SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Eurovision attracts more viewers than the Super Bowl. And yet, a lot of Americans have scarcely heard of it. Probably more people know that B.J. Leiderman does our theme music. Winners of this pan-European song contest generally become one-hit wonders, if even that, and even more rarely do they make a name for themselves over here. But Sidsel Overgaard reports there have been a few exceptions. The most notable? The band that won 40 years ago this weekend.
SIDSEL OVERGAARD, BYLINE: First, it helps to understand what came before ABBA.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
INGMARIE HALLING: Back in ’74, the Eurovision song contest was quite a stiff-upper-lip sort of event.
OVERGAARD: Ingmarie Halling is curator of the ABBA museum in Stockholm.
HALLING: The audience were sitting in the long dresses and bow ties and tuxedos. And actually, they looked the same as the artists did, at the time.
OVERGAARD: For the most part, songs had to be performed in an artist’s native language. And when that rule was temporarily lifted in the ’70s, it led to some awkward results – like this infamous line from the Swedes who preceded ABBA.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING))
UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: Oh, your breasts are like swallows, they’re nesting…
OVERGAARD: And then these four hit the scene in glam-inspired crushed velvet, chains and silver platform boots.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WATERLOO”)…
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