--- title: "Melbourne school set the ABBA impersonator world record with 368 people after 16 failed to finish Waterloo" url: https://badiyaa.com/abba-impersonators-world-record-kew-melbourne/ published: 2026-11-13T05:57:00+00:00 modified: 2026-11-13T05:57:00+00:00 section: Offbeat publisher: Badiyaa --- # Melbourne school set the ABBA impersonator world record with 368 people after 16 failed to finish Waterloo Kew Primary School in Melbourne holds the Guinness record for the largest gathering of ABBA impersonators: 368 people, after 16 were disqualified. The world record for the largest gathering of ABBA impersonators belongs to a primary school in Melbourne, Australia, and it is 368 people, not 384. Sixteen would-be Agnethas, Fridas, Björns and Bennys were struck off the count because they did not sing the whole of “Waterloo.” The record, set on November 17, 2011, is making the rounds again on Reddit this week, and the details come straight from Guinness’s own official entry for the title. ## Who, where and how many The attempt took place at Kew Primary School in Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria, as part of that year’s official record-breaking day. The participants were all students, teachers and parents from the school community. The record entry lists the final tally as 368 individuals, or 92 bands. ABBA was a four-piece, so the arithmetic is tidy: 92 groups of four gives exactly 368. Ten witnesses and one official Guinness adjudicator oversaw the count. ## The 16 who did not make it The first count came to 384. Then the adjudication caught the problem: 16 people had not kept singing all the way through “Waterloo,” and under the rules that meant they were out. Put another way, about 4% of the original line-up was disqualified, and the record lost the equivalent of four complete bands. - **Original count:** 384 people (96 bands of four). - **Disqualified:** 16 people for not singing the whole song. - **Official record:** 368 people, or 92 bands. The record entry does not say which section of the song tripped them up. ## Why “Waterloo” was the obvious test If you are going to make hundreds of people prove they are ABBA, “Waterloo” is the natural choice. It was the song that launched the Swedish group internationally. Written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus with lyrics by the band’s manager, Stikkan Anderson, it won Sweden’s Melodifestivalen in February 1974 and then the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, England, on April 6, 1974, scoring 24 points, six clear of the runner-up. The performance broke the contest’s mold: flashy outfits including silver platform boots, an upbeat pop song instead of a big ballad, and a conductor, Sven-Olof Walldoff, dressed as Napoleon. It was also the first Eurovision winner sung in a language other than the performers’ own. It was ABBA’s first UK No. 1, reached No. 6 in the US, and has been estimated to have sold 5 million copies worldwide. In 2005, Eurovision’s 50th anniversary event in Copenhagen crowned it the best song in the contest’s history. It is also only about two and three-quarter minutes long, at 2:46 for the English version. That is a short song to fail to finish, which is perhaps why 16 slip-ups were enough to cost a disqualification. ## A school record that still stands Mass costume records are one of the friendlier corners of the record book. Badiyaa has covered several Guinness titles this month, from [English town crier Brenda Willison’s loudest shout by a woman](https://badiyaa.com/brenda-willison-town-crier-loudest-shout-woman-record/) to a viral clip that [claimed a human catapult record Guinness has not recognized](https://badiyaa.com/human-catapult-100-meter-claim-guinness-reverse-bungee-record/). The Kew Primary School title is still listed on the Guinness website at 368. Its 15th anniversary falls on November 17, four days from now. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Waterloo (ABBA song)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_(ABBA_song)) *Image: Wimvantklooster, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons* *This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. [How we work](https://badiyaa.com/editorial-policy/).*