The single Chiquitita b/w Lovelight was released in January. It hits #1 on the HelvTop and stays there for 3 weeks. The A-side hits #1 on the HitList for 6 weeks and the b-side gets to #11. Also in January, HT-1 shows the UNICEF Year of The Child gala from New York.
In April, HT-1 shows the BBC programme ABBA Snowtime Special which gets an audience share of 75%.
Promotion for the new album Voulez-Vous gets underway with the release of the single Does Your Mother Know b/w Kisses of Fire in May. The single gets to #1 on the HelvTop staying for 3 weeks and it also gets to #1 on the HitList for 1 week only – the reason being that the B-side took over the #1 slot and stayed there for 7 weeks! As the single starts to slide down the charts, Polydor takes the decision to flip the single due to the success on the HitList. Consequently, the single is now Kisses Of Fire b/w Does Your Mother Know and goes back up to #1 for a stay of 4 weeks in June.
May also sees the release of the new album Voulez-Vous which hits #1 and stays there for 19 weeks in total during 1979. ABBA announce details of the European Tour to take place in October and perform tracks from the album on HT-1’s TopHits – Voulez-Vous Special, Wonderama and HT-2’s Erik!
In June As Good As New hits #2 on the HitList (beaten by Kisses Of Fire) and the Spanish version of Chiquitita does well reaching #11. In July, Polydor Helvmark release a special limited edition blue vinyl 12” single of Chiquitia En Español b/w Lovelight. It reaches #29 on the HelvTop.
The popularity of ABBA shows no sign of slowing down when they hit #1 again on the HelvTop for 4 weeks with the double A-side Voulez-Vous/Angeleyes in August. Both sides do extraordinarily well on the HitList with Voulez-Vous hitting #2 and Angeleyes hitting #1 for a huge 8 weeks.
ABBA have yet another HitList #1 in Sepetember with If It Wasn’t For The Nights. Polydor Helvmark had plans to release a double A-side As Good As New/If It Wasn’t For The Nights but decided against it to avoid flooding the market. This turns into a good decision as in October a new track heralding the new greatest hits package was released. Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) b/w The King Has Lost His Crown reaches #1 on the HelvTop for 5 weeks and #1 on the HitList for 4 weeks (the b-side reaches #2).
Also during October, ABBA’s European Tour touches down in Helvmark with 4 nights on the Helvmark Ice Stadium. They also do some limited promotional work with interviews on HT-1’s TheStarShow and HT-2’s Erik! The concert is a huge success with an audio recording being broadcast on Christmas Day on HR-3.
The new greatest hits package Greatest Hits Vol. 2 is released in November and reaches #1 where it stays for 7 weeks.
The final single from Voulez-Vous is released in December. I Have A Dream b/w Take A Chance On Me (live from Wembley) becomes the HelvTop 1979 Christmas #1 with a 2 week stay at the top spot (it also hits #1 on the HitList for 1 week).
The HT-1 TopHits TopAwards on New Year’s Eve sees ABBA reclaim their crown for Best International Group. They also win Best International Single (Kisses Of Fire), Best International Album (Voulez-Vous), Best Disco Single (Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) ) and Best Act of the 1970s.
They also win the Helvmark Telegraph’s Best Music Award for 1979 and Best Music Award of the Decade. They also triumph in other national newspaper awards after missing out to Boney M and ELO in 1978.
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