Anni-Frid Synni, Princess Reuss of Plauen (
German:
Anni-Frid Synni, Prinzessin Reuss von Plauen; born
Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad,
pronounced [ˈlʏŋstɑːd], 15 November 1945), widely known as
Frida Lyngstad or by just the mononym
Frida, is a Norwegian-born Swedish
pop
and jazz singer.
Born in Norway to a Norwegian mother and a German
father, she grew up in Sweden and was a member of the Swedish
group ABBA[1]
between 1972 and 1982. After the break-up of ABBA, she continued an
international solo singing career with mixed success.
In 1997, Frida
recorded her final album before 'retiring' from music. She now focuses
on environmental issues and intends to return to the music business
soon.
[citation needed]
In April 1964, aged 18 she married Ragnar Fredriksson. Immediately
after their divorce in 1970, Lyngstad courted eventual ABBA band member
Benny Andersson, co-habiting until they officially married in 1978.
The couple divorced in 1981. In 1992, Lyngstad married
Heinrich Ruzzo Prince Reuss of Plauen, who was a
German Prince of the former sovereign
House of Reuss. The prince died of
lymphoma in October 1999.
Lyngstad currently lives in
Zermatt, Switzerland, sharing a home with her
British boyfriend,
Henry Smith, 5th Viscount Hambleden, since 2008.
Early life
Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad was born in Bjørkåsen, a small village in
Ballangen near
Narvik,
in northern Norway, to a Norwegian mother, Synni Lyngstad (19 June
1926 – 28 September 1947), and a German soldier father, a Sergeant in
the Wehrmacht, Alfred Haase (1919 - 2009) just after the end of the
Second World War and the
German occupation of Norway.
[2]
Lyngstad's father returned to Germany when his troops were evacuated.
[2]
In early 1947, Lyngstad, her mother, and her maternal grandmother,
Arntine Lyngstad ("Agny"), left her birthplace, fearing reprisals
against those who had dealings with the Germans during the occupation.
This could entail not just insults and threats, but also forced
separation of infants from their parents and relatives (see
War children).
[2]
Lyngstad was taken by her grandmother to Sweden, where they settled in the region of
Härjedalen
and her grandmother took any available job. Lyngstad's mother, Synni,
remained in Norway and worked for a period in the south of the country.
Synni joined her mother and daughter in Sweden, and the three moved to
Malmköping (72 km from Stockholm).
Synni soon died of
kidney failure, aged 21 leaving Lyngstad to be raised solely by her grandmother.
In June 1949, they both relocated to
Torshälla (just outside of
Eskilstuna),
where Agny Lyngstad worked as a seamstress. Frida Lyngstad grew up in
Torshälla and began attending school there in August 1952.
Close contact
with her family in Norway (notably her uncle and four aunts) continued,
and Lyngstad recalls summer holidays spent with them at her birthplace.
She was especially close to her Aunt Olive, who once stated that she
saw how lonely and subdued Frida was and, as a result, always did her
best to make her feel loved and welcomed during visits.
Lyngstad believed that her father, Alfred Haase, had died during the
war on his way back to Germany as his ship was reported to have sunk.
However, in 1977, the
German teen magazine Bravo
published a poster and a complete biography with details of Lyngstad's
background, including the names of her father and mother.
It was seen by
Lyngstad's half-brother, Peter Haase, who went to his father and asked
him if he had been in Ballangen during the war.
A few months later,
Lyngstad met Haase in Stockholm for the first time.
[3]
Career
1958–1969: Early work
Lyngstad stated in several interviews that her grandmother frequently
sang songs to her (notably old Norwegian songs), which resulted in her
love for music.
She soon showed musical talent at a very early age,
beginning in her first years at school. On Fridays, she was often asked
by her teacher to sing in front of the class and soon became known in
school and in the neighborhood for her beautiful voice.
Although her
grandmother encouraged her to sing (according to Lyngstad herself), she
never attended any of her performances. Her grandmother died shortly
before ABBA formed and therefore never experienced the success of the
group.
At the age of 13, she got her first job as a
dance band and
schlager
singer in 1958, with the Evald Eks Orchestra. Evald Ek himself
remembers: "It was hard to believe, such a young person could sing that
well.
She was so easy to rehearse with and she was never shy onstage.
The only thing I taught her was to sing out. In those days, she had a
tendency of holding back her voice a little."
