Monday 11 April 2011

Bravo, 1983: Agnetha is stealing everybody’s show

The fans are taking a sprint next to the arriving bus, to be able to take out their autograph books right on time at the opening bus door. This wasn’t the case only in Bremen, where Agnetha Fältskog introduced her current solo single ‘The Heat Is On’ in the TV show Musikladen, but everywhere where the blonde Swede made an appearance on her promotional tour across Europe. No wonder. Because ever since the ex wife of ABBA’s Björn took a chance on a solo career once again with Tomas Ledin and the single ‘Never Again’, she is looking better than ever before. This individual success made Agnetha self-confident, calm and relaxed. In her appearance as well. She wears her blonde hair in a fringy way and she comes across like a teenager in her casual clothes. But still, Agnetha – who was born on April 5, 1950 in Jönköping – already has two children from her eight-year-long marriage to Björn Ulvaeus: her daughter Linda was born in 1973, son Christian followed in 1977. In the meantime, she has come to terms with the shock of her divorce, now four years ago. Her solo career is nothing new for Agnetha either: she has been playing the piano since she was five years old. When she was eighteen she got acquainted with show business for the first time through her father who was the leader of a Swedish television ballet. Immediately – still that same year, 1968 – she turned up in the Swedish top ten with ‘I Was So In Love’. She quit her job as a telephone operator, that she had started after getting her high-school diploma, to be able to sing in the evenings at a dance bar. She moved to Stockholm, composed and wrote lyrics herself and ultimately she fell in love with Björn. In 1973, at the Swedish heat for the Eurovision Song Contest where ABBA finished in third place with ‘Ring Ring’, she was already heavily pregnant. Today, no one remembers the fact that Agnetha also sung in German before her time with ABBA. In 1968, ‘Ich Bin So Verliebt’ was released, in 1969 ‘Wer Schreibt Heut Noch Liebesbriefe’ and in 1972 ‘Geh mit Gott’. Agnetha’s current single ‘The Heat Is On’ was taken from the album ‘Wrap Your Arms Around Me’, from which album the next single ‘Shame’ will be taken as well. Who is allowed to wrap his arms around Agnetha privately remains a secret, ever since her relationship with the 39-year-old bodyguard and policeman Torbjörn Brander came to an end one year ago.

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