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Popular World Music Shahriari

ABBA

When the Swedish quartet ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision song contest with “Waterloo,” songwriters and musicians began to rethink the possibilities of a group performance succeeding in the competition. The popularity of ABBA’s “Waterloo” spread throughout Europe as more than just a Eurovision entry, topping the British pop music charts and rising to No. 6 on Bill- board’s Hot 100 list in the United States. Few predicted that ABBA would have lasting popularity, but a string of hits throughout the 1970s propelled them to international superstardom. Though ABBA disbanded in 1982, their music continues to sell well around the globe, totaling more than 200 million copies sold since their first release, making them second only to the Beatles and a handful of solo artists.