Bravo, March 1980: Star-magazine - All about ABBA

On stage just as good as on record.
Australia, America, Europe - there are not many countries in the world where ABBA hasn't performed yet. But no matter where they took to the stage, the concerts were always sold out. In Australia they performed in front of 25.000 fans in the pouring rain, and no one left before the last note had been played. In London, ABBA could have played 625 concerts in the biggest hall - the Royal Albert Hall - that many fans had applied for tickets. In Stockholm, ABBA performed at the Stockholm Royal Opera House in front of the Swedish Queen Silvia and King Karl Gustav in June 1976.
In Germany, ABBA was celebrated like hardly any other group as well. They already performed three times - in 1974, 1977 and 1979 - in our country. The tickets were sold out within a couple of hours. Faster than had ever happened before in pop history.

ABBA's everyday life: sometimes in a private jet, sometimes at the office.
For pop fans all over the world, Baldersgatan 1 in Stockholm is the hottest address - it's ABBA's headquarter. This is the location, from where Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid are running their career in large and roomy offices. It's where the stereo equipment, record players, tape recorders are located to listen to their records and tapes. There's also a lunchroom, a gymnastics room for Agnetha and Anni-Frid's dance lessons and it's the headquarter of the fanclub and the place where the numerous gold records are retained.
But the actual studio is in the city centre.To that purpose, ABBA has bought an old, worn out cinema and had it completely rebuilt.

Profile: Agnetha.
Agnetha Fältskog was born on 5 April 1950 in Jönköping. She is 1,72 metres tall, has light blonde hair and blue eyes. When she was still a child, she already composed her first songs. After secondary school she started working as a telephone operator at a car firm. In the evenings she sang with an amateur band. When she was 17, she already had her first hit in Sweden. Altogether, she recorded five albums and fifteen singles as a solo singer. She met Björn in 1968.

Agnetha and Björn: divorced - but friends.
In January 1979, the report that Agnetha and Björn wanted to get a divorce dropped like a bombshell. Up till then, they were perceived as a dream couple. Seemingly happy, they lived in Lidingö in an eight room mansion, built in 1940. In 1973, daughter Linda was born and not until December 1977 their son Christian.
Meanwhile, they are divorced, the children are living with Agnetha. But Björn is allowed to see them whenever he wants. The outspoken and temperamental Agnetha and the always quiet-acting Björn got acquainted in 1969 during a television performance. One year later they got engaged and on 6 July 1971 they got married.
It was the pop wedding of the year in Sweden. When they were on tour they were looking out for a church they wanted to get married in. Eventually, they found the right church in the small village Verum in the south of Sweden. Back then, Benny was sitting at the organ and played Mendelssohn's wedding march for the couple. 3.000 fans had come to Verum. Now that's only a beautiful memory for the both of them, but despite the divorce they remained good friends.

Profile: Björn.
Björn Ulvaeus was born on 25 April 1945 in Göteborg. He is 1,76 metres tall, has blonde hair and blue eyes. He started his career in the early sixties with the folk group The Hootenanny Singers, and he also wrote their songs. He met Benny in 1972 and decided to start a new band together with him. ABBA was born...

Seven interesting questions for ABBA. Did you know that they have Bravo to thank for their logo?
Bravo: How did you come up with the name ABBA?
Björn: "When we first performed together at a restaurant in Göteborg we called ourselves Engaged Couples. But that was a flop. Our first album was billed with 'Björn, Benny, Agnetha & Frida', until our manager simply shortened our first names during meetings. That's how he came up with ABBA."
Bravo: In the beginning, there was quite some confusion - Agnetha was called Anna.
Benny: "We thought that was better because it sounded so old-fashioned."
Bravo: How did you come up with the logo with the reverted 'B'?
Agnetha: "That came up during a photo session for Bravo! We had to hold our initial letter in life-size. Benny turned around his B and we only noticed this when the pictures were ready. We liked it so much that we decided to copyright that logo."
Bravo: Why do you tour so rarely?
Anni-Frid: "On the outside it may seem that we are very lazy. But Benny and Björn often work in the studio for months and months until they have found the right songs. We don't release everything that we record. Apart from that, promotional films have to be made, photo sessions for the cover and every tour needs at least three months of preparation. We only want the best and everything has to be perfect."
Bravo: Do you often spend time together privately?
Björn: "Not so much these days. In the old days we spent our holidays and weekends together but nowadays we prefer to go our separate ways privately."
Bravo: It has often been written that Agnetha and Anni-Frid don't get along - especially on tours.
Agnetha: "That always happens when people are together. I am a fiery type of person who easily flies off the handle. But I easily get over it as well. Anni-Frid on the other hand has a thick skin, she can take a lot, until she boils over. But when we fall out, then we really do. We tell each other what we think and after that everything is fine again."
Bravo: How long will ABBA keep on going?
Benny: "As long as our fans think our music is any good. We just renewed our contract."

