News - esctoday.com TOP TEN: No. 1 | Eurovision Song Contest News - Azerbaijan 2012 

This list features the ten Eurovision Song Contest performers, who are said to have sold the most records, CDs and downloads worldwide. The numbers are based on various sources and mostly estimated based on sales certifications. 

So we continue...

No. 1 - ABBA

ABBA are reported to have sold more than 350 million records to date. The four members Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid performed together for the first time in 1970 and the same year, Björn & Benny released the song Hej gamle man with backing vocals by Agnetha and Anni Frid. The first song released under the four names of the group members was People need love in 1972 and their first album followed the year after. It was later re-released under the group name ABBA, which she band had been using since their second album released in 1974. After their victory in the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, ABBA went on to become one of the best selling acts over the following ten years. Eight highly successful studio albums were released as well as many hit singles including nine number one hits in the UK single charts. In 1982, the band announced that they would take a break and they never returned from it. It is unlikely that the band will ever reunite as they even turned down an offer of one billion dollars for a comeback. ABBA have remained popular until tody also thanks to the musical Mamma Mia! (and the film based on it), which was first played in London in 1999.

ABBA members Björn and Benny wrote the song Säg det med en sång for Lena Andersson, who finished third in the Swedish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 1972. The year after, Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid took part as performers and finished third with the Swedish version of Ring ring. In 1974, they could win the national final as ABBA and went to Brighton, where they won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo. Björn & Benny wrote the song Bang-a-boomerang for Svenna & Lotte, which finished third in the Melodifestival and was later also recorded by ABBA.

If people are asked to name a famous ABBA song, the most common answers are probably Dancing Queen and Waterloo. However, their biggest hit was actually the song Fernando, which was originally a solo song by Anni-Frid and later appeared on the group's first compilation album Greatest hits. The song was a number one hit in many countries and it was sold more than ten million times worldwide. The most sold ABBA studio album was probably the 1976 album Arrival, which included the hit singles Dancing Queen, Money Money Money and Knowing me, knowing you. The album was certified 18 times platinum in Australia alone.

Fernando (1975):

Tomorrow, we will show some Eurovision Song Contest contestants who were either close to making the list or might have made the list if reliable information on their sales figures were available. Of course, we will also reveal next week's topic.