In the late 1960s and early 1970s the contest was called Melodifestival (Melody Festival) but these days it is more known as Melodifestivalen (The Melody Festival).

ABBA performed two LIVE performances of Waterloo (both in Swedish) - in first round and then for the winning performance.  The programme was recorded earlier in the day and was not a LIVE broadcast.

The conductor was Sven-Olof Walldoff. The programme host was Johan Sandström.

Songs taking part were:

1. Lena Ericsson - En enda jord **
2. Östen Warnerbring - En mysig vals
3. Göran Fristorp - Jag minns dig nog
4. Titti Sjöblom - Fröken Ur sång
5. ABBA - Waterloo
6. Lasse Berghagen - Min kärlekssång till dig
7. Inger Öst - En grön dröm om mig
8. Sylvia Vrethammar och Görn Fristorp - En dröm är en dröm
9. Lena Bergqvist - Den sista sommar'n av mitt liv
10. Glenmarks - I annorlunda land

ABBA won by a mile - 91 points ahead of the second position (Lasse Berghagen).

A baby-faced Anders Glenmark joined his older sister Karin, Uncle Bruno Glenmark and Auntie Ann-Louise Hanson in the group Glenmarks.

Lena Ericsson provided backing vocals to Harpo's Moviestar in 1975 together with Frida and was seen with Frida in the programme Kika Digga Ding.

Melodifestival 1974 was shown again in full on Friday 7 May 2004 on SVT1, Sweden.

The first performance has been officially released on the Melodifestivalen - The Winners DVD (Melodifestivalen 50 År - Vinnarna & Favoriter) and on the 30th Anniversary Edition of ABBA's Waterloo album.

** Lena Ericsson would go on to provide backing vocals to Harpo's Moviestar as featured in the 1975 programme Kika Digga Ding.

1. A familiar face in the orchestra - Ola Brunkert! He had worked with them on People Need Love. Of course, he ended up playing with ABBA on stage in Brighton. Ola was a regular on TV during the 1970s when they had live orchestras/bands.
2. ... and there's another couple of familiar faces in the audience - Michael B Tretow and Stig Anderson.
3. During the line-up of the winners, Lasse Berghagen gets hit over the head playfully by Benny (although you don't see him do it, you just see the flying flowers!).
4. Seconds later, Benny sees someone in the audience and acts like a little kid!
5. As ABBA take their places to repeat their winning song, the presenter calls him Björn and Benny corrects him and then pats him

Can anyone help to translate what is said at the prize giving please?

Lyrics available on the Official ABBA site

Melodifestival (Frida), 1969;
Melodifestival (Ring Ring), 1973;
Melodifestival (Waterloo), 1974;
Melodifestival, 1975;

Archive data from public site:
Melodifestival 1974. Svensk final
1974-02-09
Utgivning
År/datum 1974-02-09
Exemplar
VHS T82-0091
Antal enheter 1
Ljud Mono
Färg Färg
Arkivnummer T82-0091
DVCPRO T02-0268
Antal enheter 1
Teknisk anm. 01 17 25
Ljud Mono, färg
Arkivnummer T02-0268
MPEG-1 ZS_T02-0268
Filbeskrivning 1,5 Mbit/s, MPEG-1 layer 2, 48 kHz, 128 kbit/s
Arkivnummer ZS_T02-0268

A million thanks to Jan Bach, Carl Magnus Palm, Elena Matui, Jack Lovejoy, Robin Andersson, Jun Seo, Jozsef, Sam Shervz and Danny Bradley c/o ABBATalk.
YouTube links c/o mozpiano2 and Engelauge