Song Analysis - The Winner Takes It All

 In June of 1980, Bjorn and Benny began working on a demo for what would end up being of ABBA's most deep and heart wrenching songs, a song deeply inspired by their personal life, something they hadn't really gone into before.  The name of the demo was already on theme, titled "The Story Of My Life", and then "The Story Of My Life II" and "The Story Of My Life III."  Just a few short days later, Bjorn had come up with the lyrics.  It was the quickest lyric he'd ever written.  After taking a few drinks of whisky, the words just came pouring out, and within a couple of hours, the song was done, and the Winner Takes It All was born.

Considering Agnetha and Bjorn had just done through a divorce, it was no surprise that the topic of divorce was on his mind, however, contrary to popular misinformation, the song is actually not a retelling of how Agnetha and Bjorn's marriage broke down.  In fact, it's actually not our business how and what happened!

To quote Agnetha, "there's no such thing as a happy divorce," however that's not to say Agnetha and Bjorn's decision to divorce wasn't a joint one, and even with the break down of their marriage, they remained cordial, continued to work together, and even found that working together after their divorce twas easier.  In their divorce, there was no winner or loser in the situation, whereas in The Winner Takes It All, the whole song is about a winner and a loser.

The song beings with the line, "I don't wanna talk about things we've gone through.  Though it's hurting me, now it's history," followed by, "I've played all my cards, and that's what you've done too.  Nothing more to say, no more ace to play."  The metaphor of a card game, or just a game, is used through out the song, and in games like that, there is always going to be a victor and a loser.  Basically, both partners had done all they could for the marriage, but now it doesn't matter because it's over.  

The second verse goes on to explain how the narrator thought she was doing everything right, trying to make herself comfortable in the marriage, trying to make herself feel safe with her partner, trying to build a home together, and doing all these things because those are the "rules" of marriage.  But ultimately, even though she tried to do everything right, it still didn't work.  And eventually, she realizes that simply "playing by the rules" and trying to keep the marriage going as long as possible even when it's long gone.

The third verse has me quite interested in the meaning. The verse begins with, "But tell me does she kiss like I used to kiss you. Does it feel the same when she calls your name?" has me wondering if one of the reasons their marriage broke down is because there was some infidelity involved, and he cheated on her with another woman and then as soon as they decided to divorce, he just moved in with her.  Or the narrator is just commenting on how fast he just moved on and forgot her, whereas she's still caught up in their breakup.  

Regardless, the narrator of the song sees him as the winner, because he's happy and he's not hung up or worn down by the emotions of their broken marriage, but she's the loser because still hurting from it.  And she can't say anything about how much she misses him because it's all over.  The relationship is dead.  They've shaken hands, signed the divorce documents, they're officially over.  And he's happy, but she's ruined.

One thing that I always see pointed out is how EVIL BJORN WAS FOR MAKING HIS EX SING A SONG ABOUT THEIR DIVORCE, but again, this song is not about THEIR divorce, and as we know, they would often decide which lady they thought would sing the song best, and ultimately the decision was for Agnetha to be the one to sing the lead.  (Also I think originally Bjorn may have thought about singing the lead vocals on this song as well, and we actually have a snippet of Bjorn's demo vocals floating around online every once in a while.)

Agnetha's always been so good at story telling in the songs, and capturing the emotions of whatever character Bjorn (and Benny too) had come up with, and she managed to capture the pain and hurt of the woman in this song so well, it's hard to imagine that this fictional but painful story of divorce is not her own personal story.  The pain in her voice is almost tangible, and there is no doubt that this is one of her best vocal performances ever.   Especially the way she sings the final two "the winner takes it alllll"s at the end of the song.

And then of course we have the choir vocals from Frida, Benny, and Bjorn (and Agnetha's in there as well), with simple "aaah-aaah-aaah-aaahs" in the verses and even more so in the choruses, and then in full force in the outro.  

The minimal instruments in the song, with mostly the piano at the forefront, adds to the emotions of the song as well.  Just everything, from the vocals to the arrangement is just perfect in this song, and no one could have done it better.  There is no better version of this song than ABBA's. 

ABBA have a lot of masterpieces, and although I consider all of ABBA's songs as masterpieces, this one is definitely close to the top of the list.

Now of course ABBA filmed a music video for this song, and not only is Agnetha really good at capturing the raw emotions of their songs, she's also really good at acting as well.  Perhaps this was what inspired her to take on an acting role in 1982.  She put on a really good sad face in the music video, which of course leads people to really think Agnetha was miserable while filming the video.  however recently ish, ABBA released on instagram some BTS of the music video, where you can see Agnetha burst into a fit of giggles while filming the music video, which just proves that it's all an acting performance, and a really convincing one at that!  ABBA also performed this song on two TV shows in 1980, and the song also appears in ABBA Voyage as the final song of the show.