"Swedish police have arrested a 34-year-old man accused of stalking Agnetha Fältskog of the 70s Swedish pop phenomenon ABBA. According to reports in the Swedish daily Expressen, Ms Fältskog filed an official complaint against the man last week, saying she feared for her life after being stalked for three years. The man was detained two days later. The man had reportedly become smitten by the singer when he was eight years old and had left his native Netherlands to buy a house near Ms Fältskog's country estate at Ekero near Stockholm. According to Expressen, she told police that the stalker had sent her some 300 letters between 1997 and 1999, telephoned her up to three times a day and followed her wherever she went." This article appeared on the BBC news site on 4 April 2000. It's an extreme example of how The Goddess of Glam nearly 20 years after the break-up of ABBA still captivates millions of fans.

Agnetha Åse Fältskog was born in Jönköping, Sweden, on 5 April 1950. At the age of five she wrote her very first song Two small trolls. Around Christmas time, her father, the neighbourhood variety king, would usually set up seasonal plays, which Agnetha often attended. She made her stage debut at the 1956 Christmas show. It was on this occasion that Agnetha famously happened to drop her trousers whilst singing Billy Boy.

On her seventh birthday she got her own piano and began taking piano lessons. She became more serious about composing music. By the time Agnetha was fourteen, her piano teacher felt that she could teach her nothing more. By then she could play both the piano and the hapsichord.

In 1963 she formed a band with two girlfriends. Calling themselves The Cambers they sang at New Year revues and parties. Connie Francis was her idol.

After graduating from junior secondary school at the age of 15, Agnetha didn't want to carry on to upper secondary school. She landed herself a job at Atteviks car dealership as an office girl and switchboard operator.

Around the same time, she also got a job as a vocalist with Bernt Enghardt's dance band. She composed Jag var så kär and Utan dig, and they proved so popular that the band would play them as the last dance of the night.

The band was a success. With all the late night gigs it was obvious that working at the car dealer's was going to clash with the music, so Agnetha gave in her notice.

One of the members of the band was a relative of former Swedish rock'n'roll star Little Gerhard who now worked as a talent scout for the record company Cupol. In 1967 the band put together a demo tape and sent it to Little Gerhard. The scout didn't care much for the band, he was only interested in Agnetha. He invited her to Stockholm to record two of her own songs as singles.

One morning, as the family sat round the breakfast table, Agnetha suddenly heard her own voice on the radio. Looking back she describes that as one of the happiest moments in her whole working life, even compared to all the subsequent successes with ABBA. Jag var så kär reached Number One in the Swedish charts on 28 January 1968. She signed with Cupol and her first single was soon followed by her first LP Agnetha Fältskog.

She didn't stop singing with Bernt's band straight away, but carried on for as long as she could; right up until she left Jönköping. It was obvious she was off to Stockholm.

Throughout the late sixties the hits continued for Agnetha and Cupol decided to launch her in West Germany through a record company called Hansa Schallplatten. The German songwriter and producer Dieter Zimmermann looked after her and was her safe haven in Berlin. They became engaged.

In the autumn of 1968, Agnetha went on tour with the Swedish group Sten & Stanley and singer Marianne Kock. The tour coincided with her second chart hit Allting har förändrat sig.

The spring of 1969 saw further recordings in Germany. Agnetha released eight singles in German, but never had a breakthrough there. The engagement to Zimmermann was broken off after barely a year and Agnetha headed back to Sweden.

In early May she was asked to take part in a Jules Sylwain gala on television called Räkna de lyckliga stunderna blott. It was there that she met and fell in love with Björn Ulvaeus, former member of The Hootenanny Singers. He had just released his first solo single Raring. Agnetha and Björn had actually met before during some Folkpark tours the previous summer but this time things clicked and the couple became a popular news item when the story leaked to the press during the summer of 1969.

Björn was writing songs with Benny Andersson who had left his own band The Hep Stars. At the time Benny was seeing a girl called Anni-Frid Lyngstad who, like Agnetha, was building up a solo career. The boys had formed their own company Union Songs. They had a partner named Stig Anderson. The groundwork for ABBA was being laid...

