ABBA were determined that their holiday single Little Things wouldn’t be a big “pop music” track.
The group released the song as the fourth single from their comeback LP ‘Voyage’, which topped the charts worldwide following its release in November.
Speaking in a video promoting the new release, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus open up on the creation of the “calm and melodic” cut.
Benny and Björn discuss their latest single 'Little Things' – was it actually a Christmas song when Benny first composed it? #ABBA #LittleThings pic.twitter.com/DE5CaaI15K
— ABBA (@ABBA) December 9, 2021
“I thought, rather than it be Christmas Eve and Santa with his sack – all that stuff – it’s about a calm Christmas morning,” explains Björn, who penned the lyrics to Benny’s instrumental.
Benny adds: “There must be thousands of Christmas tunes and they’re all pop music. This is not pop music.
“This is just a sweet little thing.”
Alongside the ballad, which centres on a family on Christmas morning, ABBA shared a new music video, featuring an ambitious group of school-age children who are inspired to create an ABBA Voyage ‘Christmas Special’.
In a statement, the band said: “We think it is impossible to eradicate poverty without the empowerment of women.
“That’s why we support Unicef in protecting girls from sexual violence and empowering them through the Global Child Protection Fund.
“We have done so for many years with our song Chiquitita and now we have decided to give Unicef a Christmas gift in the form of a second song: Little Things from our album ‘Voyage’.”
In a review of the album, Retro Pop called ‘Voyage’ “a fitting closing chapter in the tale of Sweden’s best-loved musical export”.
‘Voyage’ is available on CD, vinyl and cassette.
