Latest news with #Europop
USA Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- USA Today
This '70s pop band has won over Gen Z (again) with 1 billion Spotify streams.
It's not 1979, but ABBA is bewitching a whole new generation with its disco magic. The iconic Swedish pop group, beloved for its infectious blend of Europop and danceable grooves, has made Spotify history with its late-'70s hit "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)." The song, cowritten and coproduced by members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, entered Spotify's Billions Club on Sunday, July 20, after surpassing one billion streams on the music platform, Spotify exclusively confirmed to USA TODAY. This isn't the first time ABBA has dominated the streaming universe with its timeless tunes. The band's enduring anthem, "Dancing Queen," entered the Billions Club in July 2023. Released in October 1979 as part of the group's compilation album "Greatest Hits Vol. 2," "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" peaked at No. 1 in several territories, including Europe, Denmark, Japan and Switzerland, and cracked the top 20 in ABBA's native Sweden. The song has received a number of revivals over the years thanks to various covers and samples. '80s diva and "Queen of Pop" Madonna featured the track's opening synth line in her 2005 song "Hung Up," which peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. ABBA book revelations: AC/DC connection, the unlikely inspiration for 'Mamma Mia!', more Additionally, the 2008 film "Mamma Mia!" — a musical based on ABBA's hits-heavy catalog — included a version sung by stars Amanda Seyfried, Ashley Lilley and Rachel McDowall. More recently, "Gimme!" has enjoyed a digital resurgence with Gen Z, as seen on the social media platform TikTok. Several clips show young fans embracing the song's disco sound with lively, choreographed routines. (dc: ??) am I too late for this trend?😆🪩 #fyp #xyzbca ABBA racks up Gen Z fans by the millions on Spotify ABBA's streaming dominance is in part due to the group's sizable Gen Z audience. Globally, Gen Zers have accounted for 50% of ABBA's total streams on Spotify in 2025, according to the streaming service. Additionally, there have been over 11 million ABBA discoveries by Gen Z listeners on Spotify, which makes up half of the band's discoveries from all users worldwide. See the photos: A 'very emotional' ABBA reunites to receive Swedish royal honors The top 10 most-streamed ABBA tracks among Gen Z listeners in 2025 are as follows:
Metro
7 days ago
- Metro
I found the ‘secret' Greek island tourists haven't ruined yet
The little-known Greek island of Antiparos puts its famous neighbours to shame. Located 51km southwest of Mykonos, this hidden gem has all the charm with none of the crowds — for a fraction of the price. With a €150 budget, I covered eight days of supermarket groceries and handmade souvenirs, plus plenty of gyros and taverna trips. It was my first holiday outside the UK, and I'd heard horror stories: rowdy Brits battling for sunbeds in 30°C heat. On the ferry from Athens, my stomach was in knots imagining the throngs of tourists I'd find at my final destination. But on the last leg of my journey, a short boat ride from Pounta to Antiparos, I realised I'd stumbled across a place few foreigners visit. The ferry that greeted me was practically deserted and cost just €1.50 for the trip. As the Aegean Sea gave way to golden sands, tiny Antiparos revealed its secluded coves and deserted beaches. Here's what I saw and did in a part of Greece few people reach. Fuel your wanderlust with our curated newsletter of travel deals, guides and inspiration. Sign up here. Each summer, Greece's megawatt islands are overrun by tourists. Restaurants have been shamed for charging €18 a cocktail, and beach resorts are stuffed to max-capacity. Popular islands, such as Mykonos and Santorini, struggle under the weight of their own success. Antiparos, on the other hand, remains blissfully unspoiled. The island's crown jewel is the Cave of Agios Ioannis, open daily from 10am to 4pm. Plunging 85 metres, it's home to the oldest stalactite in Europe, at a mind-bending 45 million years old. Admission costs €6, with a 50% discount for children aged 6-12. Psaralyki Beach is my top choice for shallow water ideal for swimming, and trees that provide welcome shade. Panagia Beach is another picturesque option offering a little more privacy and softer sands. If you're