In 1965, a year ater her and Ragnar Fredriksson were married, they got married. I have this picutre of just the bride Ican' believe she is just 20 years old. What I am a missing is a picture of both of the happy couple. I have seen it but I can't find it anymore. Can anyone help me?
It was the same tragic family background that united the ABBA-stars
Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson.
Both had to leave their children when the success came.
Today is the couple Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson worldfamous
stars of ABBA.
They have paid a high price for it and made many sacrifices.
Both had to leave their families once their careers started – that
common problem brought then together.
–
I’m not an artist, just an ordinary girl who likes to
sing funny songs, said Anni-Frid Lyngstad in an interview after ABBA won the
Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton with “Waterloo”. Real artists are people
like Liza Minnelli, she added.
The statement was typical Frida, which she is called by her friends and
when performing. Shy, softspoken and selfcritical is something she always has
been, even after the big successes.
And Frida hasn’t had a lack of successes during her 20 years as a
performer. Yes, she will be 30 in november, but it is actually 20 years ago
since she made her debut. She sang at the Red Cross gala i Torshälla. “Fjorton
År Tror Jag Visst Att Jag Var”, which must have confused the arrangers, since
none of them reported her as underage. When she was 13 she started singing
professionally with a band.
20 years in showbusiness – how come we didn’t hear much about her before
her big break with ABBA an “Waterloo”?
Anni-Frid is one of our best singers, technically, singingwise and
musically, wrote Peter Himmelstrand already back in 1970, but at the same time
he called her the girl with the record for failed Top Ten chances. And the year
after, when Anni-Frid released her first album “Frida” – Dagens Nyheter
reviewer wrote: “A secure, super professional, low key but with a d distinct
personality, many signs of temperament, humour, tenderness and ambition. Apart
from from that she sings that you understand that she has something between her
ears – she simply sings in a very intelligent way.”
Yes, why didn’t Anni-Frid Lyngstad get her big breakthrough in Sweden.
The answer is simply. It wasn’t lack of talent, it was that she wasn’t pushy
enough, not selling her self. Maybe because of a little lack of self confidence
as well. Anni-Frid is the kind, soft calm artists whohas refused to do anything
selfserving just to be famous. To step over others to gain success yourself has
never been her style.
-
What I wish for most is to be harmonius and happy and
open, taking things as they come. Deep inside I’m really a thinker.
Beautiful, talented, happy, not a diva and sympathetic, but at the same
time serious, often sensible and a victim for long an deep depressions.
Her smiling eyes of an undetermined colour with a depth and seriousness.
How did all this come together?
Maybe Anni-Frid’s private life shed some light on that question.
Anni-Frid was born in Ballangen, outside of Narvik in Norway in 1945.
Her mother was Norwegian and her father was a German officer. He had left the
country after the war with promises to come back to his Norwegian girl when
things had calmed down. But he never came back. Anni-Frid, who has done some
research, thinks that his ship sunk outside of Denmark. And in Norway the
hatred against the Germans were huge. Anni-Frid’s was a “tysketös” (someone who
fraternised with the enemy) she was persecuted and ignored in the small town of
Ballangen.
To avoid letting Anni-Frid grow up in this environment Anni-Frid’s
mother asked her mother to take her with her and move to Sweden. The intention
was that she would follow after.
One year old Anni-Frid arrived in Sweden with her grandmother Anni, who
she refers to as mother after her mother got ill and sadly died after arriving
in Sweden.
Grandma Anni was a seamstress and moved around alot until she came to
Torshälla, just outside Eskilstuna.
And it was there Frida grew up. She was a musical child. She was also
ambitious and goaloriented. She won several singing contest, she was the
vocalist from 13 to 16 with Ewald Eks orchestera and after that she joined
Bengt Sandlund Big Band in Eskilstuna
At 17 Anni-Frid had her first child, Hans and the year after she married
the father, Ragnar Fredriksson, who had a furniture store and also was a
musician. Together they formed a band of their own called “The Anni-Frid Four”,
they played 3 nights a week in and aorund Eskilstuna. Five years later they had
a another child, Lise-Lotte and lived a nice family life in a five bedroom
house.
That was how life was for Anni-Frid when she travelled to Stockholm to
partake in Barnens Dags Talangtävling at Skansken in Stockholm in 1967. It was
the 3rd of September, a day Swedes will remember because it was the
day the traffic rules changed and we started driving on the right side of the
road. It was also a day Anni-Frid never ever will forget, because it changed
her life competely.
