Abba didn't earn a penny from the famous hit
"That song was heard a lot, but..."
Despite selling millions of copies over the course of four decades, Abba's major 1979 song, "Chiquitita," failed to make the Swedish pop group a dollar.
"We gave the copyright to Unicef," Abba member Bjorn Ulvaeus told the BBC.
"A lot of money has come in over the years because 'Chiquitita' has been played and streamed a lot, and sold a lot of records. So I'm very happy about that," he added.
The song Chiquitita (Little Girl), written for UNICEF's Year of the Child, was Abba's debut Spanish-language song and was a huge success throughout Latin America.
Royalties from the Chiquitita hit have been utilized to treat some of Central America's most difficult issues, ranging from extreme poverty and a generational culture of machismo, domestic violence and rape, to alcohol misuse in disadvantaged, indigenous communities, in the 43 years after its release.
Elementary school children attend health and self-esteem courses at the Association of Friends of Development and Peace (ADP), one of Guatemala's oldest non-governmental organizations, which is funded by Abba's song.
"I think the most urgent thing that can be done on this globe is to empower young women and girls. That would change our world. It's so sad that there are cultures and religions around the world that just don't give girls equal opportunities. That's why we told UNICEF early on that's where we want our money to go," emphasized Ulvaeus.
ABBA was never truly gone from the scene. It's worth noting that, despite not playing, they were probably at the pinnacle of their careers in the 1990s. Their greatest hits CD, issued in 1992, spent over a thousand weeks in the top ten best-selling albums in the United Kingdom.
It's an excellent commercial record. They'd always had a link with the younger generation, and they didn't want it to go away. Their songs were continuously reinvented, including in the musical Mamma Mia.
They transformed Eurovision on April 6, 1974, when they performed and won, and when the group became known all over the world.
Post by Bryan C.
