Dancing Queen - WikiHQ

"Dancing Queen" is a song by Swedish pop group ABBA, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, Arrival (1976). It was written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Stig Anderson. Andersson and Ulvaeus also produced the song. "Dancing Queen" was released as a single in Sweden in August 1976, followed by a UK release and the rest of Europe. It was a worldwide hit, It became ABBA's only number-one hit in the United States and topped the charts of 15 other countries, entering the top five in various others.

Musically, "Dancing Queen" is a Europop version of American disco music. As disco music dominated the US charts, the group decided to follow the trend, replicating Phil Spector's Wall of Sound arrangements. Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad's layered vocals have been noted for their dynamism,

While working on the lyrics, the first half of the second verse was scrapped: "Baby, baby, you're out of sight/hey, you're looking all right tonight/when you come to the party/listen to the guys/they've got the look in their eyes..." It survives in footage from a recording session.

The band (especially Andersson) wanted to release "Dancing Queen" as the follow-up single to "Mamma Mia" but their manager, Stig Anderson, insisted that the more sedate and folksy "Fernando" should be first, Therefore, whilst "Dancing Queen" premiered on both German and Japanese television during the spring of 1976, the song did not appear on vinyl until later that summer, having had its first live and domestic performance on 18 June 1976 during an all-star gala staged by Kjerstin Dellert at the Royal Swedish Opera (and shown on Swedish TV) in honour of King Carl XVI Gustaf and his bride-to-be, Silvia Sommerlath, who were married the next day. For their 1980 Spanish-language compilation-album Gracias Por La Música, ABBA recorded a Spanish version of "Dancing Queen", renamed "Reina Danzante", with Spanish lyrics provided by Buddy and Mary McCluskey. The track was retitled "La Reina Del Baile" when included on the compilation album ABBA Oro: Grandes Éxitos in the 1990s.

In 1993, in honour of Swedish Queen Silvia's 50th birthday, Anni-Frid Lyngstad was asked to perform "Dancing Queen" on stage, repeating ABBA's 1976 performance of the song at the pre-wedding gala for King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. Frida contacted the Real Group and together they did an a cappella version of the song on stage at the Royal Opera House in Stockholm, in front of the king and queen. The Swedish prime minister at the time, Ingvar Carlsson, was also in the audience that night and said it was an ingenious idea to perform "Dancing Queen" a cappella. The performance was recorded by Sveriges Television (SVT) and is included in the biographical documentary Frida – The DVD and the Real Group's 1994 compilation album Varför får man inte bara vara som man är. When King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia attended the Tramp nightclub in London, the King requested that the DJ would play "Dancing Queen" owing to its use shortly before their wedding as previously mentioned.

For the soundtrack of the 1994 Australian film Muriel's Wedding, songwriters Ulvaeus and Andersson allowed the use of "Dancing Queen" and other ABBA hits. "Dancing Queen" was among the ABBA songs included in Mamma Mia!, the jukebox musical first produced in 1999 and adapted into film in 2008, as well as the sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).

The first International Standard Musical Work Code was assigned in 1995 to "Dancing Queen"; the code is T-000.000.001-0.

Critical reception

"Dancing Queen" received widespread critical acclaim upon release. According to Donald A. Guarisco of AllMusic, the track's "sincerity and sheer musicality have allowed it to outlast the disco boom and become a standard of dance-pop." The song has been adopted by the LGBT community Billboard magazine found the theme of a person's greatest experience coming at a disco age 17 to be more substantive than most ABBA songs, and compared the vocal harmonies to The Mamas and the Papas. Cash Box said that the song is "backed by a strong upbeat, in keeping with the title" and "the hooks brought by lush vocal harmonies, as well as the reverb-soaked wall of sound that distinguishes this group, are present." Record World wrote that "the disco-styled treatment should make it a favorite [in the United States]." Matthew Lewin of Magdalena Bay said in an interview in 2024, "It's just like the best feeling song of all time".

Chart performance

"Dancing Queen" was a worldwide No. 1 hit, topping the charts in more than a dozen countries including ABBA's native Sweden (where it spent 14 weeks at the top), Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, West Germany, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Rhodesia. "Dancing Queen" also topped the charts in the United States, ABBA's only 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a Top 5 hit in Austria, Finland, France and Switzerland. The song sold over three million copies. The track was the fourth biggest single of 1976 in the UK.

In the UK singles chart, "Dancing Queen" was the last of three consecutive chart-toppers for ABBA in 1976, following "Mamma Mia" and "Fernando" earlier in the year. In 2023, it was listed as the 102nd best-selling single of all time in the UK.

The song re-entered the Swedish Sverigetopplistan in 2021 and 2024. In 2022 it was reported to be the fifth most profitable song in Sweden in 2021, and to have more than 19 million weekly streams on Spotify.

