ABBA were the most commercially successful pop group of the 1970s, the origins of the Swedish superstars ABBA date way back to 1966, when keyboardist and vocalist Benny Andersson, a onetime member of the popular beat outfit the Hep Stars, first teamed with guitarist and vocalist Björn Ulvaeus, the leader of the folk-rock unit the Hootenanny Singers. The two performers began composing songs together and handling session and production work for Polar Music/Union Songs, a publishing company owned by Stig Anderson, himself a prolific songwriter throughout the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time, both Benny and Björn worked on projects with their respective girlfriends: Björn had become involved with vocalist Agnetha Fältskog, a performer with a recent number one Swedish hit, "I Was So in Love," under her belt, while Benny began seeing Anni-Frid Lyngstad, a one-time jazz singer who rose to fame by winning a national talent contest.
In 1971, Agnetha ventured into theatrical work, accepting the role of Mary Magdalene in a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar; her cover of the musical's "Don't Know How to Love Him" became a significant hit. The following year, the duo of Andersson and Ulvaeus scored a massive international hit with "People Need Love," which featured Agnetha and Frida on backing vocals. The record's success earned them an invitation to enter the Swedish leg of the 1973 Eurovision song contest, where, under the unwieldy name of Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida, they submitted "Ring Ring," which proved extremely popular with audiences but placed only third in the judges' ballots.
The next year, rechristened ABBA (a suggestion from Stig Anderson and an acronym of the members' first names), the quartet submitted the single "Waterloo," and became the first Swedish act to win the Eurovision competition. The record proved to be the first of many international hits, although the group hit a slump after their initial success as subsequent singles failed to chart. In 1975, however, ABBA issued "S.O.S.," a smash not only in America and Britain but also in non-English speaking countries such as Spain, Germany and the Benelux nations, where the group's success was fairly unprecedented. A string of hits followed, including "Mamma Mia," "Fernando," and "Dancing Queen" (ABBA's sole U.S. chart-topper), further honing their lush, buoyant sound; by the spring of 1976, they were already in position to issue their first Greatest Hits collection.
ABBA's popularity continued in 1977, when both "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "The Name of the Game" dominated airwaves. The group also starred in the feature film ABBA -- The Movie, which was released in 1978. That year Benny and Frida married, as had Björn and Agnetha in 1971, although the latter couple separated a few months later; in fact, romantic suffering was the subject of many songs on the quartet's next LP, 1979's Voulez-Vous. Shortly after the release of 1980s Super Trouper, Benny and Frida divorced as well, further straining the group dynamic; The Visitors, issued the following year, was the final LP of new ABBA material, and the foursome disbanded after the December 1982 release of their single "Under Attack."
Although all of the group's members soon embarked on new projects -- both Frida and Agnetha issued solo LPs, while Benny and Björn collaborated with Tim Rice on the musical Chess -- none proved as successful as the group's earlier work, largely because throughout much of the world, especially Europe and Australia, the ABBA phenomenon never went away. Repackaged hits compilations and live collections continued hitting the charts long after the group's demise, and new artists regularly pointed to the quartet's inspiration: while the British dance duo Erasure released a covers collection, ABBA-esque, an Australian group called Bjorn Again found success as ABBA impersonators. In 1993, "Dancing Queen" became a staple of U2's "Zoo TV" tour -- Benny and Björn even joined the Irish superstars on-stage in Stockholm -- while the 1995 feature Muriel's Wedding, which won acclaim for its depiction of a lonely Australian girl who seeks refuge in ABBA's music, helped bring the group's work to the attention of a new generation of moviegoers and music fans.
Agnetha Åse Fältskog was born on April 5th, 1950, in the southern Swedish town of Jönköping . Not even her parents, Ingvar and Birgit, could have predicted the fame their daughter would eventually achieve. Agnetha's father opened a door that would eventually lead to stardom. Ingvar Fältskog loved the local amateur dramatic society and often put together shows for the local community. In 1956, he organized a Christmas show that was Agnetha's stage debut. During her singing of the song, Billy Boy , an unfortunate but hilarious incident happened to Agnetha, her pants fell down! This did not discourage Agnetha at all, she had been taking piano lessons and was becoming quite good. She started to compose songs at an early age. She also played at a local church. At the age of thirteen, Agnetha with two of her friends, Lena Johansson and Elisabeth Strub, began singing and performing locally. They were called The Cambers . Agnetha idolized American singer, Connie Francis , and loved her style of music. At age 15, Agnetha decided to leave school and pursue a career.
