Under Attack Lyrics - Mamma Mia!

Under Attack Lyrics

Under Attack

SOPHIE:
Don't know how to take it
Don't know where to go
My resistance running low
And every day the hold is getting tighter
And it troubles me so

NIGHTMARE CHORUS:
You know that I'm nobody's fool

SOPHIE
I'm nobody's fool and
Yet it's clear to me
I don't have a strategy
It's just like taking candy from a baby
And I think I must be

SOPHIE & NIGHTMARE CHORUS:
Under attack
I'm being taken
About to crack
Defences breaking
Won't somebody please have a heart?
Come and rescue me now
'Cause I'm falling apart

Under attack
I'm taking cover
They're on my track, three Dads,
one lover
Thinking nothing can stop them now
Should I want to
I'm not sure I would know how

SOPHIE:
This is getting crazy
I should tell them so
Really let my anger show
I feel like I was trapped within a
nightmare
I've got nowhere to go.

NIGHTMARE CHORUS:
Still undecided I suppose

SOPHIE:
Yes, it's what I wanted
But I'm scared as well
Staring down the deepest well
I hardly dare to think of what would happen
Where I'd be if I fell

SOPHIE & NIGHTMARE CHORUS:
Under attack
I'm being taken
About to crack
Defences breaking
Won't somebody please have a heart?
Come and rescue me now
'Cause I'm falling apart

Under attack
I'm taking cover
They're on my track, there dads,
one lover
Thinking nothing can stop them now
Should I want to
I'm not sure I would know how

NIGHTMARE CHORUS:
You kinow that I'm nobody's fool

SOPHIE & NIGHTMARE CHORUS:
Under attack
I'm being taken
About to crack
Defences breaking
Won't somebody please have a heart?
Come and rescue me now
'Cause I'm falling apart

Under attack
I'm taking cover
They're on my track, there dads,
one lover

SOPHIE:
Thinking nothing can stop them now
Should I want to
I'm not sure I would know how


Song Overview

Under Attack lyrics by Björn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson
Lisa Stokke shoulders the “Under Attack” lyrics beneath swirling red sirens.

Personal Review

Lisa Stokke performing Under Attack
Sophie’s nightmare conga—three dads closing in with nowhere to hide.

“Under Attack” arrives after intermission like a cold front. ABBA released the single in December 1982— their swan-song before a forty-year recording silence—and its synth-rock chill still pricks the skin. Martin Koch’s stage arrangement quickens the tempo to 118 BPM and adds muted bouzouki, but keeps that icy Jupiter-8 arpeggio intact. Onstage, Lisa Stokke sings alone while shadow figures in balaclavas stalk her with handheld searchlights; the taverna morphs into a fever dream. The London press night found me scribbling “Kate Bush meets Eurhythmics in an Aegean panic room”—and the line still fits.

Song Meaning and Annotations

Under Attack lyric video thumbnail
The moment Sophie realises every lie is chasing her at once.

Andersson & Ulvaeus originally wrote “Under Attack” as a final flare from a band unraveling; in Mamma Mia! it becomes Sophie’s panic spiral. The lyric—“My resistance running low”—now speaks to paternal pressure as her secret invitations backfire. Each chorus line (“three dads, one lover”) drops to a minor third, mirroring the tightening vise. Koch underscores the dread with floor-tom rumbles and a prowling bass that quotes the ABBA video’s red-beacon motif .

Won’t somebody please have a heart? Come and rescue me now ‘cause I’m falling apart.

The harmony under “rescue me” resolves to the tonic for the first time, a fleeting breath before the synth line snaps back like rubber—hope immediately smothered.

Fun detail: The London production pipes in a vocoder echo on the word “attack,” nodding to Björn’s original vocoder cameo. Fans who know the 1982 warehouse-beacon video grin at the Easter egg.

Verse Highlights

Verse 1

Sophie’s pulse races in triplet vocal figures; strings answer with staccato stabs like heart monitors.

Chorus

The meter shifts to a driving four, percussion layering gated reverb—panic framed as dance.

Verse 2

Lyric pivots from external threat (“three dads, one lover”) to internal free-fall—“staring down the deepest well.” Harmonically the key slips a semitone for eight bars, imitating vertigo.

Song Credits

Scene from Under Attack
Searchlights converge as the synth riff snarls.
  • Featured: Lisa Stokke (Sophie)
  • Producers: Nicholas Gilpin, Martin Koch
  • Composers/Lyricists: Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
  • Release Date (cast): November 1 1999
  • Genre: Synth-rock / Musical theatre
  • Length: 3 min 15 sec (cast) / 3 min 47 sec (ABBA single)
  • Instruments: Jupiter-8 synth, bouzouki, electric bass, floor-tom, vocoder
  • Label: Polydor / Decca
  • Mood: claustrophobic, adrenaline-lit
  • Poetic Meter: trochaic quatrains sliced by syncopation
  • Copyrights: © 1999 Littlestar Ltd.; ? 1999 Polydor Ltd. (UK)

Songs Exploring Themes of Anxiety & Choice

“Running Up That Hill” – Kate Bush
Bush bargains with a deity while Sophie bargains with destiny; both tracks ride galloping drum machines and synth pads that feel like looming thunderclouds.

“Breathe” – In the Heights
Nina’s panic attack on a Washington Heights fire escape mirrors Sophie’s at the taverna—melismatic gasps over a relentless pulse.

“Pressure” – Billy Joel
Joel’s new-wave piano stabs echo ABBA’s synth riff; each narrator lists threats until the chorus explodes in fatalistic shrug.

Questions and Answers

Was “Under Attack” really ABBA’s final single?
Yes—their last widely released single before the 40-year hiatus, issued 3 Dec 1982 in the UK.
How did it chart?
UK peak: No 26 according to multiple chart retrospectives; Australia No 96; Austria No 16; Finland No 8.
Is it a streaming hit today?
Spotify plays passed 30 million in May 2025—modest next to ABBA titans but impressive for a “farewell” single.
Why wasn’t it in the 2008 film?
The movie trims Act II pacing; “Under Attack” was storyboarded but dropped during pre-shoot script edits.
What’s with the warehouse beacons in the ABBA video?
Director Kjell Sundvall wanted literal “attack” imagery; the red rotating beacons echo emergency sirens while the band walks into darkness—visualising a goodbye.

Awards and Chart Positions

• UK Singles Chart peak: No 26 (Dec 1982)
• Finnish Singles: No 8
• Austria Ö3: No 16
• Global streams: 30 million Spotify plays (May 2025)

How to Sing?

Range: B?3–E?5 for Sophie.
Breath: Hit the opening eight-note run on one glide; think sprint start, then settle into the ride cymbal’s hiss.
Tempo: 118 BPM; subdivide in sixteenths to stay locked with the sequencer.
Tone: Keep consonants percussive—attack the “k” in “attack”—but let vowels widen on “heart” and “rescue” to soften the plea.



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Musical: Mamma Mia!. Song: Under Attack. Broadway musical soundtrack lyrics. Song lyrics from theatre show/film are property & copyright of their owners, provided for educational purposes