1. Dame! Dame! Dame!, Guldskivan & Ampex "Golden Reel" award
3. May: Gracias por la musica, Anders & Görel's wedding
4. Recording sessions for Super Trouper - February-October
5. The Winner Takes It All - the video
6. The Winner Takes It All - the single/photo session
7. The Super Trouper session, October 3
10. Happy New Year & Super Trouper videos & sessions
13. Super Trouper - the single, Frida & Björn on "Måndagsbörsen"
14. Finn Kalvik & Mireille Mathieu projects
JANUARY
The new year 1980 began in almost the same way as the previous one. Björn and Benny went together to Barbados to find inspiration for new songs. The idea of writing a musical came back again but thanks God they decided to abandon it even this time. They came back to Stockholm after a two-week-holidays with some new songs and ideas for the new album.
The Spanish album
At the beginning of the year Frida and Agnetha worked in the studio where they re-recorded some of ABBA's songs in Spanish. After the huge success of "Chiquitita" and "I Have a Dream" sung in Spanish it was decided that a whole album in Spanish would be recorded for the Spanish language territories.
One of rare photos from this period was taken by the German magazine "Rocky".
Estoy Soñando - the SP in France
The French record company "Vogue" released the Spanish version of "I Have a Dream" - "Estoy soñando" b/w "As Good As New" on January 22nd, 1980.
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I Have a Dream in France
The single "I Have A Dream"/"Take A Chance On Me" was released in France on January 30th, 1980. The single was though not very successful reaching #42 on the single chart. The French 12" single contained exactly the same versions of the songs as the 7" single.
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FEBRUARY
The Olympic album
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At the beginning of February Polar Music celebrated Ingemar Stenmark - Swedish skiing-champion on a reception before he left for the Olympic games in Lake Placid. The gold discs were given to ABBA at a party they threw at the studios for the Swedish Winter Olympic Team. It was a good luck gesture on the part of ABBA who sold one song on Voulez-Vous to the benefit of the Olympic Team. They received the discs from down hill ski champion Ingemar Stenmark as a big "thank you" for the support which ABBA have given the team.
The Olympic album released for this occasion contained the Spanish version of ABBA's "Chiquitita" and other hits performed by top Swedish artists as well as a cover version of "Why Did It Have To Be Me" performed by Ingmar Nordströms dance band.
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The "Hawaii" sessions
The photo session in Hawaii-shirts was took place in the spring of 1980. During latest years more alternative shots came out - mainly thanks to Jean-Marie Potiez and his "ABBA The Book" & "Tribute to Frida".
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Alternative shots - different outfits except Benny.
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Ampex "Golden Reel" award
Every year Ampex, the company that produced magnetic tapes for professional purposes created an award to an outstanding groups or artists who has recorded and mastered their albums on Ampex tape. Among winners there were Bob Dylan, Blondie, Bee Gees and Billy Joel. At ABBA's request the money for their award was given to UNICEF Sweden.
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More awards
The Dutch music magazine "Hitkrant" sent the the reader's award to ABBA in the spring 1980.
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MARCH
After new rehearsals ABBA embarked on their last tour in Japan. They left Stockholm on Saturday March 7th with a stopover in London. On the Heathrow airport in London they met journalists and posed for a photo sessions.
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In Japan they did 11 shows which were about the same as the concerts on the world tour in November 1979. The children choir in "I Have A Dream" sang in Japanese.
Press/photos
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Travelling in Japan
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Live on stage
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APRIL
ABBA Live on TV
The documentary and excerpts from the 1979 tour were shown on Sveriges Television at the beginning of April. The same TV special was released on VHS in 1993.
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Agnetha 30
On April 5th Agnetha celebrated her 30th birthday.
OKEJ
ABBA and Stikkan Anderson gave an interview for Austrian TV in the Spring of 1980. The interview for the TV show "Okej" was filmed at the office in Stockholm.
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Gracias por la musica
The album "Gracias Por La Musica" containing ten songs in Spanish was released in Spain and other Spanish language territories.
go.to/Gracias Por La Musica for more
Gracias Por La Musica in Japan
The Japanese release of the LP was tightly connected with the ABBA tour two months before. The flyer inside the album promoted various T-shirts and among them the one with the official tour logo. Japan was well-known because of its exclusive LP releases and even "Gracias por la musica" was issued in red vinyl with a rare alternate picture in the middle from the photo session taken at the beginning of 1980.
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The album was even released on CD in Japan and this release belongs probably to the rarest ones in the ABBA world.
