ABBA Quiz: Guess the Song & Test Your Trivia

An ABBA quiz plays a trick on you: the happier a song sounds, the sadder it usually is. Guess the ABBA song from 'Dancing Queen' and 'Mamma Mia' to the Eurovision-winning 'Waterloo', then test your trivia on the euphoric breakup hits the two divorcing couples wrote, from 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' and 'SOS' to 'The Winner Takes It All'. The deep rounds reach the 2021 'Voyage' comeback. See how well you really know ABBA before the chorus lands, by hearing the heartbreak under the hook.

Main genrePop (disco, Europop)

Active1972–1982, reunited 2021 (1970s)

Best-known songs to guessDancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Waterloo, Take a Chance on Me, SOS

Deep cuts fans missEagle, Summer Night City, Under Attack, One of Us

Eras in the quiz70s Eurovision pop, disco-era singles, the breakup ballads, the 2021 Voyage reunion

MembersAgnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad

The ABBA trapEuphoric hooks hiding breakup lyrics, from 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' to 'The Winner Takes It All'

Related artistsMadonna, Bee Gees

Quiz difficultyEasy on the singalongs, hard on reading the heartbreak

Start your solo quiz

Name as many tracks as you can from short audio clips. The faster you answer, the more you score.

10 questions4 answers each

Guess the ABBA Song: Joy or Heartbreak?

That piano run into 'Dancing Queen' is unmistakable, and so is the mournful sweep of 'The Winner Takes It All'. The catch in this round is how many of ABBA's brightest hooks are quietly hiding a broken heart.

Dancing Queen

Mamma Mia

Waterloo

Take a Chance on Me

SOS

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)

Knowing Me, Knowing You

The Winner Takes It All

ABBA Trivia: The Happiest Sad Songs in Pop

Behind every hook sits a fact a quiz can spring on you: a Eurovision win in 1974, a number one written during a real divorce, a comeback staged by digital avatars forty years later.

✦ABBA won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with 'Waterloo', a favorite origin question.

✦Björn Ulvaeus wrote 'The Winner Takes It All' as his marriage to bandmate Agnetha Fältskog was ending, one of pop's most-cited breakup songs.

✦The name ABBA is an acronym of the four members' first names: Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid.

✦The group was made up of two couples, and both marriages had broken up by the time they stopped working together in 1982.

✦In 2021 ABBA returned with 'Voyage', their first album in forty years, and a London concert built around digital 'ABBAtar' avatars of their 1970s selves.

How Well Do You Know ABBA's Songbook?

Their songbook runs from pure-joy dancefloor hits to euphoric-sounding breakup songs and open ballads, so the score depends on whether you can hear the heartbreak under the melody.

The dancefloor hits everyone gets

Start with the euphoria no ABBA quiz can catch you on: 'Dancing Queen', 'Mamma Mia', 'Waterloo' and 'Take a Chance on Me'. These are the singalongs built for pure joy, and most players name them from the opening chord, so they are the free points early in the round.

Happy sound, sad story (the ABBA trap)

Here is the trap. 'Knowing Me, Knowing You', 'SOS' and 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)' bounce along like party songs, but the lyrics are about breakups and loneliness. A quiz question can ask what a track is really about, and the bright melody will lead you the wrong way.

The ballads that don't hide the heartbreak

Some ABBA songs wear the sadness openly. 'The Winner Takes It All', which Björn Ulvaeus wrote as his marriage to Agnetha ended, plus 'Slipping Through My Fingers' and 'Chiquitita', are the ballads that reveal what the group was living through. Placing these is where real fans separate.

Voyage-era and deep cuts only superfans place

Superfans pull ahead on the tracks that never became radio staples: 'Eagle', 'Summer Night City' and 'Under Attack', plus the 2021 comeback songs 'I Still Have Faith in You' and 'Don't Shut Me Down'. Name one of these from a short clip and you are in the top tier of any ABBA guess-the-song round.

ABBA Quiz FAQ

How well do you know ABBA?

Play an ABBA quiz on Songtrivia and find out. Guess the song from a short clip, then catch whether the bright hook is hiding a breakup. Score 8 out of 10 and you are a real fan; hearing the sadness under every hit is rare.

Why do ABBA's happy songs sound so sad?

Because they often are. As both couples in the group divorced, they wrote 'The Winner Takes It All', 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' and 'One of Us', breakup songs set to euphoric pop. A quiz will test whether you can hear the story under the melody.

Which ABBA songs come up the most?

'Dancing Queen', 'Mamma Mia', 'Waterloo', 'Take a Chance on Me' and 'The Winner Takes It All' are among the most-guessed in the songs round.

How hard is the ABBA quiz?

The dancefloor hits are easy points, but the deep cuts and the 2021 'Voyage' songs, plus telling the euphoric breakup tracks apart, are what separate the superfans.

What does the name ABBA mean?

ABBA is an acronym of the members' first names: Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They formed in Stockholm in 1972.

Is the ABBA quiz free?

Yes. Every ABBA quiz is free to play, with no signup and no Spotify account needed. Just pick one and play.

📚 Sources & methodology

Sources consulted

Wikipedia · AllMusic · Pitchfork · Billboard · Songtrivia editorial team.

Our methodology

Each topic is curated by a Quiz Master with category expertise. Selection crosses cultural impact, chart performance, recognition potential and era variety.