How strutting your stuff to ABBA's Dancing Queen could help boost your heart health
Researchers found that dancing to the track, which is about 100 beats per minute, results in a healthier heart rate than faster songs of 140bpm, such as Michael Jackson's Beat It.
Published: 01:55 GMT, 28 December 2025 | Updated: 08:22 GMT, 28 December 2025
It topped the charts for six weeks when released in 1976, was sung by Meryl Streep in the film Mamma Mia! and has been streamed almost two billion times.
And now it turns out that Abba’s hit Dancing Queen could help to improve heart health.
Researchers found that dancing to the track, which is about 100 beats per minute, results in a healthier heart rate than faster songs of 140bpm, such as Michael Jackson’s Beat It or Coldplay’s Viva La Vida.
Dancing Queen also outperforms slower classics, such as Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline, which is about 60bpm.
Scientists wanted to see how strutting your stuff to differently paced tunes affected heart rates – a measure of how much the body’s pulse varies between heartbeats.
Low heart rate variability can increase the risk of dying from a cardiac arrest, studies show.
Researchers from Yan‘an University in China attached electrodes to 160 students to trace their heart rates.
They were split into three groups: one dancing to 140bpm tracks, another to 100bpm hits and the third to 60bpm songs.
Researchers have found dancing to Swedish pop group Abba's 1976 hit Dancing Queen can result in a healthier heart rate
After several five-minute dance sessions, the changes in heart rate variability from before and after recruits hit the dance floor were examined.
Variability was significantly larger – a sign of cardiac fitness – after dancing to the 100bpm tracks than boogieing to 140bpm or 60bpm.
Researchers, whose study was published in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, said: ‘Excessively fast rhythms may raise the risk of post-exercise cardiac events.
‘To minimise the risk of a heart attack or sudden cardiac death, dance rhythm should not exceed 100bpm.’