The video for ABBA’s 1976 megahit and global anthem “Dancing Queen” has hit the memorable milestone of 500 million views on YouTube. The club-based promotional clip is now available in a long-awaited 4K HD version. The clip has taken little more than a decade to reach the half-billion threshold, having been uploaded to ABBA’s official YouTube channel in October 2009.
The original video was directed by frequent ABBA collaborator Lasse Hallström andf filmed in the spring of 1976 at Alexandra’s discotheque in central Stockholm. It has itself long been the source of endless enthusiasm among devotees of the group, inspiring YouTube clips about their dance steps in the film, and leading to the sequence in the 2008 smash hit film Mamma Mia! in which Donna, played by Meryl Streep, and her friends sing and dance along to the song.
“Dancing Queen” was written by band members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus with ABBA manager and Polar Music co-founder Stig Anderson. It had the working title “Boogaloo” and took its inspiration from the early disco smash “Rock Your Baby” by George McCrae. The song has long been one of the undisputed highlights of the Swedish superstars’ peerless catalog. It went to No.1 in both the UK and US – their only American chart-topper – and in a reported 15 countries around the world from Australia to Japan and all across Europe.
In November 2020, the UK’s Official Charts Company provided an update on the indestructible popularity of “Dancing Queen” by naming it at No.1 among ABBA’s biggest songs in Britain. It was credited with sales to that point of 1.55 million, making it their only million-seller in the UK, way ahead of the No.2 song on the list, 1980’s “Super Trouper,” which perhaps surprisingly was their final chart-topper in the territory, with sales of 978,000.
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