Today, Saturday 6th April, as part of the 50th anniversary global celebrations of ABBA's historic victory in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with their iconic song 'Waterloo', members of the public travelling through London's Waterloo station were this morning treated to an unexpected tribute to this classic and timeless song.
The Mark De-Lisser Singers, a 20 person choir organised by Mark De-Lisser (choir director for The King's Coronation and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee), surprised crowds with several spontaneous renditions of 'Waterloo', encouraging those in the station at that time to join in to mark five decades of one of the world's greatest pop groups.
The station itself saw an ABBA-makeover with bespoke outdoor advertising across its main concourse and ABBA Voyage branding along the travelators.
Today the 50th anniversary is being celebrated around the world. Benny Andersson has pre-recorded a short piano piece (the "Piano Moment”) that will be experienced as if Benny were there and playing live. In London, Berlin, Warsaw, and Stockholm, all the pianos will be linked together simultaneously and play the piece every hour during today's anniversary day from 11am BST. In England, the piano is placed at Waterloo Station in London.
To further commemorate this milestone in music history, the highly sought after release of songs from ABBA’s catalogue in Dolby Atmos is finally happening, with ‘Waterloo’ now being the first track to become available in this format.
Photo credit: Carston Windhorst
