ABBA Group. Abba the Fab Four

ABBA - THE POP PHENOMENON OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Agnetha Fältskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad. What do these names say? Often nothing. But if you add the first letters of the names, you get .... This abbreviation says a lot and about a lot. Yes, 4 Scandinavians turned the whole world upside down with their songs. And this is not an exaggeration.

They were the first representatives of continental Europe who won the first places in the charts of all the leading English-speaking countries.

Benny and Bjorn

Benny Andersson was the keyboardist of the popular Swedish pop group Hep Stars in the second half of the 1960s. They performed remakes of international hits. The strength of the group was their live performances with spectacular shows. The fans of the team, or rather the fans, were mostly girls. With full right, the group was called Swedish. Benny Andersson played the synthesizer and gradually began to write original compositions, many of which became hits.

Bjorn Ulvaeus was the lead singer of the popular folk group the Hootenanny Singers. He and Andersson sometimes met and agreed to record together. Stig Andersson, manager of the Hootenanny Singers and founder of the record label Polar Music, saw great potential in Andersson and Ulvaeus' collaboration and supported them in every possible way. He believed that someday they would become famous all over the world. The duo eventually recorded the album "Lycka" ("Happiness"), in which they included their own compositions. On some songs, the female voices of their girlfriends, Agneta and Frida, were clearly audible.

Agnetha and Frida

Agnetha Fältskog is the youngest member of the group. When she was 17 years old, the song in her performance became No. 1 in Sweden. Many critics believed that she was a talented composer. Along with writing her own songs, she also recorded cover versions of foreign hits and performed them at Swedish amateur competitions. As a result, she became the most popular pop singer of the time. In 1972, Agnetha was cast as Mary Magdalene in a Swedish production of the musical. Critics praised her work in this project.

Agnetha crossed paths with Frida on a TV show, a little later she met Bjorn at a concert.

Anni-Frid Lyngstad has been singing with various dance-style groups since the age of 13. Later she moved to a jazz band. In 1969, she won the national talent competition. Her professional career began when she signed with EMI Sweden in 1967. At the same time, singles with songs performed by her began to be released, but a full-fledged long-playing album was born only in 1971.

She met Benny Andersson at the TV studio. A few weeks later, on a concert tour of southern Sweden, the second meeting took place. Benny enlists Frida and Agneta as backing vocalists for the Lycka album.

2+2=ABBA

In the early 1970s, Bjorn and Agnetha were married, while Benny and Frida lived together. This did not stop them from pursuing their own musical careers in Sweden. Stig Andersson wanted to break into the international music market. He inspired Benny and Bjorn to write a song for . The song "Say It With a Song" took 3rd place, which confirmed Stig's opinion that he is on the right track.

Benny and Bjorn experimented in songwriting with new sound and vocal arrangements. One of them was "People Need Love" with female voices, which had a very good effect. The Stig released it as a single, with "Björn & Benny", "Agnetha & Anni-Frid". The song reached number 17 on the Swedish charts. This convinced everyone that they were moving in the right direction.

The following year they made an attempt to enter Melodifestivalen with the song "Ring Ring". The Stig commissioned translation of the lyrics into English. They intend to win first place, but they only end up third. The promo group releases the album "Ring Ring" under the same inconvenient name "Björn & Benny", "Agnetha & Frida". It sold well, and the song "Ring Ring" becomes a hit in many European countries, but Stig felt that the breakthrough could only be if the song became a British or American hit.

How do you call a yacht, so it will float

In the spring of 1973, Stig, tired of the inconvenient name of the group, began to call her privately and publicly as. it at first it was a joke, as it is the name of a well-known seafood processing company in Sweden. Agnetha says: “When we decided to call ourselves A-B-B-A, we had to get permission from this company. There they answered us: “We agree, just see that we are not ashamed of you.” I don't think they have to be ashamed of the group."

The team also held a contest to choose a name for the local newspaper. Among the options were "Alibaba" and "BABA". In Hebrew and Aramaic, the word "abba" means "dad".

The very first time the name was found written on paper was during a recording session at the Metronome Studio in Stockholm in 1973. The first single released under the name was "Waterloo".

ABBA- an acronym formed from the first letters of the names of each member of the group: Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid (Frida). The first B in the band's name became inverted in 1976 and formed the company's logo.

