Editing ABBA (section)

==== European and Australian tour ====
In January 1977, ABBA embarked on their first major tour. They opened their tour in [[Oslo]], Norway, on 28 January, and mounted a spectacle that included a few scenes from their self-written mini-operetta ''The Girl with the Golden Hair''. The concert attracted media attention from across Europe and Australia. They continued the tour through Western Europe, visiting [[Gothenburg]], Copenhagen, Berlin, [[Cologne]], Amsterdam, [[Antwerp]], [[Essen]], [[Hanover]], and [[Hamburg]] and ending with shows in the United Kingdom in [[Manchester]], Birmingham, Glasgow and two sold-out concerts at London's [[Royal Albert Hall]].

Along with praise ("ABBA turn out to be amazingly successful at reproducing their records", wrote ''[[Creem]]''), there were complaints that "ABBA performed slickly...but with a zero personality coming across from a total of 16 people on stage" (''[[Melody Maker]]'').<ref>{{Cite web |title=ABBA hometown, lineup, biography |url=https://www.last.fm/music/ABBA/+wiki |access-date=2024-06-22 |website=Last.fm |language=en}}</ref> One of the Royal Albert Hall concerts was filmed as a reference for the filming of the Australian tour for what became ''[[ABBA: The Movie]]'', though it is not exactly known how much of the concert was filmed.

[[File:Abba 28011977 15 200.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Agnetha Fältskog]] at the opening concert of ABBA's European and Australian Tour in Oslo, 28 January 1977]]
After the European leg of the tour, in March 1977, ABBA played 11 dates in Australia before a total of 160,000 people. The opening concert in Sydney at the [[Sydney Showground (Moore Park)|Sydney Showground]] on 3 March to an audience of 20,000 was marred by torrential rain with Lyngstad slipping on the wet stage during the concert. However, all four members would later recall this concert as the most memorable of their careers.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Charlesworth |first=Chris |date=March 3, 2015 |title=Just Backdated: ABBA - Their Biggest Ever Show |url=https://justbackdated.blogspot.com/2015/03/abba-their-biggest-ever-show_3.html |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Just Backdated}}</ref>

Upon their arrival in [[Melbourne]], a civic reception was held at the [[Melbourne Town Hall]] and ABBA appeared on the balcony to greet an enthusiastic crowd of 6,000. In Melbourne, the group gave three concerts at the [[Sidney Myer Music Bowl]] with 14,500 at each including the Australian Prime Minister [[Malcolm Fraser]] and his family. At the first Melbourne concert, an additional 16,000 people gathered outside the fenced-off area to listen to the concert. In [[Adelaide]], the group performed one concert at [[Football Park]] in front of 20,000 people, with another 10,000 listening outside. During the first of five concerts in Perth, there was a bomb scare with everyone having to evacuate the [[Perth Entertainment Centre|Entertainment Centre]]. The trip was accompanied by mass hysteria and unprecedented media attention ("Swedish ABBA stirs box-office in Down Under tour...and the media coverage of the quartet rivals that set to cover the upcoming Royal tour of Australia", wrote ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]''),{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} and is captured on film in ''[[ABBA: The Movie]]'', directed by [[Lasse Hallström]].

The Australian tour and its subsequent ''ABBA: The Movie'' produced some ABBA lore, as well. Fältskog's blonde good looks had long made her the band's "pin-up girl", a role she disdained. During the Australian tour, she performed in a skin-tight white jumpsuit, causing one Australian newspaper to use the headline "Agnetha's bottom tops dull show". When asked about this at a news conference, she replied: "Don't they have bottoms in Australia?"<ref>DVD documentaries: ''The Winner Takes It All'' (2002) and ''Super Troupers'' (2004)</ref>