Viking Magazine - March 2020 - 24

ou no doubt recognize
the names Taylor Swift,
Britney Spears and Katy
Perry, but what about
Max Martin, Andre
Lindal or Mikkel Eriksen?
Though their names don't carry the
same star power as America's biggest
pop musicians, their work speaks for
itself: They are the people responsible
for a large portion of those catchy Top
40 tunes-think: " Blank Space, " " Baby
One More Time, " " Irreplaceable "
and " Unfaithful, " to name a few. But
ON THE POP MUSIC MAP
besides getting a credit on the albums of
the music industry's A-listers, they have
another trait in common: They are all
Scandinavian.
It's openly acknowledged in the music
industry that Scandinavians are the
not-so-secret weapon when it comes to
producing many of today's irresistible
earworms, so this may come as no
surprise. Scandinavians have been pop
powerhouses for decades-just look
back to the 1970s, when a group called
ABBA burst their way onto the music
scene and changed it forever.
Originally made up of two couples-
Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus,
and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid
Lyngstad-ABBA drew its name from
the members' fi rst initials. The group
began performing together in 1970
as a cabaret act called Festfolket.
Although that initial collaboration was
unsuccessful, their 1972 song " People
Need Love " garnered some positive
attention in Sweden, their home
country. That prompted them to enter
the 1973 Melodifestivalen, an annual
competition that determines
the country's representative in
the international Eurovision
Song Contest. Though ABBA
didn't win Melodifestivalen
with their song " Ring Ring, "
it became the biggest hit in
Sweden that year, spreading
their name and sound to other
European countries.
Within a year, everything
had changed. In 1974, ABBA
entered Melodifestivalen again
and won, going on to take part
in the Eurovision fi nals hosted
in Brighton, England. There they took
top honors with their song " Waterloo, "
which soon reached number one on
the charts in Europe and the top 10
in the U.S., spawning a series of hits
over the next decade including " SOS, "
" Mamma Mia, " " Dancing Queen " and
" Fernando. "
The group disbanded in 1982, but
they left an undeniable legacy. To this
day, ABBA remains the most successful
Eurovision winner in the contest's 64year
history (the 2020 event takes place
May 12-16 in the Netherlands), and
their music lives on thanks to tribute
bands like A*Teens and movies like
" Mama Mia! " In 2010, the group was
even inducted into the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame-but perhaps their most
signifi cant achievement was putting
Scandinavians on the global pop music
map.
" ABBA, of course, ticked off the big
boost for Scandinavia when it comes
to pop music, " says Siw K Sommer
Winther, a cultural historian, composer,
artist and CEO of Sound of You, a
Norwegian audio-branding agency that
has worked with artists like Sting, Boy
George and Miley Cyrus. " ABBA had a
very distinct sound, and it kind of lifted
the roof for Scandinavia. They paved
the way. "
SCANDIPOP REVOLUTION
Since ABBA signed off and told their
fans " Thank You for the Music, "
Scandinavian artists have continued
to succeed with pop in their home
countries and abroad. A-ha, the band
from Oslo, was the fi rst Norwegian
group to have a number-one hit in the
U.S. with their iconic song " Take On
Me, " while Swedish pop group Ace of
Base sold more than 9 million copies of
their 1993 album " The Sign. " Swedish
singer Robyn also had two Billboard
Hot 100 singles after dropping her
debut album " Robyn Is Here " in 1995.
" I really wish that [modern]
Scandinavian pop music would be more
infl uenced by ABBA because their sound
is so spectacular, " Winther says. " There
are very few artists around the world in
any genre that really can master making
good, happy music, so I would love to
hear more of that. "
One contemporary artist she
thinks has come close is Kygo. Born
Kyrre Gørvell-Dahll, the 28-year-old
Norwegian DJ exploded in popularity
when he released his fi rst original song
" Firestone " in 2014, and has since
gone on to collaborate with American
megastars like Selena Gomez and
John Legend. Though Kygo's focus
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Viking Magazine - March 2020

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