Agnetha Fältskog

Åse Agneta "Agnetha" Fältskog (Swedish pronunciation: [aŋˈnêːta ˈfɛ̂ltskuːɡ] ; born 5 April 1950) is a Swedish singer and songwriter, best known as a member of the pop group ABBA. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 self-titled debut album. She rose to international stardom in the 1970s as a member of ABBA, which is one of the best-selling music acts in history.

After the unofficial break-up of ABBA in December 1982, she had success later in the decade as a solo artist with three albums and a leading role in a movie. She became reclusive in the 1990s, avoiding outside publicity and residing on the Stockholm County island of Ekerö.

Fältskog stopped recording music for 16 years until she released the album My Colouring Book in 2004, followed in 2013 by A, her highest UK charting solo album to date. She reunited with ABBA from 2016 until 2022 and they released their ninth studio album, Voyage.

Åse Agneta Fältskog was born in Jönköping on 5 April 1950. She was the first of two daughters of department store manager Knut Ingvar Fältskog (1922–1995) and his wife Birgit Margareta Johansson (1923–1994). Ingvar showed much interest in music and show business, and Birgit devoted herself to her children and household. Fältskog's younger sister, Mona, was born in 1955.

Fältskog wrote her first song at the age of six, titled "Två små troll" ("Two Small Trolls"). In 1958, she began taking piano lessons, and also sang in a local church choir. In early 1960, Fältskog formed a musical trio, the Cambers, with her friends Lena Johansson and Elisabeth Strub. They performed locally in minor venues but soon dissolved due to lack of work. Fältskog's first professional engagement came after she was taken on by a local dance band at the age of 15, following which she left school and worked as a telephonist whilst also performing with the band.

Fältskog cites Connie Francis, Marianne Faithfull, Aretha Franklin, Lesley Gore and Petula Clark as her strongest musical influences.

For two years Fältskog continued singing with the Bernt Enghardt band, and as its popularity grew, decided to give up her other job when combining both careers proved physically too demanding. During that time, Fältskog broke up with her boyfriend Björn Lilja; this event inspired her to write a song, "Jag var så kär" ("I Was So in Love"), that soon brought her to media prominence.

At that time, Karl Gerhard Lundkvist, a relative of one of the band's members, retired from his successful rock and roll career and began working as a record producer at Cupol Records. Enghardt sent him a demo recording of the band, but Lundkvist only showed interest in Fältskog and her song. She was worried because he was not interested in the band, and they were not to be included on the record. However, she decided to accept the offer and signed a recording contract with Cupol Records.

Her self-penned debut single "Jag var så kär" was recorded on 16 October 1967 and released through Cupol Records the following month. It topped the Swedish Chart on 28 January 1968 and sold more than 80,000 copies. The second single, her self-penned "Utan dig" ('Without you'), was also a big hit and so was her third single from 1968 "Allting har förändrat sig" ('Everything has changed'). She also submitted the song "Försonade" ('Reconciled') to Melodifestivalen, the Swedish preliminary for the Eurovision Song Contest, but it was not selected for the final. Fältskog developed a career as one of Sweden's most popular pop music artists, participating in a television special about Swedish composer Jules Sylvain in 1969. The same year, she released the single "Zigenarvän" ('Romani Friend') about a young girl attending a Romani wedding and falling in love with the bride's brother. Its release coincided with a heated debate about Romani in the Swedish media, and Fältskog was accused of deliberately trying to make money out of the situation by writing the song.

Fältskog's success continued throughout the late 1960s. She met German songwriter/producer Dieter Zimmermann, to whom she became engaged. Her albums thus reached the German charts, and Zimmermann promised she would achieve great success in Germany. However, when she went there and met with record producers, the venture was not productive; Fältskog refused to meet the demands of the producers, describing their chosen material as "horrible". She soon ended her engagement to Zimmermann and returned to Sweden.

In 1970, she released "Om tårar vore guld" ("If Tears Were Gold"). The Danish composer Per Hviid claimed that she used 22 bars from his composition "Tema" ("Theme"), although it was written in the 1950s and had never been recorded. The case dragged on until 1977 when a settlement was reached and Fältskog paid the Danish musician SEK 5,000,000.

