 Hey everybody, I've got some news for you. There's finally a new line of polyphonic merch available on the polyphonic store I've now got enamel pins and these new posters I made Inspired by some of my favorite zeppelin songs and if you purchase something from the store You'll get a free month of nebula, which I think is pretty cool So check it out with a link in the description I also really want to thank everyone who watches these videos everyone who likes Subscribes comments and especially all of my wonderful patrons on patreon You guys are the best and this channel would not happen without you Before this video starts I would like to formally apologize to the nation of Sweden and Swedes everywhere for butchering your fine language When we think of Eurovision today, one of the first things that comes to mind is elaborate insane Over-the-top costumes, but that wasn't always the case if you go back to the early 1970s The outfits of Eurovision were much more conservative tasteful evening gowns and bespoke suits There were the occasional bits of glitter and spunk, but for the most part it was a classy affair and then in 1974 four Swedes took the stage looking like this between Agnetta Falskuk's four-inch platform heels Björn Alves's silver starburst guitar and Conductor Sven Olof Waldorf's full-on Napoleon costume Abba's looks made a splash But it was more than just their looks when Abba took the stage and debuted Waterloo at Eurovision 1974 It didn't just mark a shift in European history It was a pivotal moment in pop music history and marked the beginning of a musical ascension Never seen before or since Let's take a closer look Abba's Eurovision costumes and the music of Waterloo were actually inspired by the same movement glam rock Throughout the early 70s acts like David Bowie, Roxy Music, and T-Rex were shaking up the look of rock and roll By dawning elaborate glitter suits, gender-bending outfits, and wild haircuts The first wave of glam musicians took the UK by storm But that kind of style and personality just wasn't seen in pop music at the time And it hadn't really crossed over to mainland Europe For the most part pop music was still rooted in the crooners of a bygone generation in need of fresh new faces to shake things up and Abba knew they could be those faces in order to do so However, they first needed to get to Eurovision So they started to submit songs to Sweden's qualifying competition an annual festival called Melody Festival Abba's songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjorn Olveyes first tried their shot at Melody Festival in 1971 Submitting two entries that were both rejected the next year They wrote a song for Lena Andersson, which won third in the festival and by the time 1973 came around Benny and Bjorn had formed their own group with their wives the name created from the initials of each member's name and So that year they submitted an Abba song to Melody Festival in ring ring Musically ring ring was inspired by American soul music Specifically the stuff produced by Phil Spector you can hear Spector's wall of sound technique in the song's huge Arrangement with pianos horns guitars and vocal harmonies all stacked over each other for a massive hook Ring ring gave Benny and Bjorn another third place finished at Melody Festival in and Abba started to gain acclaim in their homeland By the end of the year the duo's Perseverance had them knocking on the door of success and when the calendar turned and the festival came around again Abba kicked that door down with water Like with ring ring Waterloo found its production roots in Phil Spector's wall of sound something that comes through plain as day in the chorus But Waterloo also pulled heavily from glam rock Specifically Waterloo was inspired by the song see my baby jive by the English glam band wizard Waterloo pulled back from wizard's rock sounds a little bit and leaned into cleaner more polished pop The song spotlighted the perfectly complimented voices of Agnetta and Frida And it also showed off Benny and Bjorn's unmatched ability to write catchy earworms Originally Waterloo was called honey pie and presumably the chorus would have sung those words as well and as strong as the melodic hooks are I think there would have been something lost without the lyrical change implemented by lyricist Stig Andersen Waterloo is such a strange and novel conceit for a song that it's hard to forget Who else who would sing a romance song comparing love to the downfall of one of history's most infamous Dictators and perhaps even more novel than the subject matter of the lyrics was the language in which Waterloo was sung Abba's song was the only melody festival in entry in English and when it won Eurovision Abba's song became the first competition winner to be sung in a language other than the country's native tongue The decision to write in English was another signifier of Abba's ambition from the start their end goal Wasn't victory at Eurovision. It was total world domination according to an article in Salon Ulvia said we knew that the Eurovision song contest was the only route for a Swedish group to make it outside of Sweden Seeing as Eurovision was a televised event making a splash didn't just mean music. It also meant looks Luckily Abba were friends with Ove Sandström who was a costume designer by night The costumes provided an added benefit to the group as well a strange tax loophole existed in the Swedish legislation at the time The government had special tax discounts for items of clothing bought for work purposes That couldn't be worn for everyday life meaning Abba actually got credits for their wild outfits And when they took to the stage at Eurovision dressed to the nines Abba put on a performance never seen again at the competition Waterloo won Eurovision by six points and went on to take the continent by storm It climbed charts across Europe and around the world hitting number one in Belgium, Denmark, Finland Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, and Switzerland More than just a successful single Waterloo was one of the first truly international pop songs Infecting half the world with Abba fever. Abba used this initial success to springboard their way into the stratosphere In the years following Waterloo, Abba released a string of international chartoppers including SOS, Mamma Mia, Fernando, Dancing Queen, Money Money Money, and half a dozen other songs that you've no doubt danced to at wedding receptions In doing so they completely shook up the pop scene and transformed what it meant to be a pop star Benny and Bjorn's huge hook-driven sounds and the glam rock-infused costumes can still be seen in top 40 pop hits to this day And 31 years after its release at Eurovision's 50th anniversary celebration Waterloo was chosen as the best song in the competition's history An honor it repeated in 2021 When Abba stepped off the stage following Eurovision 1974 I don't think they could have possibly imagined the heights they were about to hit Nevertheless, they celebrated in style Spending an evening partying in the Grand Brighton Hotel's Napoleon Suite Well on their way to becoming emperors of pop music