Master of ceremony was Lasse Holmqvist and when she had won she asked
her what she was going to do tonight.
- Going home to Eskilstuna and sleep said Anni-Frid.
- No, you are not. Outside the entrance of Skansen is a car waiting for
you to take you to Swedish Television.
“Hylands Hörna” (see clip here) was a marathon show that evening with more guests and performers than usual to help celebrate the change of driving on the right side of the road. Anni-Frid had always dreamt about performing on TV, but maybe not this unprepared.
- Just take it easy, in a few hours you will be famous, said the pianist
Leif Asp to her.
In Eskilstuna was the family unaware of what was going on watching the
TV-show. Grandma cried and couldn’t belive her eyes. Frida’s performance
started a little shaky, she held the microphone to close to her mouth but after
a few seconds her professionalism and security of being on a stage took over.
She sang he winning song from Skansen “En Ledig Dag”, written by Östen
Warnerbring – better than ever. The audience soon realised that it wasn’t a
little amateur but a fullfeathered artist.
Lots of fans wrote to her. One man wrote: “I saw you on Hylands’ Hörna and you were the best singer and the most
beautiful. I liked your eyes and your long redbrown hair. If you come to our
Folkpark this next summer I would like to meet you. I’m an ordinary farmer.
After your performance we could go to “Knutte’s” and eat cheesecake. It’s
delicious. Write me a letter if you have the time.” Dazed and happy Anni-Frid returned to the family in Eskilstuna.
Reporters and photographers were waiting in the garden and the phone never
stopped ringing. - I can’t understand what has happened, Frida said to a reporter. Here I
have been working as a singer for 10 years and now this – POW! Three record companies were waiting in line plus a number of
showbusiness people who wanted to have her perform in their shows. - And a BIG thing that I can’t talk about yet, said Anni-Frid.
Everything’s spinning. (The BIG thing was Lasse Lönndahl who wanted to have her
as a partner for his summer tour. He wasn’t the only one, but the first one to
ask.). So there she was, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, mother of two with house, husband
and an established suburban life and now she could choose freely what she
wanted to do careerwise. Which offer should she accept, questions, questions. - Ragnar is a wonderful husband, but not a very good musician, so I
guess I have to trade bands in the future if I’m going to be really
successfull. And Ragnar agreed. Take the chance both he and Grandma said. Go for the
singingcareer. We will help you with the kids and everything. And Anni-Frid went for it. She toured the Folkparks with Lasse Lönndahl,
sang for a year and a half with Charlie Norman, toured the Folkparks with Lasse
Berghagen. The she appeared in the varietyshow Kar-de-mumma-reyn at the Folkan
theatre in Stockholm. Then she made a dinnershow with Roffe Berg. And then
finally the album “Frida”. Success after success – always upwards, but it was impossible to combine
10 months of life on tour with a family life. Anni-Frid and Ragnar divorced
amicable and the children stayed with her father. Anni-Frid moved to Stockholm. - The first few months were a nightmare. I’ve never been so lonely and
missed my family so much. What saved her was her friendship with Benny Andersson, the organ player
and composer from Hep Stars. He had the same experiences in his private life –
he left his fianceé and two children so they really understood each other. “She left her musician husband and her two children just to get ahead
and make a big musical career in Stockholm”, many evil people said. It was really for the best for the children, it was for their sake I
made this sacrifice. And the divorce was finalized two months before I even met
Benny. Benny and Frida met at Kramers in Malmö on April 1 and they got engaged at Hamburger Börs later
that summer. “I believe in artist marriages”, said Frida. The wedding has been postponed though, at first the reason was that they
couldn’t afford it, they wanted a big three day wedding. During 1972-1973 it seemed that Frida and Benny really had found each
other and Frida’s depression had disappeared. Benny had given her a new sense
of security and she had started to enjoy life. In November 1970 Benny and Frida had joined up with Björn Ulvaeus and
Agnetha Fältskog for the first time. In 1972 they released their first song
“People Need Love”. In March of 1973 Frida said that they really ought to get a
name for the band. And now everything started spinning faster and faster;
folkpark tours, new recordings, TV and the grand Eurovision Song Conest victory
in 1974. After that victory Anni-Frid
has no longer a choice to call herself an artist no matter how humble she is.
