ABBA - Waterloo

What this video is

Released in 1974 as ABBA's first single under the ABBA name, 'Waterloo' was purpose-written for the Eurovision Song Contest, which the group won in Brighton on 6 April 1974, launching them to global fame. The promo video was one of the earliest formal music promotional clips produced within the Swedish public broadcasting system, predating the music video as a commercial art form by nearly a decade. Shot at SVT…

Why it matters

As one of the earliest surviving promotional clips of the Europop genre, and the debut video of a director who would go on to define ABBA's visual identity and later win Academy Award nominations, 'Waterloo' occupies a foundational position in the history of the music video format. Its fast-cut,…

The director

Lars Sven 'Lasse' Hallström (born 2 June 1946, Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish film director who first became internationally known for directing virtually all of ABBA's music videos from 1974 onward, including the 1977 feature film ABBA: The Movie. He later…