A different picture of the girls in ABBA

This is the gray everyday life for the two girls of ABBA, Agnetha Fältskog, 26, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 30:

• Dance rehearsals
• Domestic chores such as doing dishes, washing clothes, cooking and looking after the children
• Depressive thoughts about not being able to full fill people's expectations
• Insomnia

That's far from the glitter and the glamour on the big stages around the world and the tours around the world.
     - If you think about it we really are as every other women. The only difference is that we have an unusual kind of job. During an interview like this one they sit very relaxed with  a cup of coffee each , noone is smoking. They don't look for help from each other for, but still manage to reply very self assured They know each other as well as a couple of sisters.They have nothing to say, that the other member doesn't already knows about.
     - Yes, that's very much how we feel, like a sisters.

One thing has taken it's toll during the ABBA years; both Agnetha and Anni-Frid are tortured by insomnia. 

     - It's horrible Agnetha says. You lie there awake and brude over problems and the longer you stay awake the more desperatee one becomes. - I have to get up early for Linda's sake, I know that I can't stay in bed until 12.00am Linda is Agnetha's and Bjorn's three year old daughter.

     - I have nightmares says Anni-Frid. Both girls believes the problems stems from the pressure on them. The expectations on them and on ABBA, to always be better than you were on the previous album etc. And the stress of touring, the boring plane trips. Despite all of this ABBA is their lives. How long will the group last? - Forever says Frida very quickly. - As long as Björn and Benny wants to write songs. - But who knows, maybe there comes a time when we are utterly fed up with ABBA, and then we will try to find somethings else to do. They hardly have any time for anything else apart from ABBA and mainting their homes. Dancing is a hobby, but it is of course also a part of the job. Anni-Frid would love to have time to study languages. Agnetha wish she could have more time for exercis, like swimming. But there just isn't enough time. If ABBA never had existed what would the two girls have done instead today?     - I woked in an office before I started singing, says Agnetha. But I don't think I would have continued doing that. Perhaps I would have worked with children or studied to become a dental nurse. But I'm quite sure that I would have been composing music on the side.

     - I can't think of anything else to do than what I am doing, says Anni-Frid.

SIMILAR LIFESTYLES
The roles at home are quite similar for the two ABBA-girls. Agnetha and Björn live in a house on Lidingö and they have a daughter, Linda who demands their attention all the time. When ABBA are out working around the world Linda has a live in nanny.
     - Being with Linda is the best way to relax for me, says Agnetha. A typical ordinary day begins around 6.00 or 7.00 in the morning, just like it does in most families with small children.
     For Benny and Anni-Frid who live in Gamla Stan slightly different but still very similar. Anni-Frid has two children, Liselotte 9, and Hans, 13. They live in Eskilstuna. But they come to Stockholm on every weekend and school break and during the summers.
     - That, to me is the biggest happiness, to have my children close to me.
     - Sure, ABBA is important, but it can't be compared to being with your own children.

SPLIT THE CHORES
In both families most of the chores are split fifty/fifty.
     - Benny has so much to do, so perhaps I'm doing a little bit more of the domestic chores than he does.  But then again, he is an excellent cook and he likes doing that.
     - So is Björn, Agnetha says. More than me. So it's almost him fixing dinner every day.
So who does the dishes afterwards?
     Agnetha smiles:
     - Noone, we both have dish washers. But of course some one has to manage them as well...