looking to do more than fly and flop, boat tours will take you to the uninhabited island of Despotiko and the sea caves that surround it. While there are future plans for an open-air museum, today it houses the excavation site of the 6th-century Temple of Apollo. This ancient Greek god of arts, truth, and healing is one of the most influential; legend has it he invented archery. Nightlife on Antiparos is surprisingly upbeat. Doors, the oldest bar on the island, is a must visit if you're up for dancing the night away to Europop bangers. Disco La Luna, recommended to me by locals, proves you don't need to go to a party island to have a good time. Like any trip to Greece, my impression of Antiparos depended on the quality of its food — it didn't disappoint. The best days began with breakfast at Blender. Their Instagrammable pancakes and loaded bagels (washed down with a €3 smoothie) were excellent. I made a daily lunchtime pilgrimage to Grillhouse: To Ntopio for their mouth-watering €4 gyros. By the end of my visit, I was considered a regular. Klimataria Tavern is undoubtedly the island's most beautiful restaurant. With a menu featuring fresh moussaka, dolmades, fava, and seafood, it consistently left me opening a button or two by the end of the night. Vicky's Ice Cream, offering close to 40 different flavours, is an affordable option for sweet treats. Antiparos is off the main tourist track and at times, it can feel a little sleepy. But Chora town offers a sense of close-knit community you don't find in mainstream holiday hotspots. Lining the streets are bougainvillea trees that bow their bright heads in greeting, and there are a decent range of independent shops. Chora has a dozen fashion boutiques selling summer clothing, handmade jewellery and woven handbags. The island prides itself on local craftsmanship, with artisan workshops featuring custom woodworks, pottery, and hand-painted ceramics. Unlike Greece's mainstream tourist islands, Antiparos has not been crippled by overdevelopment. Short-term rental platforms like Airbnb and VRBO have contributed to overtourism in several European cities, with tens of thousands of holiday listings pricing locals out of affordable homes. But on Antiparos, independent hotels and family-run summer houses make up the bulk of accommodation. There is a sense that locals have a genuine interest in the people who visit. I stayed at Kastro House, metres from the main square and overlooking the ancient Kastro (castle) courtyard. Dating back to the 1400s, the view was well worth the £60 per night. If you're flying from the UK, direct flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports will get you to Athens in 4 hours. More Trending From Athens, take the train to Piraeus. Trains run every 30 minutes, and cost €10 one-way for a one-hour journey (half-price tickets are available for children, students and seniors). Leaving Piraeus station, cross the pedestrian overpass to the port and follow the signs to the gate of your departure ferry. Blue Star Ferries and Seajets will get you to Parikia, Paros in under three hours. One-way tickets start at €40 during peak season. Once you've reached the port of Parikia in Paros, a 20-30 minute boat ride to Antiparos completes the final leg of your journey. Tickets from €2-€5. Alternatively, Pounta port (approximately an 8-minute taxi ride away) offers more frequent crossings, a faster 10-minute journey, and €1.50 tickets. Surprisingly, late June is the perfect time to visit if you're after an energetic buzz. On Antiparos, tourist season has not yet peaked, with bars and clubs only starting to open their doors for the summer. For a sleepy island experience and deserted beaches, start your trip earlier, in May. Temperatures average 26-27°C, and the coastal breeze keeps the heat at bay. Worried about cash? Many establishments welcome card payment methods. If not, Antiparos has several ATMs across the town. To save on extra spending, I made use of the Faroupos supermarket selling fresh produce to cook in the Airbnb. MORE: Molly-Mae's sister ditched Bali after 48 hours — here are the 'incredible' things she missed out on MORE: 'Elegant' UK seaside town gets new direct train to London after it was axed five years ago MORE: 'Hidden gem' crowned the UK's top budget-friendly beach to visit this summer
The Guardian
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Wish you were still here: what happened to the one-hit wonders of 80s package holiday pop?
