# Question about ABBA How Get Them Singing Their Albums in Swedish **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328 "2003-01-17T22:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![don\_willard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@don\_willard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_willard)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2003, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/1 "2003-01-17T22:44:49Z")
I assume ABBA originally recorded their songs in English, since that is the world market, but did they ever make Swedish language versions of them, and where do I get these? I vould like to have especially the Dancing Drottningen? I mean Dancing Queen in Svedish! And all their other good songs, they’re all good actually, and what is Swedish for Chikitita or Voulez Vous? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/2 "2003-01-18T00:14:04Z")
Get their _Thank You For the Music_ box set. It has “Ring Ring”, “Honey Honey”, and “Waterloo” in Swedish. Also check out _ORO - Grandes Exitos_ - a collection of hits in Spanish. (although that’s not what you’re looking for, it’s still pretty interesting) ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/3 "2003-01-18T01:45:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by don willard \* > \*\* What is Swedish for Chikitita or Voulez Vous? \*\* Same thing as what is Greek for Acropolis\*. 😉 \*Alphabet issues aside ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/4 "2003-01-18T01:51:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by don willard \* > \*\*…and what is Swedish for Chikitita or Voulez Vous? \*\* Chiquitita is supposed to be the name of a Spanish child. Voulez Vous is French for “would you like” or “do you want” (I’ve seen it both ways). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/5 "2003-01-18T02:13:17Z")
I went to a John Wesley Harding concert once and in the intro to one of his songs he gave a brilliant description of how Abba’s music had been strategically crafted to take over all of Europe. Their first big hit was “Waterloo”; the English loved it, but it pissed off the French. So they did “Voulez-Vous”. Eventually there was “Mamma Mia”, “Fernando”, until their super-storm-troopers had swept over the entire continent. Maybe you had to have been there. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/6 "2003-01-19T19:25:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Robot Arm \* > \*\*I went to a John Wesley Harding concert once and in the intro to one of his songs he gave a brilliant description of how Abba’s music had been strategically crafted to take over all of Europe. Their first big hit was “Waterloo”; the English loved it, but it pissed off the French. So they did “Voulez-Vous”. Eventually there was “Mamma Mia”, “Fernando”, until their super-storm-troopers had swept over the entire continent. > > Maybe you had to have been there. \*\* Nitpick with Mr. Harding: Waterloo - April 1974 Mamma Mia - December 1975 Fernando - March 1976 Voulez-Vous - July 1979 These are the release dates of UK singles - presumably there will be minor differences in other countries, but Voulez-Vous was near the end, not the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/7 "2003-01-19T20:22:06Z")
Your nitpick could be with me. JWH may have had them in the right order, that concert was so long ago I don’t remember exactly. I knew I had them in the wrong order, and it was nagging at me as I typed it, but the narrative flow just seemed to work better that way. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2003, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/8 "2003-01-19T21:24:49Z")
Perhaps you already know that ABBA had their big break outside of Sweden by winning the Eurovision Song Contest? The format of the contest is that each country’s entrant sings their song and juries from each country vote for a winner. ABBA sang Waterloo in Swedish during the competition, and after it was picked as the winner they closed the show by singing it again in English. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2003, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-abba-how-get-them-singing-their-albums-in-swedish/149328/9 "2003-01-20T13:37:33Z")
\*\* ABBA pa svenska \*\* is the CD you’re looking for. Has Swedish versions of Waterloo, Ring Ring, S.O.S., Fernando, Hasta Manana, Honey, Honey and some of their pre-ABBA work. The Swedish cast version of \*\* Chess \*\* is also available.