Som jag r "As I Am" 1970. In 1972, Fltskog starred as Mary Magdalene in the original Swedish production of Jesus Christ Superstar and attracted favourable reviews. Between 1967 and 1975, Fltskog released five studio albums.
First live performance and the start of "Festfolket"
An attempt at combining their talents occurred in April 1970 when the two couples went on holiday together to the island of Cyprus. What started as singing for fun on the beach ended up as an improvised live performance in front of the United Nations soldiers stationed on the island. Andersson and Ulvaeus were at this time recording their first album together, Lycka, which was to be released in September 1970. Fltskog and Lyngstad added backing vocals on several tracks during June, and the idea of their working together saw them
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launch a stage act, "Festfolket" which translates from Swedish to "Party People" and in pronunciation also "engaged couples", on 1 November 1970 in Gothenburg.
The cabaret show attracted generally negative reviews, except for the performance of the Andersson and Ulvaeus hit "Hej, gamle man" "Hello, Old Man"the first Bjrn and Benny recording to feature all four. They also performed solo numbers from respective albums, but the lukewarm reception convinced the foursome to shelve plans for working together for the time being, and each soon concentrated on individual projects again.
First record together "Hej, gamle man"
"Hej, gamle man", a song about an old Salvation Army soldier, became the quartet's first hit. The record was credited to Bjrn Benny and reached number five on the sales charts and number one on Svensktoppen, staying on the latter chart which was not a chart linked to sales or airplay for 15 weeks.
It was during 1971 that the four artists began working together more, adding vocals to the othe
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rs' recordings. Fltskog, Andersson and Ulvaeus toured together in May, while Lyngstad toured on her own. Frequent recording sessions brought the foursome closer together during the summer.
19701973 Forming the group
After the 1970 release of Lycka, two more singles credited to "Bjrn Benny" were released in Sweden, "Det kan ingen doktor hjlpa" "No Doctor Can Help with That" and "Tnk om jorden vore ung" "Imagine If Earth Was Young", with more prominent vocals by Fltskog and Lyngstadand moderate chart success.
Fltskog and Ulvaeus, now married, started performing together with Andersson on a regular basis at the Swedish folkparks in the middle of 1971.
Stig Anderson, founder and owner of Polar Music, was determined to break into the mainstream international market with music by Andersson and Ulvaeus. "One day the pair of you will write a song that becomes a worldwide hit," he predicted. Stig Anderson encouraged Ulvaeus and Andersson to write a song for Melodifestivalen, and after two rejected entries in 1971
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, Andersson and Ulvaeus submitted their new song "Sg det med en sng" "Say It with a Song" for the 1972 contest, choosing newcomer Lena Anderson to perform. The song came in third place, encouraging Stig Anderson, and became a hit in Sweden.
The first signs of foreign success came as a surprise, as the Andersson and Ulvaeus single "She's My Kind of Girl" was released through Epic Records in Japan in March 1972, giving the duo a Top 10 hit. Two more singles were released in Japan, "En Carousel" "En Karusell" in Scandinavia, an earlier version of "MerryGoRound" and "Love Has Its Ways" a song they wrote with Kichi Morita.
First hit as Bjrn, Benny, Agnetha AnniFrid
Ulvaeus and Andersson persevered with their songwriting and experimented with new sounds and vocal arrangements. "People Need Love" was released in June 1972, featuring guest vocals by the women, who were now given much greater prominence. Stig Anderson released it as a single, credited to Bjrn Benny, Agnetha AnniFrid. The song peaked at number 17
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in the Swedish combined single and album charts, enough to convince them they were on to something. The single also became the first record to chart for the quartet in the United States, where it peaked at number 114 on the Cashbox singles chart and number 117 on the Record World singles chart. Labelled as Bjrn Benny with Svenska Flicka meaning Swedish Girl, it was released there through Playboy Records. This association with Playboy caused much confusion, many mistaking it for softcore porn, including the record companies in the US and the UK, according to Ulvaeus, since it was common in Sweden at the time. According to Stig Anderson, "People Need Love" could have been a much bigger American hit, but a small label like Playboy Records did not have the distribution resources to meet the demand for the single from retailers and radio programmers.
"Ring Ring"
In 1973, the band and their manager Stig Anderson decided to have another try at Melodifestivalen, this time with the song "Ring Ring". The studio se
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ssions were handled by Michael B. Tretow, who experimented with a "wall of sound" production technique that became a distinctive new sound thereafter associated with ABBA. Stig Anderson arranged an English translation of the lyrics by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody and they thought this would be a success. However, on 10 February 1973, the song came third in Melodifestivalen; thus it never reached the Eurovision Song Contest itself. Nevertheless, the group released their debut studio album, also called Ring Ring. The album did well and the "Ring Ring" single was a hit in many parts of Europe and also in South Africa. However, Stig Anderson felt that the true breakthrough could only come with a UK or US hit.
