Radio 2 listeners have crowned Dancing Queen their favourite ABBA song, taking the No.1 spot in Your Ultimate ABBA Song, with tens of thousands of votes cast by music fans.
In No.2 spot is The Winner Takes It All, No.3 is Thank You For The Music, No. 4 is Slipping Through My Fingers and No.5 is The Day Before You Came, with the full Top 30 chart below.
The vote – which commemorated 50 years since they won the Eurovision Song Contest on 6th April, 1974 in Brighton with Waterloo - was launched by Gary Davies on 5th April and closed on 18 April. Listeners could select up to five of their favourite tracks from a list of 45 titles comprising all ABBA’s UK Top 40 hits, plus a selection of other classics as chosen by Radio 2’s panel of ABBA superfans, including presenters Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Sara Cox.
If you can’t wait to hear the Top 30 from 1-3pm on Radio 2’s Super Saturday, 11 May, listeners can hear Gary Davies present Your Ultimate ABBA Song now on BBC Sounds. For superfans of Agnetha, Frida, Björn and Benny, Gary also presents a special playlist for BBC Sounds, Your Ultimate ABBA Song: The Extras, featuring the 15 ABBA songs that didn’t make it into the Top 30.
Gary says, “Dancing Queen is one of those songs that just makes you happy every time you hear it and still gets any dancefloor full to this day - a guaranteed singalong! Thank you Radio 2 listeners for crowning such a brilliant track Your Ultimate ABBA Song.”
Jeff Smith, Radio 2’s Head of Music says: “Radio 2 listeners’ love of ABBA has not diminished since they burst onto the music scene in the 1970s, and Dancing Queen is absolutely one of the most classic pop songs ever recorded.”
The full chart is:
1. Dancing Queen
2. The Winner Takes It All
3. Thank You For The Music
4. Slipping Through My Fingers
5. The Day Before You Came
6. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
7. Waterloo
8. Knowing Me, Knowing You
9. Super Trouper
10. Eagle
11. Mamma Mia
12. Fernando
13. Chiquitita
14. Voulez-Vous
15. SOS
16. The Name Of the Game
17. Take A Chance On Me
18. Does Your Mother Know
19. Lay All Your Love On Me
20. I Have A Dream
21. One Of Us
22. Angeleyes
23. Andante, Andante
24. Summer Night City
25. Money, Money, Money
26. My Love, My Life
27. Our Last Summer
28. Honey, Honey
29. The Visitors
30. Don’t Shut Me Down
From ABBA’s originally released UK albums, five of the songs in the Top 30 are from Voulez-Vous, five are from Super Trouper, four from The Album, three from Arrival, and three are from The Visitors, with two songs each from Waterloo and ABBA.
While the top two songs reached Number One in the UK Singles Charts, the rest of the Top Five is made up of minor hits - The Day Before You Came peaked at No.32 in the UK Charts and Thank You For The Music peaked at No.33 - that in more recent years have grown in popularity. Meanwhile Slipping Through My Fingers was only released in Japan and came to greater prominence via Mamma Mia! The countdown spans their career from winning Eurovision with Waterloo in 1974, through to Don’t Shut Me Down from their most recent album, Voyage, released in 2021.
Kylie, alongside other stars, performed in the presence of Benny and Björn with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Radio 2’s Thank You For The Music – A Celebration of the Music of ABBA in Hyde Park in 2009, and Benny performed for Radio 2’s Piano Room in 2017.
Earlier this year, Radio 2 listeners crowned Like a Prayer their favourite Madonna song, taking the No. 1 spot in Your Ultimate Madonna Song - the Top 40 chart of single releases, as voted by the listeners. 2024 marks the 35th anniversary of Like a Prayer which reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart in March 1989. In previous years, following Radio 2 listener votes, Careless Whisper was voted the fan’s favourite George Michael song (2022) and Never Forget was revealed as Radio 2 listeners’ favourite Take That song (2023).
- Listen to Your Ultimate ABBA Song on BBC Sounds
- Listen to Your Ultimate ABBA Song: The Extras on BBC Sounds
The following Radio 2 shows are available now on BBC Sounds:
Eras: ABBA
Following previous series’ on Kylie and The Beatles, which recently won a Gold prize at the New York Radio Festival, Eras: ABBA tells the definitive story of ABBA in four era-defining chapters. They’re known for their impossibly perfect pop songs, global stardom and a stratospheric revival, but how much do you really know about Sweden’s biggest musical export? With presenter Sara Cox as our guide and told in the group’s own words through rare BBC archive and new interviews with experts, insiders and famous fans, this is the story of how Agnetha, Frida, Björn and Benny went from Eurovision hopefuls to era-defining pop icons. Eras: ABBA is a window into the musical genius and sheer perseverance that brought ABBA to their rightful place at the top. Set against their timeless back catalogue, listeners will get to know ABBA like never before.