With the Evald Eks
Orchestra, the 13-year-old Lyngstad, performed every weekend in front of
a dancing audience. The sets often lasted up to five hours.
The songs
she liked most to sing were the evergreens;
"All of Me",
"Night and Day" and
"Begin the Beguine".
[4]
To advance and develop, she also started to take singing lessons.
Later, she teamed up with a 15-piece 'big band', who performed a
jazz repertoire covering
Glenn Miller,
Duke Ellington and
Count Basie; her vocal idols being
Ella Fitzgerald and
Peggy Lee. In 1963, she formed her own band, the Anni-Frid Four.
On 3 September 1967, Frida won the Swedish national talent competition, "New Faces", arranged by record company
EMI and held at
Skansen,
Stockholm. The song she chose to sing was "En Ledig Dag" ("A Day Off").
The first prize in this contest was a recording contract with
EMI
Sweden. Unbeknownst to Lyngstad, the winner of the contest was also
expected to appear the same evening in the country's most popular TV
show at that time,
Hylands Hörna.
This happened on the same day
Sweden switched
from driving on the left side of the road to the right side. Driving on
that day was discouraged, so most of the nation was watching TV that
night.
Frida performed her winning song live. (The performance can be
seen on
Frida - The DVD)
This first exposure to a wider television audience caused a
sensation, and many record companies and producers contacted Frida
immediately.
EMI
executives, fearing they might lose their new singer, took the
precaution of driving from Stockholm to Frida's home in Eskilstuna the
next morning with a recording contract for her to sign. EMI producer
Olle Bergman remembers: "
We got so interested and fond of her and I thought she had everything a person needs to become something."
[5]
On 11 September 1967, Frida recorded the vocals for "En Ledig Dag",
which was to become her first single for EMI Sweden. Professional and
self-assured on this first day in the studio, she recorded the vocals in
just one take.
[6]
The early songs she recorded for EMI Sweden are included in the EMI compilation
Frida 1967-1972, digitally remastered and released by EMI Sweden in 1997.
On 29 January 1968, she performed this song on national TV, and at this occasion briefly met future
ABBA member
Agnetha Fältskog,
who also performed her first single in the same programme. Lyngstad
toured Sweden in 1968, and recorded several singles for EMI. She decided
to move to
Stockholm to start working full-time as a singer.
In 1969, she participated in
Melodifestivalen – the Swedish heats for the
Eurovision Song Contest – with the song "Härlig är vår jord" ("Our Earth Is Wonderful"), and finished fourth.
1970–1971: Pre-ABBA
Her first album,
Frida,
produced by her then-fiancé Andersson, was released in 1971.
The album
received unanimously generous praise from the critics and the press, who
especially noted the precision and versatility of Lyngstad's voice.
For
example, Sweden's biggest morning paper
Dagens Nyheter (Daily
News) wrote: "Professional, sure and certain LP-debut ... low-key but
self-assured personality with sprinkles of temperament, humor and
tenderness.
And she sings in such a way that you understand that she's
got something between her ears – she sings, in other words, in a very
intelligent way". She now scored her first Swedish No.1 hit with "Min
Egen Stad" ("My Own Town").
All four future members of ABBA sang back-up
vocals on this song. The album is now included in the
EMI compilation
Frida 1967-1972.
Frida continued to play in cabarets, and tour and regularly perform
on TV and radio. Subsequently, her relationship with Andersson, and
friendship with
Björn Ulvaeus and
Agnetha Fältskog led to the formation of ABBA.
In 1972, after five years at EMI Sweden, Lyngstad changed record companies and moved to the
Polar Music
label. She recorded the single "Man vill ju leva lite dessemellan"
("One wants to live a little from time to time"), which became her
second No. 1 hit on the Swedish charts.
1972–1982: ABBA years
At first, Lyngstad was hesitant to perform with her boyfriend
Benny Andersson, his best friend
Björn Ulvaeus and his wife,
Agnetha Fältskog.
[7]
Their first project together was the cabaret act
Festfolk,
which flopped in the winter of 1970–1971. The following year, 'Frida'
toured on her own while the other three future ABBA members started
performing together on a regular basis.
[8]
Eventually, she rejoined them. Andersson and Ulvaeus were busy
producing other artists, but soon discovered the qualities of Lyngstad's
and Fältskog's voices combined: ABBA came to life.