Breakthrough

Bjorn, Benny and manager Stig believed in the possibilities of Melodifestivalen and. The composers were invited to write a new song for the 1974 competitions. They stopped at Waterloo. The song was featured at a show at the Brighton Dome in England, went to number one and made them widely known in England, and also climbed to the top of the charts throughout Europe.

"Waterloo" was the first song to reach No. 1 in England. In America, it reached number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Their next single "So Long" entered the top 10 in Sweden and Germany but failed to chart in England. But the next release "Honey, Honey" managed to break through to number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US.

In November 1974 she went on their first international tour to Germany, Denmark and Austria. It didn't turn out as well as the group had hoped. even canceled several concerts because tickets were not sold. The second part of the tour, which was undertaken in Scandinavia in January 1975, was completely different from the first: they filled houses and finally got the reception they expected.

The release of their third album "ABBA" and the third single "SOS" hit the top 10 and the album peaked at number 13. The group was no longer treated as a one-hit group. British success was confirmed when it reached No. 1 in January 1976. In the US, the song received a BMI Award for Most Played on Radio in 1975. Despite this, success in the States was inconsistent.

ABBA without ABBA

In January 1981, Bjorn married Lena Calerso, and the band's manager, Stig Anderson, celebrated his 50th birthday. For this event, she prepared a gift for him, writing down the song "Hovas Vittne", dedicated to him and released in only 200 copies on red vinyl records. This single is now the most coveted item for collectors.

In mid-February, Benny and Frida announced that they were going to get a divorce. Later it became known that their marriage had been in trouble for a long time. Benny married Mona Norkleet.

Bjorn and Benny have been writing songs for the new album. At the end of April, the group participated in the TV program Dick Cavett Meets ABBA, where they performed 9 songs. This was their last live performance in front of an audience.

The team has never officially announced the end of activities, but the group has been considered broken up for a long time. In 1982, she gave her last concert in Stockholm. Their last performance as a group was on the British television program The Late, Late Breakfast Show.

In January 1983, Agnetha began recording a solo album, while Frida had already released her own "Something's Going On" a few months before. The album turned out to be very successful. Bjorn and Benny took up songwriting for the musical and their new project, the Gemini group. And the group was "put on the shelf."

The men denied that the group had broken up. Frida and Agnetha have said several times that they will certainly get together again to record a new album in 1983 or 1984. However, the team no longer had those relationships conducive to joint work. Since then, the Swedish foursome did not appear in public in full force until 2008, when the Swedish premiere of the film-musical "Mamma Mia!"

Mamma Mia!

During the premiere of the musical in different countries, the band members repeatedly appeared before the public. In October 2006, three members of the famous Swedish quartet Frida Lingstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson came to Moscow specially for the premiere of the musical. Agnetha Fältskog thanked in writing for the invitation, but did not come.

At the premiere of Mamma Mia! in Stockholm in 2008, for the first time in almost 20 years, all four members of the band gathered in one place. The cameras caught them on the balcony of the cinema, mixed with the leading actors in the film. It was not possible to photograph the whole four separately from other artists.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph that followed this premiere, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson confirmed that they would no longer be together on stage. "There is nothing that can make unite us. Money is not a factor that matters to us in this matter. We would like people to always remember us the way we were: young, bright, full of energy and ambition.”

This may be confirmed by an incident that occurred in 2000 ... but first things first. A new rise in popularity, like all music from the disco boom, began in 1992. Polydor re-released all of the band's hits on two CDs. Erasure released an EP of contemporary cover versions of the band's songs called "ABBA-esque" and Australian band Bjorn again achieved rapid success with a faithfully replicated and recognizable band image and sound. ABBA.

Now let's go back to 2000. According to media reports, she refused a contract for a round-the-world series of performances with her old line-up worth almost 1 billion US dollars! Like this. However, in 2010, Lyngstad said that she had met with Agnetha Faltskog - and for the first time since the breakup of the group, they discussed the possibility of joint performances. Wait and see.

The Swedish musical quartet of 1972-1982 is one of the most successful groups in the history of popular music and the most successful of those formed in Scandinavia. The band's records have sold over 350 million copies worldwide. The quartet's singles took first place in the world charts from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, and compilation albums topped the world charts in the 2000s. They remained on radio playlists and their albums continue to sell to this day.

Sweden for Russians with love

2011 in Sweden, the "Map for excursions" went on sale, where texts in Swedish and Russian are collected in one booklet with photographs and a plan of Stockholm. Booklet subtitle begins with the words: "A tour in the footsteps of the most famous pop group in Sweden, as well as in Stockholm in the 1970s!"

