When All Is Said and Done
song written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus; originally recorded by ABBA in 1981
"When All Is Said and Done" is a song by the Swedish recording group ABBA, recorded for their eighth studio album The Visitors (1981). Featuring lead vocals by Anni-Frid Lyngstad, the track was released as the second overall single from the album on 31 December 1981. It was released in North America by Atlantic Records as the lead single to The Visitors in place of "One of Us", which had been released in Europe and Australia. The track details the divorce of Lyngstad and Benny Andersson.
The single placed moderately on the charts of North America, where it peaked at number 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and did not chart on the Canada RPM Top Singles. However, it placed better rankings on the Adult Contemporary component charts of both countries, peaking at number four in Canada and ten in the United States. Internationally, it charted within the top twenty in Chile while barely made a dent in Australia.
Background
ABBA constituted two married couples who later divorced. Similar to the group's 1980 track, "The Winner Takes It All", which could have been influenced by the split between band members Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog, "When All Is Said and Done" detailed the divorce between Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson.
Written during a time of emotional turmoil, Ulvaeus has admitted that the split between Benny and Frida was at the back of his mind during the songwriting process for "When All Is Said and Done".
“When All Is Said and Done” enters the record as song written and composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus; originally recorded by ABBA in 1981. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what When, Said and Done can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2296052. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981 and 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “When All Is Said and Done” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.