Mikory's ABBA-blog

ABBA - The Museum

Swedish west coast newspaper Bohuslänningen reports on the museum:

"The world's first ABBA-museum!
     The four members of ABBA have finally agreed to an ABBA-museum. For years the loyal ABBA-fans have missed a place to go to where they can find out more about ABBA and look at memorabilia. Unlike Elvis Presley's "Graceland" there has never been a meeting place for the group's devoted fans. But now the husband-and-wife-team Ewa Wigenheim-Westman and Ulf Westman have persuaded Björn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid to lend out and donate objects from their career to a museum. "ABBA - The Museum" will be located at Stora Tullhuset in Stockholm. It will open on 3 June, 2009."

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...

1975 Stopped at the door

When asked buy the porter for their tickets there were some worries for a little while before fished them up out of his jean pocket. And hooray after this problem they could go inside and get seated for the show.
     Kar de Mumma aka Erik Zetterström opened a new variety show at the nice little theater Folkan. At the same time he had 50 years of annual shows to celebrate.
     On opening night the theater was packed with celebrities, among them Lasse Berghagen (who worked on this variety show 2 years ago together with Anni-Frid) came with his wife Eva Strand. Lennart and Tuss Hyland were there of course, just like Alice Timander and Git Gay och Birgitta Andersson och Carl Z (Kar de Mumma's son).
     Benny and Frida got stopped at the door when they couldn't find their tickets. Benny pankicked . He ran all over the theatre looking for his lost tickets. The show was just about to start. Then, after  a few stressfull moments Benny found two tickets in his jean pocket Anni-Frid and Benny could finally breathe again and go in and find their seats.

What a great job...

This ad was printed in the Stockholm paper Dagens Nyheter in the spring of 1975. I was only 11 at the time and I was pretty sure this family were looking for someone older with more experience....

The ad reads in English:
Nanny or Manny
Preferrably over 18 years old, for Linda 2 years old. Lighter house keeping, flexible working hours. Private room with separate entrance.
Agneta Fältskog och Björn Ulvaeus
Please call 63 03 10 during office hours and ask for Görel Johnson.

Is Björn going green?

In Aftonbladet today there's an article about Björn selling his motor boat - because it uses too much diesel. A good thing to do for the environment, but Aftonbladet puts a spin on it and points out that Björn might be selling his boat, but he still owns a private jet, that uses between 600 and 800 litres jet fuel per hour. Björn's financial advisor, a Mr. Lars Högberg, explains that Björn had to buy the private jet after 9/11 - it got so annoying and time wasting to get through all the security check points at airports. However, Görel »no comment« Hanser comes to the rescue and says that Björn is going to sell his private plane, it's just a little harder to find a buyer. Ah, well, it's a bitch to be rich... ;)

ABBA After Brighton: Now they make five times more

MÜNICH (Aftonbladet ) By Nils Lodin. December 29, 1974

It was on April 6 when Sweden got four European Masters in singing and playing a schlager. Four  Swedish young from Vallentuna, outside of Stockholm became worldfamous in all of Europe. ABBA and "Waterloo" won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton. It was the beginning of what you could call an international career.
     But it's fair to say that ABBA had a little head start on the continent about a year earlier. I'm one who can't deny it. My job as a freelance foreign correspondent involved alot of driving. And last summer i couln't turn on the car radio, no matter if I was in Switzerland, West Germany, Austria - without having "Ring Ring" seriously damaging my ears,

INTERNATIONAL WORLDSTARS
     But down on the continent ABBA were already success by last year - but not under the group name ABBA, no they went by their real names; Anna und Frida und Benny und Bjorn, was what they were called here.

     But with the Eurovision  Song Contest victory under their belt they became really famous. Their music ended up on the charts in both Europe and the United States. They sold lots of records and they travelled around showcasing themselves and their music.

     I met up with them in Münich, four really likeable young people who  didn't act like superstars.

BENNY LIKES HIS FOOD
     There was Benny Andersson, the organist who really enjoy the classic music and second to that is his love for food. He wanted to know everything about the restaurants in Münich.
     - Eating is the only fun you have when you are out on a tour like this. You rush from hotel to hotel, from arena to areana. And in the end the only lasting memory of a trip like this is what you ate.

     There was Benny's fiancée Anni-Frid, the member of the group who cares about the group's appearance on stage. Stageclothes should be wacky and happy and fun

DEMANDING DANCE ROUTINES.
     She and Agnetha exercised on a tight schedule before the European Tour "if we hadn't we couldn't have coped with allt the movement and dancing on stage.

     The blonde, Agnetha took it a little easier on stage. Her movements were more reserved, most of the time she just wiggled her now famous butt.

     If I'm honest - and I know I should be - the girls' danceroutines were a little too ambitious, it made it look strained. It strained both Agnetha and Anni-Frid - and the audience.

     Björn, Agnetha's better half, is the one who has written the lyrics - in English - to the groups' songs, and they were all original songs that never had a Swedish lyrics before.

     - Björn is really good at that, Agnetha explained. And his English is so good he can read books that are written in English with no  problem whatsoever.

THE LYRICS ARE IMPORTANT
     I discretely asked if the lyrics really mattered, if a concert going audience really listens to the lyrics.
     - It is important, says Björn. If you listen to a song many times the lyrics get noticed too. It is more important to the recordbuyer, not as important for the concertgoing audience.
     To tell the truth ABBA and their Big Daddy Stikkan Anderson, were prepared that this tour wouldn't make any more - quite the opposite.
     We saw it more like a publicity tour says Hansi Schwarz, the tourleader and a friend of Björn's since his Hootenanny Singers days. If the tour doesn't make a profit - the record sell will make up for it.
     And what about the future - are ABBA only going to sing easy accessible songs like "Honey, Honey" and cater to the wider record buying audiences
     - Never, says Björn and Benny. The money isn't the most important thing to us. We want to play the music we like.
     But ABBA's songs have generated a lot of money this year [1974]. The members of the group are making more than five times of what they used to after their victory in Brighton.
     ABBA have had their best year so far - and the success seems to keep coming. Right now is their new single "So Long" selling very well, especially in West Germany.