When Agnetha Fltskog gave birth to her daughter Linda in 1973, she was replaced for a short period by Inger Brundin on a trip to West Germany.
Official naming
In 1973, Stig Anderson, tired of unwieldy names, started to refer to the group privately and publicly as ABBA a palindrome. At first, this was a play
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on words, as Abba is also the name of a wellknown fishcanning company in Sweden, and itself an abbreviation. However, since the fishcanners were unknown outside Sweden, Anderson came to believe the name would work in international markets. A competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in a Gothenburg newspaper and it was officially announced in the summer that the group were to be known as "ABBA". The group negotiated with the canners for the rights to the name. Fred Bronson reported for Billboard that Fltskog told him in a 1988 interview that "ABBA had to ask permission and the factory said, 'O.K., as long as you don't make us feel ashamed for what you're doing. "ABBA" is an acronym formed from the first letters of each group member's first name Agnetha, Bjrn, Benny, AnniFrid. The earliest known example of "ABBA" written on paper is on a recording session sheet from the Metronome Studio in Stockholm dated 16 October 1973. This was first written as "Bjrn, Benny, Agnetha Frida", but was subsequ
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ently crossed out with "ABBA" written in large letters on top.
Official logo
Their official logo, distinct with the backward 'B', was designed by Rune Sderqvist, who designed most of ABBA's record sleeves. The ambigram first appeared on the French compilation album, Golden Double Album, released in May 1976 by Disques Vogue, and would henceforth be used for all official releases.
The idea for the official logo was made by the German photographer on a velvet jumpsuit photo shoot for the teenage magazine Bravo. In the photo, the ABBA members held giant initial letters of their names. After the pictures were made, Heilemann found out that Benny Andersson reversed his letter "B"; this prompted discussions about the mirrored "B", and the members of ABBA agreed on the mirrored letter. From 1976 onward, the first "B" in the logo version of the name was "mirrorimage" reversed on the band's promotional material, thus becoming the group's registered trademark.
Following their acquisition of the group's catalogue,
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PolyGram began using variations of the ABBA logo, employing a different font. In 1992, Polygram added a crown emblem to it for the first release of the ABBA Gold Greatest Hits compilation. After Universal Music purchased PolyGram and, thus, ABBA's label Polar Music International, control of the group's catalogue returned to Stockholm. Since then, the original logo has been reinstated on all official products.
19731976 Breakthrough
Eurovision Song Contest 1974
As the group entered the Melodifestivalen with "Ring Ring" but failed to qualify as the 1973 Swedish entry, Stig Anderson immediately started planning for the 1974 contest. Ulvaeus, Andersson and Stig Anderson believed in the possibilities of using the Eurovision Song Contest as a way to make the music business aware of them as songwriters, as well as the band itself. In late 1973, they were invited by Swedish television to contribute a song for the Melodifestivalen 1974 and from a number of new songs, the upbeat song "Waterloo" was chosen; the grou
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p were now inspired by the growing glam rock scene in England.
ABBA won their nation's hearts on Swedish television on 9 February 1974, and with this third attempt were far more experienced and better prepared for the Eurovision Song Contest. Winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 April 1974 and singing "Waterloo" in English instead of their native tongue gave ABBA the chance to tour Europe and perform on major television shows; thus the band saw the "Waterloo" single chart in many European countries. Following their success at the Eurovision Song Contest, ABBA spent an evening of glory partying in the appropriately named firstfloor Napoleon suite of The Grand Brighton Hotel.
"Waterloo" was ABBA's first major hit in numerous countries, becoming their first numberone single in nine western and northern European countries, including the big markets of the UK and West Germany, and in South Africa. It also made the top ten in several other countries, including rising to number three in Spain, number four
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in Australia and France, and number seven in Canada. In the United States, the song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, paving the way for their first album and their first trip as a group there. Albeit a short promotional visit, it included their first performance on American television, The Mike Douglas Show. The album Waterloo only peaked at number 145 on the Billboard 200 chart, but received unanimous high praise from the US critics Los Angeles Times called it "a compelling and fascinating debut album that captures the spirit of mainstream pop quite effectively ... an immensely enjoyable and pleasant project", while Creem characterised it as "a perfect blend of exceptional, lovable compositions".
ABBA's followup single, "Honey, Honey", peaked at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, reached the top twenty in several other countries, and was a numbertwo hit in West Germany although it only reached the top 30 in Australia and the US. In the United Kingdom, ABBA's British record label, Ep
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ic, decided to rerelease a remixed version of "Ring Ring" instead of "Honey, Honey", and a cover version of the latter by Sweet Dreams peaked at number 10. Both records debuted on the UK chart within one week of each other. "Ring Ring" failed to reach the Top 30 in the UK, increasing growing speculation that the group were simply a Eurovision onehit wonder.
