Varosha, Famagusta, Cyprus
In 2020 Swedish pop group Abbaʼs official main web page opened with the words, “It began 50 years ago in Sweden”. Well, yes and no. It kind of, sort of, actually began in Cyprus over 50 years ago
Over fifty years ago a Varosha hotel gave free board and lodging to four Swedes to entertain Unficyp soldiers. Neither the singers nor the audience had any idea what the future had in store.
All four - Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Annifrid (Frida) Lyngstad -were on holiday in Cyprus from April 5 to 16, 1970. They were there as separate performers under the advertisement deal with the Swedish tour operator Fritidsresor, which became TUI Sweden in 2016, to sing for Swedish Unficyp soldiers.
Bjorn and Agnetha they had just been engaged a few days ago on the plane that brought them to Cyprus. They rehearsed on his balcony Twiga Tower Hotel (https://reveal.world/story/twiga-towers-hotel-early-location-of-abbas-rehearsals-in-cyprus) where they lived. Finally they give a half hour concert. The performances were held at the Peroquet night club (https://reveal.world/story/the-famous-nightclub-where-abba-had-performed-today-in-the-ghost-town).
Abba-theconcerts.de, a website dedicated to Abba performances talks about the Famagusta event. It acknowledges the concert was not part of any tour “but it was the first concert ever featuring the four members together”, though the four did not actually become Abba until 1973.
Goran Wrambeck, a Swede who worked for Fritidsresor in Cyprus at that time, told the website – they no longer have his contact details – he remembers the four very well.
“The four of the later Abba group came to entertain the Swedish UN batallion. [...] I was asked to be the conférencier and it worked out well,” he said. “The four did their [separate] performances very well and when it all seemed to end I turned to the four and asked them if they could do anything together. They talked to each other and finally they came up to perform all four together. It was fantastic to listen to all four of them together. All of us loved this performance,” he added.
The concert did not go so well. They played Swedish pop songs of the time and made comic sketches in between. The audience did not seem to get excited. But to them had entered the seed of creating a band, which at first was called "Festfolket" where in Swedish it means people who party and engaged couples. The whole event might not have been that memorable for the members of Abba and perhaps all they remember really is the Varosha beach where they were photographed soaking up the sun, or perhaps Ulvaeus and Faltskogʼs remember it as part of their engagement vacation.
After they left Cyprus the members of Abba continued their various collaborations back home in Sweden but did not perform together until November 1970 to hardly great reviews. Ulvaeus told in one of his interviews they eventually realised they needed to sing their own songs and not those of other musicians. A month later they did just that at an event in Stockholm and one reviewer said they “were on the right path”. The band's title was changed to ABBA 2 years later and is the culmination of their names. After that the four went from strength to strength until finally winning Sweden’s nomination as its Eurovision entry in the UK in 1974.
Sources:
https://cyprus-mail.com/2020/04/05/fifty-years-since-abba-came-to-play-in-varosha/
https://vkcyprus.com/society/14856-chto-svyazyvaet-gruppu-abba-i-kipr
