Björn Ulvaeus Reveals the ABBA Hit He Wrote Whereas ‘Intoxicated’ on Whiskey

Alcohol performed a job within the creation of a serious ABBA hit.

In a brand new interview with The Occasions, member Björn Ulvaeus revealed ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” was written below the affect of whiskey earlier than he give up ingesting in 2007.

“I wrote that tune in a short time whereas ingesting whisky throughout my ingesting days,” the 79-year-old artist instructed the outlet. “I not often wrote whereas intoxicated since you have a look at the phrases the following day and it’s rubbish.”

“However most of ‘The Winner Takes It All’ is definitely good,” added Ulvaeus. “It’s not a private story, however I attempted to seek out the element of an actual human ache.”

Launched because the lead single off ABBA’s Tremendous Trouper album, “The Winner Takes It All” reached No. 8 on the Billboard Sizzling 100 and topped the charts within the U.Ok. The group sings on the observe, “The winner takes all of it / The loser has to fall / It is easy and it is plain / Why ought to I complain?”

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Ulvaeus, Benny Anderson, Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog launched their newest album as ABBA, Voyage, in 2021.

The legendary band has since been immortalized with a hologram residency of the identical title in London, which is at present slated to run by way of 2029 on the ABBA Area.

Elsewhere in his interview with The Occasions, Ulvaeus spoke to the way forward for the ABBA Voyage residency — and whether or not it’d proceed after one of many band members dies.

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“That is still to be seen. We’re allowed to remain in our present venue until 2029, however ticket gross sales would possibly drop, you by no means know,” he mentioned. “However is it proper to proceed when somebody is lifeless? That’s a giant moral query.”

Nonetheless, Ulvaeus would not be personally bothered if the present continues after his personal demise. “Did Agatha Christie have an issue with The Mousetrap?” he requested, referencing the play that is been operating in London since 1952. “Whenever you’re gone, you’re gone however… my youngsters would possibly recognize it.”