ABBA is a Swedish pop band that found mainstream success in the 1970s with their hit “Dancing Queen”
Swedish supergroup ABBA catapulted to international fame in the 1970s with their hits “Dancing Queen” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”
ABBA’s members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad enjoyed enormous success for a decade before the group’s hiatus in 1982.
In 2016, ABBA announced plans to reunite as virtual avatars for a live “entertainment experience.” Two years later, the group revealed that they had also recorded new music. In a joint statement, they explained, “The decision to go ahead with the exciting ABBA avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did. And it was like time had stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday.”
The quartet released their ninth and final studio album, Voyage, in November 2021. And the following May, all four ABBA members attended the premiere of their virtual concert series in London.
Swedish supergroup ABBA catapulted to international fame in the 1970s with their hits “Dancing Queen” and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!”
ABBA’s members Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad enjoyed enormous success for a decade before the group’s hiatus in 1982.
In 2016, ABBA announced plans to reunite as virtual avatars for a live “entertainment experience.” Two years later, the group revealed that they had also recorded new music. In a joint statement, they explained, “The decision to go ahead with the exciting ABBA avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence. We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did. And it was like time had stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday.”
The quartet released their ninth and final studio album, Voyage, in November 2021. And the following May, all four ABBA members attended the premiere of their virtual concert series in London.
Agnetha Fältskog, 74
ABBA’s lead vocalist Agnetha Fältskog was known for her interest in music as a child, and she wrote her first song at the age of 6, according to ABBA’s official website. Her first single, which she wrote as part of the band Bernt Enghardts, was released in 1967.
Fältskog began dating fellow ABBA member Björn Ulvaeus in 1969 and the couple got engaged the following year. They wed on July 6, 1971, and welcomed two children together, daughter Linda Elin Ulvaeus and son Peter Christian Ulvaeus, before their divorce in 1980.
Following her divorce from Ulvaeus and ABBA’s subsequent split, Fältskog went on to release three English-language albums: Wrap Your Arms Around Me in 1983, Eyes Of A Woman in 1985 and I Stand Alone in 1987.
She married her second husband, Thoms Sonnenfield, in 1990, though the pair quietly divorced in 1993. Over a decade later, Fältskog returned to the spotlight when she signed a solo record deal in 2004.
Björn Ulvaeus, 79
Björn Ulvaeus was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, and grew up in the small town of Västervik. Like the other members of ABBA, Ulvaeus was also interested in music from an early age. He began his career in the Swedish folk band Hootenanny Singers, which is how he was introduced to keyboardist Benny Andersson, a member of the band the Hep Stars. The two began collaborating, eventually working together and forming ABBA with their fiancées.
Ulvaeus wed fellow bandmate Agnetha Fältskog in 1971 and they had two children together. After the couple split, Ulvaeus married his second wife Lena Källersjö in 1981 and had two more kids.
He and Andersson continued to work together long after ABBA disbanded in the early 1980s. The duo wrote the musical Chess with lyricist Tim Rice, with the show opening on London’s West End in 1986 and premiering on Broadway two years later.
According to ABBA’s official website, Ulvaeus was also involved in the staging of Mamma Mia, the musical — and later film series — based on ABBA’s songs.
In 2022, The Daily Mail reported that Ulvaeus and his wife of over 40 years, Källersjö, announced their plans to divorce.
That July, he arrived at the premiere of his new musical, Pippi at the Circus, hand-in-hand with Christina Sas, a music manager for Universal Music Group. In December 2022, the couple attended the Stockholm premiere of A Man Called Otto, a film starring Tom Hanks.
Benny Andersson, 77
Born in Stockholm, ABBA vocalist Benny Andersson was introduced to music as a child, as both his father and grandfather played the accordion and taught him the instrument.
Andersson was a part of several musical groups before the formation of ABBA. He started his career in the band for singer Christina Grönvall. (The two eventually started dating and had two children together.) Then, he joined Elverkets Spelmanslag before becoming the keyboardist of the Hep Stars.
It was while he was with the Hep Stars that Andersson first met Ulvaeus and the pair wrote the song “Isn’t It Easy To Say” for the band. They recorded their first album, Lycka, in 1970, on which their girlfriends, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad sang backup vocals. Andersson and Lyngstad were engaged for nearly nine years before tying the knot in 1979, however, they divorced two years later.
Andersson continued to work in music following ABBA’s 1982 hiatus, producing work with Anders and Karin Glenmark and his first solo album was released in 1987. He currently performs with the band Benny Andersson’s Orkester.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 78
Anni-Frid Lyngstad was born in Norway in 1945 and moved to Sweden with her grandmother nearly two years later. According to ABBA’s official website, Lyngstad’s father was a German soldier and “thought to have vanished when his ship was sunk on the way back to Germany,” though they were later reunited in the 1970s. Her mother died less than two years after she was born.
As a teenager, Lyngstad performed with various bands. She married her first husband Ragnar Fredriksson when she was 18 years old and had two children, though the pair divorced ahead of ABBA’s rise to fame.
She met her second husband and fellow ABBA bandmate Benny Andersson in 1969 and the two quickly got engaged. Lyngstad also released a Swedish-language solo album in 1975 while a part of ABBA. She was already working on solo work before ABBA’s 1982 hiatus, and she released her first English-language solo album, which was produced by Phil Collins the same year.
Lyngstad was married to her third husband, Prince Henrich Ruzzo Reuss, Count of Plauen, from 1992 until his death in 1999. Her daughter died the year prior after a car accident.
Today, Lyngstad is “devoting herself to charity work,” per ABBA’s official site.
