Frida de abba biography wikipedia

For the next eight years, Lyngstad worked as a singer for various dancehall acts around the country. On September 3,Sweden switched its traffic pattern from driving on the left side of the road to the right; all drivers were advised to stay home except for essential travel. They made an agreement to showcase the winner on live TV to celebrate the traffic switch.

So that night after Lyngstad won first place, millions of Swedish households tuned in to watch Lyngstad perform live. EMI producer Olle Bergman said, "We really liked her as an artist and I thought she had all that it took to go places. Despite this promising start to her career, it took several years for Lyngstad to achieve commercial success.

She recorded seven solo singles for EMI over the next two years, but none of them achieved much airplay. Lyngstad spent most of her time performing in cabaret shows across Sweden. Then, inshe met and fell in love with Benny Andersson, keyboardist of The Hep Stars, a popular Swedish pop group in the s. Inthe quartet performed together for the first time in a cabaret act called Festfolk.

Two years later, they released a single called "People Need Love" that became a minor hit in Sweden. ABBA entered a new single called "Waterloo," an upbeat, disco-influenced pop track. They won first place, and the contest catapulted "Waterloo" to No. Billboard Hot Here We Go Againwas released in ABBA are among the best-selling music artists in historywith record sales estimated to be between million to million sold worldwide [ 10 ] [ 11 ] and the group were ranked 3rd best-selling singles artists in the United Kingdom with a total of The group also enjoyed significant success in Latin America and recorded a collection of their hit songs in Spanish.

Inthe group reunited and started working on a digital avatar concert tour. Lundkvist was so impressed with her voice that he was convinced she would be a star. After going through considerable effort to locate the singer, he arranged for Agnetha to come to Stockholm and to record two of her own songs. This led to Agnetha at the age of 18 having a number-one record in Sweden with a self-composed song, which later went on to sell over 80, copies.

Along with her own compositions, she recorded covers of foreign hits and performed them on tours in Swedish folkparks. Most of her biggest hits were self-composed, which was quite unusual for a female singer in the s. Agnetha released four solo LPs between and She had many successful singles in the Swedish charts. Ulvaeus started writing English-language songs for his group and even had a brief solo career alongside.

The Hootenanny Singers and the Hep Stars sometimes crossed paths while touring. In JuneUlvaeus and Andersson decided to write a song together. The two also began playing occasionally with the other's bands on stage and on record, although it was not until that the pair wrote and produced some of their first real hits together: " Ljuva sextital " "Sweet Sixties"recorded by Brita Borg, and the Hep Stars' hit "Speleman" "Fiddler".

Benny Andersson born 16 December in StockholmSweden became at age 18 a member of a popular Swedish pop-rock group, the Hep Starsthat performed, among other things, covers of international hits. Andersson played the keyboard and eventually started writing original songs for his band, many of which became major hits, including " No Response ", which hit number three inand " Sunny Girl ", " Wedding ", and " Consolation ", all of which hit number one in Andersson wrote and submitted the song "Hej, Clown" for Melodifestivalenthe national festival to select the Swedish entry to the Eurovision Song Contest.

A frida de abba biography wikipedia later, the two had become a couple. As their respective fridas de abba biography wikipedia began to break up duringAndersson and Ulvaeus teamed up and recorded their first album together incalled Lycka "Happiness"which included original songs sung by both men. Ulvaeus still occasionally recorded and performed with the Hootenanny Singers until the middle ofand Andersson took part in producing their records.

She also formed her own band, the Anni-Frid Four. The first prize was a recording contract with EMI Sweden and to perform live on the most popular TV shows in the country. Lyngstad released several schlager style singles on EMI with mixed success. When Benny Andersson started to produce her recordings inshe had her first number-one single, "Min egen stad" "My Own Town"written by Benny and featuring all the future ABBA members on backing vocals.

Lyngstad toured and performed regularly in the folkpark circuit and made appearances on radio and TV. Lyngstad linked up with her future bandmates in On 1 Marchshe participated in the Melodifestival, where she met Andersson for the first time. A few weeks later they met again during a concert tour in southern Sweden and they soon became a couple.

Andersson would then produce Lyngstad's debut studio album, Fridawhich was released in March Lyngstad also played in several revues and cabaret shows in Stockholm between and An attempt at combining their talents occurred in April when the two couples went on holiday together to the island of Cyprus. What started as singing for fun on the beach ended up as an improvised live performance in front of the United Nations soldiers stationed on the island.