“Waterloo” sold 54 million copies worldwide in countries from Eucador, the Fiji
Islands, Thailand and Japan. In Sweden only 300.000 copies were sold – a
fantastic sales figures for a small country. ABBA – Anni-Frid – Benny –
Agnetha – had over night become international superstars. Huge success and many positive reviews in the papers the following day.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad had finally gotten her big break at the age of 23 – after
performing for 10 years.
I've been studyings some phtographs where the phograher has expermiented by only portraying either the left or the right side of someone's face. Then putting the left or right side in reverse to make a "whole face again". Most people look as the always do, but there are some exceptions.
I thought I should do the same experiment with out two leading ladies. And what do you know, they are both very symmetrical!
The biggest new in show-biz this year! Frida has finally found happiness again. Now she openly displays her love for the Swedish finance man and millionaire who has been standing by her side for years.
Hand in hand - like newly in love teenagers - they stroll around Paris. Shopping, visiting small, intimate restaurants and only live for each other.
- Suddenly my life has opened up again. I am together with a man I love and it's a free demandless relationship and that's just how I want it to be. I want to learn how to live openly, spontaneously.
That's what Frida said to Theodore Kallifatides in an interview in the fashion magazine Clic last year. The only real interview Frida - who is becoming more Garboesque - has given in years.
VeckoRevyn doesn't want to reveal the name of Frida's new man. He is married in Sweden, isn't divorced yet, but left Sweden for Paris on February 28 this year.
In the beautiful quarters between Saint Germain and Montparnasse on the edge of Luxembourg garden he now lives with Frida. It's an exclusive house which is guarded 24/7. The guard won't say a word about "his" tenants. Everything is very discreet.
After the interview in Clic Frida and several of her friends have denied the romance, but now it seems that they have given up. Even if Frida and the new man don't give any interviews, they make no secret of them living together in Paris.
It was to Charles Street in London Frida moved when she left Sweden. But at Charles Street they hardly ever see the star nowadays. The mail box is overfull and the neighbours wonder where their new neighbour has gone.
There's no doubt that Frida's new love has meant a lot for her. It's a completely new Frida her friends meet nowadays.
- Frida has become more mature, calmer and more harmonious, says Tinni Fredell, Frida's best friend to Vecko Revyn. Tinny met Frida four years ago and they see each other as often as they can.
- There was an instant friendship between us, says Tinni. We talk about everything and have a lot of fun together. What I appreciate most with Frida is her sensitivity and her loyalty to others and her warmth.
Görel Hanser, another of Frida's very close friends and the vice CEO of the ABBA-company Polar Music tells us about Frida's new joy in life.
- Frida is happy now. If you have a positive attitude towards life you feel good and that's exactly where Frida is at right now. There are no more sad things in her life anymore.
Frida's new man is also her financial advisor. Frida is - as we all know - a wealthy woman. She sold her ABBA stocks at their highest value and gained almost 30 milllion kronor.
40 years old in December, attractive and successfull is the description of Frida's new man. He is a dynamic businessman with businesses all over the world and has made several million deals. Just like Frida he is also interested in art - and not just buying and selling - and he has a strong personality, says people who know him. In the relationship with Frida he is definitely not just living in Frida's world star status he is a star in his own right. Most of all he is the calm, solid rock that Frida, according to her friends, really needs. Under her outgoing public personality Frida has been a quiet and withdrawn person. Now Frida has started to live life to the fullest.
I have stopped doing alot of things I used to do. No physical training and fear of every ounce of fat. I have even thrown out my scales, she says in the Clic interview. Today Frida travels all over the world. She loves to travel. Sometimes alone, sometimes with her girlfriends and sometimes she joins her new man on his businesstrips. She can afford it and makes no secret of her spending money fast. The interest alone gives her several millions a year.
And still new millions are coming in. From ABBA's music and from her own single and LP. The single sold over 3 million copies worldwide and has actually climbed higher on the American charts than Agnetha's much talked about Wrap Your Arms Around Me.
- I spend a lot. I think it's fun, said Frida in a TV interview with Hagge Geigert this spring.
- Frida has friends in Stockholm, Austria, New York, London and Paris, says Görel Hanser. She often visits her daughter, Lotta, who is studying in the USA. Most of the time she travels by plane, but sometimes she drives her BMW within Europe. She loves clothes and buys clothes all over the world, mostly from the Italian designer Valentino.
Her best friends are, apart from Tinni Fredell and Görel Hanser, Cay Bond who works for the Clic magazine and Barbro Pettersson who is married and has children with advertising man Love Lundkvist.
