John Sturgis

Were Boney M the weirdest pop act of all time?

50 years on, their wild success seems like a strange dream

  • From Spectator Life
Boney M in 1978 [Getty]

For a spell in the late 1970s there were two pop groups which dominated the UK singles charts – both, coincidentally, vocal quartets from continental northern Europe. But while one, Abba, have since become a billion-pound industry with an apparently permanent hologram-shaped presence on the London concert scene, their then rivals for pop supremacy, Boney M, have almost completely disappeared from public consciousness. And this is a shame because Boney M remain uniquely noteworthy in one field in particular: weirdness. 

There are other contenders: Little Richard, the Sweet, Village People, the KLF.  But judged by the twin metrics of just how odd they were in tandem with quite how successful they became, I think the case is overwhelming: Boney M were the weirdest mainstream pop act of all time.

They didn’t just take on Abba but at times beat them, in 1978 releasing the then second best-selling UK single in history

This month’s 50th anniversary of the group’s first single seems a timely moment to examine how thoroughly strange they were. Avoiding

Get Britain's best politics newsletters

Register to get The Spectator's insight and opinion straight to your inbox. You can then read two free articles each week.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in