Until 1982, if you wanted to go on holiday, you had to go to a high street travel agent, who would generally make a bunch of phone calls and tell you to come back later. Then Thomson Holidays introduced the first computerised booking system and pricing was deregulated – enter the golden age of Brits-on-tour package trips to Benidorm, Torremolinos and the other resorts scattered along the Costa del Sol. It created a curious phenomenon of its own: the hit single the holidaymakers brought home. Plenty of 1980s European artists won a single hit, perhaps two, in the UK before slinking back into obscurity or – just as often – back into the domestic or continental stardom they already had before the British deigned to take an interest. For a few weeks, their names were inescapable: Spagna, Sabrina, Modern Talking, Desireless, Baltimora, Opus, Nena. Then they became pub quiz answers. Among the travellers going out to Spain was the Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies, who championed many of the big 80s Europop hits on his afternoon show. 'There were two main places I would go,' he says. 'Marbella and then Ibiza, which I discovered in 1986. I'd be out in bars and in clubs all the time and hearing a lot of European music. For example, I heard Bamboléo by Gipsy Kings in Ibiza and it just blew me away. I got hold of a copy while I was there, brought it back, played it on the radio and the reaction was so great that they got a record deal in the UK.' Europop hits could grow from seemingly infertile soil. Opus were an Austrian band who made music not unlike Supertramp – prog-inflected pop-rock – and had grown an audience first in their home country and then in Italy. After four albums, they were popular enough to justify recording a live album, for which the guitarist and songwriter Ewald Pfleger decided to write a new song. 'We were playing to about 5,000 people and my aim was to compose a song for them [to sing],' he says. 'So I had to use a simple melody and simple words. We had to do it twice, the second time at the end of the show, and of course the second time was much better, because the audience knew the song. They sang and clapped with us – and that was the birth of a worldwide hit.' The song was the cheesily stirring Live Is Life, which in 1985 and 1986 spread around the world, its one-size-fits-all lyrics finding universal popularity: 'When we all give the power / We all give the best / Every minute of an hour / Don't think about the rest.' For the best part of two years, Opus toured globally to promote it. 'We had been together for 12 years and our aim was to get successful outside Austria, outside Europe. So when it happened, we took it as it was,' Pfleger says. But when Live Is Life had faded, those outside the Germanic world no longer cared. 'It's just a fact,' Pfleger says. 'It's not easy for Austrian acts. Falco didn't get the chance to have a second hit after Rock Me Amadeus and it was the same for us.' Nena were a young West Berlin band, loosely associated with the neue Deutsche welle (new German wave) of the early 80s, who wanted their third single to be an anti-war rock song called 99 Luftballons. 'That created quite a panic at our record label,' says the band's eponymous singer (born Gabriele Kerner). 'Their main argument was that the song didn't have a chorus and wasn't commercial enough.' But the song became a huge smash in Europe – full of brash energy, it had 'one of the best hooks of the 80s', according to the musician and writer Scott Miller, despite its 'embarrassingly out-of-place disco-funk interlude'. And like so many other Europop smashes, it owed success in the anglosphere to a DJ. 'Rodney Bingenheimer of KROQ in LA caused our breakthrough,' Nena says. 'Christiane F [the German actor and musician] was invited to Rodney's radio show and she brought a suitcase of her favourite German music, which included our first album. He loved the song and played it up to seven times a day and other radio stations followed suit. Before any label even realised it would be worth releasing us, we already had a chart entry in America.' 