Andersson and Ulvaeus were at this time recording their first album together, Lyckawhich was to be released in September They also performed solo numbers from respective albums, but the lukewarm reception convinced the foursome to shelve plans for working together for the time being, and each soon concentrated on individual projects again.

It was during that the four artists began working together more, adding vocals to the others' recordings. Frequent recording sessions brought the foursome closer together during the summer. Stig Andersonfounder and owner of Polar Musicwas determined to break into the mainstream international market with music by Andersson and Ulvaeus. The song came in third place, encouraging Stig Anderson, and became a hit in Sweden.

The first signs of foreign success came as a surprise, as the Andersson and Ulvaeus single " She's My Kind of Girl " was released through Epic Records in Japan in Marchgiving the duo a Top 10 hit. Ulvaeus and Andersson persevered with their songwriting and experimented with new sounds and vocal arrangements. The song peaked at number 17 in the Swedish combined single and album charts, enough to convince them they were on to something.

According to Stig Anderson, "People Need Love" could have been a much bigger American hit, but a small label like Playboy Records did not have the distribution resources to meet the demand for the single from retailers and radio programmers. Inthe band and their manager Stig Anderson decided to have another try at Melodifestivalen, this time with the song " Ring Ring ".

Tretowwho experimented with a " wall of sound " production technique that became a distinctive new sound thereafter associated with ABBA. Stig Anderson arranged an English translation of the lyrics by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody and they thought this would be a success. However, on 10 Februarythe song came third in Melodifestivalen; thus it never reached the Eurovision Song Contest itself.

Nevertheless, the group released their debut studio album, also called Ring Ring. The album did well and the "Ring Ring" single was a hit in many parts of Europe and also in South Africa. InStig Anderson, tired of unwieldy names, started to refer to the group privately and publicly as ABBA a palindrome. At first, this was a play on words, as Abba is also the name of a well-known fish-canning company in Sweden, and itself an abbreviation.

However, since the fish-canners were unknown outside Sweden, Anderson came to believe the name would work in international markets. A competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in a Gothenburg newspaper and it was officially announced in the summer that the group were to be known as "ABBA". The group negotiated with the canners for the rights to the name.

The ambigram first appeared on the French compilation album, Golden Double Albumreleased in May by Disques Vogueand would henceforth be used for all official releases. The idea for the official logo was made by the German photographer Wolfgang "Bubi" Heilemann [ de ] on a velvet jumpsuit photo shoot for the teenage magazine Bravo. In the photo, the ABBA members held giant initial letters of their names.

After the pictures were made, Heilemann found out that Benny Andersson reversed his letter "B;" this prompted discussions about the mirrored "B", and the members of ABBA agreed on the mirrored letter. From onward, the first "B" in the logo version of the name was "mirror-image" reversed on the band's promotional material. Following their acquisition of the group's catalogue, PolyGram began using variations of the ABBA logo, employing a different font.

Since then, the original logo has been reinstated on all official products.

Frida de abba biography wikipedia: Frida is best known as one

Stig Anderson started planning for the contest. Ulvaeus, Andersson and Stig Anderson saw possibilities in using the Eurovision Song Contest to make the music business aware of them as songwriters, as well as to publicise the band. In late they were invited by Swedish television to contribute a song for the Melodifestivalenand the upbeat song " Waterloo " was chosen.

The group were now inspired by the growing glam rock scene in England. With this third attempt, ABBA were more experienced and better prepared for the Eurovision Song Contest, and they won the nation's hearts on Swedish television on 9 February Winning the Eurovision Song Contest on 6 Apriland singing "Waterloo" in English instead of their native language, gave them the chance to tour Europe and perform on major television shows, as a result of which the "Waterloo" single charted in many European countries.

It made the top ten in other countries, rising to number three in Spain, number four in Australia and France, and number seven in Canada. In the United States, the song peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot chart, paving the way for their first album and their first trip to the US as a group. Although only a short promotional visit, this included their first performance on American television, on The Mike Douglas Show.

The Waterloo album peaked at only number on the Billboard chart, but received unanimous praise from US critics. The Los Angeles Times said the album was a "compelling and fascinating debut album" that captured the spirit of mainstream pop, and described it as "immensely enjoyable and pleasant", while Creem said it was "a perfect blend of exceptional, lovable compositions".