Fältskog met Björn Ulvaeus, a member of the Hootenanny Singers, for the first time in 1968 and then again in 1969. Her relationship with Ulvaeus, as well as her friendship with Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson, with whom Ulvaeus had already written songs, eventually led to the formation of ABBA. Fältskog and Ulvaeus married on 6 July 1971 in the village of Verum, with Andersson playing the organ at their wedding. Their first child, Linda Elin Ulvaeus, was born on 23 February 1973, and their son Peter Christian Ulvaeus on 4 December 1977. After seven years of marriage, the couple decided to separate in late 1978 and filed for divorce in January 1979. The divorce was finalised in July 1980. Both Fältskog and Ulvaeus agreed not to let their failed marriage interfere with their responsibilities with ABBA. The failure of their marriage inspired Ulvaeus to write the lyrics of "The Winner Takes It All".

In 1975, during the same period as her bandmate Anni-Frid Lyngstad recorded her Swedish number one album Frida ensam, Fältskog recorded and produced her solo album Elva kvinnor i ett hus. These albums were both recorded between sessions and promotion for the ABBA albums Waterloo and ABBA.

Although no official announcement was made, ABBA effectively disbanded in late 1982 to early 1983. At the end of 1982, Fältskog duetted with Swedish singer (and former ABBA backing vocalist) Tomas Ledin on a song called "Never Again", which became a Top Five hit in Sweden, and Top 10 in Norway, Belgium, and Finland. The song was also released in a Spanish-language version, entitled "Ya Nunca Más". In the summer of the same year, Fältskog had a leading role in the Swedish movie Raskenstam.

In May 1983, Fältskog released her first post-ABBA solo album, Wrap Your Arms Around Me, produced by Mike Chapman. The album became a moderate hit in North America and Australia but reached the higher regions of the charts across Europe, including the top spots in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium, and Denmark (where it became the biggest-selling album of the year), top five in Germany, The Netherlands and number 18 in the UK. The album achieved sales of 1.5 million copies in the first year. Two singles from the album became hits in continental Europe: "The Heat Is On" became a number one hit in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Belgium and number two in The Netherlands and Germany. The song peaked at number 35 in the UK (and was Fältskog's highest charting and only UK Top 40 hit until 2004). The album's title track reached number one in Belgium and peaked at number four in the Netherlands. In North America, the album track "Can't Shake Loose" was released as the lead-off single, reaching number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 23 on the RPM Top 50 singles chart in Canada.

Fältskog's next studio album, Eyes of a Woman, produced by Eric Stewart of 10cc, was released in March 1985. "She is quite content to grace the works of various other lesser mortals with her immaculate, sugar-sweet voice", wrote Barry McIlheney in Melody Maker. The album sold well in parts of Europe, peaking at number two in Sweden and reaching the Top 20 in Norway and Belgium, but scraped into the UK Top 40 just for one week. The album sold up to 800,000 copies. The self-penned lead single "I Won't Let You Go" achieved moderate success in Europe, reaching number six in Sweden, number 18 in the Netherlands and number 24 in West Germany.

In 1986, Fältskog recorded another duet, "The Way You Are", with Swedish singer Ola Håkansson, which became her top hit in Sweden, Norway and Brazil.

In early 1987, Fältskog recorded the album Kom följ med i vår karusell ('Come Join Us on Our Carousel') with her son Christian. The album contained songs for children and was sung in Swedish. Agnetha recorded duets with her son and a children's choir for the album. In 1988, it was nominated for the Swedish music prize Grammis in the category 'Barn' (For Children).

Following the release of I Stand Alone, Fältskog had a 17-year hiatus from the music industry, during which she made few public appearances and devoted much of her time to astrology, yoga and horse back riding at her isolated country house in Ekerö.

In 1996, her autobiography Som jag är was published in Swedish (and in English the following year titled As I Am), followed by several compilation CDs of her Swedish and English recordings, including one called My Love, My Life for which Fältskog picked out the music herself. Fans welcomed the autobiography. The book was updated in 1998 and released worldwide via Virgin Publishing, selling over 50,000 copies.

In April 2004, Fältskog released a new single, "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind" (a cover of the song originally recorded by Cilla Black). It peaked at number two in Sweden and became Fältskog's highest charting UK single to date, reaching number 11. One week later, the album My Colouring Book, a collection of Fältskog's covers of 1960s classic oldies, was released, topping the chart in Sweden, reaching the top five in Finland and Denmark, and peaking at number six and number 12 in Germany and the UK respectively.

