ABBA, the Swedish quartet, formed in 1972. Their biggest breakthrough came just two years later in 1974 when they won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo. Before that, they struggled to even get a look in with record companies. Bjorn recently explained how the band’s struggles came from their nationality, and mistaken job titles.

Bjorn explained: “We sent tapes to record companies in the UK and US and other places and nothing came of it.

“The only ones who released any Abba music certainly before Waterloo was Playboy Records, who released a song called People Need Love.” (Via The Mirror)

The Playboy brand is best known for its adult magazine of the same name, which came into prominence in the 1980s.

However, being associated with Playboy Records came with its own issues, Bjorn revealed.

READ MORE: ABBA star Frida lashes out at Voyage critics

Bjorn continued: “On the label, it said Bjorn and Benny and Swedish girl.

“It was in the soft-porn period and they assumed anything coming out of Sweden had to do with that.”

However humiliating this may have been for the band, they eventually had the last laugh.

The 76-year-old went on to explain how he and the rest of his band changed the face of Swedish pop music.

Voyage comes 40 years after their 1981 album The Visitors, which was a smash hit when it reached number one in the album charts in the UK and Sweden.

Voyage has continued the band’s incredible history of success.

Over the weekend it was announced the album had reached number one in the UK album charts, after previously reaching number one in Ireland, Scotland, New Zealand, Sweden, and many more.

Although the record has done extremely well in the charts, it has received a lot of criticism.

Some outlets reviewed ABBA Voyage badly – but member of the band Anni-Frid (Frida) has recently defended their record.

Speaking on BBC Radio 2, she said: “I’m so happy that people are touched by what we do – apart from some very sour critics – but we don’t care about them!”

Radio host Zoe Ball agreed: “No we don’t care about them!”

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