- published: 13 Jan 2012
- views: 150517
ABBA (stylised ᗅᗺᗷᗅ) were a Swedish pop group who formed in Stockholm in 1972. With members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, ABBA became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1975 to 1982. They won the Eurovision Song Contest 1974 at the Dome in Brighton, UK, giving Sweden its first triumph in the contest, and were the most successful group ever to take part in the competition.
ABBA's record sales figure is uncertain and various estimates range from over 140 to over 500 million sold records. This makes them one of the best-selling music artists, and the second best-selling music group of all time, after the Beatles. ABBA was the first group to come from a non-English-speaking country to enjoy consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin American markets, and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.
Raja (/ˈrɑːdʒɑː/; also spelled rajah, from Sanskrit राजा rājā-) is a term for a monarch or princely ruler in South and Southeast Asia. Rana is practically equivalent, and the female form Rani (sometimes spelled ranee) applies equally to the wife of a raja or rana. Maharaja, or "great king" is in theory a title for more significant rulers in India, but after some inflation of titles over time, there is no clear difference between the terms.
The title has a long history in the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia, being attested from the Rigveda, where a rājan- is a ruler, see for example the dāśarājñá, the "battle of ten kings".
Sanskrit rājan- is cognate to Latin rēx (genitive rēgis), Gaulish rīx, Gaelic rí (genitive ríg), etc., originally denoting heads of petty kingdoms and city states. It is believed to be ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European *h3rēǵs, a vrddhi formation to the root *h3reǵ- "to straighten, to order, to rule". The Sanskrit n-stem is secondary in the male title, apparently adapted from the female counterpart rājñī which also has an -n- suffix in related languages, compare Old Irish rígain and Latin regina. Cognates of the word Raja in other Indo-European languages include English reign and German reich. Rather common variants in Rajasthani, Marathi and Hindi, used for the same royal rank in parts of India include Rana, Rao, Raol, Rawal and Rawat.
ABBA : Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Live In Concert '79) HQ
ABBA - Wembley Live 1979
ABBA "SOS" (Seaside Special "LIVE", BBC, 1975) HQ
ABBA - (Chiquitita live version from ABBA In Concert Wembley Arena London 1979)
ABBA - Knowing me knowing you (live 1979) [complete]
ABBA : S.O.S - Live Vocals [Widescreen] HQ
ABBA : Super Trouper (HD) Live Stockholm, Sweden '81 - Dick Cavett
ABBA - Dancing Queen (Live Wembley Arena)
ABBA - Thank you for the music (live 1979) HQ
ABBA REUNION 2016! Agnetha & Frida sing The Way Old Friends Do LIVE at Berns, Stockholm, June 2016.
On the hard fast train
On the road to gain
Something gets right through to your telling bone
There's a sudden itch
An electric twitch
Sometimes I swear this body's got a mind of its own
This is the naked truth
This is the light
There's only one place left to go
Auberge
You meet a silent type
On a windy trail
With a shiny cloak and an unseen silver dagger
You can talk till you ache
Give yourself one more break
You can tell by the look on his face that it just doesn't matter
This is the naked truth
This is the light
There's only one place left to go
Auberge
Give me a weekend
Give me a way
Don't like what I'm seeing though I hear what you say
Think with a dagger
And you'll die on your knees
Begging for mercy
Singing please mister please
This is the naked truth
This is the light
There's only one place left to go