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Görel & Anders - May 19, 1980
On Saturday May 19, 1980 Görel Johnsen, Vice-President of Polar Music married photographer Anders Hanser. The ABBA family attended the ceremony at the chapel of Ulriksdal Castle in northern part of big Stockholm.
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Agnetha came together with her new boyfriend Dick Håkansson. Anni-Frid had a new 1980 hair-do which would become the "official" Super Trouper image. Björn was alone because Lena was sick. Görel and Anders would spend their honeymoon in USA.
JUNE
ABBA Music Show 1 - the video
ABBA released their first official video tape entitled "The Music Show 1" featuring 7 songs including their 1979 smash hit "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)". Some of the songs were edited - Gimme Gimme Gimme was shortened from 4.45 to 3.15, Eagle to 3.48 (5.51) and Voulez-Vous to 4.06 (5.20).
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The Magic of ABBA - the compilation LP
The compilation "The Magic of ABBA" was released in USA, Australia and certain territories in South America in 1980. The LP contained 16 songs which was a lot for an LP record's capacity. That's why some of the songs were released in rare edited short versions. "Chiquitita" was shortened with almost 2 minutes from 5.26 to 3.32. Even "Voulez-Vous", "The Name of the Game" and "Angeleyes" appeared in remixed short versions. The cover photo appeared originally on the 1977 single "Eagle". The cover was gatefold and in the middle there was a short note about the group and 6 well-known photos taken mostly in 1978/1979.
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The recording sessions for Super Trouper started in February 1980. The first tracks to be recorded were Andante Andante, The Piper and Elaine followed by Happy New Year and On And On And On. Most of the photos were taken by Anders Hanser in June 1980 when the group was recording Our Last Summer and The Winner Takes It All. The last songs to be recorded were Me & I, Put On Your White Sombrero (which was not released until 1994) and the title track Super Trouper.
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Gold for "Greatest Hits Vol. 2"
In March ABBA received gold record for their sales of "Greatest Hits Vol. 2" in Switzerland. The Swiss press took pictures during awarding ceremony in the Polar studios in Stockholm.
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JULY
The Winner Takes It All - the video
On July 12 the first video "The Winner Takes It All" was filmed. The song would be released as the first single from the forthcoming album. ABBA went to the beautiful small city of Marstrand on Swedish West Coast where Lasse Hallström was working with a commercial film. (see: ABBA related places).
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Agnetha came to Marstrand with her new partner Dick Håkansson and daughter Linda. Björn had his girlfriend Lena Källersjö as a company. Making the video took 5 hours.
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The Gallery
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AUGUST
The Winner Takes It All - the single
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The single "The Winner Takes It All"/"Elaine" entered the charts in Great Britain on August 2, 1980 and one week later it reached the top where it stayed for two weeks. The single reached top positions even in: Belgium, Holland, Ireland, South Africa. In Finland and Sweden it was no 2, in Austria, Norway and Switzerland no 3.
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West Germany |
maxi West Germany |
Mexico |
Mexico |
Holland |
In West Germany "The Winner Takes It All" entered the chart on August 4 and reached no 4. The single was released both as 7" and 12". The version on the maxi single was exactly the same as on the 7" single.
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France |
Spain |
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In France the single was released on July 17th and it reached no 5 on the French hit chart. It went up to no 7 in Italy and in Spain it reached #10. In USA the single was released in November and its highest position was no 8. The single entered the Australian chart on September24th where it stayed for 15 weeks peaking at #11.
Tomas Ledin in concert - Stockholm August 1980
At the end of August the "Polar family" attended Tomas Ledin concert at Gröna Lund in Stockholm. The "Polar-family" was represented by Frida, Benny, Gudrun Anderson and Dick Håkansson (Agnetha's boyfriend)
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SEPTEMBER
ABBA at the birthday party in Stockholm
All ABBA members attended the birthday party of their friend Lillebil Ankarcrona who was at that time married to Rune Söderqvist - the group's designer. The party was held in Stockholm at the Riddarhuset in Old Town at the end of September.
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OCTOBER
The Super Trouper sessions, October 3, 1980
The official Super Trouper photo session was planned to be arranged in London on the Piccadilly Circus in the middle of the night. But it was not allowed to have animals there so the idea was abandoned after a while. The photo session took place at Europa Studios in Stockholm instead. A lot of footage was taken this day. This footage was used even in the videos "Super Trouper" and "Happy New Year". ABBA's friends as Tomas Ledin and Björn Skifs and many more participated in the session. go.to/ABBA related places
Getting ready...
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The session
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The Agnetha & Frida session
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Greeting for the Dutch TV and Focus project in Holland
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