"Chiquitita" (which roughly means "little girl" in Spanish) was the first single release from ABBA's Voulez-Vous album. Originally, the track "If It Wasn't for the Nights" was going to be the album's lead single. Many preliminary versions of "Chiquitita" exist. It had working titles of "Kålsupare", "3 Wise Guys", "Chiquitita Angelina" & "In The Arms of Rosalita". A revised version, which had a sound that was partly influenced by the song "El Condor Pasa (If I Could)" by Simon and Garfunkel, was recorded in December 1978 and released as a single in January 1979.
With the success of the English version, ABBA also recorded "Chiquitita" in Spanish simply by phonetics.
It was featured in the 1979 UNICEF charity event, the Music for UNICEF Concert.
As a direct result of this event, ABBA donated half of all royalties from the song to UNICEF.