In 1970, Benny and Björn were working together as a duo. During this time both couples were living with their respective partners. The girls were both pursuing individual careers. In 1970, Agnetha put out her third album, Som Jag Är . The first occasion that all four performed together was when Benny and Björn were scheduled to appear in a restaurant in Göteborg, Sweden. Agnetha and Anni-frid decided to help out their boyfriends. They came up with the name Festfolk, which can mean party people or engaged couples. This performance was a total disaster. None of the performers were very interested in the songs they were performing and the audience noticed
Agnetha - After ABBA
After ABBA's "break" both Agnetha and Frida embarked upon solo careers. Neither was particulary succesfull in the UK. Agnetha's first album, produced by Mike Chapman of the songwriting/producing partnership Chinnichap, reached a respectable number 18. The singles however were less succesfull. The first from the album; "The Heat Is On" charted at number 36 it was backed by the self-composed "Man". The second single; "Wrap Your Arms Around Me" charted at number 44. The last single "Can't Shake Loose" hit number 63.
The album was number 1 in Sweden as wa sthe single "The Heat Is On".
Agnetha's second solo album received a very posotive responce from critics. It featured lots of strong tracks written by such well-known's as Geoff Lynn (ELO) and Justin Hayward, it also featured the self-composed "I Wont Let You Go" with lyrics by Eric Stewart who produced the album, they used the same formulae for the B-side "You're There". The single charted at a dissapointing 84. Some critics suggested that had the album been released 10 years earlier it would have been a success, such was the flavour of the tracks. The album peaked at number 38.
Agnetha's last album of the 1980's was produced by Peter Cetera of Chicago fame. She was persuaded to fly over to L.A. to record it. The tracks had been decided by Peter. The single "The Last Time" peaked at number 77 in the UK and the album at number 72.
In 2004 Agnetha announced that she had signed to Warner music to release a brand new solo album. The album was a selection of cover songs by Agnetha. The first single "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind" created a massive hype all over the world. It smashed it's way through to make a record on it's first day for becoming the number 1 played record on Swedish airwaves in under 24 hours, a feat never before achieved. It reached number 2 in Sweden and number 11 in the UK, making it Agnetha's highest ever solo entry on UK charts.
The album, "My Colouring Book" followed and shot straight to number 1 in Sweden and number 12 in UK, again Agnetha's highest album position. In Germany, despite the lack of a single the album went all the way to number 6.
In June a secong single, "When You Walk In The Room" was released. It faired less well reaching number 11 in Sweden and number 34 in the UK.
Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad was born in Narvik, Norway on November 15th 1945. She was the daughter of a German Soldier, which due to the occupation of Norway during World War II bought a lot of hate towards Frida's mother, Synni Lyngstad, people in her village would spit at her or shout abuse because of going out with a German soldier and having his child. This lead to Synni's very premature death at the age of 21.
Frida's grandmother then took her to Sweden in 1947, and it was her who encouraged Frida to sing. She first sang in public, aged ten at a Red Cross Soiree and by the age of 13 was singing professionally with a dance band at a restuarant in Eskilstuna , though she had to lie about her age - she said that she was 16!
She then started singing with a big band lead by Bengt Sardlind, and Frida fell in love with another member, Ragnar Frederiksson, who with Frida went on to form the Anni-Frid 4. They also married and had two children, Hans and Liselotte. However she still wasn't satisfied and entered many local talent competitions and won. One lead her to compete on a talent contest on SVT's Hyland's Corner. She won, and signed a contract with EMI.
Despite this, she still didn't have much success, until she met Benny Andersson in 1969 who then became both her fiance and her producer! Her first hits came in 1971 and she then had solo sucesses even during Abba's first few years (as with Agnetha) up until 1975.
Frida - After ABBA
It was in 1982 when Frida decided to start solo recording and she chose Phil Collins as producer. By the end of 1982 Frida's first solo album called Something's Going On was released. It sold fairly well in the UK reaching the lower reaches of the Top 20 albums, though Frida was a little disappointed. The main single taken from the album I Know There's Something Going On did not do very well and only reached #44 in the UK.
