Agnetha Fältskog got married on June 6, 1971 to the then already well-known pop musician Björn Ulvaeus. At the time, nothing was pointing to the fantastic things to come. Now, seven years later, blonde Agnetha sometimes thinks about the old days with melancholy. Then she wonders how it’s all going to end...Actually, Agnetha has never made much effort to put herself forward. But in one way or another, other people have always encouraged her to keep singing. It all started with her father, a musician himself, who wrote songs for her when she was very little. Later on, Björn and ABBA eventually made her a star. Maybe that’s why she is able to look at things in a cool, businesslike way.
“I know that we are world famous and are at the absolute top. But I try not to think about that too much. Sometimes, it makes me a little scared,” she confesses openly. When you talk to Agnetha, it is clear that she doesn’t behave like a star at all. She notices small details, gets tea herself and she talks about music as little as possible. “It may sound strange,” she apologizes, “but I don’t interfere at all with the plans of the group. I’d rather leave that to Benny and Björn. They know exactly what’s right for ABBA.”
Agnetha’s faith in the team of Benny-Björn-Stig is unlimited. “There is some kind of family bond between us,” she explains. “It’s not a business relationship, like you often see between artists and their managers. ABBA is a true family company.” Agnetha herself takes care of the daily worries of her own ‘family company’, namely her own little family. She has now been a mother for almost a year and during the past year she has had to compromise and improvise quite a lot to divide her time between both tasks as good as possible. Luckily, ABBA has taken things a little easer this year. But will it remain that way in the future? “I don’t know,” Agnetha says pensively. “We’ve already done everything once and in Europe we can go on like this for some time to come. However, America is still one big riddle. If our records will make it big over there, everything will change. Then we will be away from home very often, because you have to work hard to stay on top there. Television performances and tours will take up a lot of our time then. To be honest, I’m not sure if I would really want that. Now, we can make new recordings in peace and quiet and we live comfortably here.”On the one hand, Agnetha is a homely type of person, but on the other hand she is also a little ‘addicted’ to success. “I wouldn’t want to stop for quite some time,” she smiles spontaneously. “That would leave an enormous void in my life. Sometimes I try to imagine how it would be like without ABBA. I know at some point the day will come that we will quit. It may be years and years before that day arrives, but it will come. And what happens then? I wouldn’t have to work or anything like that, because there’s more than enough money. Maybe we could have some more children. But oh well, there won’t be any time for that in the near future...” Agnetha thinks it’s a little disquieting to think too much about the future. Maybe that’s because there were always other people who defined her future. She doesn’t mind: “I know that I didn’t take a lot of initiatives myself, but I have no regrets about that. Life has been good to me and I have a lot of sweet people surrounding me. I trust them wholeheartedly and I couldn’t cope without them. I’m just not very independent, but that’s not a bad thing, is it? For that matter, I wouldn’t have achieved as much on my own. I don’t think it’s any fun either to have a solo career. It’s fantastic to make an audience enthusiastic with the four of us, but I wouldn’t like to be on stage alone for all the gold in the world.”
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