A cover version of "Honey, Honey" by Sweet Dreams peaked at number 10, and both records debuted on the UK chart within a week of each other. It was not as successful as the band had hoped, since most of the venues did not sell out. Due to a lack of demand, they were even forced to cancel a few shows, including a sole concert scheduled in Switzerland.

The second leg of the tour, which took them through Scandinavia in Januarywas very different. They played to full houses everywhere and finally got the reception they had aimed for. Live performances continued in the middle of when ABBA embarked on a fourteen open-air date tour of Sweden and Finland. In late"So Long" was released as a single in the United Kingdom but it received no airplay from Radio 1 and failed to chart in the UK; the only countries in which it was successful were Austria, Sweden and Germany, reaching the top ten in the first two and number 21 in the latter.

Later that year, the release of their self-titled third studio album ABBA and single " SOS " brought back their chart presence in the UK, where the single hit number six and the album peaked at number Success was further solidified with " Mamma Mia " reaching number-one in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia and the top two in a few other western and northern European countries.

In Canada, the three songs rose to number 12, nine and 18, respectively. The success of the group in the United States had until that time been limited to single releases. By earlythe group already had four Top 30 singles on the US charts, but the album market proved to be tough to crack. The eponymous ABBA album generated three American hits, but it only peaked at number on the Cashbox album chart and number on the Billboard chart.

Cashbox went as far as saying that "there is a recurrent thread of taste and frida de abba biography wikipedia inherent in Abba's marketing, creativity and presentation that makes it almost embarrassing to critique their efforts", [ 54 ] while Creem wrote: "SOS is surrounded on this LP by so many good tunes that the mind boggles. The three songs were also successful in nearby New Zealand with the first two topping that chart and the third reaching number two.

In Marchthe band released the compilation album Greatest Hits. It became their first UK number-one album, and also took ABBA into the Top 50 on the US album charts for the first time, eventually selling more than a million copies there. Also included on Greatest Hits was a new single, " Fernando ", which went to number-one in at least thirteen countries all over the world, including the UK, Germany, France, Australia, South Africa and Mexico, and the top five in most other significant markets, including, at number four, becoming their biggest hit to date in Canada; the single went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide.

In Australia, "Fernando" occupied the top position for a then record breaking 14 weeks and stayed in the chart for 40 weeksand was the longest-running chart-topper there for over 40 years until it was overtaken by Ed Sheeran 's " Shape of You " in May Also inthe group received its first international prize, with "Fernando" being chosen as the "Best Studio Recording of ".

At the same time, a compilation named The Very Best of ABBA was released in Germany, becoming a number-one album there whereas the Greatest Hits compilation which followed a few months later ascended to number two in Germany, despite all similarities with The Very Best album. The group's fourth studio album, Arrivala number-one best-seller in parts of Europe, the UK and Australia, and a number-three hit in Canada and Japan, represented a new level of accomplishment in both songwriting and studio work, prompting rave reviews from more rock-oriented UK music weeklies such as Melody Maker and New Musical Expressand mostly appreciative notices from US critics.

Hit after hit flowed from Arrival : " Money, Money, Money ", another number-one in Germany, France, Australia and other countries of western and northern Europe, plus number three in the UK; and, " Knowing Me, Knowing You ", ABBA's sixth consecutive German number-one, as well as another UK number-one, plus a top five hit in many other countries, although it was only a number nine hit in Australia and France.

The real sensation was the first single, " Dancing Queen ", not only topping the charts in loyal markets like the UK, Germany, Sweden, several other western and northern European countries, and Australia, but also reaching number-one in the United States, Canada, the Soviet Union and Japan, and the top ten in France, Spain and Italy. All three songs were number-one hits in Mexico.

The band's mainstream popularity in the United States would remain on a comparatively smaller scale, and "Dancing Queen" became the only Billboard Hot number-one single for ABBA though it immediately became, and remains to this day, a major gay anthem [ 57 ] with "Knowing Me, Knowing You" later peaking at number seven; "Money, Money, Money", however, had barely charted there or in Canada where "Knowing Me, Knowing You" had reached number five.

The group's status had changed dramatically and they were widely regarded as superstars. They opened their much anticipated tour in OsloNorway, on 28 January, and mounted a lavishly produced spectacle that included a few scenes from their self-written mini-operetta The Girl with the Golden Hair. The concert attracted huge media attention from across Europe and Australia.

Tickets for these two shows were available only by mail application and it was later revealed that the box-office received 3. The opening concert in Sydney at the Sydney Showground on 3 March to an audience of 20, was marred by torrential rain with Lyngstad slipping on the wet stage during the concert. However, all four members would later recall this concert as the most memorable of their career.

