Bravo, July 1975: ABBA is too saucy for television – Both ABBA-girls cause a commotion

On May 24, 1975, ABBA appeared on German television show Disco 75 to promote their then current I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do single. Apparently, Agnetha and Frida weren’t allowed to wear the short cat dresses, as they were considered too sexy by the show’s directors. Today, it’s hard to imagine what the fuss was about since several female artists hardly have any clothes on these days.
Dressed in leather boots up to their knees, in ultra short mini skirts with side slits – that’s how you are able to see Anna and Anni-Frid from ABBA only in Bravo. This photograph was taken shortly before ABBA’s latest performance on Ilja Richter’s Disco 75. On that show, both Swedish girls wanted to show themselves dressed in these saucy outfits as well – but they weren’t allowed. The directors of the show decided at the dress rehearsal: “They are showing too much leg, and when they dance you can even see their knickers. We can’t show that...”
With clever foresight, Anna and Anni-Frid had brought along long versions of their cute dresses with embroidered wild cats, that they put on for their television performance. Benny said: “This has never happened to us in Sweden. After all, part of our show is that the girls look sexy. But in the future, we will have to come to Germany with slightly more buttoned-up clothes.”

The evening after the Disco recording, it was demonstrated how popular ABBA is in our country. For the second time this year, Anna, Anni-Frid, Björn and Benny received four gold records. In January, they were awarded gold for the sales of two million copies of the ‘Waterloo’ single and now for two million copies of the ‘Honey, Honey’ single.
“We have our most loyal fans in Germany,” is what Anni-Frid thought, who is now wearing her former curly hair straight. “That’s why we are keen to learn how to speak German. Who knows, maybe we will record a single in German in the near future...”
‘Eine Gulaschsuppe bitte’ and ‘Nehmen Sie die Finger von der Dame’ are what Björn has already learned perfectly. Anna already knows how to say ‘alles klar’ and Benny says to everyone he runs into ‘du hast ‘ne Meise’.
In the autumn, they will have learned more than that. Because that’s when ABBA want to go on a big tour through Germany again. Before that, we can expect a new single again, after ‘I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do’. Its title will be ‘SOS’.
Both girls are especially excited to perform live on stage again in our country: “At least then we can wear what we want to again...”