Abba - Hasta Manana

Hasta Manana - the Eurovision reserve! Abba considered two songs for Eurovision 1974, these were Waterloo and Hasta Manana. The previous four winners had all been solo female singers with a ballad, which was how the Agnetha-led Hasta Mañana would have come across. ABBA wanted to be different and really stand out from everybody else with a British style rock and roll number for Brighton rather than a ballad, and decided on Waterloo instead. Waterloo also had Agnetha and Frida sharing lead vocals as normal, which was unusual for Eurovision, whereas Hasta Manana had Agnetha as the sole lead vocalist and would give the wrong impression of the group. Both Waterloo and Hasta Manana were written and recorded in December 1973. Waterloo was completed first and it was more or less decided that this would be ABBA’s submission for Melodifestivalen. ABBA manager Stig Anderson was just about to leave for a Christmas holiday trip to the Canary Islands, when a cassette tape with the backing track for the new