Frida's second, and so far final, solo album called Shine was released in 1984. However it did not sell very well, as it was really too modern for its time. The sales of both the single and the album were dissapointing, even her loyal following n Europe seemed to stay well away. Frida said on the album: "I've released an album that didn't please the public. I can't afford to do this again, but I do think that I have been treated very badly by the record company in England who decided to release Heart Of The Country as a single. I think it was a poor choice. We did however think that Shine was a good first single but nobody bought it when it came out. Sunsequently, we didn't have a hit single to release the album on the back of and the whole album was a complete flop".
In the meantime, during 1983, Frida recorded the duet "Belle" with Daniel Balavoine for the French musical "Abbacadbra". She also recorded an English version "Time" with BA Robertson as well as guesting on an Adam Ant record as a favour to Phil Collins.
Djupa Andetag was Fridas first solo album in over 12 years and her first Swedish album for over 20 years.
It was a huge hit in Scandanavia, reaching number 1 and selling over 100 000 copies.
Frida asked Agnetha to sing with her on the duet "Alla mina bästa år" but Agnetha declined.
Frida recently recorded a new single with German singer Dan Daniel. It included an English cover of "I Have A Dream".
In 2004 Frida recorded a duet with ex- Deep Purple member Jon Lord. The song, "The Sun Will Shine Again" was written by Jon Lord for Frida.
Benny Andersson was born in a Stockholm suburb on 16th of December 1946. Unlike Bjorn's upbringing, Benny experienced a very musical background, both his father and grandfather enjoyed making music. At the age of six he got his first accordion and started playing together with his father Gösta and his grandfather Efraim.
Benny also learned how to play the piano. He became a member of The Hep Stars in October 1964. The following year the band achieved their breakthrough and quickly became Sweden 's number one pop group of the 1960s and where known as Sweden 's answer to The Beatles. Benny had helped write some of the group's own material but they mostly covered English hits in Swedish. In 1965 Benny wrote the song “Sunny Girl” with English lyrics, this was a big hit on the charts and when Benny realised that if he could write one hit single maybe he could write another, then another, the future would prove him right.
In 1966 when Benny was touring with his group The Hep Stars, another group, The Hootenanny Singers were also touring the folk parts. Benny was familiar with The Hootenany Singers as they were also enjoying success in the Swedish charts but the two groups had never met. At this particular time though the groups did meet and got on well together. The Hep stars were attending a party nearby and invited
the other band to come and join them. At the party is where Benny and Björn first got a chance to have a proper talk and get to know one another, they soon discovered they had a lot in common, writing and performing music. They talked of working together but nothing came of it until they later met and wrote their first song together, “Isn't It Easy To Say.”
In 1969 Benny left the Hep Stars after the group faced financial trouble, through the entire existence of the group they had paid no taxes on their success and were given a huge bill. Benny swore to pay the money back and he did.
After The Hep Stars he and Björn were developing their relationship and their careers, both now employees at Polar music writing for other acts and recording as a duo, they enjoyed success in Sweden and even in Japan .
Around the same time Benny met Anni-Frid ”Frida” Lyngstad and got engaged to her – they were eventually married in 1978. In November 1970, Benny, Frida and Björn staged a cabaret show together with Björn's fiancée, Agnetha Fältskog who he had met on a television special they were recording together in 1969, she was already a big music star in Sweden and had numerous hits to her credit.
Björn & Benny - After ABBA
In 1982 the group split, both Agnetha and Frida embarked on solo careers whereas Björn and Benny went on to write the successful musical Chess. They teamed up with English Lyricist, Tim Rice.
The concept of a musical had always appealed to Björn and Benny, they had several attempts, for their 1977 tour with ABBA they wrote a “mini-musical” “The Girl With The Golden Hair” it was later planned to expand this into a full size musical but after mixed reviews and ABBA's growing success it was postponed. Again in 1980 during recording sessions for the Super trouper album, the duo were on holiday in the Canary Islands and met up with English comedian, John Cleese and proposed the idea for a new musical about a New Years Eve party and asked him if he was interested in writing it, unfortunately he declined but a resulting song, “Happy New Year” was recorded and released on the Super Trouper album.
This time they were taking a “break” from ABBA and were looking to do a musical at the same time Tim Rice had developed a concept of a Chess musical based on the game of chess with a love story. He had already proposed the idea to Andrew Lloyd Webber who he had previously teamed up with on the musicals, Evita and Jesus Christ Super Star although he declined as he was busy on his own musical, Cats. When he heard Björn and Benny were interested in writing a musical he contacted them and they started work. Before presenting the musical they recorded an album first with such artists as Elaine Paige and Murray Head. Four singles were released from the album, “I Know Him So Well” a duet between Elaine Paige and Barbara Dixon was a huge success scoring number 1 in the UK . Other singles such as “Nobody's Side” (Elaine Paige) and “One Night In Bangkok” were also UK successes, the later scoring the number 3 position in the US , it is also said to be Björn and Benny's biggest selling single worldwide (including all ABBA's singles).