PostEurovision
In November 1974, ABBA embarked on their first European tour, playing dates in Denmark, West Germany and Austria. It was not as successful as the band had hoped, since most of the venues did not sell out. Due to a lack of demand, they were even forced to cancel a few shows, including a sole concert scheduled in Switzerland. The second leg of the tour, which took them through Scandinavia in January 1975, was very different. They played to full houses everywhere and finally got the reception they had aimed for. Live performances continued in the middle of 1975 when ABBA embarked on a fourteen openair date tour of Sweden and Finland. Their St
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ockholm show at the Grna Lund amusement park had an estimated audience of 19,200. Bjrn Ulvaeus later said that "If you look at the singles we released straight after Waterloo, we were trying to be more like The Sweet, a semiglam rock group, which was stupid because we were always a pop group."
In late 1974, "So Long" was released as a single in the United Kingdom but it received no airplay from Radio 1 and failed to chart in the UK; the only countries in which it was successful were Austria, Sweden and Germany, reaching the top ten in the first two and number 21 in the latter. In the middle of 1975, ABBA released "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", which again received little airplay on Radio 1, but did manage to climb to number 38 on the UK chart, while making top five in several northern and western European countries, and number one in South Africa. Later that year, the release of their selftitled third studio album ABBA and single "SOS" brought back their chart presence in the UK, where the single hit number
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six and the album peaked at number 13. "SOS" also became ABBA's second numberone single in Germany, their third in Australia and their first in France, plus reached number two in several other European countries, including Italy. Success was further solidified with "Mamma Mia" reaching numberone in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia and the top two in a few other western and northern European countries. In the United States, both "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" and "SOS" peaked at number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, with the latter picking up the BMI Award along the way as one of the most played songs on American radio in 1975. "Mamma Mia", however, stalled at number 32. In Canada, the three songs rose to number 12, nine and 18, respectively.
The success of the group in the United States had until that time been limited to single releases. By early 1976, the group already had four Top 30 singles on the US charts, but the album market proved to be tough to crack. The eponymous ABBA album gene
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rated three American hits, but it only peaked at number 165 on the Cashbox album chart and number 174 on the Billboard 200 chart. Opinions were voiced, by Creem in particular, that in the US ABBA had endured "a very sloppy promotional campaign". Nevertheless, the group enjoyed warm reviews from the American press. Cashbox went as far as saying that "there is a recurrent thread of taste and artistry inherent in Abba's marketing, creativity and presentation that makes it almost embarrassing to critique their efforts", while Creem wrote "SOS is surrounded on this LP by so many good tunes that the mind boggles."
In Australia, the airing of the music videos for "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do" and "Mamma Mia" on the nationally broadcast TV pop show Countdown which premiered in November 1974 saw the band rapidly gain enormous popularity, and Countdown become a key promoter of the group via their distinctive music videos. This started an immense interest for ABBA in Australia, resulting in "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I
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Do" staying at number one for three weeks, then "SOS" spending a week there, followed by "Mamma Mia" staying there for ten weeks, and the album holding down the number one position for months. The three songs were also successful in nearby New Zealand with the first two topping that chart and the third reaching number two.
19761981 Superstardom
Greatest Hits and Arrival
In March 1976, the band released the compilation album Greatest Hits. It became their first UK numberone album, and also took ABBA into the Top 50 on the US album charts for the first time, eventually selling more than a million copies there. Also included on Greatest Hits was a new single, "Fernando", which went to numberone in at least thirteen countries all over the world, including the UK, Germany, France, Australia, South Africa and Mexico, and the top five in most other significant markets, including, at number four, becoming their biggest hit to date in Canada; the single went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide. In Australia
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, "Fernando" occupied the top position for a then record breaking 14 weeks and stayed in the chart for 40 weeks, and was the longestrunning charttopper there for over 40 years until it was overtaken by Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You" in May 2017. It still remains as one of the bestselling singles of all time in Australia. Also in 1976, the group received its first international prize, with "Fernando" being chosen as the "Best Studio Recording of 1975". In the United States, "Fernando" reached the Top 10 of the Cashbox Top 100 singles chart and number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. It topped the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, ABBA's first American numberone single on any chart. At the same time, a compilation named The Very Best of ABBA was released in Germany, becoming a numberone album there whereas the Greatest Hits compilation which followed a few months later ascended to number two in Germany, despite all similarities with The Very Best album.