Two years ago, the book "ABBA-guide in Stockholm" was published - a tour of 60 places or "footprints" that tells about the group in English and German. After interviewing sellers of shops for tourists, it turned out that Russian tourists also show great interest in the group. In all tourist shops they asked if this book was in Russian. Now a fold-out booklet with a map "in the footsteps" of the group is available in Swedish, English, German and Russian.

The Russian version of the card costs 40 crowns. You can buy it in the shop at the Stadsmuseum, which is located next to the Slussen metro station, located on the square called the Russian Court.

DATA

After meeting Frida, Benny began producing her solo career. Despite the growing popularity ABBA, at the end of 1975 Frida finished her Swedish-language solo album. It is noteworthy that the world-famous song "Fernando" opened this disc, but in Swedish. Fearing idle conjectures, the director of the group, Stig Anderson, insisted on continuing the joint work of the ensemble. The subsequent solo album of the dark-haired soloist ABBA was released only in 1982.

The "wall of sound" technology has always been used in recordings.

Over the course of 3 weeks in the summer of 1975, the tour performed 16 outdoor concerts in Sweden and Finland, drawing huge crowds. Their show in Stockholm at the amusement park "Gröna Lund" was watched by 19,000 people.

Updated: April 13, 2019 by: Elena

ABBA - Waterloo(1974). The group's first hit, with this song, ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest 1974. On October 22, 2005, as part of the ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Eurovision Song Contest, "Waterloo" was recognized as the best song in the history of the contest. "Waterloo" is sung from the point of view of a girl ready to surrender, just as Napoleon had to surrender at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

ABBA - S.O.S.(1975). This song is my favorite ABBA song, also because it was the theme song of my favorite Japanese TV series Strawberry on the Shortcake. Notably, "S.O.S." ABBA was named by John Lennon as one of his favorite songs.

Agnetha Fältskog is the lead singer of ABBA.

Before joining ABBA, Agnetha was a fairly successful solo singer in Sweden. In 1972, Agnetha performed the role of Mary Magdalene in the Swedish production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. In 1975, already a member of the ABBA group, Agnetha released an album in Swedish Elva kvinnor i ett hus (Eleven Women in A House). After the breakup of ABBA, Agnetha also released several new solo albums.

On July 6, 1971, Agnetha married another member of the ABBA group, Bjorn Ulvaeus. A romantic relationship with him arose during filming on Swedish television in May 1969. They had two children.

The wedding of Agnetha Fältskog and Bjorn Ulvaeus

Agnetha and Bjorn separated in 1979 and Agnetha left their common home on Christmas night. Nevertheless, they decided that their troubles in family life should not affect their joint work in the group. Agneta later remarried, albeit briefly, to the surgeon Thomas Sonnenfeld.
Bjorn in 1981 married Lena Calersio, who worked as a music journalist.

ABBA - Dancing Queen(1976). This song is considered the best in the work of ABBA.

ABBA soloists Agnetha Fältskog (left) and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad (right)

In 1963, 17-year-old Anni-Frid married salesman and musician Ragnar Fredriksson. They had two children. Annie divorced her first husband in 1970 and since 1971 she began to live with ABBA member Benny Andersson. Officially, they formalized the relationship in 1978, their marriage lasted only three years, they divorced in 1981.

Anni-Frid (Frida) Lingstad and Benny Andersson

On August 26, 1992, Frida married her longtime friend, Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen (1950 - 1999). Since then, she has been officially referred to as Her Serene Highness Princess Annie-Fried Reuss von Plauen. Prince Heinrich died of cancer in 1999.
Benny Andersson married Swedish TV presenter Mona Norkleet in 1981.

ABBA - Take A Chance On Me(1978). The first song of the ABBA group that sunk into my soul.

ABBA was founded by Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, musicians, songwriters and singers. They met in 1966 at one of the summer parties and already then decided that it was worth continuing to work together. At that time, Benny was a member of the Hep Stars (Sweden) as a keyboardist, and Bjorn was in the Hootenanny Singers - he was a guitarist and singer. During one of the concerts in Malmö, Benny Anderson met Anni-Frid Lingstad, a singer who has been singing since the age of 13 in various groups. She even performed at song festivals in Venezuela and Japan. Around the same time, Bjorn saw on TV the performance of another singer - Agneta Fältskog, who performed her own song. He decided that by all means get to know her.

