Were you an Abba gay?

They were great, I bought the Voulez Vous album on vinyl when it came out in 1979. To this day it’s my favorite.

Yep. Their Greatest Hits is on my Amazon Music rotation.

I hope newer listeners recognise ABBA music through their own releases and not those risible Mamma Mia films.

R3- Risible- that's such a GAY word- and I approve of it.

The Visitors is an excellent album, IMO, their best. Title track is epic and very much of the time but without being dated. When All Is Said And Done is my favourite non single by the group. I Let The Music Speak is the only true clanger on the album.

Hearing Dancing Queen at a gay bar in 1976 in Boston was kind of awesome. Vividly remember it.

OP- No, I was a Bay City Rollers Gay

My little gayling self would wait with bated breath every time a new single release was mentioned, then I’d be the first at the record store for my copy. I’d obsessively count the number of weeks they charted, and cried when Fernando dropped from number one to number two. Such was the all-pervasive love for Abba in Australia, and not just among the gaylings.

But this sort of passion among teen boys was definitely a clear sign of nonheteronormativity. Seeing me dance along to When I Kissed the Teacher, one of my uncles asked me whether my favourite ABBA member was Benny or Bjorn.

R8.....PMSL in tears here... your uncle....legend!

I didn't love them. I didn't hate them. I had a friend whose favorite group they were, so they were permanent residents of his turntable. Otherwise, I'd hear them in bars (mostly Ninth Circle and Odyssey).

But shame on whichever one of you compared them to Shitney. ABBA made music. Shitney should never have happened.

When All is Said and Done was a single, R5

I was 10 when I watched for the first time the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974. The following four years my bedroom became a ABBA cult temple and my parents were a little concerned. Then one day in February '78 I got tickets for a TV show in Bremen, Germany where they sang "Take a Chance On Me". The mother of a friend worked there and enabled a look behind the scenes (other guests were actress Britt Ekland, who sat right beneath me in the audience but I had no idea who she was and C-3PO with R2-D2; STAR WARS and ABBA - THE MOVIE premiered around the same time in Germany) . I saw ABBA in their dressing room and that kind of disillusioned me. They were just very normal and friendly people (what did I expect? I don't recall.). Days later I redecorated my room and was never again a fan of anyone. I continued to buy their new records but when they stopped after "The Visitors" album it was the right decision. All time favorite song: "Knowing me, knowing you", I can't get enough of the "aahhaa"s.

Never meet your idols, R12. I felt the same after meeting Lisa Whelchel.

R11 Only in the US for some inexplicable reason. We got Head Over Heels in its place.

ABBA-solutely, OP.

Yep. I bought all of their albums and then tapes. Now, I only have Their Greatest Hits CD's. Enough is enough.

Totally although I didn’t realize at the time they were gay favorites. I discovered them as a teen in the mid-eighties, several years after they quietly disbanded. Like r5, The Visitors is my favorite album of theirs, though I strongly disagree about I Let The Music Speak. Beautiful song. Two For The Price of One is the clunker on that album. A should-have-been novelty B-side that sticks out like a sore thumb.

A jokey 'Two for the Price of One' style song appears across a number of ABBA albums- where one or other of the guys take lead- King Kong Song, Rock Me, Does Your Mother Know. Two for the Price of One is a masterpiece compared to those stinkers. Am guessing the record company just indulged the men musically from time to time.

Yes. I loved Agnetha’s voice, still do. Years later I began to enjoy songs Frida sang the lead. I understood I can like both of them, but Agnetha is still my fave.

Picture it, a private school for boys circa 1974-77. Everyone else was listening to Kiss, Rolling Stone, David Bowie, Dr Hook, Alice Cooper, etc and I have every ABBA album.

R19 A bit like those 'Which Sex and the City Character are you' quizzes in Cosmo. The 'Are you a Frida or an Agnetha?' debate has cast a long shadow over our community.

One of the women singers sounds like Olivia Newton John.

For such a peppy song, Take a Chance on Me has depressing lyrics.

Love Knowing Me, Knowing You, Fernando, and SOS, Dancing Queen as well.

I was more into Agnetha Faltskog than Frida. Though I enjoyed Frida’s solo US hit “I Know There’s Something Going On”.

Agnatha’s solo US singles post Abba were good too. Such as “Can’t Shake Loose”, “The Heat Is On”, “I Wasn’t The One Who Said Goodbye”.

