Mikory's ABBA-blog:

Article from VeckoReyn issue 20, May 13, 1981.

How Agnetha started - the dance band girl who became a superstar.

When she made her debut at Elverket's Christmas party at age five, she was so concentrating so hard on her singing that she didn't notice when her underpants fell off her. Just one of the funny details from the Jönköping girl Agnetha Fältskog's life - before she went to Stockholm and eventually became a superstar in ABBA. Here's the whole story...

Agnetha Fältskog, 31, is one of the world's most famous people. Always praised for her singing - and her sexy butt - she has, together with the other members of ABBA, ended up on the top of the entertainment superstar pyramid.
England, Germany, Japan, Australia - and parts of the USA - are standing at her feet, applauding when she is singing, wheter she is dancing around with Frida in "Take A Chance On Me" or sitting alone at the piano, singing "I'm Still Alive".
She is very beautiful, very sexy, v-e-r-y rich and very popular. She has made it. She has come a long way from Jönköping. Because it was there it all started. In 1955, five years old, Agnetha made her debut as a singer. She sang the song "Billy Boy" at Elverket's Christmas party. She was so concentrating so hard on her singing that she didn't notice when her underpants fell off her.

BARE BUTT
At the age of seven she started writing her own songs. Her very first melody was called "Trollet Som Hade En Boll Och Träffade Ett Annat Troll" (The Troll Who Had a Ball and Met another Troll). A very romantic song with a happy ending.

Det var en gång ett litet troll
som ägde en liten boll
Han lekte med bollen hela dan
Och rullade den ända in till stan
Då kom ett annat troll
och ville leka med hans boll
En söt liten trolleflicka det var
så söt och så rar
som hade hela rumpan bar
Trollpojken blev så kär
nu han trollflickan i famnen bär
med 20 trollbejbisar
lika som bär

She abandoned the trolls when she became a teenager, but the romance was still there in the songs she wrote. Love and pain and sunsets over Vättern no end.
Agnetha was convince that she had a future as a singer and she sang with a dance band. Bernt Enghardt's.
Bernt Enghardt, 38, now works as a music teacher. He still lives in Huskvarna, close to Agnetha's home town Jönköping.

AGNETHA HIRED ON TRIAL BASIS

- Our vocalist Agneta Desiluva left the band in 1966, he tells us. We were quite popular in the mid sixties, so alot of girls auditioned when we advertised for a new singer.

Agnetha Fältskog, 16, was one of them.

- We had heard her singing before, because she was a member of a girl trio which had started in a school in Jönköping. And we thought that her clear and frail voice was well suited for the dance music we were playing. Agnetha Fältskog was hired on a trial basis.

"Bernt Enghards with the vocalist Agneta" was printed on posters and in ads. They didn't even have to print new posters, since the previous singer also was called Agneta. Without and "h" though, but noone cared about that.

- But that wasn't the only reason we choose her, Bernt says. We only realised that afterwards, when we have hired her. The bigger problem was the posters with photos of all the band members, but we just pasted a picture of Agnetha Fältskog over the previous singer.

INCREDIBLY SENTIMENTAL

The band had many gigs. Agnetha worked as a swithboard operator at the car company Atteviks Bil during the days and sang in the evenings. When she had been working with the band for a year she and her boyfriend broke up. She wrote the incredible sentimental "Jag Var Så Kär". The band included the song in their repertoire for a while.

- The response from the audiences weren't that great in the beginning. But after playing it for a while people started to like it.

Bernt Enghardt sent a demo tape of "Jag Var Så Kär" and "Utan Dej" (you can listen to the song in the right column!) to Little Gerhard, who was hosting a youth show on the radio. The song was played on the show.

- The comments from the staff at the radio was that Agnetha's voice wasn't good enough, Bernt tells us. On the other hand they wanted more tapes from the band, because they liked the musicians.

But Agnetha Fältskog is a stubborn "smålänning". She kept sending the tape to different record companies. And finally Cupol noticed her. But at the recording of the song Bernt Enghardt's didn't get to play the song. Agnetha had to go to Stockholm by herself and record the song with studio musicians. Well, not really by herself, her father Ingvar Fältskog joined her and held her hand.

Agnetha's main idol was Connie Francis, so she sounded a lot like her on the two songs that were recorded that day; "Jag Var Så Kär" and "Utan Dig".

FAINTED AT WORK

In 1967 Svensktoppen was the biggest thing. And that's were she ended up. "Jag Var Så Kär" came in at number 3 the first week. Success! Agnetha became an instant star.

She continued to work at the car company during the days and singing with Bernt Enghardt's in the evenings. But all the late nights, not enough food, too many cigarettes and not the best physical shape lead to Agnetha fainting at work one day.

Her mother Birgit got really worried and gave Agnetha an ultimatum: you either have to stop singing and concentrate on your job or you have to start singing only.

Agnetha left the car company in February 1968. The same year, in the fall, she left the band and started pursuing a solo career. And there were no shortage on offers.

- Agnetha was so happy when the job offers started coming in, her father Ingvar has said. She wanted to take on the first one. "But dad, I could never get more than SEK 800 for one night", she begged. But since Agnetha wasn't a grown up yet she wasn't allowed to sign any contracts. Pappa Ingvar, who was a better negotiator, managed to get her much better pay.

In 1969 Agnetha was promoted in Germany, but with disappointing results. But at least she met the five years older Dieter Zimmerman whom she got engaged to. It didn't last for long. Then she met the pretty boy singer Björn Ulvaeus from Hootenanny Singers and we all know the rest, engagment, wedding, a child, ABBA, Eurovision Song Contest, even more ABBA, another child, and ABBA ABBA ABBA ABBA and then divorce.

Agnetha's life has certainly been spinning quickly since she left Jönköping and Bernt Enghardt's. She doesn't need anyone to hold her hand anymore when she is recording or stop her when she wants to sell her talent to cheaply. The little vocalist Agnetha is now a big girl.