They are the masterminds behind one Eurovision win and state they wouldn’t rule out being behind potentially another one as they sit down with an interview on BBC Breakfast upon the release of ABBA’s new album “Voyage”. But they only have one act in mind, Dua Lipa!
ABBA; who most famously won the contest in Brighton in 1974 with the song “Waterloo”. They beat none other than Olivia Newton-John who was the United Kingdom representative that year. Infamously the UK jury awarded the band no points that year despite arguably going on to be the most successful there. “Waterloo” is held to such acclaim that it was voted the best Eurovision song of all time in 2005 as part of the contest’s 50th anniversary.
What was said?!
In the interview, it was correctly stated that it will be 13 years since the UK last achieved a Top 10 finish which came in 2009 n Moscow where Jade Ewen finished in 5th place with the Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber and Diane Warren written track “It’s My Time”. However the last time the UK came close to the top 10 was in 2011 when Blue sang “I Can” coming in 11th place. The question was asked in that the UK needed to do Benny Andersson quickly said “Better songs”.
This was then followed up with this response when told that the UK broadcaster BBC teamed up with TaP music management to pick their 2022 act after two last places in 2019 and 2021 with the latter getting nil points.
Good! [Bjorn interjecting “Promicing”] Picking an act is one thing, writing a song is different. So you need both a great song and a good act.
When speaking about the UK’s attitude on the contest Bjorn had this to say.
We had to take it {Eurovision} seriously, I think there is a difference in attitude, because for us, it was the only way out. I think the attitude has been to laugh at the Eurovision, which is laughable in a way.
When asked if they would consider writing the UK entry, he said: ‘Oh, a UK entry? I don’t know.’ with Bjorn outright saying: ‘No. The ABBA bandmates then discussed further with Benny stating “But what’s the risk? You can’t be worse than last.” With Bjorn replying “No but it needs to be a really good act to write for, yeah,” before Benny then suggested: “Dua Lipa,” to which, his bandmate agreed.
You can view the whole interview below!
Is an ABBA x Dua Lipa a collab you’d like to see? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to follow us on Spotify and YouTube to see our reactions to the news in the run up to the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, which is due to take place in Turin, Italy!