The legendary quartet first met in full force in Stockholm, during the recording of a TV program, and already in 1970 they began to sing together. Almost at the same time as their joint debut, the album "Lycka" by Benny and Bjorn was released. These were songs performed in Swedish, and Frida and Agnetha were backing vocalists during the recording of the songs. Already in 1971, the talented Benny and Bjorn were taken to Polar as producers. This was due to a coincidence - the previous producer of the company B. Bernhag, a close friend of Stig Anderson, the head of Polar, died. The Stig invited Bjorn Ulvaeus to the vacant seat, however, he agreed on the condition that he would work with his co-author Benny Andersson. They even divided the salary one for two at first.

The Commission of the famous Eurovision Song Contest rejected the group's candidacy with the song "Ring Ring", and in 1973, February, they recorded this song in German, Swedish, English and Spanish. The new hit quickly gained popularity and topped the charts in Belgium, Holland, Austria, Sweden and even South Africa. And already in March of the same year, the first album under the same name "Ring Ring" was released. In 1974, at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton (England), the ABBA group with their song "Waterloo" won an absolute victory (by a margin of 20 to 1). This song was the beginning of a string of unprecedented super hits - 18 consecutive hits in the top ten in Britain. Eight hits of the quartet took first place. In 1976, these were the compositions of Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Fernando, in 1977 - Knowing Me, Knowing You, and The Name Of The Game, in 1978 it was a hit Take A Chance On Me, and in 1980 - songs Super Trouper and The Winner Takes It All. The group's albums were also among the leaders, the beginning was laid by the Greatest Hits collection, which was released in Sweden in 1975. ABBA's overseas achievements were somewhat more modest - in April 1977, the Dancing Queen hit topped the local charts for only a week. Three of the group's albums in the United States became "gold", only "The Album", released in 1977, reached the "platinum" mark.

The quartet performed their song Dancing Queen for the first time for the Swedish king, on the eve of the wedding in the royal family in 1976. They made their first tour of Britain in 1977, when more than 3 million applications were received for the performance of the popular four at the Albert Hall, which seats 11,000 people. The tour ended in Australia in March of the same year. Here they filmed material for a film about a group called "ABBA". It was in Australia on December 15 that the premiere of this film was. In their homeland, ABBA presented a film about itself in 1977, on Christmas Eve. In 1979, on January 9, the ABBA group took part in a charity event organized by UNICEF in New York City, they transferred all the proceeds from their single Chiquitita to the organizers. The group's first performance in North America was held in Canada, in the city of Edmonton, it was 1979, September 13th. This tour continued until mid-November and ended in Europe.

In 1981-1982, the group noticeably reduced its activity. In December 1982, the group released their last single, recorded in full force. It was "Under Attack" but the band's latest single is "Thank You For The Music".

The group's popularity was revived in 1992, however, as well as all disco music. All hits of the popular quartet were published on two CDs by Polydor. Even cover versions of the group's hits were released, the Erasure company released a mini-album "ABBA-esque". Around the same period, the Australian band Bjorn again became popular, using the style and image, as well as the manner of sounding and playing the group ABBA.

Information was leaked to the media that in 2000, the ABBA group refused to offer performances around the world with the "old line-up". They were offered $1 billion for a round-the-world tour.

ABBA(in Russian - ABBA) is a Swedish musical quartet that existed in 1972-1982 and is named after the first letters of the names of the performers. It is one of the most successful bands in the history of popular music and the most successful among those created in Scandinavia: the group's records have been sold in more than 350 million copies worldwide. The quartet's singles have been number one on the world charts since the mid-1970s ( waterloo) until the early 1980s ( one of us), and compilation albums topped the world charts in the 2000s. They remained on radio playlists and their albums continue to sell to this day.

They were the first from continental Europe to top the charts in every major English-speaking country (USA, UK, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand).

Compound

• BUT oppression Fältskog (Agnetha Åse Fältskog) - vocals (b. April 5, 1950, Jönköping, Sweden).
• B Jorn Ulvaeus (Björn Kristian Ulvaeus) - vocals, guitar (b. April 25, 1945, Gothenburg, Sweden).
• B Jenny Andersson (Benny Bror Göran Andersson) - keyboards, vocals (b. December 16, 1946, Stockholm, Sweden).
• BUT nni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad (Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad) - vocals (b. November 15, 1945, Ballangen / Narvik, Norway).

