A long time ago in a century far far away, a certain contest that markets itself as Europe’s favourite TV show had no Swedish winners. Difficult to imagine, I know, but it was like that for 18 contests. Then, in 1974, a group came to a British seaside resort and impressed us all with their song about a place in Belgium. They are of course Abba, and you may have heard of them. Their winner was Waterloo, but this wasn’t the first time they’d given Eurovision a go. In 1973 they were beaten in Melodifestivalen by a song that mentioned breasts in its English lyric. Maybe that’s why it won. Co-writer of the 1973 song was Göran Bror Benny Andersson. As song-writers go, few have beaten him in the field of crafting a good song. For that, we take our collective hat off to him.
Benny is 70 today.
Grattis på födelsedagen, Benny!