Chiquitita

"Chiquitita"
Single by ABBA
from the album Voulez-Vous
B-side	"Lovelight"
Released	16 January 1979 (Sweden) 26 January 1979 (UK) 10 November 1979 (US)
Format	7" single
Genre	Pop/Europop
Length	5:26
Label	Polar (Sweden) Epic (UK) Atlantic (US)
Writer(s)	Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson
Producer	Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson
Certification	Gold (UK), Gold (Netherlands), Gold (NZ)
ABBA singles chronology
"Summer Night City" (1978) "Chiquitita" (1979) "Does Your Mother Know" (1979)

"Chiquitita" (which roughly means "little girl" in Spanish) was the first single release from Swedish mega pop group ABBA's Voulez-Vous album, their sixth for Polar, and their fifth for Epic and Atlantic. Originally, the track "If It Wasn't for the Nights" was going to be the album's lead single, but after "Chiquitita" was completed these plans were abandoned, and it would remain an album track.

History

Many preliminary versions of "Chiquitita" exist. It had working titles of "Kålsupare", "3 Wise Guys", "Chiquitita Angelina" & "In The Arms of Rosalita". A revised version, which had a sound that was partly influenced by the song "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" by Simon and Garfunkel, was recorded in December 1978 and released as a single in January 1979.

With the success of the English version, ABBA also recorded "Chiquitita" in Spanish simply by phonetics. It gained considerable popularity in countries such as Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Paraguay and the Dominican Republic.

Reception

"Chiquitita" proved to be one of ABBA's biggest hits. It was featured in the 1979 UNICEF charity event, the Music for UNICEF Concert, broadcast worldwide from the United Nations General Assembly. As a direct result of this event, ABBA donated half of all royalties from the song to UNICEF. "Chiquitita" hit #1 in 10 countries worldwide: Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Mexico (where it spent 32 weeks at #1), The Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland & Zimbabwe, while reaching the Top 5 in Australia, West Germany, Great Britain, Norway & Sweden, making it the most successful single from the Voulez-Vous album in terms of global charts & one of the most famous charity songs ever. In Great Britain, the track debuted at #8 in the singles chart, making it the highest place debut for any ABBA single release. ^[1] However, despite this enormous success, "Chiquitita" was less popular in France (only reaching #13), Canada (where it peaked at #17), the United States (reaching #29), and Italy (peaking at #48). But to this day, 50% of the proceeds from the song go to UNICEF in recognition of the International Year of the Child in 1979. In May 2007, "Chiquitita" had gained UNICEF over 15,000,000 SEK (about $2,500,000).

Music video

"Chiquitita" was one of the very few singles ABBA released without a custom made video. Since then on compilations of the group's videos, a contemporary TV performance of the song has been used. This clip was in fact taped by the BBC for the show Abba in Switzerland, broadcast across Europe at Easter 1979. In this, the band are seen performing the song on a mountainside, with a snowman in the background.

Chart positions

Cover versions

• In 1979, Paraguayan/Brazilian camp singer Perla covered "Chiquitita" (as "Pequenina") on her album "Pequenina". Perla already had covered ABBA's "Fernando" on a previous album.
• In 1993 the Croatian group Vatrogasci (Firefighters) made a parody of this song, translating it into Croatian (renaming it "Čičikita") and giving it a turbofolk arrangement.
• French pianist Richard Clayderman recorded his version, together with 14 other ABBA songs, for the 1993 studio album 'Richard Clayderman Plays ABBA'.
• A cover by Irish singer Stephen Gately can be found on the 1999 Abbamania compilation.
• A dance cover by ABBA dance tribute group Abbacadabra was released in the late 1990s through Almighty Records. It was included on the 2008 compilation We Love ABBA: The Mamma Mia Dance Compilation.
• German Eurodance group E-Rotic covered the song for their ABBA tribute album Thank You For The Music.
• A dance cover by Electric can be found on the compilation Lay All Your Love On ABBA.
• Sinéad O'Connor covered "Chiquitita" as her contribution to the compilation album Across The Bridge Of Hope - released to support the families of the Omagh bombing victims - in 1999. [1] O'Connor's version omits the second verse of the song.
• On the tribute album ABBAMetal (also released as A Tribute to ABBA), the song is covered by German heavy metal band Spiral Tower.
• Two dance covers of the song by Donna Burke were included on the 2001 Japanese import ABBA Ibiza Caliente Mix compilation.
• The 2004 German ABBA Mania compilation featured a cover of the song by Lucy, singer of the German pop group No Angels.
• The song is covered by Edie on Abbalicious, a 2004 ABBA tribute compilation performed by various U.S. drag queens.^[2]
• A punk cover of the song was recorded by indie band Come 'n Wait for their 2005 album Rock & Dolls.
• A cover of the song by Kress can be found on the 2006 chill out music compilation ABBA Chill Out.
• German AC/DC tribute band Riff Raff recorded a cover in AC/DC style for their 2006 album Rock 'N' Roll Mutation Vol. 1: Riff Raff Performs ABBA.
• ABBA tribute act Swede Dreams recorded a cover of the song.
• A cover of the song by Finnish a cappella choral ensemble Rajaton can be found on their 2006 ABBA tribute album Rajaton Sings ABBA With Lahti Symphony Orchestra.
• U.S. group Lavender Diamond covered the song as one of the b-sides on their 2007 UK single Open Your Heart.
• A jazz/lounge music style cover of the song by Dennis Clark can be found on the 2007 compilation album El Pecado La Paloma Blanca. It was also included on the 2008 album Bossa Mia: Songs of ABBA by American group BNB.^[3]
• British ABBA heavy metal tribute group Abbatoir recorded a cover of the song. An audio sample can be found on their official MySpace page.^[4]
• Spanish singer Charo recorded the song for her 1981 album Bailando Con Charo and performed it at her Bally's Reno concert in 1988.^[5]

Live cover performances, appearances in other media, etc.

• The song is performed in the Mamma Mia! musical and film by the characters of Tanya and Rosie. In the context of the musical, Donna has been surprised by the arrival of the three possible fathers of her daughter, and the song is used by her friends in order to comfort her and to find out why she is so upset; in the film they have to coax her out of hiding.
• Leona Lewis performed the song on the British TV show The X Factor.
• "Chiquitita" was used as the opening song for the Japanese drama "Strawberry on the Shortcake"
• It was used in episode 2.04 of Queer as Folk at the end.

References