Group history

The founders of the group were musicians, singers and songwriters Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson. They first met at a party in the summer of 1966 and decided that they should write songs together. Benny was at that time the keyboardist of a popular band in Sweden Hep Stars, Bjorn singer and guitarist in the ensemble Hootenanny Singers. At a concert in Malmö, Benny met the singer Anni-Frid Lingstad, who had been singing with different bands since the age of thirteen and even performed at song festivals in Japan and Venezuela. At the same time, Bjorn saw in a television show how he sings his own song. Jag var så kär Agneta Fältskog, and decided to get to know her.

For the first time, the whole four gathered to record a television program in Stockholm, and began to sing together from November 1970. Almost simultaneously with the debut of the quartet in one of the restaurants in Gothenburg on November 1, 1970, Bjorn and Benny's own album was released. Lycka with songs in Swedish, in which Agnetha and Frida participated as backing vocalists. In 1971, Benny and Bjorn joined the firm Polar already as producers. The tragic death of Bengt Bernhag - the closest friend and colleague of the head Polar Stig Anderson brought producer Bjorn Ulvaeus to the vacant seat. Stig offered the young author this position, but Bjorn was not entirely happy with it. He agreed on the condition that his co-author, Benny Andersson, would also be hired. The head of the company did not have a salary for two, and novice authors had to work part-time.

Ola Brunkert, the country's National Radio (HP) reported on Monday.

The Swedish vocal-instrumental ensemble ABBA (ABBA) was one of the most successful groups in the history of pop music and the most popular group formed in Scandinavia.

The ensemble was created in 1972 and named after the first letters of the names of the performers. The quartet consisted of Agnetha Fältskog (vocals), Bjorn Ulvaeus (vocals, guitar), Benny Andersson (keyboards, vocals) and Anni-Frid Lingstad (vocals).

The first success in their homeland came to them in 1972 after recording the song "People Need Love" (People Need Love). In June 1972, the song was released as a single, and this became the band's "point of reference". In March 1973, the first long-playing album appeared called “Call me, call” (Ring Ring). The song of the same name hit the top of the Swedish hit parade.

The beginning of the international take-off of the quartet is considered to be the victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in England in April 1974 with the song "Waterloo" (Waterloo). Since the release of "S.O.S." in 1975, the band's melodies have occupied the top lines of the English hit parade.

They became the first in Europe to hit number one on the charts in all English-speaking countries (United States, England, Canada, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand). We can say that the 1970s were the time of ABBA.

Each appearance of ABBA in public became an event, and each new recording of the group became a mega hit: Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Money Money Money. The last two songs were included in the album "Arrival" (Arrival, 1976), which broke the quartet's sales records not only in Sweden, but throughout the world. The group's records were also released in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland and Bulgaria. In the Soviet Union, the Melodiya company released 4 long-playing records.

1977 was the peak year in the ensemble's career, when the beginning of the year was marked by a world tour. Filmed in Australia, ABBA - The Movie and ABBA - The Album were released in December. After that, the group continued to release records that occupied the first lines of the charts: “Would you like” (Voulez‑Vous, 1979), the collection “ABBA Best Songs - Collection 2” (ABBA Greatest Hits Vol.2).

In the fall of 1982, with the release of a double collection (ABBA The Singles The First Ten Years), as well as performances on TV in England, Germany and Sweden, the musicians celebrated the tenth anniversary of ABBA, after which each of them started recording solo records.

After the collapse of the group, Agnetha Faltskog released several discs, in 1996 her autobiography was released, and two years later - a music album with the best songs. She tried to start a family with the doctor Thomas Sonnenfeld, but separated from him in 1993. Now the soloist of the famous ensemble has retired to her villa on the island of Ekero in the suburbs of Stockholm. There she indulges in yoga classes, takes a great interest in astrology, keeps several trotters in her own stable and takes long horseback and foot walks in the mornings.

Frida's daughter Liz-Lott died in a car accident. After a long illness, her second husband, Prince Ruzzo Reus von Plauen, died. Frida herself became an environmental activist.

Much more successful was the life of Bjorn and Benny. Both remarried and had children. They founded companies and in every possible way contribute to young talents. Now former members of ABBA are considered the wealthiest people in the country's music world. It was to them with a request for cooperation that an Englishwoman, producer Judy Kramer turned to them with a request for cooperation back in 1989, who had the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bcreating a performance based on the songs of the group. Premiere of Mama Mia! took place on May 6, 1999, on the 25th anniversary of the Swedish “victory” at Waterloo, and became the prologue to the incredible success of the musical.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources