ABBA Creds the Gays for Their Return to Mic

Contents:

• THE SURPRISG STORY OF HOW ABBA BEME BELOVED GAY INS
• WERE YOU AN ABBA GAY?
• GAY INOGRAPHY: FIVE OF ABBA’S MOST CLASSIC CLIPS
• HOW ABBA BEME A BELOVED GAY IN: THE SURPRISG STORY
• BJöRN ULVAS TERVIEW: ‘ABBA RETURNED TO MIC BEE OF GAY MUNY’
• CHER JT DROPPED THE GAYT ALBUM OF ALL TIME, AND WE’RE LOVG IT
• THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG
• IS "GAY" TO LIKE ABBA (OR OTHER POP ARTISTS)
• DANCG QUEEN GAYT EVER SONG

THE SURPRISG STORY OF HOW ABBA BEME BELOVED GAY INS

Gay revelers (and their lucky straight iends) are wavg their arms, strikg genue pos and shamelsly sgg along to the sugary 45-year-old pop standard that’s bee synonymo wh queer nightlife.

WERE YOU AN ABBA GAY?

” and “Macho Man” for themselv, but there’s no way they’ll take this one om to multiple stage and screen rnatns of “Mamma Mia!, ” fabuloly garish stum om gay signer Owe Sandström and nsummately crafted songs more retroactively popular than their ’70s and early ’80s heyday, ABBA has for s been the bull’s-eye of the LGBTQ mil universe. Ostensibly cheerful but packed wh drama and peppered wh Sndavian melancholy, the Stockholm mixed-genr quartet’s pop has blueprted the glz of untls gay and gay-iendly acts om Kylie Mogue to Lady Gaga, Adam Lambert to Lil Nas X — a sgular achievement for a band that hadn’t pleted an album 40 years.

This week releasg “Voyage, ” s first new LP sce 1981 and a teaser for next year’s London ncerts featurg 3D avatars, ABBA is to many gay fans what the Rollg Ston are to straights — archetyp whose appeal transcends time, place and age. Y, there were exceptns: Larry Levan — the fluential gay Black DJ at New York’s legendary and largely Black/LGBTQ Paradise Garage — adored Cher’s “Take Me Home.

GAY INOGRAPHY: FIVE OF ABBA’S MOST CLASSIC CLIPS

” But gay DJs and their dienc mostly favored unrground divas and obscure orchtral matros they disvered and popularized, not succsful pop acts plucked om AM changed the early ’80s when the U. ”Like Llie’s siarly beloved mix of Jimmy Ruff’s “Hold on to My Love, ” Rodriguez’s ABBA transformatn appeared only on Dis, a gay-owned subscriptn remix service.

This forced a 12-ch release overseas of “Lay All Your Love on Me’s” paratively ordary LP cut that prerved the exclivy of Rodriguez’s versn, while s longevy proved that dancers — particularly gay on — still craved fast and lty club anthems. In 1982, ABBA’s North Amerin label issued s kdred uptempo tune “The Visors” as a sgle, but once aga, a gay subscriptn-only remix service, Hot Tracks, supplied the extend ABBA that year rerd what would be for s s fal ssns, U. Producers such as Stock Aken Waterman filled the void wh gay-targeted “hi-NRG” tracks that crossed to the mastream via Dead or Alive, Bananarama, Mogue and Summer, while everyone om the Lat Rasls to the Pet Shop Boys replited Rodriguez’s mache-gun hi-NRG ran s urse, England’s Erasure released 1992’s “Abba-que, ” a love letter of ver versns.

Its gay lead sger, Andy Bell, and his straight synth sikick Vce Clarke even re-created their source material’s “Take a Chance on Me” vio drag, wh U. In 1994, the oldi promently popped up the movi “Muriel’s Weddg, ” which gave gay fave Toni Collette her big break, and “The Adventur of Priscilla, Queen of the Dert, ” a trans-tastic road edy.

HOW ABBA BEME A BELOVED GAY IN: THE SURPRISG STORY

At the absolute nadir of the AIDS plague, ABBA was reborn to paragons of gloom-relievg if bombastic outfs and bubblegum hooks had been the only gear ABBA gave to LGBTQ culture, s gay appeal would’ve plummeted after the lifavg arrival of antiviral cktails.

Our survival strategy has always been to unter hate wh love; we manift gayns to endure s on the most fundamental level, ABBA’s heterosexualy is more overt than the straightt rock dus. This is ABBA’s gift to LGBTQ culture — an oasis wh the mega-mastream that Rodriguez and other gay pneers helped Walters is the thor of the forthg book “Mighty Real: The Mic That Built LGBTQ Ameri. The band which nsists of Agha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvas, Benny Anrsson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad are llectively gay ins and they know an terview wh Gay Tim, Ulvas spoke about the groups return to mic, notg that they were "very proud" of the outpourg of love to ABBA om LGBTQ+ fans, "We found out que early that Dancg Queen had bee an anthem and we were very proud that we've been chosen by the muny, " he told the outlet.

BJöRN ULVAS TERVIEW: ‘ABBA RETURNED TO MIC BEE OF GAY MUNY’

As a heavy metal, alternative, noise-rock lovg, goth-adjacent weirdo loner gay, that was hard to take growg up (and was harr for my poor parents’ ears, I’m sure...

CHER JT DROPPED THE GAYT ALBUM OF ALL TIME, AND WE’RE LOVG IT

He scribed once tryg to expla the band's gay followg to Ulvas, sayg “At the time, gay men of my generatn were dyg of AIDS unprecented numbers, and so my explanatn of ABBA's largely gay-driven rurgence foced on pism, cheerg grievg spir and the group's accintal humor. Amerin treasure (and gay in her own right) Meryl Streep starred alongsi Broadway vet Christe Baranski, Mean Girls alum Amanda Seyied and Col Firth. Gays (and their lucky straight iends) wave their arms, pose genuo, and sg shamelsly to the 45-year-old sweet pop standard that has bee synonymo wh queer nightlife.

