Relevant Song Lyrics: “Mamma Mia” by ABBA

The YouTube thumbnail for the lyric video of ABBA’s “Mamma Mia”, a song that feels very relevant today.

Ah, yes. ABBA. That Swedish band who sang with such angelic voices, even when their lyrics were secretly quite depressing. I never thought I’d be thinking about this song so soon after my country fucked up the most important election of my lifetime, but perhaps it is fitting. Maybe I’ll do this every Thursday from here on out, finding a song that fits well with a news story of the week. And it’s going to be a busy four years of news stories, that’s for sure.

This morning, it occurred to me that ABBA’s 1975 hit “Mamma Mia” is incredibly relevant to the present. The song is about a woman who keeps returning to a relationship with an unfaithful, abusive partner. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two days, you’ll probably know exactly why I relate to this song right now. It does not matter that I voted for Harris and volunteered several times to get out the vote in battleground states. The United States is just addicted to Donald Trump.

So let’s get into the lyrics, shall we?

I've been cheated by you since I don't know when

So I made up my mind, it must come to an end

Ever since Trump first came down that golden escalator in 2015, we’ve been constantly glued to him. Even his detractors, a group I count myself among, couldn’t keep our eyes off that man. In many ways, he is a creation of the 24-hour news cycle in which Americans demand stimulation at all times in the news they consume. Trump’s first presidency was also the best thing that ever happened to the ratings of legacy media outlets, because those who disliked him constantly had to check CNN or MSNBC to see what crazy thing he’d said or done that day. 

Come 2020, however, Trump had worn out his welcome. By the time that year’s general election rolled around, the COVID-19 pandemic had claimed a quarter of a million lives in this country alone, and he’d clearly given up even pretending to do something about the virus. The American people decided that Trump’s presidency needed to end, so they voted him out of office, even if by a far closer margin than they should have. I maintain that Trump should have lost like Herbert Hoover, because his disregard for the crises the country faced was on par with Hoover if not even worse.

I don't know how, but I suddenly lose control

There's a fire within my soul

(One more look) and I can hear a bell ring

(One more look) and I forget everything, whoa

This describes the last four years to a T. At least, the latter two lines do. Trump might have remained in the headlines, but he was only in the background. It seems all too many Americans, even those who’d been highly motivated to get Trump out of office the first time, could not remember the urgency of keeping him out of office for good. It seems that many people still had a “fire within their soul” for Donald Trump. As soon as he started his populist campaign in late 2022, all too many people were entranced by him, and they remembered why they voted for him in the first place. Even those who would regret it later and not vote for him in 2020 gave up their newfound conviction that he must not be allowed to take power again, and they supported him in Tuesday’s election.

Yes, I've been brokenhearted

Blue since the day we parted

Why, why did I ever let you go?

Mamma mia, now I really know

My, my, I could never let you go

Okay, I’m obviously not speaking for all Americans here, but I was not brokenhearted when Biden was declared the winner in 2020. It seems like many people were, however. They came up with songs to cope with what they claimed to believe was a stolen election, such as “Trump Won (And You Know It)” by Natasha Owens. That song is not nearly as funny anymore, at least not to me. However, it is not just the “red hat cultists” whom this line refers to. Those voters who switched back to Trump this time are currently wondering why they ever flipped away from him in 2020, and the optimistic side of me believes that if 2026 is a blue wave, it will be because these people get buyer’s remorse big-time. They will remember why they voted Trump out in 2020, and they will come to terms with why they voted for him this time. Now, my sympathy for them will be very limited, though that’s another rant entirely.

I've been angry and sad about things that you do

I can't count all the times that I've told you we're through

And when you go, when you slam the door

I think you know that you won't be away too long

You know that I'm not that strong

I don’t think this stanza needs much explanation. We kept thinking Trump was done. Even after losing an election, even after two impeachments, even after four indictments and thirty-four felony convictions, he won’t be away too long. The American public was not strong enough to reject him this time, and we’re going to pay the price for it. If it were only Trump’s voters who would be harmed by his decisions, I might not care quite as much, but those who voted for Harris are going to suffer disproportionately from his actions, particularly the LGBTQ+ community. It was no secret to anyone that LGBTQ+ people voting for Trump would be, to borrow a phrase from a cartoonish conservative commentator, “chickens voting for KFC”. That’s why I don’t think many of them voted for Trump, and that’s why I think our 47th President is going to be incredibly vindictive against them in his second term. My heart breaks for that community, because, by and large, they knew what a catastrophe his reelection would be, and they were unable to prevent it.

Hopefully 2026 is a blue tsunami, but I have my doubts. Even if the midterm election is anything remotely resembling free and fair, the fact remains that the Democratic Party lost to a convicted felon who literally tried to overthrow the government. They are a broken-down, dysfunctional disaster of a party, and yet they’re our only hope. I hate to be an alarmist, but the future looks pretty bleak from this vantage point.