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How Madonna’s new single will give Abba their greatest-ever hit
October 16th, 2005
In 1979, while she was a struggling singer who had to pose naked to make ends meet, they were the world’s biggest band. Now Madonna is set to give Abba what is likely to be the biggest-selling record of their career.
At 5pm GMT tomorrow, the American singer’s new single, Hung Up, which heavily samples Abba’s 1979 hit Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, will premiere simultaneously on national radio stations around the world.
The broadcast is part of a multi-million pound marketing strategy designed to re-establish Madonna as the Queen of Pop. But the sales of the single, which is expected to top the charts around the world, could also generate millions of pounds for Abba’s songwriters, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
The pair agreed to let Madonna use their most famous disco hit after striking a lucrative copyright agreement that observers say will give them a significant share of royalties from airplay.
"Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is the essence of the new song and we have agreed to split the copyright with Madonna and her co-writer," Andersson said. He declined to go into details and insisted that financial concerns were not the primary motive for the decision to give Madonna permission to use the track.
"We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say 'no'. This is only the second time we have given permission.
"We said 'yes' this time because we admire Madonna so much and always have done. She has got guts and has been around for 21 years. That is not bad going."
Andersson said he thought the new single was "wonderful" and joked it was his favourite Madonna song to date. "Hung Up is really good. If it wasn’t any good we would not have said 'yes'. It is a wonderful track: 100 per cent solid pop music."
Madonna, who has enjoyed 54 British top 10 hits including 10 number ones, has sold more singles in this country than Abba.
Hung Up is regarded as one of the most commercial songs of her career and will easily outsell the 1979 original which reached Number Three in the British charts but was not given an American release.
The worldwide broadcast of the single is part of an ambitious strategy designed to re-establish the 47-year-old mother-of-two as the most successful act in the world. Madonna is to spend an unprecedented £5 million buying up television, billboard and cinema slots for her new album Confessions On A Dancefloor, which will be released on November 14.
The publicity drive also involves ground-breaking deals with firms such as Orange, MTV, Virgin, Vodaphone and Apple.
The companies have become virtual partners in the album’s release in exchange for the rights to provide audio and visual downloads of the singer’s new material and her huge back catalogue of hits.
John Reid, the head of marketing at Warner Music, said: "Madonna has nailed it with this record and we are rolling it out very big indeed."
Madonna’s last album, American Life, which was released in 2003, sold four million copies and was the lowest selling release of her career.
Hung Up’s radio debut will mark the first time the record has been heard in its entirety, but it will, in fact, be just the latest stage in a sophisticated campaign. The song has been available as a telephone ringtone since September 19 - the first time a star of Madonna’s stature has released material as a ringtone before an actual record.
Madonna’s recent riding accident would appear not to have reduced the number of her planned public appearances.
She has declared herself fit and well to perform Hung Up at the MTV Music Awards in Lisbon on November 3, and she is believed to be planning performances in Britain, America, Japan, Holland and Germany.
source : telegraph.co.uk

I found the single edit version of "Hung Up" online here today. It's everything I dreamed it would be! This is one of those times when you're damn glad to be gay! We're going to be bopping to this classic in the clubs for some time to come...