Now Frida also has found the peace and quiet to write her own music and lyrics. Görel Hanser:
- Frida is now creating her own music. If she, the producer Phil Collins, Stikkan Anderson and the rest of us think it's good enough there will probably be a new album. A new album is already in the works, it will probably be recorded in may with songs from different composers.
Some of her own songs has Frida already tried out with her son Hans' band Rendez-Vous.
Today she is also making up for time lost with her children when they were younger.
- Loneliness has followed me a lot through my life. I had difficulty giving my children that genuine affection which I didn't get myself as a child. Now it's going fine. Now I understand how important it is to talk to your children, dare to show them you weaknesses, your own fragility, yes, and even cry in front of the children. If you give your children that kind of love a lot of kids would be saved from drugs and other misery, Frida said in the Hagge Geigert interview.
In the same TV-show she talked about "the positive life line" she is now following and continued:
- I feel complete harmony right now.
But then the little danceband singer from Eskilstuna with the big nose and skinny legs found the big love and is now blooming as a free, mature, independent woman.
The earlier boldness she only showed on stage is now a part of her private life also. Frida's clothes are often daring. They reflect her new personality that expresses:
- Play with life and life will play with you.
From VeckoRevyn #41, October 12, 1983.
This article is from Svensk Damtidning issue nr 34, 1987.
For the second summer in a row Frida and her prince, the banker Ruzzo Reuss have made a detour to Glumslöv, in southern part of Sweden, Skåne. They went there to meet family and friends. Ruzzo's mother, Louise Anckarcrona, owns a flat in the sweet idyllic Glumslöv, where Frida and Ruzzo loves to come and stay or a couple of weeks.
Frida, normally, divides her time between the magnificient villa on the Mallorca peninsula La Mola and her cosy flast in the Swizz village Schwyzz. Ruzzo lives just outside of Zürich, about half an hour to the office.
Naturally, everyone is very curious about this Ruzzo who has managed to capture the shy Frida's heart. He is a banker and a prince, tall med with wavy hair and fashionable glasses. He is always dressed in immaculate suits. He is also incredible charming which definitely isn't a bad thing...
It's claimed that Ruzzo was the man who helped Frida invest all her money, so they both met uner business like circumstances, but soon they discovered that they had more things in common than money - music and art for example.
Ruzzo's father, prince Reuss disappeared without a trace during the second world war and was declared dead many years later. Ruzzo's mother, Louise, née Peyron, remarried in 1972 to Ted Ankarcrona, the owner of the manors Boserup in Skåne and Runsa in Uppland. Ruzzo has spent all his life abroad, but really enjoys coming home to visit his mother when he has some time off. Nowadays Frida comes along which makes it even more pleasant.
Recently Ruzzo divorced his Norwegian wife, with whom he has two children. Something friends indiciates that "there's something going on".
Frida has lived quite a reclusive life during he last years. Finally she has been able to do all those things that were impossible during the hectic ABBA years - golfing, reading, studying French and spend time with friends. Even though she made a small comeback on the duet "As Long As I Have You" with Swedish pop duo Ratata, she has no plans whatsoever to come back to the showbusiness again. It was just one off, Frida assured us.
Also last year she toured Skåne by car with Ruzzo, enjoyed the beauty of the landscape and meeting her old Swedish friends. This summer it happened again. And it seems likely that it will happen in the coming summers too. That is at least what her friends believe.
when Frida was the big guest we will have to do with these still pictures. I hope there are some of you out there who has some more pictures from this little concert of Frida's. Frida performed "Syrtaki" and "Aldrig Mej". I was there, I was 10 and I was a mile away from the stage, but I have never forgotten this concert. It was a very warm, balmy even, evening and I was surprised that Frida was wearing boots and the "fur cardigan". Oh, beuatiful memories...
" Frida (ja, hon från Abba) sjunker till en tidigare okänd bottennivå med
omslaget till denna soloplatta. Skrevande, iförd gröna knästrumpor,
sitter hon och tar sig mellan benen. Det kunde lika gärna hetat EM i
onanifinallyreferens, med tideln "Ensam" och en näve mellan benen. Idag
serveras en hel krabba, frukt och ett stort glas vin. Krabban skall
ätas utan bestick.
"Frida (yes the one from ABBA) sings at her worst level ever on this soloalbum. With her legs spread apart and high green knee socks it looks like she is touching herself. It could have been called the EM masturbationfinallu, especially since Frida seems to be all alone. Today's dinner in one full crabfish, fruit and gold and a huge glass of wine. Apparantly the Crabfish is to be enjoyed with out any cutlery what so ever."