Frida sang solo parts in the following ABBA songs: "
Andante, Andante", "Cassandra", "
Fernando", "Gonna Sing You My Lovesong", "I Am the City", "
I Have a Dream", "
I Let The Music Speak", "I'm a Marionette", "I Wonder (Departure)", "
The King Has Lost His Crown", "
Knowing Me, Knowing You", "
Like an Angel Passing Through My Room", "
Lovers (Live a Little Longer)", "
Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother", "
Me and I", "
Money, Money, Money", "
The Name Of The Game", "
One Man, One Woman", "
Our Last Summer", "Put On Your White Sombrero", "
Should I Laugh or Cry", "
Super Trouper", "Tropical Loveland", "
The Visitors", "
The Way Old Friends Do", "
When All Is Said And Done" and "You Owe Me One" and her voice was of course clearly audible on most other ABBA tracks as well.
Lyngstad clearly enjoyed the spotlight more than the other three
members of ABBA. She truly liked to tour and to meet audience members
one-to-one.
[9]
She took an active part in co-designing the famed ABBA costumes for their tours and TV performances.
[10]
Since the members of ABBA went their separate ways, Frida has been the
only one who openly regrets there has never been a reunion to date.
Frida Lyngstad and Benny Andersson 1976
Her next solo album, in Swedish, was
Frida ensam, (
Frida Alone), released in 1975 during the ABBA years, and produced by
Benny Andersson.
This album includes her successful Swedish version of "
Fernando",
which stayed at the no. 1 spot in the Svensktoppen radio charts for 9
weeks, but was never released as a single.
The album was recorded
between sessions of the ABBA albums "
Waterloo" and "
ABBA".
Due to the rising popularity of the group, the album took 18 months to
record.
It became an enormous commercial and critical success in Sweden,
topping the Swedish album charts for six weeks and remaining in the
charts for 38.
The album was mostly a collection of covers of songs by
artists like the
Beach Boys,
10cc and
David Bowie, receiving positive reviews from
Melody Maker:
"The album portrays Frida as a very strong and emotive singer and shows
the true value of the music, that if sung properly and with enough
feeling it transcends all language barriers".
This album was such a big
success, it eventually went platinum.
1982–1984: International solo career
Lyngstad in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 1982
In 1982, during ABBA's last year as a working band, Frida recorded
and released her first post-Abba solo album.
This was also her first
solo album in English. The
Phil Collins-produced album was called
Something's Going On,
and became a big success for Frida worldwide.
A much rockier sound was
found on many of the songs and Phil Collins' drum sound contributed a
lot, especially on the lead single.
The album sold 1.5 million copies
[3] and spawned the successful single "
I Know There's Something Going On",
which topped the charts in Switzerland, Belgium, Costa Rica and France,
where it stayed No 1 for five weeks.
The song also reached the top five
in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Norway and Australia amongst
others.
In the United States, the single reached #13 in March 1983 on
the
Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on
Radio & Records, and was the 20th biggest selling single in the US that year.
The song and its video were heavily promoted and played on
MTV. The album itself received good reviews, with
Billboard
writing: "ABBA's auburn-haired songstress makes a bold solo project a
stunning success", while Mark Coleman described the album in the third
edition of
Rolling Stone Album Guide as "
a sharp, rock-oriented, delightfully eclectic album".
William Cooper had a similar opinion in
AllMusic:
"Frida escapes the creative limitations of being a member of one of the
world's most popular groups on this solid and often riveting album".
Swedish Television
SVT
documented this historical event by filming the whole recording
process.
The result became a one-hour TV documentary, including
interviews with Frida and Phil, Björn and Benny, as well as all the
musicians on the album.
Due to the success of this album and its lead
single, Frida was voted "Best Female Artist Of The Year" 1982, by the
readers of Sweden's biggest evening paper
Aftonbladet, receiving the Swedish Music Award Price
Rockbjörnen.
In 1983, Lyngstad assisted with
Abbacadabra, and recorded one of the tracks with two different male vocalists in different languages, including Frenchman
Daniel Balavoine on the track "Belle" and on the English version "Time" with
B. A. Robertson.
This track was a cover of "
Arrival", an instrumental track from the ABBA album of the same name.
Lyngstad's next album was the experimental
Shine (1984).
This album was recorded at Studios De La Grande Armée in Paris, France and produced by
Steve Lillywhite, known for his work with artists like
Peter Gabriel,
U2,
Rolling Stones and
Morrissey
amongst others.