Agnetha's second album Agnetha Fältskog Vol. 2 was released later in 1969. The first single from that album Zigenarvän caused quite an upset because its subject matter was a love affair with a gypsy. At the time the Swedish were in a heated debate over gypsies living there and Agnetha was accused of exploitation.

Another of her singles, the immensely popular Om tårar vore guld released in the spring of 1970, would also meet with controversy. Danish composer Per Hviid announced that he was to sue Agnetha for plagiarism claiming he had performed the same melody while on tour in Sweden in 1950. When Per was told Agnetha was born in 1950 the lawsuit was quickly dropped.

In April 1970, Agnetha and Björn got engaged. Together with Anni-Frid and Benny who had become engaged in August 1969, they went off to Cyprus and had a terrific engagement party. Both couples were now living with their respective partners.

That summer Agnetha did a Folkpark tour with the popular Swedish actor Bert-Åke Varg. In the autumn she recorded her third solo album Som jag är co-produced by Björn. The album included the radio hit En sång och en saga. The album's title Som jag är (As I am) would later be used for her autobiography.

Having discovered the great sound of their combined voices, the four future ABBA members thought it was time to give their first floorshow together a try. They called it Festfolket. The premier, at Tradgar'n restaurant in Gothenburg was a disaster. They took the show to Strand in Stockholm. After the show at Strand it would be a while before they would all work together again, apart from doing backing vocals for each other. All of them were focusing on their individual careers.

In April 1971 Björn, Benny and Agnetha formed a trio and set off on a Folkpark tour while Anni-Frid toured with Lasse Berghagen. There were many breaks for recording during that period. She made her fourth album När en vacker tanke blir en sång with Björn as producer. Popular songs from the album included Många gånger än and Dröm är dröm och saga saga.

Taking a break from the tour, Agnetha and Björn got married in the village of Verum in southern Sweden on 6 July 1971. The marriage was a major media event. Large crowds gathered outside the church to catch a glimpse of the happy couple. They enjoyed a short honeymoon before going back on the road with the Folkpark tour.

In January 1972 Agnetha auditioned for the part of Mary Magdalene in the Swedish production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. She got the part. Björn produced Agnetha's Swedish versions of I don't know how to love him (Vart ska min kärlek föra) and Everything's alright (Nu ska du bli stilla) from the musical, which were issued on a single. In March 1972, an original cast double album was recorded.

It was also in late March that the first true ABBA song People need love was recorded. As ABBA became massively popular over the world, Agnetha was to devote less and less time to her solo career and songwriting.

In the summer of 1972, however, Agnetha had yet to give up her own career, and she embarked on a solo Folkpark tour. The autumn saw the release of the single Så glad som dina ögon.

At the end of 1972 Benny, Bjorn and Stig were approached by the Swedish Broadcasting Company to submit an entry in the Swedish qualifying round for the 1973 Eurovision Song Contest. They only came third, but the song Ring Ring became a major hit in Scandinavia, Holland and Belgium.

Bjorn and Agnetha's daughter Linda was born on 23 February 1973.

Later in the same year Cupol released her fifth Swedish language album Agnetha Fältskogs Bästa, a compilation album.

Then, on 6 April 1974, Anni-Frid, Bjorn, Benny and Agnetha won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton with Waterloo. With ABBA Agnetha would go on to become part of pop history in a career that spanned from 1972 to 1982. She would sing the lead on pop classics like The winner takes it all, Chiquitita and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! The success story of ABBA is well documented elsewhere and need not be further explored within the limits of these pages.

In late 1975, Agnetha's sixth solo album Elva kvinnor i ett hus was released. All music had been written and produced by Agnetha herself - except the Swedish version of ABBA's S.O.S. - with lyrics by Bosse Carlgren. As ABBA came to dominate her music career over the next few years, and given that she wanted to devote all of her spare time to raising her children, Linda, born in 1973, and Christian, born in 1977, this was to be the last solo release from Agnetha for a few years.

Sad and unexpected news began the year 1979; Agnetha and Björn were seeking a divorce after eight years of marriage. The press sensationalized the divorce and Agnetha moved out to her new house on Jupitorvägen. The couple announced that the divorce would in no way interfere with their part in ABBA.

Agnetha briefly returned to her solo career in early 1979 when she recorded her new composition När du tar mej i din famn for a solo compilation album Tio år med Agnetha. In late 1980, she also recorded a Christmas album with her daughter Linda, Nu tändas tusen juleljus, which was not released until a year later.