The group's fourth studio album, Arrival, a numberone bestsell
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er in parts of Europe, the UK and Australia, and a numberthree hit in Canada and Japan, represented a new level of accomplishment in both songwriting and studio work, prompting rave reviews from more rockoriented UK music weeklies such as Melody Maker and New Musical Express, and mostly appreciative notices from US critics. Hit after hit flowed from Arrival "Money, Money, Money", another numberone in Germany, France, Australia and other countries of western and northern Europe, plus number two in the UK; and, "Knowing Me, Knowing You", ABBA's sixth consecutive German numberone, as well as another UK numberone, plus a top five hit in many other countries, although it was only a number nine hit in Australia and France. The real sensation was the first single, "Dancing Queen", not only topping the charts in loyal markets like the UK, Germany, Sweden, several other western and northern European countries, and Australia, but also reaching numberone in the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and Japan, and the
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top ten in France, Spain and Italy. All three songs were numberone hits in Mexico. In South Africa, ABBA had astounding success with each of "Fernando", "Dancing Queen" and "Knowing Me, Knowing You" being among the top 20 bestselling singles for 197677. In 1977, Arrival was nominated for the inaugural BRIT Award in the category "Best International Album of the Year". By this time ABBA were popular in the UK, most of Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In Frida The DVD, Lyngstad explains how she and Fltskog developed as singers, as ABBA's recordings grew more complex over the years.
The band's popularity in the United States would remain on a comparatively smaller scale, and "Dancing Queen" became the only Billboard Hot 100 numberone single ABBA with "Knowing Me, Knowing You" later peaking at number seven; "Money, Money, Money", however, had barely charted there or in Canada where "Knowing Me, Knowing You" had reached number five. They did, however, get three more singles to the numberone position on
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other Billboard US charts, including Billboard Adult Contemporary and Hot Dance Club Play. Nevertheless, Arrival finally became a true breakthrough release for ABBA on the US album market where it peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold by RIAA.
European and Australian tour
In January 1977, ABBA embarked on their first major tour. The group's status had changed dramatically and they were clearly regarded as superstars. They opened their much anticipated tour in Oslo, Norway, on 28 January, and mounted a lavishly produced spectacle that included a few scenes from their selfwritten minioperetta The Girl with the Golden Hair. The concert attracted immense media attention from across Europe and Australia. They continued the tour through Western Europe, visiting Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Berlin, Cologne, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Essen, Hanover, and Hamburg and ending with shows in the United Kingdom in Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and two soldout concerts at London's Royal Albert Hall.
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Tickets for these two shows were available only by mail application and it was later revealed that the boxoffice received 3.5 million requests for tickets, enough to fill the venue 580 times. Along with praise "ABBA turn out to be amazingly successful at reproducing their records", wrote Creem, there were complaints that "ABBA performed slickly...but with a zero personality coming across from a total of 16 people on stage" Melody Maker. One of the Royal Albert Hall concerts was filmed as a reference for the filming of the Australian tour for what became ABBA The Movie, though it is not exactly known how much of the concert was filmed.
After the European leg of the tour, in March 1977, ABBA played 11 dates in Australia before a total of 160,000 people. The opening concert in Sydney at the Sydney Showground on 3 March to an audience of 20,000 was marred by torrential rain with Lyngstad slipping on the wet stage during the concert. However, all four members would later recall this concert as the most memorable
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of their career. Upon their arrival in Melbourne, a civic reception was held at the Melbourne Town Hall and ABBA appeared on the balcony to greet an enthusiastic crowd of 6,000. In Melbourne, the group gave three concerts at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl with 14,500 at each including the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and his family. At the first Melbourne concert, an additional 16,000 people gathered outside the fencedoff area to listen to the concert. In Adelaide, the group performed one concert at Football Park in front of 20,000 people, with another 10,000 listening outside. During the first of five concerts in Perth, there was a bomb scare with everyone having to evacuate the Entertainment Centre. The trip was accompanied by mass hysteria and unprecedented media attention "Swedish ABBA stirs boxoffice in Down Under tour...and the media coverage of the quartet rivals that set to cover the upcoming Royal tour of Australia", wrote Variety, and is captured on film in ABBA The Movie, directed by Lasse
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Hallstrm.
The Australian tour and its subsequent ABBA The Movie produced some ABBA lore, as well. Fltskog's blonde good looks had long made her the band's "pinup girl", a role she disdained. During the Australian tour, she performed in a skintight white jumpsuit, causing one Australian newspaper to use the headline "Agnetha's bottom tops dull show". When asked about this at a news conference, she replied "Don't they have bottoms in Australia?"
ABBA The Album
In December 1977, ABBA followed up Arrival with the more ambitious fifth album, ABBA The Album, released to coincide with the debut of ABBA The Movie. Although the album was less well received by UK reviewers, it did spawn more worldwide hits "The Name of the Game" and "Take a Chance on Me", which both topped the UK charts and racked up impressive sales in most countries, although "The Name of the Game" was generally the more successful in the Nordic countries and Down Under, while "Take a Chance on Me" was more successful in North America and the Ger
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manspeaking countries.