More of this "humour" can be found here: http://katastrofalaomslag.blogspot.com/search?q=frida
:D
Lasse Berghagen:
Back then she was a litlle aloof from the audience. I had the feeling that she never really crossed the line into the audience. She had, and still has, a remarkable voice.
Lasse Lönndahl:
- She sew her own stage outfits and wore wery daring back then. She had already a very, very good taste when it cames to clothing.
Ulf Elfving:
- Yes, here we are with the 4st and last ABBA-member, Anni-Frid Lyngstad. And you, Anni-Frid started really early (just like the rest of the members of the group). Your first appararnce was at a Red Cross Soaré in Torshälla. You were ten years old when you entered the stage for the first time. What persuaded you to do that?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- I guess it was the drive in me, to show people what I could do. I thought it was fantastically fun to sing and perform, and back then there was no fear to doing it. All I had to do was to get up on that stage and deiver my song. The song was called "I believe I was 14 years old".
Ulf Elfving:
- But in real life you were only 10.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Yes, that was right.
Ulf Elfving:
- Were there any other musical influences in you family or among your closest friends?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Well, I heard that my grandfather played the violin, my father played some acccordion and my mother was very fond of sining and she was very good at it. So I guess I came from a good stock.
Ulf Elfving:
- And those are things that do get inherited?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- I'm not sure about it, but I don't rule it out. More often than not children from muscial families become muscially themselves.
Ulf Elfving:
- What were your dreams and aspirations at suh a young age?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- I wanted to be a singer
Ulf Elfving:
- Aldready back then?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Oh yes,
Ulf Elfving;
- There were never any discussions in your home about what you wanted to dedicate your life to?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- No, we never discussed anything else, it's quite funny when you think about it. I really decided very early on, at 6 or 7 years old that I was going to be a singer.
Ulf Elfving:
- Do you remember when you made your big debút in Eskilstuna, the town closest to Torshälla, as a singer in a musical program in front of more than 50.000 - 60.000.?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- I'm sure you remember it much more vividly than I do.
Ulf Elfving:
- I was on assignment to write about you and you were really an accomplished singer back then. The head lines ran over several columns. Were you never, in any way, nervous to get on stage in front of all these strange people?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Not the way it became nervwrecking years later, when I became a professional singer. That depended on the fact that you didn't feel any pressure, it was OK to make a fool of your self, and it wouldn't mean then end of the world. It was much more relaxed, a failure wouldn't mean the end of the world. Because of that it became a fun game in a way. I didn't take it too seriously myself.
Ulf Elfving:
- How early on did you know that you had exceptionel voice capabilities?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Well, I don't think anyone ever called them exceptionel.
Ulf Elfving:
- But now they do.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- They do? (laughs). Naturally I got a lot of praise and what was written in the papers about the show being a success made me believe a little more in myself. I remember the first time I recorded my voice, what could I have been 9-10 years old and we were visiting a family who had a tape recorder and it that was quite unusal back then. So I was giving it a try and I and I sang a popular tune that was "in" at the time, and I thought it sounded so horrible I started to cry! So it wasn't a fun experience, it became much more fun later on.
Ulf Elfving:
- Your first band who were they?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- My first band was the first band I worked with professionally. I started my first band when I was 13 and the name of the group was Evald Eks. And it was a band of the old style; accordion, clarinet, vibrafon, base and drums. The soundsystem was two boxes with an amplifier in between. So there was nothing fancy. There was only one microphone, which was for the singer.
Ulf Elfving:
- The singer would soon go on to bigger tasks, one days she was discovered by Gunnar Sandevärn, world famous in Eskilstuna as a band leader.
Gunnar Sandevärn:
- It was at a a school dance in Läroverkets gymnasium in Eskilstuna. I think it was around 1960. And Anni-Frid was singing with a smaller band. She sang "Sju Vackra Gossar", as I remember and I remember thinking that she did it exceptinal well. I could hardly believe my ears that such a young person could sing so professionally. I don't think I had ever heard anything that good at that time.
Ulf Elfving:
- It was a cooperative group lead by Gunnar Sandvärn. Everyone in the band owned their own instrument. Which wasn't much at the time. But it was enough; a piano, drums and singing. There were three people who started this band, Frida, Gunnar Sandevärn and the vocalist's boyfriend Ragnar Fredriksson.