Upon their arrival in Melbournea civic reception was held at the Melbourne Town Hall and ABBA appeared on the balcony to greet an enthusiastic crowd of 6, At the first Melbourne concert, an additional 16, people gathered outside the fenced-off area to listen to the concert. In Adelaidethe group performed one concert at Football Park in front of 20, people, with another 10, listening outside.

During the first of five concerts in Perth, there was a bomb scare with everyone having to evacuate the Entertainment Centre. During the Australian tour, she performed in a skin-tight white jumpsuit, causing one Australian newspaper to use the headline "Agnetha's bottom tops dull show". When asked about this at a news conference, she replied: "Don't they have bottoms in Australia?

Although the album was less well received by UK reviewers, it did spawn more worldwide hits: " The Name of the Game " and " Take a Chance on Me ", which both topped the UK charts and racked up impressive sales in most countries, although "The Name of the Game" was generally the more successful in the Nordic countries and Australia, while "Take a Chance on Me" was more successful in North America and the German-speaking countries.

Both songs were Top 10 hits in countries as far afield as Rhodesia and South Africa, as well as in France. A third single, " Eagle ", was released in continental Europe and Australia becoming a number one hit in Belgium and a Top 10 hit in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and South Africa, but barely charting in Australia. Sources also indicate that sales in Poland exceeded 1 million copies and that sales demand in Russia could not be met by the supply available.

ByABBA were one of the biggest "fridas de abba biography wikipedia" in the world. They converted a vacant cinema into the Polar Music Studio, a state-of-the-art studio in Stockholm. Recording sessions for the single " Summer Night City " were an uphill struggle, [ citation needed ] but upon release the song became another hit for the group.

The track would set the stage for ABBA's foray into disco with their next album. The news caused interest from the media and led to speculation about the band's future. ABBA assured the press and their fan base they were continuing their work as a group and that the divorce would not affect them. To escape the media swirl and concentrate on their writing, Andersson and Ulvaeus secretly travelled to Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamaswhere for two weeks they prepared their next album's songs.

The group's sixth studio album, Voulez-Vouswas released in Aprilwith its title track recorded at the famous Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida, with the assistance of recording engineer Tom Dowd among others. While none of the singles from the album reached number one on the UK chart, the lead single, " Chiquitita ", and the fourth single, " I Have a Dream ", both ascended to number two, and the other two, " Does Your Mother Know " and " Angeleyes " with " Voulez-Vous ", released as a double A-side both made the top 5.

All four singles reached number one in Belgium, although the last three did not chart in Sweden or Norway. Also inthe group released their second compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. Greatest Hits Vol. In the Soviet Union during the late s, the group were paid in oil commodities because of an embargo on the rouble. Technically perfect, melodically correct and always in frida de abba biography wikipedia pitch The soft lower voice of Anni-Frid and the high, edgy vocals of Agnetha were stunning", raved Edmonton Journal.

During the next four weeks they played a total of 17 sold-out dates, 13 in the United States and four in Canada. The group's private plane was subjected to extreme weather conditions and was unable to land for an extended period. They appeared at the Boston Music Hall for the performance 90 minutes late. The tour ended with a show in Toronto, Canada at Maple Leaf Gardens before a capacity crowd of 18, Anyone who's been waiting five years to see Abba will be well satisfied", wrote Record World.

On 19 Octoberthe tour resumed in Western Europe where the band played 23 sold-out gigs, including six sold-out nights at London's Wembley Arena. The group performed eleven concerts to full houses, including six shows at Tokyo's Budokan. This tour was the last "on the road" adventure of their career. It set a record for the most pre-orders ever received for a UK album after one million copies were ordered before release.

However, the best was yet to come, with the album, Arrival. This album was polished more highly than any so far, and represented a new level of accomplishment in both songwriting and studio work. By this time, the Abba sound was synonymous with European pop, and started to be widely copied by groups such as Brotherhood of Man, and later, Bucks Fizz.

It was felt that it was necessary to copy Abba's sound and two girl, two boy approach in order to win Eurovision, and as Brotherhood of Man won inand Bucks Fizz in it seems they had a point. Abba meanwhile were not standing still, and followed up Arrival with the more complex release, Abba - The Album, released to coincide with the feature film of their Australian tour, Abba - The Movie.