"The Name of the Game" was a number two hit in the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden while also making the Top 5 in Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Australia, while only peaking at numbers 10, 12 and 15 in Mexico, the US and Canada. "Take a Chance on Me" was a number one hit in Austria, Belgium and Mexico, made the Top 3 in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland, while only reaching numbers 12 and 14 in Australia and New Zealand, respectively. Both songs were Top 10 hits in countries as far afield as Rhodesia and South Africa, as well as in France. Although "Take a Chance on Me" did not top the American charts, it proved to be ABBA's biggest hit single there, selling more copies than "Dancing Queen". The drop in sales in Australia was felt to be inevitable by industry observers as an "AbbaFever" that had existed there for almost three years could only last so long as adolescents would naturally begin to move away a group so deified by both their parents and grandpar
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ents.
A third single, "Eagle", was released in continental Europe and Down Under becoming a number one hit in Belgium and a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and South Africa, but barely charting Down Under. The Bside of "Eagle" was "Thank You for the Music", and it was belatedly released as an Aside single in the both the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1983. "Thank You for the Music" has become one of the best loved and best known ABBA songs without being released as a single during the group's lifetime. ABBA The Album topped the album charts in the UK, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, while ascending to the Top 5 in Australia, Germany, Austria, Finland and Rhodesia, and making the Top 10 in Canada and Japan. Sources also indicate that sales in Poland exceeded 1 million copies and that sales demand in Russia could not be met by the supply available. The album peaked at number 14 in the US.
Polar Music Studio formation
By 1978, ABBA were one of the biggest ban
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ds in the world. They converted a vacant cinema into the Polar Music Studio, a stateoftheart studio in Stockholm. The studio was used by several other bands; notably Genesis' Duke and Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door were recorded there. During May 1978, the group went to the United States for a promotional campaign, performing alongside Andy Gibb on Olivia NewtonJohn's TV show. Recording sessions for the single "Summer Night City" were an uphill struggle, but upon release the song became another hit for the group. The track would set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with their next album.
On 9 January 1979, the group performed "Chiquitita" at the Music for UNICEF Concert held at the United Nations General Assembly to celebrate UNICEF's Year of the Child. ABBA donated the copyright of this worldwide hit to the UNICEF; see Music for UNICEF Concert. The single was released the following week, and reached numberone in ten countries.
North American and European tours
In midJanuary 1979, Ulvaeus and
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Fltskog announced they were getting divorced. The news caused interest from the media and led to speculation about the band's future. ABBA assured the press and their fan base they were continuing their work as a group and that the divorce would not affect them. Nonetheless, the media continued to confront them with this in interviews. To escape the media swirl and concentrate on their writing, Andersson and Ulvaeus secretly travelled to Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, where for two weeks they prepared their next album's songs.
The group's sixth studio album, VoulezVous, was released in April 1979, with its title track recorded at the famous Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, with the assistance of recording engineer Tom Dowd amongst others. The album topped the charts across Europe and in Japan and Mexico, hit the Top 10 in Canada and Australia and the Top 20 in the US. While none of the singles from the album reached number one on the UK chart, the lead single, "Chiquitita", and the fourth sing
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le, "I Have a Dream", both ascended to number two, and the other two, "Does Your Mother Know" and "Angeleyes" with "VoulezVous", released as a double Aside both made the top 5. All four singles reached number one in Belgium, although the last three did not chart in Sweden or Norway. "Chiquitita", which was featured in the Music for UNICEF Concert after which ABBA decided to donate half of the royalties from the song to UNICEF, topped the singles charts in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Finland, Spain, Mexico, South Africa, Rhodesia and New Zealand, rose to number two in Sweden, and made the Top 5 in Germany, Austria, Norway and Australia, although it only reached number 29 in the US. "I Have a Dream" was a sizeable hit reaching number one in the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria, number three in South Africa, and number four in Germany, although it only reached number 64 in Australia. In Canada, "I Have a Dream" became ABBA's second number one on the RPM Adult Contemporary chart after "Fernando" hit the t
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op previously although it did not chart in the US. "Does Your Mother Know", a rare song in which Ulvaeus sings lead vocals, was a Top 5 hit in the Netherlands and Finland, and a Top 10 hit in Germany, Switzerland, Australia, although it only reached number number 27 in New Zealand. It did better in North America than "Chiquitita", reaching number 12 in Canada and number 19 in the US, and made the Top 20 in Japan. "VoulezVous" was a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands and Switzerland, a Top 20 hit in Germany and Finland, but only peaked in the 80s in Australia, Canada and the US.
Also in 1979, the group released their second compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. 2, which featured a brand new track "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! A Man After Midnight", which was a Top 3 hit in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Norway, and returned ABBA to the Top 10 in Australia. Greatest Hits Vol. 2 went to number one in the UK, Belgium, Canada and Japan while making the Top 5 in several other co
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untries, but only reaching number 20 in Australia and number 46 in the US. In Russia during the late 1970s, the group were paid in oil commodities because of an embargo on the ruble.
