David Bowie, ABBA and Rod Stewart: three music legends with surprising links to Cyprus

Living in Cyprus musicTop News David Bowie, ABBA and Rod Stewart: three music legends with surprising links to Cyprus Angi 1 Relevant News David Bowie, ABBA and Rod Stewart: three music legends with surprising links to Cyprus 27 August 2026 Shipping traffic through Strait of Hormuz rises slightly, data shows 27 August 2026 Climate change boosted risk of devastating Himalayan flood, experts say 27 August 2026 Daniel Zambartas 27 August 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber A few weeks ago, we looked at the songs that have unexpected links to Cyprus. But the island’s links to global music stars themselves goes even further than lyrics and references. The Cypriot roots of George Michael and Cat Stevens are well known, but Cyprus also has some fascinating connections to the music legends of a bygone era. David Bowie holidayed here with members of the Spiders from Mars, the future members of ABBA experienced a formative moment in Famagusta, and Rod Stewart was flown to the island for one of its most extravagant private parties. Their links to Cyprus are very different, but all three offer unusual chapters in the island’s musical history. David Bowie’s holidays in Kyrenia, Xeros and Lefkara Bowie’s connection with Cyprus came through his first wife, Mary Angela Barnett, better known as Angie Bowie, who was born in Ayios Dometios, Nicosia, in 1949 and spent much of her childhood on the island. Her father worked for the Cyprus Mines Corporation and, even after Angie was sent abroad for her education, she regularly returned to Cyprus to visit her family. Speaking in a 2016 Phileleftheros interview with Thanasis Fotiou, Angie recalled that Bowie accompanied her to Cyprus after their marriage in 1970. “A few times, we had come with David to Cyprus for holidays, after our wedding in 1970. We had brought little Zowie with us,” she said. On one trip, they stayed with her parents in Xeros. On another, they travelled with Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder and Woody Woodmansey, key members of Bowie’s Spiders from Mars line-up, and rented a villa outside Kyrenia. In a first-person account of her Cyprus memories written in 2000, Angie placed the Kyrenia holiday in 1972 and recalled that Bowie was particularly taken with Cyprus. On an earlier family visit, she said, Bowie drove her to Lefkara, the village known for its traditional handmade lace. It was there he bought pieces of Lefkara lace for the dining-room table and the vanity in their bedroom. It’s a small detail, but one that gives us a glimpse of Bowie away from the stage during a period in which his career was being transformed by the emergence of Ziggy Stardust. The island also later appeared in his music. Move On was the third track on Lodger, released in May 1979. Written by Bowie, the song centres on restlessness and travel, moving through references to Africa, Russia and Kyoto before Cyprus appears as somewhere more personal. Bowie sings: “Cyprus is my island, when the going’s rough.” The Cyprus holiday that helped create ABBA ABBA’s connection to Cyprus came before the group itself existed. According to ABBA’s official website, Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog travelled to Cyprus in the spring of 1970 on their engagement trip, accompanied by Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid “Frida” Lyngstad. All four already had musical careers, but they were not yet working together as a group. During the holiday, they sang together and were struck by how their voices sounded as a quartet. ABBA’s official history says “the idea for a collaboration between the four had been born” during the Cyprus trip. Writing about this early period, the same official account quotes Frida describing the emerging collaboration as “the birth of ABBA in a way”. The trip took the four to Famagusta, then one of the Mediterranean’s leading tourist resorts. Its Varosha district was abandoned following the Turkish invasion in 1974, just four years after ABBA’s visit, and has remained a ghost town ever since. Varosha Their informal singing also led to a spontaneous performance for UN soldiers stationed in Cyprus, according to a history of the group published by Biography.com. Art magazine Frieze has separately identified the Perroquet nightclub in Varosha as the venue for a 1970 performance by an early iteration of ABBA, although the precise venue is less firmly documented than the Cyprus trip itself. After returning to Sweden, their collaboration developed further. By 1974, four years after their Cyprus holiday, they had won Eurovision with Waterloo and become international stars. Rod Stewart’s £750,000 Anassa performance Rod Stewart’s Cyprus connection came much later and was considerably more extravagant. In March 2002, British businessman Philip Green brought around 200 guests to Cyprus for his 50th birthday celebrations at the five-star Anassa hotel near Polis Chrysochous. The Anassa Hotel, Cyprus The Independent reported at the time that the guests boarded a privately chartered Airbus A300 at Luton without initially knowing their destination. The three-day celebrations were estimated to have cost £5 million. Stewart was among a remarkable musical line-up that also included Tom Jones, George Benson and Earth, Wind & Fire. He was reportedly paid £750,000 for a performance lasting about 45 minutes. The main celebration was a Roman-themed toga party, with Green appearing as Emperor Nero. Reports at the time also described £50,000 being spent on flowers, £35,000 on caviar and a birthday cake weighing around 150kg. Unlike Bowie and ABBA, there is no strong evidence that Stewart developed a particular personal attachment to Cyprus or regularly holidayed on the island. Together, the three stories show very different sides of Cyprus’ place in music history: Bowie discovering the island through his wife and family, ABBA finding the beginnings of their four-person collaboration in Famagusta, and Stewart arriving decades later for one of the island’s most extravagant private concerts. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Shipping traffic through Strait of Hormuz rises slightly, data shows Climate change boosted risk of devastating Himalayan flood, experts say Six consequences of six months of war in Iran Flash flood causes widespread destruction in northern Nepal Things to do on Thursday, August 27 On this day: Mars passed 55.76 million km from Earth, the closest such encounter since the Stone Age, in 2003 Large education and sports complex planned for Kato Polemidia, development to fell 7,083 trees on protected land Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.