This article was published on Collider on 9/9/22
In 1974, two couples wearing glitter and go-go boots sang about Napoleon on TV and rocked the whole world. ABBA, a Swedish pop group, won the European music competition, Eurovision, with the song “Waterloo”spreading iconic pop songs around the globe. Known for their classic hits like “Mama Mia” and “Dancing Queen,” ABBA is just as popular today as they were when they won Eurovision. In 2021, the band reunited and released the album Voyage, their first album together in four decades. It was deemed by the Official Charts Company as the UK’s biggest-selling album on vinyl and the third best-selling album across the board of 2021. They are a band that has withstood the test of time and continued to hold a place in pop culture. This longstanding relevancy and significance have been aided by the use of ABBA music as a storytelling device in film. Not just music for the radio and vinyl, ABBA has managed to secure a solid standing in film history contributing to overall storytelling and scene development in films not just in the UK or America, but all over the world. ABBA’s music does not just show up in a film’s soundtrack. Their music is in the text of the film, informing viewers and being woven directly into the storytelling.
Songs and albums are written to tell stories. Within albums, songs can be woven together to create a long-form story with characters, points of view, and themes like Folklore by Taylor Swift or Night at the Opera by Queen. But what ABBA has been able to do, is translate songs not only from one album but also from their entire collection into a longer story. And there is no piece of work that proves this more than the jukebox musical, Mamma Mia!, was written around ABBA songs. After a long run on the West End and Broadway, Mamma Mia! was turned into a movie. Starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, the songs of ABBA lead characters from one scene of self-expression to another, with the story built upon the foundation set by the songwriters and singers of ABBA. ABBA is not just a group of singers; they are storytellers allowing filmmakers to draw directly from their vision and actualize it in a colorful movie. Mamma Mia! shows how the film and music industries can work together to tell a fuller version of a story. Mamma Mia! could have just been a movie about a girl looking for her real father, but ABBA elevated the storytelling, infusing it with life through the music: No wonder both the musical and the movie(s) are so iconic.
Whereas in Mamma Mia! the music is a product of the world of the movie, the Netflix film Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, includes the two main characters, Lars (Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (Rachel McAdams), looking up to the success of ABBA from a young age. There is nothing they want more than to compete in Eurovision as their heroes did. The two are so inspired by ABBA that Lars is distracted from his own mother’s funeral to watch ABBA sing “Waterloo” in the song competition. Young audiences love Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, but many don’t know that they became a worldwide phenomenon through Eurovision. Although silly, their heavy references in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga keep them in the cultural zeitgeist.
The meta film Bergman Island uses ABBA as its own plot point, not as an accompaniment to a larger plot point. In a film within the film, Amy (Mia Wasikowska) is being written into her own character. In one scene, the ABBA song “The Winner Takes It All” actually acts as the narrator. Lured onto the dance floor by the music, Amy feels one with the music as the dances and sings the words. As she says certain lines, certain things become clear to her. When she says, “Someone way down here, Loses someone dear” she realizes she has lost the man she was with. She goes outside after him and, “But tell me does she kiss, Like I used to kiss you?” can be heard in the background. The meta subtext of this scene is the actual song was written by Björn Ulvaeus and sung by his wife, Agnetha Fältskog. She divorced him the same month the song came out. The song can’t be sung alone, but Amy is alone on the dance floor and therefore, can’t finish it. ABBA Is the narrator in this scene telling the audience, in a beautiful sequence, what is happening between these characters and what their fate will be.
The movie Summer of Sam delivered ABBA to audiences in a way that was the opposite of inspiring. After a coked-out night on the town during the 1970s, the main characters, Vinny and Donna, have an explosive fight about all the things in their marriage that are failing. They fight vigorously for three minutes, being scored by “Dancing Queen." In this scene, ABBA has a more powerful role than they did even in Mamma Mia! Their music is used firstly to set the time period, but secondly as a commentary on hetero-normative relationships. Donna is expected to be the “dancing queen” from the song, and while this idea of her plays loudly in the background, Donna explodes and expresses every feeling she has repressed. ABBA can create joy, but they can also be used to create tension. Summer of Sam uses a staple song of the time period to create a chilling dissonance between the ideal 1970s housewife and the reality of this marriage and their situation. During this explosive fight scene, Donna screams at Vinny that he’s a “perverted sick fuck,” meanwhile, “feel the beat of the tambourine plays on the radio.” It’s a jarring and ironic duality that makes the viewers feel like they’re being battered around like the characters in the scene.
Australian filmmaking specifically has had a close relationship with ABBA. In 1977, ABBA: The Movie came out chronicling ABBA’s tour through Australia. Much like with all the movies ABBA are featured in, not everything is pop-disco and shiny bell bottoms. The documentary shows how after the show is over, the band faces exhaustion and sexism. The constant travel and idiotic, chauvinistic questions from the press take their toll on the band, and in 2021, the women of ABBA refused to do any press and sent holograms of themselves performing on tour instead of doing it themselves. The documentary also shows how their tour contained filmic elements. ABBA performed a 25-minute theatrical musical on stage called The Girl With Golden Hair. In this experimental piece, we see that their music is more than music- it contains the depth of cinema.
Another film that chronicles the singing of ABBA songs is The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. The movie follows Australian drag performers who perform to “Mamma Mia” in an act of true freedom of self-expression. But “Mamma Mia” doesn’t score the scene, it is the scene. The performers go from singing the song on their bus to signing it on stage to being outside their bus after the show singing along to a tape of “Fernando.” The high energy and freedom in ABBA's music carry these characters from one scene to another as they express themselves fully, truly, and artistically. ABBA’s music is freeing in its sound, but in film, it can be used to symbolize freedom. The adoration, respect for, and growing popularity of the art that is ABBA's music in the LGBTQIA+ community are so much reflected in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
Australia also gives us films that use ABBA to encapsulate life’s highest and lowest points. In Muriel’s Wedding, we see both Muriel’s (Toni Colette) high points and her low points through the lens of ABBA. Her depression is draped in ABBA posters, feather boas, and the obsessive playing of “Dancing Queen.” Instead of living her real life, Muriel uses ABBA to escape her current situation and romanticize what life could be like. But after she meets someone who loves “Waterloo” as much as she does, she finds friendship, and she finds herself. Muriel says it better than anyone when she says, “My life is as good as an ABBA song. My life is as good as ‘Dancing Queen.' ” ABBA’s music has a depth that allows it to not only score depressing or joyous scenes, but it also has the ability to actually be those depressing or joyous moments. In Muriel’s Wedding, ABBA is Muriel’s depression as well as her joy. Muriel can actualize her feelings and express her deepest emotions she might not be able to say in words more easily through the lyrics of ABBA.
ABBA is cinematic because their songs fit perfectly into the beats of any good movie. Their songs have heart, deep emotions, life, heartbreak, and energy. It’s almost like their music was made for movies. Their music is so human that it’s no surprise it’s used to reflect the most human events on screen. ABBA has been used to make film more layered, adding depth to dramatic or passionate moments. And in turn, ABBA has remained a popular band able to release a successful album four decades after their last album’s release. ABBA’s raw humanity and honesty that mixes darkness with light have made them the perfect band for the screen. ABBA’s music is not music you’ll find just on the soundtrack; you’ll find their songs as the focal point of cinematic storytelling.
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