This album was, if anything, even more polished than Arrival, but was less well received by the critics. ByAbba were megastars. They built a new state of the art studio in Stockholm, and it was in demand from numerous other bands - Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door was recorded there, for example.

Frida de abba biography wikipedia: Frida is a Swedish singer

The single Summer Night City topped the charts, and set the stage for Abba's foray into the disco sound, with the album Voulez-Vous. This release started to mark the beginning of Abba's decline in Europe, while getting them considerably more attention in the US. Abba toured the US inwith huge audiences, but the US breakthrough was perhaps too little, too late.

The next release, Super Trouperagain achieved respectable sales but it started to sound as if the group themselves were running out of ideas. It is ironic that this, and the final album, The Visitors show a songwriting maturity and depth of feeling that is distinctly lacking on their earlier recordings. Despite a feeling that Abba were in decline, the band were still achieving huge audiences into the early s, and might have continued indefinitely if it wasn't for the fact that on a personal level, the married members of the group were falling apart.

For a while it was possible to keep personal and professional lives separate, and it was under this arrangement that the last two albums were recorded. However, the songs of the time - such as The Winner Takes it All and One Of Us - give a glimpse of the personal difficulties the group's members were facing. InLyngstad founded her Children and Environment Foundation which runs summer camps for underprivileged children.

All the royalties from this single went to charity. Frida contacted The Real Group and together they performed the song at the Stockholm Opera House in front of the king and queen.

Frida de abba biography wikipedia: Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad (born

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 reached No. Djupa andetag was one of the first Swedish albums to be released as a combined audio-video CD-ROMincluding interviews with Lyngstad, footage from the making of the album, as well as promotional videos.

Despite the success of the album, none of these singles made a big impression on the Swedish charts. A follow-up album with producer Anders Glenmark was reportedly in the works, but was shelved because of the death of Frida's daughter in A few low key and one-off recordings followed, including a 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 Lordand recorded in Lyngstad also joined Lord on stage singing the song during his European autumn tour in During this tour, she also performed "In the Bleak Midwinter", a performance of which can be found on social media.

All four members of the group appeared briefly in cameo roles, as did the singer Cher and British comedian Rik Mayall among others. It was billed as the first time the four had worked together since the group split in although they each filmed their appearances separately. 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 Septembera new album by musician Georg Wadenius titled Reconnection was released. Lyngstad and Wadenius 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 ", previously covered by Cat Stevens. This song is a favourite for Frida and the song was also on the playlist in the church for Frida and Prince Ruzzo's wedding on 26 August The unconditional love of a devoted fan In an interview, she and Green talked about her frida de abba biography wikipedia recovery following the death of her husband in The play is reflective but with a comic sensibility.

Lyngstad stated in that she never intended to return to the music industry, although this was short-lived, and future studio albums were discussed in The long-awaited ABBA reunion was expected to happen in to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the group's win at the Eurovision Song Contest. However, this did not happen. InLyngstad, along with Dan Daniell, released the single "" about the Matterhorn in Switzerland.

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. The song is featured on Sandoval's album Ultimate Duets. The new record, their first studio album in 40 years, features ten tracks, including "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", which also were first shown in the aforementioned livestream event and released as a double A-side single.

On 5 Novemberthe Voyage album was released worldwide. On 3 Aprilyear-old Lyngstad married salesman and fellow musician Ragnar Fredriksson. They had two children. They separated in and were divorced on 19 May InLyngstad met Benny Andersson. Bythey were living together, but did not marry until 6 Octoberduring the height of ABBA's success. However, after only two years of marriage, they separated in November and were divorced in InLyngstad left Sweden and moved to London.

Inshe relocated to Switzerland, and lived with her boyfriend, landscape architect Heinrich Ruzzo Prinz Reuss von Plauen —member of an ancient German House of Reussin his family castle in Fribourg. The couple married on 26 August He died from lymphoma in Through her marriage to Reuss von Plauen, who had been a student at the same boarding school as Crown Prince Carl Gustaf later King of SwedenLyngstad became acquainted with the Swedish royal family and eventually became close friends with Sweden's Queen Silvia.

Since she has been in a relationship with British peer Henry Smith, 5th Viscount Hambledenwith whom she lives in GenolierSwitzerland. Lyngstad is a vegetarian [ 34 ] [ 35 ] and a feminist. She is interested in environmental issues. This was the first time that the Swedish Royal Orders of Knighthood had been bestowed after almost 50 years of dormancy.

The group members shared the honour with nine other people. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version.