ABBA Trivias

Songwriters Benny and Björn were unable to write music down on paper. Only Agnetha could (as revealed in a Dick Cavett interview with the group).

Abba have been spoofed by many TV shows, including French & Saunders, Not The Nine O'Clock News and Fast Forward. In addition, the character of "Alan Partridge" is noted as being a huge ABBA fan, especially on his television show "Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge" where all the hosts and all guests were introduced with different ABBA songs.

At the height of their success ABBA was Sweden's biggest export, exceeding even Volvo cars.

While selling their music into Russia during the late 1970s ABBA was paid in oil commodities because of an embargo on the rouble.

All the royalties from the song Chiquitita were donated to the children's charity UNICEF, and the track featured on a compilation album of the "Music for UNICEF" concert, at which ABBA had performed the song live.

The hit song "Bring Me Edelweiss" (1989) by Edelweiss features the tune and some lyrics from "S.O.S". This caused some controversy between Bjorn & Benny, and manager Stig - Stig had granted approval to use the song without consulting the others.

The sound track of the successful Australian film Muriel's Wedding (1994) prominently featured ABBA songs: The two female leads lip sync "Waterloo" and the wedding scene is scored to an orchestral rendition of "Dancing Queen". The movie also features "Mamma Mia", "Fernando" and "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do".

Another 1994 Australian fillm The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert features a performance of Mamma Mia! by two drag queens, furthering ABBA's status as a gay icon.

The ABBA tribute band Björn Again became so successful that as of 2004 there were five casts of Björn Again performing in various parts of the world. The original Björn Again had been touring for 15 years, longer than the original group.

Techno and house remakes of many original ABBA hits were released under the name Abbacadabra.

Mamma Mia! was nominated for a Broadway Tony Award as Best Musical in 2002.

In 2000 ABBA were reported to have turned down an offer of approximately one billion dollars (US) to do a reunion tour.

In 2005 ABBA's 1976 hit single "Fernando" still held the record for the most weeks spent at number one in Australia (along with The Beatles' "Hey Jude").

In addition to being an acronym, the name "ABBA" is also a palindrome. In 1975, ABBA's "SOS" became the first song with a palindromic title recorded by a group with a palindromic name to hit the pop charts.

ABBA was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2002.