Chiquitita - ABBA (Lyrics)

Описание: "Chiquitita" ("Little Girl" in Spanish) is a song recorded by Swedish pop group ABBA. It was released in January 1979 as the first single from Voulez-Vous (1979), the group's sixth album. Agnetha Fältskog performs the lead vocals. 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 remained an album track.

Many preliminary versions of "Chiquitita" exist. It had working titles of "Kålsupare", "3 Wise Guys", "Chiquitita Angelina" and "In the Arms of Rosalita".[3] A revised version, which had a sound influenced by the Peruvian song "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" performed 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 recorded "Chiquitita" in Spanish, and it was one of the featured tracks on the Spanish-language release Gracias Por La Música.

During the production of the Thank You for the Music box set in 1994, an early version of "Chiquitita" titled "In the Arms of Rosalita" was proposed for inclusion on the set, but was rejected by the songwriters. An 8-minute "Chiquitita story" medley combining the song with various early demos (including the "Rosalita" version) was scrapped by mid-1994.

"Chiquitita" proved to be one of ABBA's bigger hits. It was featured in the Music for UNICEF Concert, broadcast worldwide from the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. As a direct result of this event, ABBA donated 50% of all royalties from the song to UNICEF. "Chiquitita" was a no. 1 hit in Belgium, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, South Africa and Rhodesia. It was a top 5 hit in ABBA's native Sweden, the United Kingdom (peaking at no. 2 in both countries where Blondie's "Heart of Glass" was occupying the top spot), Australia, West Germany and Norway. These sales make it the most successful single from the album Voulez-Vous in terms of global charts and one of the more famous charity songs ever. Fifty percent of the proceeds from the song go to UNICEF in recognition of the "International Year of the Child" in 1979. In 2014, all ABBA members agreed to increase their donation to 100% of all royalties from the song to UNICEF. As of 2021, the song's royalties had raised $4.8 million for the charity.

In the United Kingdom, "Chiquitita" debuted at no. 8 in the singles chart, making it the highest place début for any ABBA single release.

In Argentina, sales figures on the single show up to the end of July 1979 were 500,000 in the Spanish edition and 25,000 in the original English language format.