One of the members of Abba told a Sussex MP he has "fond memories" of performing in Brighton for Eurovision.
Peter Kyle, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and MP for Hove and Portslade, visited Sweden as part of a move to strengthen Britain's strategic partnership with the country.
During the trip, Mr Kyle met with Björn Ulvaeus to discuss the popularity of Abba voyage which has contributed billions of pounds in turnover to the UK and has generated and supported thousands of jobs. They also spoke about Eurovision and how important Britain was to Abba's success on the global stage.
Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest on April 6, 1974, singing Waterloo at the Brighton Dome.
After winning the contest, the band spent an evening of glory partying in the appropriately named first-floor Napoleon suite of The Grand Hotel.
“I hardly have any memories of standing on that stage,” Ulvaeus told Mr Kyle.
“It was all so chaotic and happening because it was an instant where literally you got famous all over the world over night; it just happened over night.
“It dawned on me when I woke up the next morning, wow what has happened here, what is it? I have very fond thoughts about Brighton.”
The Hove MP talked to the singer-songwriter about Abba’s importance not only to Brighton, but to Britain.
“Two things sprung from that,” he said. “In the city of Brighton and Hove of course you were taken straight into our hearts, but it seemed that Britain took you straight into our hearts as well. Britain from that moment on played a really key role in Abba.”
The Swedish singer confirmed the MP’s take on things and said the band was very “lucky” that the contest’s finals took place in Brighton.
“Nothing wrong with Slovakia but it would not have been the same impact,” he said.
“We went from Brighton a couple of days later straight up to London to do top of the pops and off it went. The UK, as you know, punches so much above its weight in the music industry so that whatever happens in the UK reflected on the whole world.”
Mr Kyle also spoke to global business leaders and governments over two days. He promoted the UK as a global leader in AI and home to “fast-growing start-ups and scale-ups”.
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