baccara vs abba

Baccara was a female vocal duo formed in 1977 by Spanish artists Mayte Mateos (February 7, 1951, Logroño) and María Mendiola (April 4, 1952, Madrid). The pair rapidly achieved international success with their debut single “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie”, which reached number one across much of Europe. A successful follow-up single (“Sorry, I'm A Lady”) and European tour led to a number of album releases, numerous television appearances and the duo's selection to represent Luxembourg in theEurovision Song Contest 1978.

Despite a substantial following in Spain, Germany and Japan, by 1981 the duo's distinctive blend of disco, pop and Spanish folk music was no longer fashionable, and by 1983 Mayte Mateos and María Mendiola were both working on solo projects. Achieving little success as solo artists, the two formed duos of their own: separate incarnations of the original Baccara appeared during the middle of the decade, with Mendiola fronting New Baccara and Mateos keeping the duo's original name. During the 1990s New Baccara was renamed back to Baccara; as a consequence both Mateos and Mendiola now head different duos with the same name. The original Baccara enjoyed meteoric but brief success in the late 1970s. Both principals have subsequently had prolonged but separate legacy careers based on nostalgia and their earlier fame.

Baccara sold more than 16 million copies of “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” and featured in the 1977 edition of the Guinness Book of Records as the highest-selling female musical duo to date.^[6] They were the first female duo to reach number one in the UK, and had the only number one by a Spanish artist in the UK until Julio Iglesias, four years later. A follow-up single, “Sorry, I'm A Lady”, was also an international hit, peaking at the top of the charts in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium and reaching the top ten in the UK, Sweden and Switzerland.^[4] Most of Baccara's recordings were sung in English although they did also record in Spanish, German and French. They recorded different language versions of some songs (see Discography below).

Touring in Europe during the late 1970s helped the band establish a firm fan base in Germany (where their records continued to be produced) and the Scandinavian countries, and their Spanish-flavoured interpretation of the disco sound also brought them recognition in Japan and Russia. Baccara represented West Germany at the eighth World Popular Song Festival held in November 1977 – until it ended in 1989 the largest such contest in the world. Their song, “Mad In Madrid”, came 14th out of 37 participating countries.

In 1978 the second Baccara album, “Light My Fire”, was released across Europe, and whilst not matching the international success of the first, it spawned the single “Parlez-vous français?” which was selected as Luxembourg's entry in that year's Eurovision Song Contest. Despite full marks from Italy, Portugal and Spain the duo finished in 7th place. However high sales, particularly in Denmark, Sweden and Belgium, meant that the single was a commercial success.

came one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1972 to 1983.

ABBA sold over 375 million records worldwide, making them the fourth best-selling popular music artists in the history of recorded music. They still sell two to three million records a year. ABBA was the first pop group from a non-English-speaking country to enjoy consistent success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. As well as reaching the top of the charts in different countries like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Peru among others, the band also released a compilation of their hit songs translated into Spanish.

During the band's existence, Fältskog and Ulvaeus were a married couple, as were Lyngstad and Andersson - although both couples later divorced. At the height of their popularity, both relationships began suffering strain that led ultimately to the collapse of first the Ulvaeus-Fältskog marriage (in 1979) and then of the Andersson-Lyngstad marriage in 1981. In the late 1970s and early 1980s these relationship changes began manifesting in the group's music, as they produced more introspective lyrics with different compositions.

For their first Eurovision, ABBA entered with "Ring Ring" but failed to qualify as the 1973 Swedish entry; it came third in the preliminary round. Stig immediately started planning for the 1974 contest.

Ulvaeus, Andersson, and manager Stig Anderson believed in the possibilities of using Melodifestivalen and Eurovision TV contests as a way to make the music business aware of the band and Andersson, Ulvaeus and Stig as composers. In late 1973, they were invited by Swedish television to contribute a song for the 1974 contest, and from a number of newly written compositions, the foursome chose the upbeat "Waterloo"; the group was now inspired by the growing glam rock scene in England. "Waterloo" was an unashamedly glam-style pop track produced with Michael B. Tretow's wall-of-sound approach.

ABBA won their national heats on Swedish TV on 9 February 1974, and with this third attempt were far more experienced and better prepared for the international contest. Winning the Eurovision Song Contest gave ABBA the chance to tour Europe and perform on major TV shows; thus the band saw the "Waterloo" single climb the charts in many European countries. "Waterloo" was ABBA's first number one single in big markets such as the UK, Germany and Australia. In the US, it reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, paving the way for their first album and their first trip as a group there. Albeit a short promotional visit, it included their first performance on American TV, The Mike Douglas Show. The Waterloo album only peaked at #145 on the Billboard 200 album chart, but received unanimous high praise from the US critics: Los Angeles Times called it "a compelling and fascinating debut album that captures the spirit of mainstream pop quite effectively...an immensely enjoyable and pleasant project", while Creem characterized it as "a perfect blend of exceptional, lovable compositions".

ABBA's follow-up single, "Honey, Honey", reached #27 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and was #2 in Germany. However, in the UK, ABBA's British record company, Epic, decided to re-release a remixed version of "Ring Ring" instead of "Honey Honey", and a cover version of "Honey Honey" by the act Sweet Dreams reached #10 (Both these records debuted on the UK chart within one week of each other). "Ring Ring" failed to reach the Top 30 in the UK, increasing growing speculation that the group were simply Eurovision one-hit wonders.

source:wikipedia