Contributors include Kylie, Rylan, Dermot O’Leary, Elaine Paige, Paul Gambaccini, Olly Alexander, Mark Gatiss, ABBA historian Carl Magnus Palm, session musician Janne Schaffer, Rod Stephen - creator of Björn Again, ABBA Voyage producers, Ludvig Andersson and Svana Gisla, and its director Ballie Walsh, plus curator Ingmarie Halling, journalist Leif Schulman, costume designer Owe Sandström, Mamma Mia! writer and producer Catherine Johnson and writer Ian Hallard. Episodes one and two will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Sunday 7th April (12-1am), with episodes three and four broadcast on the station on Sunday 14th April (12-1am). A Cup and Nuzzle production.
Episode one, Eras: ABBA - The Road to Waterloo, explores how ABBA’s lives changed forever when they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, but that the win didn’t come easy. The road to Waterloo was a long one, taking years of hard work and the combination of four world-class talents - each of them already successful in their own right - to pull it off. Sara tells how Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Frida came together to become ABBA and follows their journey to ultimately winning Eurovision, following a number of failed attempts.
Episode two, Eras: ABBA - The Arrival, follows the band as they find their feet after Eurovision, when they were almost written off as one-hit wonders. Sara takes a look at how the group pulled themselves back from the brink of obscurity and went on to become global megastars, releasing an ever-growing catalogue of hits and finding legions of new fans a very long way from Sweden.
Episode three, Eras: ABBA - Said and Done, opens in 1979 and, whilst ABBA are one of the world’s most famous bands, beneath the surface things are changing. Sara follows the band’s story to the peak of their career and reveals how, as they released some of their most iconic and sophisticated music, their personal relationships come under incredible strain. The band plays on, but how long can they last? This episode chronicles the beginning of the end for the supergroup.
Episode four, Eras: ABBA - Thank You For The Music, tells how - after a wildly successful but gruelling decade - ABBA were no more. Their ‘indefinite hiatus’ allowed each member of the group to follow their own path. Nothing lasts forever though, not even endings, as Sara tells the story of a comeback like no other. From pop history’s greatest Greatest Hits, to theatrical smashes, Hollywood acclaim and futuristic entertainment experiences, ABBA are reborn to achieve a truly timeless legacy.
Episode five, Eras: ABBA - ABBA Voyage. After establishing themselves as one of music’s pop giants, the ABBA legacy continues in an exciting new chapter with their futuristic and visually ground-breaking show in London which has ignited a new love for the group, once again. Sara sits down with its producers - Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson (who is also Benny’s son) to discuss how the concept came about, and what really went into creating one of the most talked about shows of the last decade. As Svana and Ludvig give listeners an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at ABBA in the studio, Sara also digs into what might be on the cards for ABBA in the future.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor: ABBA, My Supergroup
Sophie Ellis-Bextor counts herself as one of ABBA’s biggest fans and in this hour-long special she reveals how their iconic tunes found their way into her life. By the time Sophie was of an age to truly appreciate music, ABBA had already broken up several years earlier, but their absence only made her heart grow fonder of their music. She tells how she became familiar with their songs through 90s films such as Muriel’s Wedding and The Adventures of Priscilla – Queen of the Desert, and TV shows like Knowing Me Knowing You, as well as her lifelong love of Eurovision.
The 1992 hits compilation, ABBA Gold, opened up their back catalogue of hits to a teenage Sophie and from there on she was a fully-fledged fan, enjoying the ABBA journey through Mamma Mia! the stage musical, the movies which followed and their eventual incredible avatar reunion. The programme is packed with Sophie’s enthralling and delightful personal stories and gives a fascinating insight into how ABBA’s influence shaped the aspirations and sound of one of the UK’s most successful female artists of modern times, Sophie herself. The programme is soundtracked by over 20 of the group’s biggest hits, as well as archive audio from interviews, film trailers and live performances. A Mostest production.
Sophie says: “I’ve spent thousands of hours singing and dancing to ABBA’s songs throughout my life since I first fell in love with them. This is my dream show, to share their music and the joy they bring to me and so many millions of others!”
ABBA at the BBC
Featuring all the members of the group in interviews - spanning many decades on BBC Radio - with contributors including Zoe Ball, Richard Skinner, Laurie Mayer, Tom Browne, producer Paul Williams, plus the late Ray Moore and Steve Wright. The group talk about their lives here in the UK and in Sweden and their lengthy, huge success across the globe - from their worldwide debut in the 70s, through to their recent surprise reunion album and revolutionary, hi tech, avatar-based show in London. A BBC Audio production.
BBC Radio 2 is the UK’s most listened to radio station, with a weekly audience of 13.3 million (RAJAR Q4, 2023).The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show is most listened to Breakfast show in the UK with an audience of 6.6 million (RAJAR Q4, 2023).The network’s presenters include Michael Ball, Zoe Ball, Rob Beckett, Tony Blackburn, OJ Borg, Rev. Kate Bottley, Rylan, Fearne Cotton, Sara Cox, Jamie Cullum, Gary Davies, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Paul Gambaccini, Angela Griffin, Bob Harris, Vernon Kay, Cerys Matthews, Scott Mills, Jason Mohammad, Trevor Nelson, Dermot O’Leary, Elaine Paige, Mark Radcliffe, Romesh Ranganathan, DJ Spoony, Liza Tarbuck, Jeremy Vine, Michelle Visage, Johnnie Walker, Jo Whiley, Phil Williams and Owain Wyn Evans.
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