How ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All” Turned Divorce Into a Timeless Classic

Up next… I used to Hate ABBA’s music. But you all convinced me to give them another chance. So I took your advice and today’s song The Winner Takes It All has become a favorite… and the story behind it is just as rich! It was written by the group’s main songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus as he was going through a tough breakup with one of the singers of the band, Agnetha Faltskog… It was a heart-wrenching, vulnerable song about DIVORCE and Bjorn admits the subject was so challenging emotionally that he wrote it while drunk…then he brought it into record and decided he was going to sing it. But Bjorn knew in his heart that his ex had to be its interpreter… even though the other famous female in the band Anni-Frid Lyngstadt could handle it… In fact, Anni-Frid was jealous she didn’t get to do it. So in the middle of their separation, while her ex-husband already had a new girlfriend, this songbird sang the hell out of a song that would become a classic. and that was only the start…she had to sing it every night live with him right next to her until the band eventually broke up! The heart-aching story of The Winner Takes it All is next on Professor of Rock.

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