On 13 September 1979, ABBA began ABBA The Tour at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Canada, with a full house of 14,000. "The voices of the band, Agnetha's high sauciness combined with round, rich lower tones of AnniFrid, were excellent...Technically perfect, melodically correct and always in perfect pitch...The soft lower voice of AnniFrid and the high, edgy vocals of Agnetha were stunning", raved Edmonton Journal. During the next four weeks they played a total of 17 soldout dates, 13 in the United States and four in Canada. The last scheduled ABBA concert in the United States in Washington, D.C. was cancelled due to Fltskog's emotional distress suffered during the flight from New York to Boston, when the group's private plane was subjected to extreme weather conditions and was unable to land for an extended period. They appear
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ed at the Boston Music Hall for the performance 90 minutes late. The tour ended with a show in Toronto, Canada at Maple Leaf Gardens before a capacity crowd of 18,000. "ABBA plays with surprising power and volume; but although they are loud, they're also clear, which does justice to the signature vocal sound... Anyone who's been waiting five years to see Abba will be well satisfied", wrote Record World. On 19 October 1979, the tour resumed in Western Europe where the band played 23 soldout gigs, including six soldout nights at London's Wembley Arena.
Progression
In March 1980, ABBA travelled to Japan where upon their arrival at Narita International Airport, they were besieged by thousands of fans. The group performed eleven concerts to full houses, including six shows at Tokyo's Budokan. This tour was the last "on the road" adventure of their career.
In July 1980, ABBA released the single "The Winner Takes It All", the group's eighth UK chart topper and their first since 1978. The song is widely misunderst
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ood as being written about Ulvaeus and Fltskog's marital tribulations; Ulvaeus wrote the lyrics, but has stated they were not about his own divorce; Fltskog has repeatedly stated she was not the loser in their divorce. In the United States, the single peaked at numbereight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became ABBA's second Billboard Adult Contemporary numberone. It was also rerecorded by Andersson and Ulvaeus with a slightly different backing track, by French chanteuse Mireille Mathieu at the end of 1980 as "Bravo tu as gagn", with French lyrics by Alain Boublil. November the same year saw the release of ABBA's seventh album Super Trouper, which reflected a certain change in ABBA's style with more prominent use of synthesizers and increasingly personal lyrics. It set a record for the most preorders ever received for a UK album after one million copies were ordered before release. The second single from the album, "Super Trouper", also hit numberone in the UK, becoming the group's ninth and final UK char
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ttopper. Another track from the album, "Lay All Your Love on Me", released in 1981 as a Twelveinch single only in selected territories, managed to top the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart and peaked at numberseven on the UK singles chart becoming, at the time, the highest ever charting 12inch release in UK chart history.
Also in 1980, ABBA recorded a compilation of Spanishlanguage versions of their hits called Gracias Por La Msica. This was released in Spanishspeaking countries as well as in Japan and Australia. The album became a major success, and along with the Spanish version of "Chiquitita", this signalled the group's breakthrough in Latin America. ABBA Oro Grandes xitos, the Spanish equivalent of ABBA Gold Greatest Hits, was released in 1999.
19811982 The Visitors and later performances
In January 1981, Ulvaeus married Lena Kllersj, and manager Stig Anderson celebrated his 50th birthday with a party. For this occasion, ABBA recorded the track "Hovas Vittne" a pun on the Swedish name for Jehovah's
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Witness and Anderson's birthplace, Hova as a tribute to him, and released it only on 200 red vinyl copies, to be distributed to the guests attending the party. This single has become a soughtafter collectable. In midFebruary 1981, Andersson and Lyngstad announced they were filing for divorce. Information surfaced that their marriage had been an uphill struggle for years, and Benny had already met another woman, Mona Nrklit, whom he married in November 1981.
Andersson and Ulvaeus had songwriting sessions in early 1981, and recording sessions began in midMarch. At the end of April, the group recorded a TV special, Dick Cavett Meets ABBA with the US talk show host Dick Cavett. The Visitors, ABBA's eighth studio album, showed a songwriting maturity and depth of feeling distinctly lacking from their earlier recordings but still placing the band squarely in the pop genre, with catchy tunes and harmonies. Although not revealed at the time of its release, the album's title track, according to Ulvaeus, refers to the
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secret meetings held against the approval of totalitarian governments in Sovietdominated states, while other tracks address topics like failed relationships, the threat of war, ageing, and loss of innocence. The album's only major single release, "One of Us", proved to be the last of ABBA's nine numberone singles in Germany, this being in December 1981; and the swansong of their sixteen Top 5 singles on the South African chart. "One of Us" was also ABBA's final Top 3 hit in the UK, reaching numberthree on the UK Singles Chart.
