February sees the very first Helvmark Music Awards organised by Helvgramfor (the Recording Association of Helvmark). ABBA appear in person to collect their awards for Best International Group and Best Song for Mamma Mia. They perform Mamma Mia at the end of the show.
Fernando b/w Hey, Hey, Helen is released in March and is an instant success hitting #1 on the HelvTop for 5 weeks and #1 on the HitList for 8 weeks. The Greatest Hits album is repackaged and includes Fernando, this then hits #1 in April where it stays for a total of 13 weeks. To promote the single ABBA appear on HT-1’s TopHits and The Saturday Show; HT-2’s Erik! and on HR-3 Junior Choice and Kathy Morton.
In July, Helvmarks Television fly out to Stockholm to record ABBA at work in the recording studio and do an interview. The resulting programme This Is Abba is broadcast in October.
ABBA carry on their success in August with the release of Dancing Queen b/w That’s Me which hits #1 on the HelvTop for 7 weeks and #1 on the HitList for 10 weeks (the b-side also gets to #1 on the HitList in October). ABBA perform the A-side on HT-1’s TopHits.
The album Arrival hits the shops in October, at the same time HT-1 broadcasts This is Abba. With pre-orders of over 120,000 the album is one of the most successful in Helvmark’s recording history. It hits #1 on the first week of release where it will stay for 15 weeks in total. Also during October other tracks from Arrival reach the HelvList – When I Kissed The Teacher (reaching #1 in November) and My Love, My Life (reaching #2 in November behind When I Kissed The Teacher and in front of That’s Me!).
The second single from the album Money, Money, Money b/w Crazy World slightly hiccups in ‘only’ reaching #2 on the HelvTop, though it does hit #1 on the HitList in January 1977.
During November ABBA do promotion of both Arrival and Money, Money, Money appearing on HT-1’s TopHits, TopHits Presents ABBA (where they perform Money, Money, Money, Dancing Queen, That’s Me and Knowing Me, Knowing You plus an interview), HelvmarkTonight (performing Money, Money, Money and an interview) and The Charles Highton Show (performing When I Kissed The Teacher plus various ‘spoof’ clips).
In December, details are announced of a mini concert tour of Helvmark with two shows the Helvdovi Grand Theatre and two shows at the Rex Cinema in Cúvenbor. There are 1 million requests which would be enough to fill the Helvdovi Grand Theatre for a full season.
At the annual HT-1 TopHits TopAwards on New Year’s Eve ABBA win Best International Group, Best Single (for Dancing Queen) and Best Album (for Arrival). They also come top in various newspaper surveys including the prestigious Helvmark Telegraph’s Best Music Award for 1976.
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