Music video

The song was accompanied by a music video filmed in 1976 in Alexandra's discotheque in central Stockholm, Sweden directed by the Swedish film director Lasse Hallström. It features all four members of ABBA singing and performing to dancing club patrons. On 29 June 2025 at 19:24 UTC the music video on YouTube reached 1 billion views. The video was remastered in ultra-high definition in August 2021 to celebrate the 500 million view milestone.

Legacy

In 2000, "Dancing Queen" came fourth in a Channel 4 television poll of "The 100 Greatest Number One Singles". It was chosen as No. 148 on the Recording Industry Association of America's Songs of the Century list. It was ranked No. 171 on Rolling Stones 2004 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", the only ABBA song on the list. That same year, it made VH1's "100 Greatest Dance Songs in Rock & Roll" at No. 97. Also in 2000, editors of Rolling Stone with MTV compiled a list of the best 100 pop songs; "Dancing Queen" placed 12th among songs of the 1970s. Billboard and Rolling Stone both ranked the song number one on their lists of the greatest ABBA songs. In 2023, it was ranked No. 2 on Billboards list of "The 500 Best Pop Songs". On 9 November 2002, the results of a poll, "Top 50 Favourite UK #1's", was broadcast on Radio 2, celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Official UK Charts Company. 188,357 listeners voted and "Dancing Queen" came out at No. 8. On 5 December 2010, Britain's ITV broadcast the results of a poll to determine "The Nation's Favourite ABBA Song" in which "Dancing Queen" placed at No. 2. In 2009, the British performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited celebrated its 75th anniversary by listing the 75 songs that have played most in Great Britain on the radio, in clubs and on jukeboxes. "Dancing Queen" was number eight on the list.

Former US presidential candidate John McCain named "Dancing Queen" as his favourite song in a top-10 list submitted to Blender magazine in August 2008. In August 2012, listeners to the 1970s-themed UK radio station "Smooth 70s" voted "Dancing Queen" as their favourite hit of the decade. In October 2014, the musical instrument insurer Musicguard carried out a survey determining "Dancing Queen" to be the United Kingdom's favourite "floorfiller". Unlike its closest competitors, "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson (No. 2) and "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles (No. 3), it turned out to be very popular throughout the nation whereas the other two were strong regional favourites. In June 2015, "Dancing Queen" was inducted into the Recording Academy's Grammy Hall of Fame. Online music magazine Pitchfork positioned "Dancing Queen" at number 80 in its 2016 ranking of the 200 best songs of the 1970s. Reviewer Cameron Cook wrote it is "a song so confident in its structure that its starts from the middle of its chorus", adding that it "bottles the out-of-body euphoria that accompanies dancing for dancing's sake, with no agenda or motive other than pure joy." Eschewing the "disco" label sometimes attached to the track by latter-day critics, Cook called it "a pitch-perfect portrait of the hedonistic disco scene they were mimicking via their own, more down-to-Earth Europop".

In September 2016, The Guardian ran an article by Tim Jonze entitled "Why Abba's Dancing Queen is the best pop song ever". Jonze writes: "Dancing Queen is beautifully produced: catchy and euphoric, the perfect backdrop for a song that encapsulates the carefree bliss of youth". Several artists are cited as being influenced by the song, including Elvis Costello ("Oliver's Army"), MGMT ("Time to Pretend") and Chris Stein of Blondie ("Dreaming").

In 1993, Hong Kong singer Angela Pang covered this song in the Cantonese language. The British online music industry magazine NME placed "Dancing Queen" at number 27 in its 2018 listing of the top 100 songs of the 70s, reviewer Rebecca Schiller calling it "one of the greatest pop songs ever." In 2022, "Dancing Queen" received a BMI Million-Air award, having been played 6 million times on radio in the United States. Two years later, it was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry along with all the other songs in Arrival. In October 2024, during the "Heavenly Harmony in Concert", singer Julie Anne San Jose held a concert featuring this song and other secular songs at the altar of the Nuestra Señora del Pilar Shrine and Parish in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro. She, Parish Priest Fr. Carlito Meim Dimaano, and Sparkle GMA Artist Center then issued an apology. In 2025, Billboard ranked "Dancing Queen" number 76 in their list of "The 100 Greatest LGBTQ+ Anthems of All Time".

Track listings

7" Vinyl

"Dancing Queen" – 3:52
"That's Me" – 3:15

1992 7" European re-issue

"Dancing Queen" – 3:52
"Lay All Your Love on Me" – 4:35

1992 12"/CD European re-issue

"Dancing Queen" – 3:52
"Lay All Your Love on Me" – 4:35
"The Day Before You Came" – 5:50
"Eagle" – 5:49

1992 12" US re-issue

"Dancing Queen" – 3:52
"Take a Chance on Me" – 4:04