Although it topped the album charts across most of Europe, including Ireland, the UK and Germany, The Visitors was not as commercially successful as its predecessors, showing a commercial decline in previously loyal markets such as France, Australia and Japan. A track from the album, "When All Is Said and Done", was released as a single in North America, Australia and New Zealand, and fittingly became ABBA's final Top 40 hit in the US debuting on the US charts on 31 December 1981, whi
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le also reaching the US Adult Contemporary Top 10, and numberfour on the RPM Adult Contemporary chart in Canada. The song's lyrics, as with "The Winner Takes It All" and "One of Us", dealt with the painful experience of separating from a longterm partner, though it looked at the trauma more optimistically. With the now publicised story of Andersson and Lyngstad's divorce, speculation increased of tension within the band. Also released in the United States was the title track of The Visitors, which hit the Top Ten on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart.
Later recording sessions
In the spring of 1982, songwriting sessions had started and the group came together for more recordings. Plans were not completely clear, but a new album was discussed and the prospect of a small tour suggested. The recording sessions in May and June 1982 were a struggle, and only three songs were eventually recorded "You Owe Me One", "I Am the City" and "Just Like That". Andersson and Ulvaeus were not satisfied with the outcome,
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so the tapes were shelved and the group took a break for the summer.
Back in the studio again in early August, the group had changed plans for the rest of the year they settled for a Christmas release of a double album compilation of all their past single releases to be named The Singles The First Ten Years. New songwriting and recording sessions took place, and during October and December, they released the singles "The Day Before You Came""Cassandra" and "Under Attack""You Owe Me One", the Asides of which were included on the compilation album. Neither single made the Top 20 in the United Kingdom, though "The Day Before You Came" became a Top 5 hit in many European countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. The album went to number one in the UK and Belgium, Top 5 in the Netherlands and Germany and Top 20 in many other countries. "Under Attack", the group's final release before disbanding, was a Top 5 hit in the Netherlands and Belgium.
"I Am the City" and "Just Like That" were left unrelease
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d on The Singles The First Ten Years for possible inclusion on the next projected studio album, though this never came to fruition. "I Am the City" was eventually released on the compilation album More ABBA Gold in 1993, while "Just Like That" has been recycled in new songs with other artists produced by Andersson and Ulvaeus. A reworked version of the verses ended up in the musical Chess. The chorus section of "Just Like That" was eventually released on a retrospective box set in 1994, as well as in the ABBA Undeleted medley featured on disc 9 of The Complete Studio Recordings. Despite a number of requests from fans, Ulvaeus and Andersson are still refusing to release ABBA's version of "Just Like That" in its entirety, even though the complete version has surfaced on bootlegs.
The group travelled to London to promote The Singles The First Ten Years in the first week of November 1982, appearing on Saturday Superstore and The Late, Late Breakfast Show, and also to West Germany in the second week, to perform o
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n Show Express. On 19 November 1982, ABBA appeared for the last time in Sweden on the TV programme Njesmaskinen, and on 11 December 1982, they made their last performance ever, transmitted to the UK on Noel Edmonds' The Late, Late Breakfast Show, through a live link from a TV studio in Stockholm.
Later performances
Andersson and Ulvaeus began collaborating with Tim Rice in early 1983 on writing songs for the musical project Chess, while Fltskog and Lyngstad both concentrated on international solo careers. While Andersson and Ulvaeus were working on the musical, a further cooperation among the three of them came with the musical Abbacadabra that was produced in France for television. It was a children's musical using 14 ABBA songs. Alain and Daniel Boublil, who wrote Les Misrables, had been in touch with Stig Anderson about the project, and the TV musical was aired over Christmas on French TV and later a Dutch version was also broadcast. Boublil previously also wrote the French lyric for Mireille Mathieu's v
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ersion of "The Winner Takes It All".
Lyngstad, who had recently moved to Paris, participated in the French version, and recorded a single, "Belle", a duet with French singer Daniel Balavoine. The song was a cover of ABBA's 1976 instrumental track "Arrival". As the single "Belle" sold well in France, Cameron Mackintosh wanted to stage an Englishlanguage version of the show in London, with the French lyrics translated by David Wood and Don Black; Andersson and Ulvaeus got involved in the project, and contributed with one new song, "I Am the Seeker". "Abbacadabra" premiered on 8 December 1983 at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in London, to mixed reviews and full houses for eight weeks, closing on 21 January 1984. Lyngstad was also involved in this production, recording "Belle" in English as "Time", a duet with actor and singer B. A. Robertson the single sold well, and was produced and recorded by Mike Batt. In May 1984, Lyngstad performed "I Have a Dream" with a children's choir at the United Nations Organisatio
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n Gala, in Geneva, Switzerland.