On 14 January 1981 Björn married his girlfriend Lena. On 10 February 1981 Benny and Frida announced to the press that they too were seeking a divorce. Frida made a very similar statement to the press as Agnetha had, back in 1979, stating that the future of ABBA was under no threat.

On 3 January 1982 Björn and Lena's first child, Emma, was born. Exactly one week later on 10 January 1982 Benny and new wife, Mona also had a child, Ludwig.

There was never a formal mention of ABBA breaking up but the group began to slowly dissolve during 1982. It was explained at the time as a rest. The four members were all off doing individual things. The girls were picking up their solo careers again and the boys were considering doing a musical with Tim Rice called Chess.

That year Agnetha spent part of August filming her debut as an actress in the Swedish movie Raskenstam. In October she released the hit duet single Never again with Tomas Ledin.

January 1983 saw the start of a new phase in her solo career, when she started recording her first ever English language solo album Wrap your arms around me produced by Mike Chapman. By April the album was completed and Agnetha started on a promotional tour. In May the album was released worldwide with the single The heat is on. Agnetha's promotions took her all over Europe and a trip was also made to America. The album was very successful in Europe selling over 2 million copies. To this day The heat is on remains one of the biggest selling hits of all time in Sweden. Other hits from the album included Can't shake loose and the title track.

At the end of 1983 she had another hit in Sweden with It's so nice to be rich/P&B, a song from the Swedish movie P&B.

In the autumn of 1984, Agnetha again started working on a new album, Eyes of a woman, with Eric Stewart in the producer's chair. The first single off the album was I won't let you go, co-written by Agnetha and Eric, the first time for a while that Agnetha released a self-composed song as a single. The album was released in the spring of 1985.

Over the next 18 months not much was heard from Agnetha on record, but in November 1986 she teamed up with Ola Hakansson on the track The way you are. This song was dedicated to the Olympic Games and also featured in the Swedish movie It's time for Sweden. It was released as a single with the b-side Fly like the eagle.

In 1986 Cupol released another compilation of Agnetha's solo Swedish songs. The title of this LP was Sjung Denna Sång.

1987 saw her recording two albums. The first was a more low-key project, a Swedish album of children's songs Kom följ med i vår karusell which she recorded with her son Christian. It was an enormous success in Sweden and featured the single På Söndag. The other was her third international solo album I stand alone. She recorded it in Los Angeles with Peter Cetera (former lead vocalist of Chicago) producing. This album was not promoted much outside Sweden although it did get a bit of attention in the United States. In Sweden, though, it entered the charts at Number One and would become the best selling album of the year. The singles released were The last time, I wasn't the one (a duet with Peter) and Let it shine. I stand alone remains the last new solo album released by Agnetha.

Wedding bells rang for Agnetha on 15 December 1990 when she married Tomas Sonnenfeld, a Swedish surgeon. Tomas and Agnetha lived quietly in a beautiful house outside Stockholm. Unfortunately, the marriage didn't last. In 1993 divorce proceedings were started by both parties.

In September 1996 Agnetha's autobiography Som jag är was published along with the simultaneous release of My love my life, a two CD career retrospective including pre-ABBA and post-ABBA solo work as well as ABBA tracks featuring Agnetha as lead vocalist.

PolyGram released another compilation CD called That's me - The greatest hits on 18 May 1998. This compilation includes mainly songs from her last three English language albums as well as some ABBA songs, plus the never before released English version of När du tar mej i din famn, entitled The queen of hearts.

Agnetha turned 50 on 5 April 2000. For the past decade, she had lived a reclusive life, practising yoga and astrology, horseriding and walking. 

And now, thirty years since Abba's memorable Eurovision victory, and after a silence of 17 years, Agnetha has returned to the musical spotlight with a solo album. This 2004 comeback with My Colouring Book puts further distance between Faltskog and her Abba past, but will none the less be devoured by fans. The 53-year-old singer's long-awaited revival is a personal tribute project to her past musical influences. It is a recreation of existing songs from the likes of Cilla Black, Brian Hyland and Frank Sinatra. The lack of new material means Fältskog retains her mysterious, elusive air after years of seclusion.

 

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