Also in 1983 another musical, ABBACadabra was put together based on ABBA songs re-written. Although Björn and Benny weren't directly involved they contributed two songs, “Time” and “I Am The Seeker.”
Chess was a huge success and ran for four years. After Chess in 1985 Björn and Benny started work on a new album with Anders and Karin Glenmark, brother/sister act “Gemini”, they wrote songs for the album but it had little success even in Scandinavia . The album included a re-attempt at the unreleased ABBA recording “Just Like That”. A later Gemini album, Geminism was released two years later again with little success although a single from the album, “Mio my Mio” the theme song to a Swedish film of the same name hit number 1 in Sweden.
By 1990, Björn and Benny had decided to write a new musical. This time they wanted to write exclusively in Swedish, and they chose the Emigrants novel series by author Vilhelm Moberg as basis for their work. The musical Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina From Duvemåla) opened in October 1995. The show ran for three and a half years at various theatres in the Swedish cities of Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm . They also wrote and produced the album Shapes for Jossefin Nilsson a Swedish singing star, the album even was released in the UK but due to no publicity or promotion failed.
The 1990's were also a good time for ABBA. In 1992 “Dancing Queen was re-released as a single reaching an impressive number 16 but this was just a taster of what was to come. In October 1992 the compilation album ABBA Gold was released reaching the number one position and staying in the charts for over 200 weeks. The follow up album More ABBA Gold also was successful reaching the UK top 20. ABBA Gold holds the record for longest time between number 1 status when it reached number 1 again in 1999 and stayed there for 5 weeks and remaining another 100+ weeks in the chart.
In 1999 Johan Englung head of production company, Nordic Artist decided to arrange a series of concerts commemorating the work of Sweden 's finest musicians, Björn and Benny. The concerts would include lots of Björn and Benny materials right from their early Swedish workings together up to present. Four artists, Anders and Karin Glenmark (of Gemini), Tommy Körberg and Helen Sjöholm would present the songs. They came known as the B&B concerts and toured Sweden and later went over to China , they are yet to come to any other part of the world.
Recently, Björn has involved himself heavily in the staging of Mamma Mia!, a musical based on ABBA songs. The show opened in London , England in April 1999 and has since then been staged in Toronto in Canada , and Melbourne , Australia . A tour of the United States culminated in a Broadway opening in October 2001. At the end of 2002 Mamma Mia! will open in Hamburg, Germany and Tokyo, Japan and more recently helped re-work lyrics to the song “Another You, Another Me” produced for Gemini for British duo H & Claire of Steps fame, it was released on the album of the same title but a single release is yet to be seen. The musical Chess was re-worked in 2002 and is now showing to Swedish audiences, it has been reported work has started on an English version of Kristina. Even more recently “The Definitive Collection” DVD was released worldwide which included all of ABBA's music videos (pioneers in the field) with extra footage, it charted at a massive number 2 on the UK music DVD charts, showing that even 20 years after their international success with ABBA the music of Björn and Benny remains well loved and popular among the world's general public.
Björn Ulvaeus was born on the 25 th April 1945 in the small town of Västervik , Sweden , just off the Baltic. He lived with his father Gunnar and his mother Aina. Just after Björn was born the small family moved to Hunnebostrand, a small fishing village north of Gothenburg , Sweden 's second largest city. Here his father started a shipyard for small boats. In 1948 another child was born, Eva.
As a child Björn would spend time at his father's shipyard, working and helping out. In 1949 the shipyard went bankrupt and the family was forced to move on again. In 1951 they moved back to Västervik.
In school Björn was an average student although his favourite subject was English. His interest in languages developed a skill in poetry encouraged by his teacher. At home music didn't play a big part in general life, they didn't even own a record player, but Björn listened to music on his own radio which provided his only source for popular music at the time, He got his first practical music experience playing the recorder at school although this didn't push him with any interest, that came from his older cousin who would play the trumpet and piano, he was attracted to both the playing of the instruments and actually performing. For his 13 th birthday he got an acoustic guitar and started learning to play. He and his cousin formed a small band, they covered English hits of the time such as, Elvis and Buddy Holly.
