ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus admits he was drunk when he wrote THIS iconic hit

22 April 2025, 16:53

The ABBA songwriter is shocked this song turned out okay despite the alcohol he’d consumed.

ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus has revealed that he wrote one of the group’s most iconic songs while drunk on too much whisky.

The 79-year-old musician – who has been sober since 2007 – made the admission while discussing the story behind how he penned ‘The Winner Takes It All’ in 1979.

• Smooth's All Time Top 500 is back for 2025! Vote now and win £1,000
• ABBA's Björn Ulvaeus gets married in Denmark – and Sandi Toksvig officiates
• Where was Mamma Mia and Mamma Mia 2 filmed? A location guide

“I wrote that song very quickly while drinking whisky during my drinking days,” the ‘Honey Honey’ star told The Times.

ABBA - The Winner Takes It All

“I rarely wrote while intoxicated because you look at the words the next day and it’s garbage,” he added. “But most of ‘The Winner Takes It All’ is actually good.”

Björn went on to seemingly try to dispel the widely held belief that the song was written about his and fellow ABBA star Agnetha Fältskog’s breakup.

• How ABBA's two marriages and divorces split the group apart for nearly 40 years
• ABBA's 20 greatest ever songs, ranked
• ABBA reveals why the UK gave them 'nul points' for 'Waterloo' at Eurovision in 1974

The pair were married from July 1971 to July 1980, splitting like other ABBA couple Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid [Frida] Lyngstad would go on to do after being wed from 1978 to 1981.

Smooth's Untold Stories: How ABBA's two marriages and divorces split the group apart for 40 years

“[‘The Winner Takes It All’] is not a personal story, but I tried to find the detail of a real human pain,” Björn said in his most recent interview.

This contradicts Agnetha’s comments in a Daily Mail interview in 2013, where she said: “Björn wrote it about us after the breakdown of our marriage.

“The fact he wrote it exactly when we divorced is touching really,” she continued, showing a perhaps surprising love for the song.

“I didn't mind. It was fantastic to do that song because I could put in such feeling. I didn't mind sharing it with the public. It didn't feel wrong. There is so much in that song.”

She went on to add: “It was a mixture of what I felt and what Björn felt but also what Benny and Frida went through.”

However, other ABBA couple Benny and Frida only got divorced in 1981, a year after the release of ‘The Winner Takes It All’.