Neither of the women sound like ONJ, R22.

[quote]Take a Chance on Me has depressing lyrics.

90% of their songs have depressing lyrics. The y wrote breakup songs with catchy, bouncy tunes.

R24 yeah Agnetha tried (musically) to come off like Olivia Newton-John at times.

They were kind of over by the time I was old enough to absorb and remember music. Later on, I did have a high school friend who worshiped them. He tried many times to get me into them, and I wanted to like them, as we had many shared musical favorites, but I just thought they were cheesiest thing I'd ever heard. I remember him playing me some song about a 'pretty ballerina' or something like that and I just retched. I kind of liked Dancing Queen, only in that it didn't nauseate me. A few years ago I saw Mamma Mia in the West End, and I found myself enjoying some of the music. Then, a bunch of hot young men came out in tight wetsuits, performing Lay All Your Love On Me, and I was hooked. It only took a little T & A, I guess.

In the US Olivia Newton-John was much much more popular than ABBA during the late 70s and the 80s. I am aware of ABBA’s huge impact during that time Sweden, all of Europe and Australia.

I think it’s strange in retrospect that ABBA wasn’t more successful during their active recording years in the USA than they were.

I thought they were just okay. I hated Dancing Queen with a passion, but I really liked Knowing Me, Knowing You.

Love, love, loved them. I first heard them on a tape recording my sister got from her Swedish pen pal. I think they had already broken through here. It was Fernando and I loved it. I got Arrival and happen to catch the special based on the music. That did it and had to get them all. I soon found out they weren’t cool, but I didn’t care. I bought every album and single. Was sad when they stopped and never thought we would get new music. I don’t get excited much anymore (I’m 55) but I did get excited about Voyage. I may even travel to London to see it.

I still am!

Has Muriel's Wedding been mentioned? circa 1994? pre Mama Mia........ A memory for me that ABBA still had tremendous appeal.

Greatest rock band of all time, in my opinion.

I was on the fence in regards to my sexuality when I chose to perform ‘The Winner Takes It All’ the first year in my high school talent show. The audience coughs of “femme” and “fag” were reflected in the popular score, though I did sweep the faculty vote.

[quote]A jokey 'Two for the Price of One' style song appears across a number of ABBA albums- where one or other of the guys take lead- King Kong Song, Rock Me, Does Your Mother Know. Two for the Price of One is a masterpiece compared to those stinkers. Am guessing the record company just indulged the men musically from time to time.

How DARE you! King Kong Song is beyond reproach.

R20, did we go to the same Sydney all-boys’ school?!

Both my parents are ABBA straights. As a heavy metal, alternative, noise-rock loving, goth-adjacent weirdo loner gay, that was hard to take growing up (and it was harder for my poor parents’ ears, I’m sure...)

As an adult, I must admit that I can now more appreciate the melodious and complex sounds of ABBA, The Bee Gees etc. The craft and intricacy of some mainstream pop of the 60s, 70s & 80s makes that of today look like childish primitive gleep-glop.

Still, I never listen to ABBA of my own volition, though. Give me Priest, Sisters Of Mercy, R.E.M. etc. any day. That said, I am secretly a big fan of Prince, so I suppose I am a pop fan too in my own way.

I wasn't but these guys were, thankfully.

Why did they leave "When I kissed the Teacher" out of the ABBA movie?

It's in Abba-TheMovie and the sequel to Mamma Mia.

CHESS is the only worthwhile Bjorn/Benny musical.

Were? WERE?! From the beginning to infinity

I thought their Kristina musical was their best work.

More Kristina

Muzzer sez I wuzza dancer beeefore I could wokk!

The Australian Tour was their best. had everything.

Didn't know much about their music besides Dancing Queen and Gimme Gimme Gimme A Man After Midnight when I was a kid, but I played those a lot.

Were you an Abba gay? Is there any other type? Seriously though, is there?

R44 I agree, Kristina från Duvemåla is better than Chess. And openly gay Peter Jöback made that song a mega hit in Sweden.

R50, från Duvemåla is better musically, but the English lyrics are mediocre, and damn, the book is depressing.

I agree about the English translation R51.

Perhaps why it hasn't translated much beyond Sweden.

So agree, r51. The music is gorgeous but something is definitely lost in the translation. I saw the Carnegie Hall concert which was a condensed version of the show yet there was a song about lice and a song about a stove. What the hell did they cut?!