Why ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ Made Sabrina Carpenter Cry
Celebrities sometimes react to music in the most unexpected ways. Sabrina Carpenter said ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” had a special meaning for her at a certain time in her life. In addition, she said the tune reminds her of a famous movie.
Sabrina Carpenter heard ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ for the 1st time ‘later’ in life
During a 2018 interview with Teen Vogue, Carpenter named the songs that defined her life. She showed a preference for oldies music, naming personal favorites by The Carpenters, The Beatles, Etta James, Skeeter Davis, and Santana. Perhaps the most famous tune she picked was ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” which might be the most famous tune ABBA ever released.
“I actually wasn’t introduced to this song until much later in my life when I realized I was young and sweet and only 17,” the “Nonsense” star explained. “So I remember the moment I was turning 18 and it was my last minute as a 17-year-old, and I just listened to this in the car and I was like kind of crying.”
Why ABBA connected so much to Sabrina Carpenter
The “Espresso” singer explained why she was so moved by ABBA’s disco ballad. “It’s such a happy song, it’s such a dance song, you just think of Mamma Mia!,” she said. “But it made me feel like there was only one of me. There’s only one sweet 17-year-old in the world, and her name was Sabrina Annlynn Carpenter, which was a lie because there’s a lot, not named Sabrina Annlynn Carpenter, but you know what I was trying to get with that.”
“Dancing Queen’ is a disco song and Carpenter doesn’t really make disco music. However, she definitely makes dance music. ABBA’s dance songs like “Dancing Queen,” “Take a Chance on Me,” “Super Trooper,” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” paved the way for the dance music that Carpenter is making today.
‘Dancing Queen’ became a big hit but it didn’t give the band a No. 1 album
“Dancing Queen” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week, making it the band’s only chart-topper in the United States. The tune lasted on the Billboard Hot 100 for 22 weeks, making it the band’s longest-charting single besides “The Winner Takes It All,” which spent 28 weeks on the chart. While “Dancing Queen” is a perfect dancefloor song, “The Winner Takes It All” is the more emotionally affecting track and it has one of the best piano riffs in the history of popular music.
“Dancing Queen” appeared on the album Arrival. That record reached No. 20 on the Billboard 200, lasting on the chart for 50 weeks. Shockingly, ABBA never had a top 10 album until they released their reunion album Voyage in 2021. Voyage reached No. 2, meaning that one of the most legendary pop groups ever never managed a No. 1 hit on the Billboard 200. As odd as it sounds, ABBA might be more popular in the U.S. now than they were in the 1970s. The success of the musical Mamma Mia! and its film adaptations has made several of ABBA’s low-charting singles well-known in the U.S.
“Dancing Queen” is immortal and it spoke to Carpenter many years after it came out.
