London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

Abba: Why the UK gave the Swedish band 'nul points' at Eurovision

Abba: Why the UK gave the Swedish band 'nul points' at Eurovision

Cast your mind back to the spring of 1974, if indeed you were around to remember those days.

The UK is hosting the Eurovision Song Contest, and the word on the street around the event's venue the Brighton Dome is that their representative Olivia Newton John has a fair old chance of winning.

Victory for her track Long Live Love would give the Brits their third victory in the kitschy-cool international song contest, which began in 1956.

However, a little-known Swedish pop group, formed in Stockholm only two years ago, are about to spoil the host's party, with a memorable performance of what would go on to become one of the most popular recordings of all time.

Abba's Waterloo is ultimately crowned as the winner, despite having received a bitter so-called "nul points" judgement from the UK panel.

Reflecting on the win 47 years later, Abba songwriter Björn Ulvaeus suggests the UK might have given his group the lowest possible score (by not allocating them any votes at all) as they viewed them as the biggest possible threat.

"It certainly could have been," he told BBC entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson on BBC Breakfast. "Because the Brits were the first ones to embrace us after winning, so the jury could have been as cunning as that - [it's] very likely actually.

"Because it's kind of strange they would give us zero points. It sounds like they were trying to do something cunning."

Björn Ulvaeus (far right) says their Eurovision win was a night of "such chaos" he can hardly remember much about it


So has he ever spoken to Olivia Newton John about what happened that night?

"Frida (bandmate Anni-Frid Lyngstad) is a good friend with Olivia. She says that Olivia knew that we would win," he says.

"We certainly talked that night, but I don't remember that, it was such chaos I hardly remember anything other than waking up the next day and finding myself and us being all over the globe suddenly.

"[We had] gone overnight from this obscure Swedish band to world fame... so unreal."

'The plight of the songwriter'


For Ulvaeus and the rest of Abba, the victory was a life-changing moment, and soon after, he says, "the royalties came pouring in".

It afforded them space and time to establish themselves as proper professionals, able to fully focus on producing future hits including Dancing Queen, and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).

Space and time are luxuries rarely afforded to burgeoning musical talent s in this age of streaming, he notes - especially during a pandemic.

In recent months we've heard how some hit songwriters have become Uber drivers to make ends meet, and how others have been pressured into surrendering their songs.

Elbow frontman Guy Garvey, who worked in Manchester bars on the long road to success, recently told a DCMS committee inquiry into the music streaming market that the way artists are paid for audio streams is "threatening the future of music".

Björn Ulvaeus attending the opening night of Mamma Mia! The Party at London's O2 in 2019

With all that in mind, the Abba star has just published a new report entitled Rebalancing the Song Economy. The report, conducted in collaboration with MIDiA Research, focuses on the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the global music industry, and aims to offer potential solutions to the current issues around streaming models.

One suggestion is the introduction of a more fan-centric model, which would see a larger percentage of each listener's subscription fee go directly to their favourite artists and the ones they listen to the most.

'The year of the song'


Ulvaeus says 2020 was so awful for singers, with most music events cancelled, that they've now realised what songwriters have known for many years - and that could be the impetus for real change at last.

"It's been really, really difficult," he continues. "Ever since the pandemic started last year, the artists stopped touring, and there were no performance royalties coming in from the touring.

"But funnily enough, the fact that the artists got stopped from touring made them realise how little they were actually making from streaming. They had made 70% perhaps from touring and merchandise and all of that stuff, and suddenly they had to survive on streaming.

The band's name was made from the first initials of its members: (left to right) Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog and Benny Andersson

"And I thought, 'Welcome to the world of songwriters' - because that is how [it is for] songwriters usually... they are always in that situation. And I think the pandemic has been very, very bad in many, many ways, but it's been good in putting the spotlight on the plight of the songwriter I think.

"There is a movement building up on both sides of the Atlantic - the UK, continental Europe and America, Canada - that I hope is unstoppable.

"It could make 2021 the year of the song, that's what I hope for."

'A happy ending'


The 75-year-old, who confirms that his band are set to release five long-awaited new songs of their own later this year, says he will not be selling the rights to their back catalogue anytime soon - as the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Paul Simon have done.

The reason being that they have been having far too much fun with projects including the Mamma Mia films and theatre musicals, and going back to the future in an upcoming Abba avatar tour (the band haven't performed together publicly in real life since 1982, turning down some big money offers to do so).

While he refuses to offer any precise details about their digital doppelgangers, the original Ulvaeus says he would not be putting his name to any official biopic either, despite the success of recent examples such as Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman.

"I don't think we would want that actually," he says. "I certainly know myself I wouldn't want an actor - not while I'm alive - to play me on the big screen. And I don't think the others would like that either.

"There have been proposals, of course. I don't think we will do that."


Abba have never officially split, but Ulvaeus did from bandmate and subsequent ex-wife Agnetha Fältskog in 1980 - the same year she sang vocals on their break-up anthem The Winner Takes it All. The marriage of the other two Abba stars Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson ended around the same time.

So while it may be bad news for fans of music flicks that there will be no Abba biopic anytime soon, Ulvaeus feels it's for the best.

"It would be very sad, wouldn't it?" he suggests.

"Unless of course, the avatars hint at another ending! A happy ending, perhaps."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
×