The young producer Lillywhite was only 25 when this
album was recorded and he gave Frida a very experimental sound and
managed to create a relaxed atmosphere in the studio.
The album had much
less success than hoped, though it reached the Top 20 in many European
countries, #6 in Sweden being its highest position.
1985–2004: Later career
In 1986 Frida was in the choir for the recording of her former
husband Benny Andersson's song "Klinga Mina Klockor".
Also in 1987,
Lyngstad recorded the single "Så Länge Vi Har Varann" ("As Long As We
Have Each Other") with the Swedish pop group Ratata, one of Lyngstad's
favourites.
She was contacted by singer
Mauro Scocco, who mentioned that he had a song suitable for a duet. After hearing it, Lyngstad accepted immediately.
[11]
The song achieved great success in Sweden, and was also recorded in
English under the title of "As long as I have you".
An English-language
video of the song was produced, although an Australian release of this
song on Festival Records in January 1998 was eventually shelved.
In 1990, Lyngstad became a member of the committee of the Swedish environmental organization
Det Naturliga Steget (
The Natural Step).
The organization wanted a "famous face" to help them reach the public,
and in 1991 she became chairwoman for the organization
Artister För Miljö (
Artists For The Environment).
In 1992, Lyngstad performed live at the
Stockholm Water Festival at the Kings Castle and released the environmental charity single with her cover of
Julian Lennon's song "Saltwater". All the money from this single went to charity.
In 1993, on
Queen Silvia's 50th birthday, Frida was asked to perform "
Dancing Queen" on stage, as performed by ABBA when the king and queen got married. Frida contacted
The Real Group
and together they performed the song at the Stockholm Opera House in
front of the king and queen.
The Swedish prime minister at the time,
Ingvar Carlsson, also present that night, said it was an ingenious step
to do "Dancing Queen" a cappella. This performance was filmed by Swedish
TV and can be seen in
Frida - The DVD.
In 1996, Lyngstad recorded her Swedish language album
Djupa andetag (
Deep Breaths).
It was a long-awaited album as 12 years had passed since
Shine
was released.
The album attracted overall relatively positive reviews
and was a success in Sweden where it became #1 on the album chart.
Frida
did many TV appearances in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland to
promote the album.
Djupa andetag was one of the first Swedish albums to be released as a combined audio-video
CD-ROM,
including interviews with Lyngstad, footage from the making of the
album, as well as promotional videos.
Despite the fact that
Djupa andetag was officially only released in Scandinavia and the songs were entirely sung in Swedish, a remix album of the single tracks "
Även en blomma", "Alla Mina Bästa År" (a duet with
Roxette's
Marie Fredriksson) and "Ögonen" was released in Germany in 1998, entitled
Frida - The Mixes.
Despite the success of the album, none of these singles made a big
impression on the Swedish charts, leaving Frida very disappointed and
she would never to record an album again.
A one-hour documentary about
the making of this album, both in the studio and from Frida's home in
Mallorca, Spain, can be seen in
Frida - The DVD.
A follow-up album with producer
Anders Glenmark
was reportedly in the works, but was shelved due to the death of
Frida's daughter in 1998. Lyngstad dedicated the song "Chemistry
Tonight" (co-written by
Kirsty MacColl,) to the songwriter after her death in 2000.
A few low key and one-off recordings followed, including a 2002 duet with opera singer
Filippa Giordano of the "
Barcarolle" from
Jacques Offenbach's
Les contes d'Hoffman as well as the song "The Sun Will Shine Again", written by former
Deep Purple member
Jon Lord, and recorded in 2004.
"Barcarolle" is only available on the Japanese edition of Giordano's album
Rosso Amore and "The Sun Will Shine Again" can be found on Jon Lord's album
Beyond The Notes
(although a limited-promotional single had been made available).
Lord
and Lyngstad made several TV appearances in Germany performing the song,
on shows like
The Sunday Night Classics and
The Golden Henne Gala.
Lyngstad also joined Lord on stage singing the song during his European
autumn tour in 2004.
During this tour, she also performed "In the Deep
Midwinter", a performance of which can be found on social media.
For the 2004 semi-final of the
Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Istanbul thirty years after
ABBA had won the contest in Brighton, Lyngstad appeared in a special comedy video made for the interval act, entitled
Our Last Video.
Each of the four members of the group appeared briefly in cameo roles, as did, amongst others,
Cher and British comedian
Rik Mayall.
