ABBA's 'Dancing Queen' Earns The Band A Debut Top 10 Smash
ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” debuts on Billboard's Dance Digital Song Sales chart this week, earning the ... [+] band its first top 10 hit—it's first hit in any position—on the tally. Swedish pop group ABBA give the thumbs up after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with their song 'Waterloo', Brighton, 7th April 1974. Left to right: Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson. (Photo by Steve Wood/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Getty ImagesABBA’s catalog is packed with some of the most celebrated pop tunes in history. The band has found great success on the Billboard charts in the past, and the list of tallies the quartet has managed to reach continues to increase, thanks, in part, to the fact that the way the rankings are compiled has changed. These alterations benefit the Grammy nominees, as one of the biggest hits to emerge from the Swedish superstars debuts.
“Dancing Queen” is new to the Dance Digital Song Sales chart this week. The song opens at No. 9 on Billboard’s list of the bestselling tracks in the dance genre.
ABBA collects its first appearance on the Dance Digital Song Sales ranking this frame as “Dancing Queen” debuts. Now, the group claims a top 10 hit on a tally that didn’t even exist until long after the band largely stepped away from making new music.
The pop hitmakers claim one of three debuts on the list of the top-selling dance songs throughout the U.S., and all the arrivals open inside the top 10. Marshmello and the Jonas Brothers launch “Slow Motion” at No. 6, scoring the top start of the week. John Summit and Cloves enter at No. 10 with “Focus.”
ABBA has previously collected top 10 hits on two dance-focused Billboard lists, though neither one of them exist anymore. Two double-sided releases, "Lay All Your Love on Me/Super Trouper” and “The Visitors/When All Is Said and Done," peaked at Nos. 1 and 8, respectively, on the Dance Club Songs chart in the early ‘80s.
In 2012, another one of ABBA’s most famous compositions brought the act to the top 10 on another Billboard tally for the first time. “Voulez-Vous” spent one week at No. 8 on the Dance Single Sales chart, which was discontinued…though now the Dance Digital Song Sales roster has largely taken over reporting duties for that segment of the American music industry.
“Dancing Queen” may be new to the Dance Digital Song Sales chart, but the single is far from unfamiliar to American audiences. The track dropped almost half a century ago, in 1976, and it boogied its way to No. 1 on the Hot 100. It still stands as ABBA’s highest-rising placement on the all-genre Digital Song Sales ranking, where it peaked at No. 19 in 2021.