The title track, "My Colouring Book", is a cover of the song originally recorded by Barbra Streisand. The Observer suggested that "time hasn't diminished her perfect voice". Reviewing the release in The Guardian, Caroline Sullivan wrote: "Agnetha Fältskog has a vulnerability that gets under the skin of a song. She may be cheating a trifle by including no original material on this collection of 1960s covers, but if anyone can do justice to the likes of "Sealed with a Kiss", it's her. The soaring sentimentality evokes Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw in their mini-skirted pomp, and I don't say that lightly." The release attracted media attention across Europe, but Fältskog staunchly refused to be involved in any extensive promotion of the album.

A second single release from the album, "When You Walk in the Room", peaked at number 11 in Sweden and entered the UK Top 40 at number 34 (which was still higher than any of her UK singles in the 1980s). "Sometimes When I'm Dreaming", originally recorded by Art Garfunkel, failed to be released as the third single.

Shortly after this release, for the 2004 semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Istanbul 30 years after ABBA had won the contest in Brighton, Fältskog appeared briefly in a special comedy video made for the interval act, entitled "Our Last Video". All four members of the group appeared briefly in cameo roles, as did the singer and actress Cher and comedian Rik Mayall.

In 2004, Fältskog was nominated for Best Nordic Artist at the Nordic Music Awards, and at Christmas of that year, she gave an extensive interview (her first in many years) filmed by Swedish TV. Around the same time, Sony Music released a lavishly produced 6-CD boxed set comprising Fältskog's Swedish solo career (mostly before ABBA), with five original solo albums: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, and her 1975 album recorded and released during her time with ABBA – plus an additional compilation disc with bonus tracks.

In May 2013, Fältskog released a new album called A, produced by Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl. In the UK, the first single, "When You Really Loved Someone", had previously been released for download on 11 March, with the accompanying video also released on the same day. In Germany, the first single was "The One Who Loves You Now", and it was also released for download on 11 March 2013. The album includes a duet with Gary Barlow of Take That, called "I Should've Followed You Home".

In June 2013, officials from Universal Records in the Netherlands said 600,000 copies of A were sold in the first two months after its release. The album managed multiple top five placings in many territories, including Sweden, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, New Zealand and Australia. It charted at number six in the United Kingdom (her highest ever placing in that territory). A few weeks after its release, a TV special made by the BBC helped the album reach the number six position in the UK album chart for a second time. The first single from the album to be released in the US, "Dance Your Pain Away", was released on 28 May 2013. The digital single included two new mixes by Smash Mode. "Dance Your Pain Away" was released internationally as a single on 15 July 2013.

On 17 May 2013, Fältskog was awarded the SKAP 2013 Kai Gullmar Memorial Award at the Stockholm release party for A. On 12 November 2013, Fältskog sang live on stage for the first time in 25 years at the BBC Children in Need Rocks 2013 concert in London; she sang a duet with Gary Barlow, the organiser of the event, performing the single "I Should've Followed You Home" from Agnetha's album 'A'. On 18 November 2013, to promote the song, a video for "I Should've Followed You Home" was shot the same day as the single release. Although the single was released in most countries in November 2013, its release in the UK was held over. She also won Best Female Album – 6th Annual Scandipop 2014 and was nominated for the German 2014 ECHO award in the Artist Rock/Pop International category.

In April 2016, a new biography of Fältskog by Daniel Ward, Agnetha Fältskog – The Girl with the Golden Hair, was published in the UK.

In the summer of 2017, Faltskög joined her ABBA bandmates Frida Lyngstad, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to record two new songs, "I Still Have Faith in You" and "Don't Shut Me Down". These songs were meant to be part of an ABBA-themed TV special that was eventually discarded and replaced by the more ambitious, digital-laden Voyage show.

On 6 July 1971, Fältskog married Björn Ulvaeus. They had two children, including Linda Ulvaeus. The couple announced their separation in January 1979, and their divorce was finalised in July 1980.

Fältskog's split from Ulvaeus in 1979 greatly affected her, and she needed therapy afterwards.

Sweden: Royal Order of Vasa, Commander First Class (21 March 2024)