All four members made their at the time, final public appearance as four friends more than as ABBA in January 1986, when they recorded a video of themselves performing an acoustic version of "Tivedshambo" which was the first song written by their manager Stig Anderson, for a Swedish TV show honouring Anderson on his 55th birthday. The four had not seen each other for more than two years. That same year they also performed privately at another friend's 40th birthday their old tour manager, Claes af Geijerstam. They sang a selfwritten song titled "Der Kleine Franz" that was later to resurface in Chess. Also in 1986, ABBA Live was released, featuring selections of live performances from the group's 1977 and 1979 tours. The four members were guests at the 50th birthday of Grel Hanser in 1999. Hanser was a longtime friend of all four, and also former secretary of Stig Anderson. Honouring Grel, ABBA performed a Swedish birthday song "Med en enkel tulipan" a cappella.
Andersson has
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on several occasions performed ABBA songs. In June 1992, he and Ulvaeus appeared with U2 at a Stockholm concert, singing the chorus of "Dancing Queen", and a few years later during the final performance of the B B in Concert in Stockholm, Andersson joined the cast for an encore at the piano. Andersson frequently adds an ABBA song to the playlist when he performs with his BAO band. He also played the piano during new recordings of the ABBA songs "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room" with opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter, and "When All Is Said and Done" with Swede Viktoria Tolstoy. In 2002, Andersson and Ulvaeus both performed an a cappella rendition of the first verse of "Fernando" as they accepted their Ivor Novello award in London. Lyngstad performed and recorded an a cappella version of "Dancing Queen" with the Swedish group the Real Group in 1993, and also rerecorded "I Have a Dream" with Swiss singer Dan Daniell in 2003.
Break and reunion
ABBA never officially announced the end of the group or an in
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definite break, but it was long considered dissolved after their final public performance together in 1982. Their final public performance together as ABBA before their 2016 reunion was on the British TV programme The Late, Late Breakfast Show live from Stockholm on 11 December 1982. While reminiscing on "The Day Before You Came", Ulvaeus said "we might have continued for a while longer if that had been a number one". In January 1983, Fltskog started recording sessions for a solo album, as Lyngstad had successfully released her album Something's Going On some months earlier. Ulvaeus and Andersson, meanwhile, started songwriting sessions for the musical Chess. In interviews at the time, Bjrn and Benny denied the split of ABBA "Who are we without our ladies? Initials of Brigitte Bardot?", and Lyngstad and Fltskog kept claiming in interviews that ABBA would come together for a new album repeatedly during 1983 and 1984. Internal strife between the group and their manager escalated and the band members sold their
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shares in Polar Music during 1983. Except for a TV appearance in 1986, the foursome did not come together publicly again until they were reunited at the Swedish premiere of the Mamma Mia! movie on 4 July 2008. The individual members' endeavours shortly before and after their final public performance coupled with the collapse of both marriages and the lack of significant activity in the following few years after that widely suggested that the group had broken up.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph following the premiere, Ulvaeus and Andersson said that there was nothing that could entice them back on stage again. Ulvaeus said "We will never appear on stage again. ... There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were. Young, exuberant, full of energy and ambition. I remember Robert Plant saying Led Zeppelin were a cover band now because they cover all their own stuff. I think that hit the nail on the head."
However, on 3 January 2011, Flts
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kog, long considered to be the most reclusive member of the group and a major obstacle to any reunion, raised the possibility of reuniting for a oneoff engagement. She admitted that she has not yet brought the idea up to the other three members. In April 2013, she reiterated her hopes for reunion during an interview with Die Zeit, stating "If they ask me, I'll say yes."
In a May 2013 interview, Fltskog, aged 63 at the time, stated that an ABBA reunion would never occur "I think we have to accept that it will not happen, because we are too old and each one of us has their own life. Too many years have gone by since we stopped, and there's really no meaning in putting us together again". Fltskog further explained that the band members remained on amicable terms "It's always nice to see each other now and then and to talk a little and to be a little nostalgic." In an April 2014 interview, Fltskog, when asked about whether the band might reunite for a new recording said "It's difficult to talk about this because
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then all the news stories will be 'ABBA is going to record another song!' But as long as we can sing and play, then why not? I would love to, but it's up to Bjrn and Benny."
Resurgence of public interest
The same year the members of ABBA went their separate ways, the French production of a "tribute" show a children's TV musical named Abbacadabra using 14 ABBA songs spawned new interest in the group's music.
After receiving little attention during the midtolate1980s, ABBA's music experienced a resurgence in the early 1990s due to the UK synthpop duo Erasure, who released Abbaesque, a four track extended play release featuring cover versions of ABBA songs which topped several European charts in 1992. As U2 arrived in Stockholm for a concert in June of that year, the band paid homage to ABBA by inviting Bjrn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to join them on stage for a rendition of "Dancing Queen", playing guitar and keyboards. September 1992 saw the release of ABBA Gold Greatest Hits, a new compilation album. The
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