Gunnar Sandevärn:
- Frida and Ragnar went away for their honeymoon and during that time I made so many bookings I could. So when they returned, we were fully booked for the rest of the year, a band that noone had heard. Anni-Frid, she had to work as a musician, she took part in every song and if she wasn't singing she was playing the tambourine. So she really had to work hard. She had no chance of taking a rest, she had to be on stage all the time. So I guess it was a hard time workingwise for her.
Ulf Elfving:
- How many years did you work as a vocalist, quite many, right?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Yes, I worked as a vocalist for more than 10 years, with different bands during that time.
Ulf Elfving:
- And I assume you learned a lot during those years?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Yes, at least I developed a good routine of singing, but it wasn't especially developing in any way. I was "locked" in the role as a vocalist. Performing others songs and what was popular at the time. So in a way I felt I stopped developing. It was then that I realized that I wanted to do something else, if not just for my own sake. In a way, I thought I was good, I felt I had to take the chance and try and to something else than just continue as a vocalist for the rest of my life.
Ulf Elfving:
- Were these ambitions your own or was someone behind them, supporting you?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- All the people I worked with in these different band were very supportive and they thought I shoud try to go for something more, and they never discouraged me even though they were afraid of losing a singer because it was hard to find good people to work well together with even back then. But there was always a safety behind me so I darked to take the next step. And then there was the competition "Nya Ansikten/Barnens Dag". I saw an ad in the local paper and I thought I should give it a try. So I filled out the form and then I carried it in my purse for several weeks, before I dared to send it off. I got a reply and an invitation to come to Stockholm for a test.
Ulf Elfving:
- You did all of this yourself, both artistically and privately you have been very independent. Has that been a good thing?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- Yes, it has been very useful and even if I sometimes have been absolutely terrified for different situations it has meant that I have forced myself to simply move on in life. It was like a need in me I just simply had to do it.
Ulf Elfving:
- The single "En Ledig Dag" became Anni-Frid's first. It was the result of the Skansen competition which she won, she won the competition in Stockolm on the same day Sweden started driving on the right side of the road (3 September 1967). She was transported to the television show "Hyland's Hörna" that same evening, when she got to sing her winning melody "En Ledig Dag" in front of a live for the Swedish TV-watchers and a group of recordingproducers.
Olle Bergman (producer):
- At the time I was working for EMI. And we were really excited about her as a performer. Yes, I thought she had something special to become a big artist. We wanted to make a string of records with her. We wanted to sign her then and there, but she sort of disappeared in the crowd, she went back home to Eskilstuna. We couldn't get in contact with her that evening. So I called her up early in the morning and told her that we wanted to sign her. I told her that I would cold come over and get her to sign a contract.
Ulf Elfving:
- The profesionall artist career had started for Anni-Frid. Lasse Lönndahl became her first folkparkpartner, how did that begun?
Lasse Lönndahl:
- It was on a radio station, we were recording "Våra Favoriter" and then Frida had won the talent conest on Skansen, but I hadn't seen the show, but somehow she was invited to "Våra Favoriter". And it was a pretty, talented girl so naturally I asked her what she was going to do the following summer. This must have been in January or February 1968 and she said "- No, nothing special.". She had some lose plans but I asked her if she wanted to tour with me. "- She said, I love to!" and I was thrilled because she was a very talented girl and she had a fine quartet that played with us; Bengt Hallberg, piano, Rune Gustafsson, guitar, Rune Carlson on drums and Lasse "Peta" Pettersson on bass, so she found it very tempting to tour with such a great band.
Ulf Elfving:
Is there anyone of all the people you have worked with through they years that has taught you more than anyone else?
Anni-Frid Lyngstad:
- I really do appreciate Charlie Norman highly. I think he was a good teacher in many ways, both musically and performance wise. He was a bit of a "Dad" for me in that way. He is very particular with wich he does especially when it comes to work and he wouldn't accept any negiglence, you had to know what you were doing and that was of course very usefull.
Charlie Norman:
- I don't think I've learned her anything, because she was, a pretty girl, sung beutifully, used cutley when she ate, so then there's nothing much else to learn somebody. Apart from being on time but that goes for all of us. I know that there are several individuals who say that they have learned things from me, but I find that hard to believe and I don't think I'm using any "schoolteacher" tactics and try to make them to this or that.
Brush up your Swedish? Do you want to pratice your Swedish?And here some of the rare tracks Frida sings. Listen to these 4 tracks from the interview: Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, Track 4.