By the late fifties Björn was good enough on guitar to perform songs alone. In 1959 he went over to London for work experience at a paper mill. His ambition career wise was to become a successful ship builder, although this was practical it wasn't really what he wanted. In 1961 his cousin left the town but Björn joined another band with friends, they quickly became a local attraction under the name, The Partners but discovered another group also went by this name so they settled for The West Bay Singers. They went on a six week trip around Europe and performed some of their songs with success, although no serious talk of making music a full time occupation but in 1963 they entered a talent contest on Swedish radio. Among the contestants was a young girl named Anni-Frid Lyngstad, she meant nothing to any of The West Bay Singers but she would especially to one in particular. An article was printed in a Swedish newspaper about the contest and a head at a new Swedish record company, Polar Music spotted the article and met the band. They met with the head of Polar Music Stig Anderson. He persuaded the group to change their name to, The Hootenany Singers. In 1967 the group scored their first major hit in Sweden “Green, Green Grass of Home” a Tom Jones cover.
Björn started writing music and lyrics for other Polar acts which soon became hits. In 1966 when touring Björn got very friendly with Benny Andersson of another popular group in Sweden The Hep Stars. In November 1970, Benny, Frida and Björn staged a cabaret show together with Björn's fiancée, Agnetha Fältskog who he had met on a television special they were recording together in 1969, she was already a big music star in Sweden and had numerous hits to her credit.
Björn & Benny - After ABBA
In 1982 the group split, both Agnetha and Frida embarked on solo careers whereas Björn and Benny went on to write the successful musical Chess. They teamed up with English Lyricist, Tim Rice.
The concept of a musical had always appealed to Björn and Benny, they had several attempts, for their 1977 tour with ABBA they wrote a “mini-musical” “The Girl With The Golden Hair” it was later planned to expand this into a full size musical but after mixed reviews and ABBA's growing success it was postponed. Again in 1980 during recording sessions for the Super trouper album, the duo were on holiday in the Canary Islands and met up with English comedian, John Cleese and proposed the idea for a new musical about a New Years Eve party and asked him if he was interested in writing it, unfortunately he declined but a resulting song, “Happy New Year” was recorded and released on the Super Trouper album.
This time they were taking a “break” from ABBA and were looking to do a musical at the same time Tim Rice had developed a concept of a Chess musical based on the game of chess with a love story. He had already proposed the idea to Andrew Lloyd Webber who he had previously teamed up with on the musicals, Evita and Jesus Christ Super Star although he declined as he was busy on his own musical, Cats. When he heard Björn and Benny were interested in writing a musical he contacted them and they started work. Before presenting the musical they recorded an album first with such artists as Elaine Paige and Murray Head. Four singles were released from the album, “I Know Him So Well” a duet between Elaine Paige and Barbara Dixon was a huge success scoring number 1 in the UK . Other singles such as “Nobody's Side” (Elaine Paige) and “One Night In Bangkok” were also UK successes, the later scoring the number 3 position in the US , it is also said to be Björn and Benny's biggest selling single worldwide (including all ABBA's singles).
Also in 1983 another musical, ABBACadabra was put together based on ABBA songs re-written. Although Björn and Benny weren't directly involved they contributed two songs, “Time” and “I Am The Seeker.”
Chess was a huge success and ran for four years. After Chess in 1985 Björn and Benny started work on a new album with Anders and Karin Glenmark, brother/sister act “Gemini”, they wrote songs for the album but it had little success even in Scandinavia . The album included a re-attempt at the unreleased ABBA recording “Just Like That”. A later Gemini album, Geminism was released two years later again with little success although a single from the album, “Mio my Mio” the theme song to a Swedish film of the same name hit number 1 in Sweden.
By 1990, Björn and Benny had decided to write a new musical. This time they wanted to write exclusively in Swedish, and they chose the Emigrants novel series by author Vilhelm Moberg as basis for their work. The musical Kristina från Duvemåla (Kristina From Duvemåla) opened in October 1995. The show ran for three and a half years at various theatres in the Swedish cities of Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm . They also wrote and produced the album Shapes for Jossefin Nilsson a Swedish singing star, the album even was released in the UK but due to no publicity or promotion failed.