Thanks to multiple rnatns on stage and on screen of “Mamma Mia!, Fabuloly garish stum by gay signer Owe Sandström, and perfectly crafted songs more retroactively popular than their heyday of the 70s and early 80s, ABBA has been the target of the LGBTQ mil universe for s. Ostensibly cheerful but filled wh drama and sprkled wh Sndavian melancholy, the pop of the Stockholm mixed quartet has put together the glz of untls gay and gay groups, om Kylie Mogue to Lady Gaga, om Adam Lambert to Lil Nas X – a sgular achievement for a group that had not produced an album for 40 years.

This week by releasg “Voyage”, his first new LP sce 1981 and a teaser for next year’s London gigs featurg 3D avatars, ABBA is to many gay fans what the Rollg Ston are to straight guys – archetyp whose appeal transcends time, place and age. Back the days when Donna Summer reigned as the disputable dance queen, ABBA hadn’t performed much gay clubs, not even you know what: Dis’s top mixer, Tom Moulton, nsired “Dancg Queen” perfect. Y, there were exceptns: Larry Levan – the fluential black gay DJ at New York’s legendary and mostly Black / LGBTQ Paradise Garage – loved Cher’s “Take Me Home”.

THE 50 BT GAY SONGS TO CELEBRATE PRI ALL YEAR LONG

But gay DJs and their dienc mostly favored unrground divas and obscure orchtral matros they disvered and popularized, and not h pop acts om AM rad. Like Llie’s equally beloved mix of Jimmy Ruff’s “Hang on to My Love, ” Rodriguez’s ABBA transformatn only appeared on Dis, a subscriptn-based remix service owned by gay people. This forced a 12-ch overseas release of the relatively ordary “Lay All Your Love on Me’s” LP that prerved the exclivy of Rodriguez’s versn, while s longevy proved that dancers – pecially gays – had.

In 1982, ABBA’s North Amerin label released their uptempo track “The Visors” as a sgle, but aga, a subscriptn-based gay remix service, Hot Tracks, provid the expand versn. After ABBA rerd what would be s last ssns for s that year, UK producers like Stock Aken Waterman filled the void wh “hi-NRG” tracks ially targeted at gays who entered the scene. His gay sger Andy Bell and his straight synth sikick Vce Clarke even recreated the “Take a Chance on Me” vio om their drag source material, wh rults toppg the UK charts.

In 1994, the oldi appeared promently the films “Muriel’s Weddg, ” which gave gay favore Toni Collette a big chance, and “The Adventur of Priscilla, Queen of the Dert, ” a trans-road edy. But if bombastic outfs and chewg gum hooks had been the only piece of equipment ABBA offered to LGBTQ culture, s gay appeal would have llapsed after the life-savg arrival of antiviral cktails. And—maybe sounds like I'm suckg up, but I don't re— when we got a revival the late ’80s, early ’90s, I'm sure 's bee we had stayed popular on the gay scene.

IS "GAY" TO LIKE ABBA (OR OTHER POP ARTISTS)

Consirg jt how astronomilly popular the band was at s zenh, he says there was no way ABBA would jt go away, and by the late ’80s, had bee creasgly clear that gay men were among those keepg the mic gog, havg never stopped lovg ABBA. Emphatic rhythms played out their post-amoro tensn "Lay All Your Love on Me" and "The Visors;" hi-NRG anthems that blueprted the sound of gay dancefloors the 1980s until hoe mic took over. That song — one of the most operatic of s era whout announcg self as such — unrplays s pathos by fluctuatg between piano balladry and dis propulsn, as if Fältskog n't ci whether to weep the mirror or wail fiantly at her former partner à la Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive.

At the time, gay men of my generatn were dyg of AIDS unprecented numbers, and so my explanatn of ABBA's largely gay-driven rurgence foced on pism, cheerg grievg spir and the group's accintal humor. Today, as a recent live album, vyl box set and bilgual band-centric edn of the Monopoly board game attt, ABBA's appeal and fluence go much further than their gay followg or the next generatn of fans acquired via Mamma Mia.

I was at a party on the Fourth of July, where was 15 gay men and me, and got to the pot the night where we were si rather than outsi, where everybody wanted to dance.

DANCG QUEEN GAYT EVER SONG

Here we spend an hour the pany of the legendary mic star to discs brgg Mamma Mia: The Party to London’s 02, his love of Cher, Freddie Mercury and Gee Michael, and how the gay muny have always been some of the biggt supporters of ABBA. Gays (and their lucky straight iends) are wavg their arms, strikg genue pos and shamelsly sgg along to the sugary 45-year-old pop standard that’s bee synonymo wh queer nightlife.

” and “Macho Man” for themselv, but there’s no way they’ll take this one om to multiple stage and screen rnatns of "Mamma Mia!, " fabuloly garish stum om gay signer Owe Sandström and nsummately crafted songs more retroactively popular than their ’70s and early ’80s heyday, ABBA has for s been the bull's-eye of the LGBTQ mil universe. This week releasg "Voyage, " s first new LP sce 1981 and a teaser for next year’s London ncerts featurg 3D avatars, ABBA is to many gay fans what the Rollg Ston are to straights — archetyp whose appeal transcends time, place and age. Back when Donna Summer reigned as disputable dancg queen, ABBA didn’t get much gay club play, not even you-know-what: Dis’s top mixer, Tom Moulton, nsired “Dancg Queen” perfect as is, so he turned down the chance to remix .