The video was not included in the official DVD release of the
Eurovision Contest, but was issued as a separate DVD release on the
Universal Music label.
It was billed as the first time the four had
worked together since the group split in 1982 although they each filmed
their appearances separately.
Also in 2004, Lyngstad appeared with
former band mates Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus at London's fifth
anniversary performance of
Mamma Mia!, the musical based on ABBA songs.
In 2005, she joined all three of her former ABBA colleagues at the Swedish premiere of
Mamma Mia! at the arena Cirkus in Stockholm.
2005–Present: after music
On 15 November 2005, to celebrate Lyngstad's 60th birthday,
Universal Records released the box set
Frida, consisting of all the solo albums she recorded for
Polar Music, all digitally remastered and including a set of bonus tracks.
Also included was
Frida - The DVD,
a 3½ hour documentary where Lyngstad talks about her entire career in
the music business. Filmed in the Swiss Alps, she talks about her
singing technique and about her career both before and after Abba and
explains how songs were performed and recorded.
In collaboration with
Swedish TV,
SVT,
the film included many rare TV clips from her early performances, like
her first TV performance with "En Ledig Dag", ("A Day Off"). Also
included are TV-documentaries about the making and recordings of
Something's Going On and
Djupa andetag (
Deep Breaths).
In September 2010, a new album by musician
Georg Wadenius
titled "Reconnection" was released.
Frida and George had discussed
working together for many years, as they had long been good friends.
The
album opens with her rendition of the traditional tune
Morning Has Broken popularized by
Cat Stevens.
This song by Cat Stevens, is a favourite for Frida and the song was
also on the playlist in the church for Frida and Prince Ruzzo's wedding
on August 26, 1992.
On 16 February 2011 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a 45-minute play featuring
Frida and the play's writer, long term fan and performer Christopher
Green.
The play,
Like An Angel Passing Through My Room, was
billed as 'a story about love. The unconditional love of a devoted
fan ... about a real and an imagined intimacy.'
It was a project several
years in the making; what started as an upbeat reflection on fame and
the notion of being a fan, developed into a meditation on the
communication between two people and coping with the blows life deals.
In an interview with Frida she and Green talked about her long recovery
from the death of her husband in 1999.
The play is reflective but with a
comic sensibility. Frida stated in 2004 that she never intended to
return to the music industry although this was short lived and future
studio albums were discussed in 2010.
Nothing ever came of them and
Frida has never returned to recording music since. After the death of
her friend
Jon Lord, in 2013, Frida has almost become almost a recluse, rarely seen in the public eye.
In 2013, Frida helped organise the opening of the
ABBA Museum in
Stockholm stated she wanted to 'let ABBA rest'.
The Long awaited
ABBA reunion was expected to happen in 2014 to celebrate their win at the
Eurovision Song Contest in 1974, some 40 years prior, but this never happened, disappointing fans.
Frida met with fellow
ABBA member
Agnetha Faltskog in
Majorca, where the pair talked about singing together but no information regarding this has been released.
In 2015 Frida, along with Dan Daniell, released the single "1865" about the
Matterhorn in Switzerland.
Personal life
Marriage to Ragnar Fredriksson (1963–1970)
On 3 April 1964, at age 18, Frida married salesperson and fellow
musician Ragnar Fredriksson. They had two children: Hans Ragnar (born 26
January 1963) and Ann Lise-Lotte (25 February 1967 – 13 January 1998).
They separated in 1968 and were officially divorced on 19 May 1970. On
the very same day, Lyngstad's grandmother, Arntine, died, aged 71.
Relationship (1969–1978) and marriage to Benny Andersson (1978–1981)
In 1969, Lyngstad met
Benny Andersson. By 1971, they were living together, but did not marry until 6 October 1978, during the height of ABBA's success.
However, after two years of marriage, they separated in 1980, and were divorced in 1981.
Marriage to Prince Reuss of Plauen (1992–1999)
In 1982, Lyngstad left Sweden and moved to London. In 1986, she
relocated to Switzerland, and lived with her boyfriend, an architect
named
Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss, Count of Plauen (1950–1999), in his family castle in
Fribourg.
In 1988, Lyngstad became a grandmother when her daughter, Ann Lise-Lotte, gave birth to a son named Jonathan.
On 26 August 1992, Lyngstad married the Prince of
House of Reuss.
