Queen Elizabeth II was indeed an ABBA fan and would dance around her dressing room to Dancing Queen, a close friend has said.
The late monarch, who died in September 2022, would sing along to some of her favourite tracks by the iconic Swedish group and even dance along in her spare time, Angela Kelly said.
There were reports in the past that the Queen was an ABBA fan, including one moment in 2018 when the Band of the Royal Logistic Corps played 'Dancing Queen' at the Changing of the Guard.
Ms Kelly, who served as Personal Assistant and Senior Dresser to Queen Elizabeth II from 1993 until the monarch's death in 2022, has confirmed it to be true.
Ahead of an upcoming exhibition looking into the Queen’s fashion, Kelly revealed some more personal details about her time with the Queen.
Among some of the revelations she revealed to Vanity Fair, Kelly said Elizabeth would frequently dance along to ABBA’s Dancing Queen when it came on Radio 2.
“Every morning the Queen would listen to the Terry Wogan show on Radio 2,” Kelly told the outlet.
“When the song Dancing Queen came on she loved it, and both of us would dance. The Queen would move from side to side and sing.”
She added: “Her Majesty loved singing and had a good voice. I didn’t. I’d get carried away and be dancing all round her like I was at a disco, and the Queen would tell me to ‘move over’ because I can’t sing and we laughed. They were moments to cherish, to see the Queen so relaxed.”
Based on Kelly’s accounts, the Queen enjoyed the pop group’s music well into her later years.
Despite being one of the Queen’s closest confidantes, Kelly didn’t necessarily have the strongest relationship with other Royals.
There were claims of a run-in with Harry over Meghan’s request to borrow a tiara ahead of their wedding day, and following the Queen’s death, she was reportedly forced out of her grace-and-favour home in Windsor.
Kelly was also given permission by The Queen to write two books about her life in the Royal fold, ‘Dressing the Queen: The Jubilee Wardrobe’, and ‘The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe.’
