Song Analysis - Chiquitita

 In December of 1978, ABBA began recording the song Chiquitita.  Although the final version of the song contains lead vocals by Agnetha alone, the song in demo form was titled "In The Arms Of Rosalita" and featured either joint lead vocals by Agnetha and Frida or one verse sung by Agnetha and one verse sung by Frida, etc.  The song also had "Chiquitita Angelina", ""3 Wise Guys," and "Kålsupare" as working titles.

Chiquitita is a Latin-inspired track about comforting a friend through a heartbreak.  The narrator calls the friend Chiquitita, which (if you know Fluent Spanish like Bjorn does hehe) means "Little Girl" in Spanish, but we don't actually know the girl's name.  

The song begins with a solo verse by Agnetha alone, with Frida joining in on the second verse, singing in harmony.  Then they sing the chorus together, followed by the third verse which is also Agnetha with Frida in harmony.  

Chiquitita is such a beautiful song, very comforting and sweet.  In particular, I like the lines "Your best friend, I’m the one you must rely on.  You were always sure of yourself.  Now I see you’ve broken a feather. I hope we can patch it up together."  

I mentioned in my post regarding Fernando that the initial Swedish version of Fernando and Chiquitita are basically the same song.  In the Swedish version of Fernando, the narrator is basically comforting Fernando after a breakup, and hyping him up, reminding him of how good he is and to "play, play the melody and sing the song about happiness," which also shows up in Chiquitita: "Let me hear you sing once more like you did before.  Sing a new song, Chiquitita.  Try once more like you did before.  Sing a new song Chiquitita."  And then the English version of Fernando essentially follows the same vocal harmony structure-ish as Chiquitita.  Fernando has Verse 1: Frida solo, Verse 2: Frida with Agnetha in harmony, Chorus, Verse 3: Frida with Agnetha in Harmony, Chorus, and Chiquitita is Verse 1: Agnetha solo, Verse 2, Agnetha with Frida in Harmony, Chorus, Verse 3: Agnetha with Frida in Harmony, Chorus.  And interestingly, both songs ended up being Latin-inspired songs.

On the topic of the similarities between the two songs, I meant to include this in my review of Bright Lights, Dark Shadows by Carl Magnus Palm but forgot hahaha, so I'll bring it up now.  For some reason, in CMP's book, he makes a big deal about how the subject matter and lyrics of the Swedish version of Fernando were lazy and too simple, as Stig was kinda retiring from the lyric writing side of things.  And he basically doesn't like the Swedish lyrics because you know, Stig = Bad and Stig's Lyrics = Lazy, YET Chiqutitia lyric wise is basically the same song.  Same concept, similar wording, but because Bjorn mainly wrote the lyrics, and Bjorn = Good and Bjorn's Lyrics = WOW AMAZING SONGWRITING, he has no complaints about Chiqutita?????  One could argue that the lyrics in Chiqutita are also quite simple, but that's not a bad thing either.  

Going off topic a little more, but I have been reading Frida Beyond ABBA by Remko Van Drongelen, and I find it so interesting how this book and Bright Lights, Dark Shadows overlap a lot and tell the same stories, yet Stig Anderson is NEVER painted in a negative light.   Frida Beyond ABBA is nothing but respectful, factual, and so far has been nothing but fantastic.  (When I finish reading it I will review it don't worry haha.)

Anyways, back to Chiquitita, unlike Fernando, the song has a beautiful instrumental outro to conclude the song, which in a way screams "hopefulness."  Like the music itself is filled with hopeful sounds and positivity.  Also throughout the song, we have some lovely backing vocals, which in the second verse are, "how it hurts to see you cry and how it hurts to see you sad," in the second chorus, "You and I, we know how all the heartaches come and go and you'll be dancing once again and all the pain you take will end.....  Even though you cry the sun in shining in the sky so let me hear you sing some more the way you used to do before."

ABBA released the song as a single in January of 1979, and performed it for the first time at Unicef's Year of The Child gala in 1979, and ABBA donated and continue to donate all proceeds from the song to Unicef.  ABBA would also go on to perform the song on various TV shows, though not many, and on their 1979/80 tour, and we have a shortened visual and audio footage of ABBA performing the song live at Wembley from the ABBA in Concert TV special, as well as the full version of that same performance on ABBA's 1986 LIVE album, as well as on ABBA's 2014 Live At Wembley album.  And of course plenty of bootleg audio and visual footage as well.  And in ALL of them, ABBA perform the song beautifully.  

ABBA also recorded the song in Spanish, which according to Google Translate so it's not gonna be perfect are as follows:

Verse 1: "Little one, tell me why your pain today chains you. In your eyes there is a shadow of great sorrow. I wouldn't want to see you like this even if you want to hide it. If you are so sad why do you want to silence him."  

Verse 2:  "Little one, you tell me on my shoulder, here crying.  Count on me now to keep walking.  I knew you so sure and now your broken wing. Let me fix it.  I want to see her cured."

Chorus:  "Little one, you know very well that sorrows come and go and disappear.  You will dance again and you will be happy like flowers that bloom.  Little one, there is no need to cry.  The stars shine for you up there. I want to see you smile to share your joy, Chiquitita. Again I want to share your little joy."

Basically the song is the exact same as the Englihs one, however interestingly, the third verse is a repeat of the first verse rather than being a completely new third verse or a direct translation of the English one, which is: "So the walls came tumblin’ down and your love’s a blown out candle.  All is gone and it seems too hard to handle.  Chiquitita tell me the truth, there is no way you can deny it. I see that you’re oh so sad, so quiet."  I'm guessing someone in the lyric-translating department got lazy haha.

ABBA also performed the Spanish version of Chiqutita twice on TV.

Chiqutitita also shows up in ABBA's Voyage show, performed by the ABBA-tars in front of a beautiful Eclipse.

 As usual, I love this song, and as with, in my opinion, all the vocals on the Voulez-Vous album and songs from that era, Agnetha and Frida's vocals were just at their peak and are just absolutely stunning.

Also I just need to say, unlike what the garbage ITV documentary tried to claim, ABBA's music video for Chiqutitia, filmed in front of a giant snowman, was actually filmed outside, not on a soundstage. Okay? Okay.