[1]
By this marriage, she has two stepdaughters, the twins
Princess Henriette Anna-Bess Helle Mette Reuss, Countess of Plauen, and Princess Pauline Margaretha Emma-Louise Mette Reuss, Countess of Plauen (both born 2 June 1977, Oslo, Norway).
Through her marriage to Prince Reuss of Plauen, who had been a student at the same
boarding school as
Crown Prince Carl Gustaf – who later became the
King of Sweden – Lyngstad became acquainted with the
Swedish royal family and eventually became close friends with Sweden's
Queen Silvia.
On 13 January 1998, Lyngstad's daughter, Ann Lise-Lotte Casper (
née Fredriksson), died of injuries sustained in a car accident in
Livonia, New York – a town 20 miles south of
Rochester, New York.
The prince died of
lymphoma in October 1999.
Other relations and interests
Lyngstad remains involved in charity work, and stated in a 2005
interview that she had no interest in ever returning to a music career.
[citation needed]
She currently lives in
Zermatt, Switzerland, sharing a home with her
British boyfriend,
Henry Smith, 5th Viscount Hambleden, since 2008.
[12]
Frida also has an interest in racing pigeons and is actively involved
in the UK. She is the Honorary President of the Hardwick Homing Society
in
Stockton On Tees.
She also competes as a partner in a team in the same club "Cunningham,
Nixon, Lyngstad". Lyngtad also owns several homes in the UK; one in
Newcastle Upon Tyne, another in
London and another, shared home in the
Yorkshire Dales.
ABBA was a Swedish
pop group formed in
Stockholm in 1972, comprising
Agnetha Fältskog,
Björn Ulvaeus,
Benny Andersson, and
Anni-Frid Lyngstad.
ABBA is an acronym of the first letters of the band members' first
names and is sometimes stylized as the registered trademark ᗅᗺᗷᗅ.
The
band became one of the
most commercially successful acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1975 to 1982. They won the
Eurovision Song Contest 1974 at the Dome in Brighton, UK, giving
Sweden
its first triumph in the contest, and were the most successful group
ever to take part in the competition. Ulvaeus and Andersson wrote the
Broadway musical "
Chess" in 1980.
ABBA has sold over 380 million albums and singles worldwide,
[1][2] which makes them one of the
best-selling music artists,
and the second best-selling music group of all time.
ABBA was the first
group to come from a non-English-speaking country to enjoy consistent
success in the charts of English-speaking countries, including the
UK,
Ireland, the
U.S.,
Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand, and
South Africa.
The group also enjoyed significant success in
Latin American markets, and recorded a
collection of their hit songs in Spanish.
| ABBA |
|---|
|
| Background information |
| Also known as |
Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid |
| Origin |
Stockholm, Sweden |
| Genres |
Pop, pop rock, disco |
| Years active |
1972–1982 |
| Labels |
Polar, Metal, Polydor, Atlantic, Universal, Epic, Vogue, RCA, PolyGram, Sunshine (Rhodesia/Zimbabwe), Ariston/Dig It (Italy) |
| Associated acts |
Hep Stars, Hootenanny Singers, Benny Anderssons Orkester |
| Website |
abbasite.com |
|
| Past members |
Agnetha Fältskog
Björn Ulvaeus
Benny Andersson
Anni-Frid Lyngstad |
During the band's active years, Fältskog & Ulvaeus and Lyngstad
& Andersson were married. At the height of their popularity, both
relationships were suffering strain which ultimately resulted in the
collapse of the Ulvaeus–Fältskog marriage in 1979 and the
Andersson–Lyngstad marriage in 1981.
These relationship changes were
reflected in the group's music, with later compositions including more
introspective, brooding, dark lyrics.
[3]
After ABBA broke up in late 1982, Andersson and Ulvaeus achieved
success writing music for the stage while Lyngstad and Fältskog pursued
solo careers with mixed success. ABBA's music declined in popularity
until several films, notably
Muriel's Wedding and
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, revived interest in the group and the spawning of several
tribute bands.
In 1999, ABBA's music was adapted into the successful musical
Mamma Mia! that toured worldwide.
A film of the same name, released in 2008, became the highest-grossing film in the United Kingdom that year.
ABBA were honored at the 50th anniversary celebration of the
Eurovision Song Contest in 2005, when their hit "
Waterloo" was chosen as the best song in the competition's history.
[4]
The group was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2010.
[5]
Source: Wikipeda.org
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