ABBA: Great Lives in Graphic Form (Biographic)

Biographic: ABBA presents an instant impression of their life, work, and legacy, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the musicians behind the music.

Most people know that ABBA (1972–1982) were a Swedish band who became one of the world's most successful pop groups after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their song "Waterloo." What, perhaps, they don't know is that they have sold more than 380 million albums and singles; that their name was chosen through a newspaper competition, where alternatives included Alibaba, FABB, and Baba; that their royalties from the Soviet Union were so big they had to be paid in oil rights; and that 3.5 million people applied for tickets to see ABBA at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1977. 

The ‘Biographic’ series presents an entirely new way of looking at the lives of the world’s greatest thinkers and creatives. It takes the 50 defining facts, dates, thoughts, habits, and achievements of each subject, and uses infographics to convey each of them in vivid snapshots.

Viv Croot is a writer and editor specializing in adult non-fiction and popular culture.