The 1990's were also a good time for ABBA. In 1992 “Dancing Queen was re-released as a single reaching an impressive number 16 but this was just a taster of what was to come. In October 1992 the compilation album ABBA Gold was released reaching the number one position and staying in the charts for over 200 weeks. The follow up album More ABBA Gold also was successful reaching the UK top 20. ABBA Gold holds the record for longest time between number 1 status when it reached number 1 again in 1999 and stayed there for 5 weeks and remaining another 100+ weeks in the chart.
In 1999 Johan Englung head of production company, Nordic Artist decided to arrange a series of concerts commemorating the work of Sweden 's finest musicians, Björn and Benny. The concerts would include lots of Björn and Benny materials right from their early Swedish workings together up to present. Four artists, Anders and Karin Glenmark (of Gemini), Tommy Körberg and Helen Sjöholm would present the songs. They came known as the B&B concerts and toured Sweden and later went over to China , they are yet to come to any other part of the world.
Recently, Björn has involved himself heavily in the staging of Mamma Mia!, a musical based on ABBA songs. The show opened in London , England in April 1999 and has since then been staged in Toronto in Canada , and Melbourne , Australia . A tour of the United States culminated in a Broadway opening in October 2001. At the end of 2002 Mamma Mia! will open in Hamburg, Germany and Tokyo, Japan and more recently helped re-work lyrics to the song “Another You, Another Me” produced for Gemini for British duo H & Claire of Steps fame, it was released on the album of the same title but a single release is yet to be seen. The musical Chess was re-worked in 2002 and is now showing to Swedish audiences, it has been reported work has started on an English version of Kristina. Even more recently “The Definitive Collection” DVD was released worldwide which included all of ABBA's music videos (pioneers in the field) with extra footage, it charted at a massive number 2 on the UK DVD charts, showing that even 20 years after their international success with ABBA the music of Björn and Benny remains well loved and popular among the world's general public.
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ABBA were the most commercially successful pop group of the 1970s, the origins of the Swedish superstars ABBA date way back to 1966, when keyboardist and vocalist Benny Andersson, a onetime member of the popular beat outfit the Hep Stars, first teamed with guitarist and vocalist Björn Ulvaeus, the leader of the folk-rock unit the Hootenanny Singers. The two performers began composing songs together and handling session and production work for Polar Music/Union Songs, a publishing company owned by Stig Anderson, himself a prolific songwriter throughout the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time, both Benny and Björn worked on projects with their respective girlfriends: Björn had become involved with vocalist Agnetha Fältskog, a performer with a recent number one Swedish hit, "I Was So in Love," under her belt, while Benny began seeing Anni-Frid Lyngstad, a one-time jazz singer who rose to fame by winning a national talent contest.
Agnetha Åse Fältskog was born on April 5th, 1950, in the southern Swedish town of Jönköping . Not even her parents, Ingvar and Birgit, could have predicted the fame their daughter would eventually achieve. Agnetha's father opened a door that would eventually lead to stardom. Ingvar Fältskog loved the local amateur dramatic society and often put together shows for the local community. In 1956, he organized a Christmas show that was Agnetha's stage debut. During her singing of the song, Billy Boy , an unfortunate but hilarious incident happened to Agnetha, her pants fell down! This did not discourage Agnetha at all, she had been taking piano lessons and was becoming quite good. She started to compose songs at an early age. She also played at a local church. At the age of thirteen, Agnetha with two of her friends, Lena Johansson and Elisabeth Strub, began singing and performing locally. They were called The Cambers . Agnetha idolized American singer, Connie Francis , and loved her style of music. At age 15, Agnetha decided to leave school and pursue a career.
Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad was born in Narvik, Norway on November 15th 1945. She was the daughter of a German Soldier, which due to the occupation of Norway during World War II bought a lot of hate towards Frida's mother, Synni Lyngstad, people in her village would spit at her or shout abuse because of going out with a German soldier and having his child. This lead to Synni's very premature death at the age of 21.
Benny Andersson was born in a Stockholm suburb on 16th of December 1946. Unlike Bjorn's upbringing, Benny experienced a very musical background, both his father and grandfather enjoyed making music. At the age of six he got his first accordion and started playing together with his father Gösta and his grandfather Efraim.
Björn Ulvaeus was born on the 25 th April 1945 in the small town of Västervik , Sweden , just off the Baltic. He lived with his father Gunnar and his mother Aina. Just after Björn was born the small family moved to Hunnebostrand, a small fishing village north of Gothenburg , Sweden 's second largest city. Here his father started a shipyard for small boats. In 1948 another child was born, Eva.