99 Luftballons reached No 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1983. Britain (and Canada, Australia and South Africa) had to wait until the following year for 99 Red Balloons, an English-language version whose lyrics the band didn't really warm to, but which became a monster hit in turn. Nena remained a huge star – the most successful female singer in German chart history – but those 99 balloons were the beginning and end of her UK chart career (the follow-up, Just a Dream, peaked at No 70). But, as she points out, they were all so young that no thought was given to capitalising on that hit. 'The word career didn't even exist in our vocabulary,' she says. 'We never analysed or sought explanations. I was just fulfilled experiencing so many beautiful and exciting things. None of us expected our success and when it happened we celebrated and lived it to the fullest.' Europop smashes often live on in the mind, partly because they are unusual, and partly because that novelty makes them powerful signifiers, easy to use in films to mark a time and place. Nena's hit was used in, among many others, Grosse Pointe Blank, Boogie Nights, The Wedding Singer, Atomic Blonde and Despicable Me 3; even Baltimora's Tarzan Boy ended up on a few soundtracks. Live Is Life, though, secured a strange afterlife. For one thing, it became a staple of sports arenas around the world (and its popularity soared again once YouTube came along, thanks to a clip of Diego Maradona doing keepy-uppies in time to it). For another, it was given one of pop's most extraordinary reimaginings when the Slovenian art band Laibach rearranged it into a terrifying martial statement, in English and German. In the bland call to unity of the original lyrics, Laibach found something else and rewrote it as Leben heißt Leben. 'Mediocrity in language is a powerful weapon – it strips words of resistance and makes them infinitely adaptable,' they say via email. 'The hollow optimism of old Eurohits offers a perfect canvas for reinterpretation, subversion and reappropriation. These songs were never truly about any meaningful meaning – popular culture rarely understands itself – and when we reinterpret these songs, we simply help them discover their deeper, often unintended, potential.' But why remake it in that way? 'Songs are not innocent; beneath every sweet song lies a hidden command. Our version only amplifies what was already present: the spirit of order, discipline and collective will. If it now sounds like a marching anthem, it is because the DNA was always there, waiting to be activated. Nostalgia, nationalism, conformity – these are not our inventions. They are the silent architects of European history, European order, and they are behind much of European pop culture, too. We only turned up the volume.' And what does Pfleger make of that rendering of his song? 'I don't like it,' he says, his face souring. 'You know, they never contacted us since they did it. It has no positive feeling and more a dark, bad energy.' Big holiday hits flourished in the 90s and 00s, too – The Ketchup Song, Macarena – but they were clearly recorded as novelties, in a way most of the 80s hits had not been. Today, Europop hits blossom in micro-moments on TikTok, while globalised streaming culture means that when you're poolside in Spain or Greece, you are more likely to hear Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter or some generic tropical house than a homegrown hit to export back home alongside a novelty fridge magnet. That means Pfleger and Nena seem all the more like outliers – but they remain delighted by the songs that changed their lives for a summer or two. 'I'm very proud that an Austrian band had this success,' Pfleger says. 'I wrote more than 200 songs and it is very special to have one that so many people liked.' 99 Luftballons means Nena's name is instantly recognisable: she will be touring this October, with a London show lined up. 'I love that song,' she says. Nena plays O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, on 11 October Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Wish you were still here: what happened to the one-hit wonders of 80s package holiday pop?
Until 1982, if you wanted to go on holiday, you had to go to a high street travel agent, who would generally make a bunch of phone calls and tell you to come back later. Then Thomson Holidays introduced the first computerised booking system and pricing was deregulated – enter the golden age of Brits-on-tour package trips to Benidorm, Torremolinos and the other resorts scattered along the Costa del Sol. It created a curious phenomenon of its own: the hit single the holidaymakers brought home. Plenty of 1980s European artists won a single hit, perhaps two, in the UK before slinking back into obscurity or – just as often – back into the domestic or continental stardom they already had before the British deigned to take an interest. For a few weeks, their names were inescapable: Spagna, Sabrina, Modern Talking, Desireless, Baltimora, Opus, Nena. Then they became pub quiz answers. Among the travellers going out to Spain was the Radio 1 DJ Gary Davies, who championed many of the big 80s Europop hits on his afternoon show. 'There were two main places I would go,' he says. 'Marbella and then Ibiza, which I discovered in 1986. I'd be out in bars and in clubs all the time and hearing a lot of European music. For example, I heard Bamboléo by Gipsy Kings in Ibiza and it just blew me away. I got hold of a copy while I was there, brought it back, played it on the radio and the reaction was so great that they got a record deal in the UK.' Europop hits could grow from seemingly infertile soil. Opus were an Austrian band who made music not unlike Supertramp – prog-inflected pop-rock – and had grown an audience first in their home country and then in Italy. After four albums, they were popular enough to justify recording a live album, for which the guitarist and songwriter Ewald Pfleger decided to write a new song. 'We were playing to about 5,000 people and my aim was to compose a song for them [to sing],' he says. 'So I had to use a simple melody and simple words. We had to do it twice, the second time at the end of the show, and of course the second time was much better, because the audience knew the song. They sang and clapped with us – and that was the birth of a worldwide hit.' The song was the cheesily stirring Live Is Life, which in 1985 and 1986 spread around the world, its one-size-fits-all lyrics finding universal popularity: 'When we all give the power / We all give the best / Every minute of an hour / Don't think about the rest.' For the best part of two years, Opus toured globally to promote it. 'We had been together for 12 years and our aim was to get successful outside Austria, outside Europe. So when it happened, we took it as it was,' Pfleger says. But when Live Is Life had faded, those outside the Germanic world no longer cared. 'It's just a fact,' Pfleger says. 'It's not easy for Austrian acts. Falco didn't get the chance to have a second hit after Rock Me Amadeus and it was the same for us.' Nena were a young West Berlin band, loosely associated with the neue Deutsche welle (new German wave) of the early 80s, who wanted their third single to be an anti-war rock song called 99 Luftballons. 'That created quite a panic at our record label,' says the band's eponymous singer (born Gabriele Kerner). 'Their main argument was that the song didn't have a chorus and wasn't commercial enough.' But the song became a huge smash in Europe – full of brash energy, it had 'one of the best hooks of the 80s', according to the musician and writer Scott Miller, despite its 'embarrassingly out-of-place disco-funk interlude'. And like so many other Europop smashes, it owed success in the anglosphere to a DJ. 'Rodney Bingenheimer of KROQ in LA caused our breakthrough,' Nena says. 'Christiane F [the German actor and musician] was invited to Rodney's radio show and she brought a suitcase of her favourite German music, which included our first album. He loved the song and played it up to seven times a day and other radio stations followed suit. Before any label even realised it would be worth releasing us, we already had a chart entry in America.' 99 Luftballons reached No 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1983. Britain (and Canada, Australia and South Africa) had to wait until the following year for 99 Red Balloons, an English-language version whose lyrics the band didn't really warm to, but which became a monster hit in turn. Nena remained a huge star – the most successful female singer in German chart history – but those 99 balloons were the beginning and end of her UK chart career (the follow-up, Just a Dream, peaked at No 70). But, as she points out, they were all so young that no thought was given to capitalising on that hit. 'The word career didn't even exist in our vocabulary,' she says. 'We never analysed or sought explanations. I was just fulfilled experiencing so many beautiful and exciting things. None of us expected our success and when it happened we celebrated and lived it to the fullest.' Europop smashes often live on in the mind, partly because they are unusual, and partly because that novelty makes them powerful signifiers, easy to use in films to mark a time and place. Nena's hit was used in, among many others, Grosse Pointe Blank, Boogie Nights, The Wedding Singer, Atomic Blonde and Despicable Me 3; even Baltimora's Tarzan Boy ended up on a few soundtracks. Live Is Life, though, secured a strange afterlife. For one thing, it became a staple of sports arenas around the world (and its popularity soared again once YouTube came along, thanks to a clip of Diego Maradona doing keepy-uppies in time to it). For another, it was given one of pop's most extraordinary reimaginings when the Slovenian art band Laibach rearranged it into a terrifying martial statement, in English and German. In the bland call to unity of the original lyrics, Laibach found something else and rewrote it as Leben heißt Leben. 'Mediocrity in language is a powerful weapon – it strips words of resistance and makes them infinitely adaptable,' they say via email. 'The hollow optimism of old Eurohits offers a perfect canvas for reinterpretation, subversion and reappropriation. These songs were never truly about any meaningful meaning – popular culture rarely understands itself – and when we reinterpret these songs, we simply help them discover their deeper, often unintended, potential.' But why remake it in that way? 'Songs are not innocent; beneath every sweet song lies a hidden command. Our version only amplifies what was already present: the spirit of order, discipline and collective will. If it now sounds like a marching anthem, it is because the DNA was always there, waiting to be activated. Nostalgia, nationalism, conformity – these are not our inventions. They are the silent architects of European history, European order, and they are behind much of European pop culture, too. We only turned up the volume.' And what does Pfleger make of that rendering of his song? 'I don't like it,' he says, his face souring. 'You know, they never contacted us since they did it. It has no positive feeling and more a dark, bad energy.' Big holiday hits flourished in the 90s and 00s, too – The Ketchup Song, Macarena – but they were clearly recorded as novelties, in a way most of the 80s hits had not been. Today, Europop hits blossom in micro-moments on TikTok, while globalised streaming culture means that when you're poolside in Spain or Greece, you are more likely to hear Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter or some generic tropical house than a homegrown hit to export back home alongside a novelty fridge magnet. That means Pfleger and Nena seem all the more like outliers – but they remain delighted by the songs that changed their lives for a summer or two. 'I'm very proud that an Austrian band had this success,' Pfleger says. 'I wrote more than 200 songs and it is very special to have one that so many people liked.' 99 Luftballons means Nena's name is instantly recognisable: she will be touring this October, with a London show lined up. 'I love that song,' she says. Nena plays O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, on 11 October Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Remy Bond Channels the ‘Diamond Sadness' of the Seventies in ‘Moviestar' Video
Remy Bond time-travels to the Seventies and sings to a distant, glamorous lover in her new video. On Friday, the rising pop star released the visual for 'Moviestar,' continuing her streak of retro-inspired releases. 'I was into a lot of Seventies Europop when we wrote 'Moviestar,'' Remy says of the track, produced by Jules Apollinaire. 'It has a lot of that diamond sadness that I love about those songs.' More from Rolling Stone St. Vincent Taps Mon Laferte for Spanglish Duet of 'Violent Times' Shakira and Alejandro Sanz Reunite - Again! - for Love Song 'Bésame' Connie Francis Reacts to Going Viral on Tiktok for 1961 B-Side 'Pretty Little Baby' The Frances O'Sullivan-directed video opens with a clip of Remy and her sister Olivia showing off their bedazzled vapes (a reference to the cheeky lyrics 'But you vape, you vape, you vape') before flashing to a vintage clip of two people watching Bond perform the song on an old-school TV show. The video sees Remy and her sister in sparkly Seventies-inspired dresses, holding up retro microphones as they point at the crowd and Remy sings to a glamorous lover, whose antics are more than confusing. 'You are a movie star/Look into my eyes and tell me who you are,' she sings. 'Just another minute as a superstar / it's a sunny day.' The new track follows February's 'Simple Girl,' and comes ahead of her Star Shaped Baby tour, which kicks off next week in Philadelphia, before she heads across the country for stops throughout June. She'll then tour the UK and Europe in July. The New York City-raised star cites David Bowie, and the Fifties and Sixties as key inspirations to her artistry and has been championed by Elton John on his Rocket Hour radio show. 'Moviestar' will likely be featured on her upcoming debut album. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