Profile: Benny.
Benny was born as Björn Bror Benny Andersson on 16 December 1946 in Stockholm. He is 1,80 metres tall, has blonde hair and blue eyes. With his parents as his example he started playing the accordion already at an early age. Later on he learned how to play the piano. In 1963 he started the rock group The Hep Stars and with them he received eight gold records. The group was on tour in Germany quite often as well. These days he is ABBA's sound craftsman.

Benny and Anni-Frid: a late marriage.
No matter how profoundly different they are, Anni-Frid and Benny immediately understand each other without using many words. Anni-Frid likes to go out, she loves to dance in discotheques, she likes to go to concerts and she can often be found in the cinema or at the theatre. Benny on the other hand prefers the silence of the studio, he often withdraws behind his piano for nights on end. He composes new songs or finds new sound gimmicks at the mixing console that should turn every new ABBA record into a surprise. Anni-Frid concerns herself more with the stage show.
When Anni-Frid and Benny got acquainted in 1969, they both just had a disappointing relationship behind them. They both had just got divorced, they each have two children with their previous partner. But their newfound love helped Benny and Anni-Frid to get over their disappointment. For eight years they lived together, before they got married on 6 October 1978. They had made the announcement long before that - but still it was a surprise.
Benny and Anni-Frid are living in a mansion in the upscale area of Lidingö on the outskirts of Stockholm. Their children come to visit them regularly there.

Profile: Anni-Frid.
Anni-Frid Lyngstad is the only member who doesn't originate from Sweden. She was born on 15 November 1945 in the Norwegian town Narvik as a daughter of the German officer Alfred Haase and the Norwegian girl Synni Lyngstad. Anni-Frid moved to Sweden when she was still a little girl. She is 1,72 metres tall, has brown hair and green-brown eyes. She started her career as a jazz singer in small clubs. And then she got a job as a dancer in a television ballet. She got married to the musician Fredriksson and had two children with him, Hans and Lise-Lotte. In 1968 she got divorced. In 1969 she met Benny.

From 'Waterloo' to the present.
6 April 1974 was the day that ABBA laid the foundation for their breathtaking career. On this day, they performed their song 'Waterloo' in front of more than 500 million television viewers at the Eurovision Song Contest. Beforehand, no one had expected that they would win - therefore it was all the more a suprise afterwards. But even then, many people believed it was just a one-off incident. Since 1956, no one from Sweden had won Eurovision. And never before had a group from Sweden been able to turn the pop world upside down. But ABBA did it - up till now they are just as successful as the Beatles and they are on their way to overtake the guys from Liverpool. Since 1974, they've had three hits in the charts every year - up till now there are 18 of them - and each of their albums turned into gold.

All around the world in two months - ABBA's latest triumph.
ABBA gave 41 concerts in 1979. 360.000 people saw Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid perform on stage. 50 people worked behind the scenes to make sure the show was running problem-free, a show that the four Swedes had worked on for three months. Anni-Frid and Agnetha took dance lessons, Agnetha even played piano on stage, and they also designed the costumes themselves.

Youpi, 1977: The filming of the movie tells the story of their love

In issue 14 of Youpi, we already told you in short about the new project of the group ABBA: filming a movie that's going to tell a splendid double love story, about the way that the couples in ABBA were formed. But there's talk about two other films as well. The first one will have 'ABBA in concert' as its theme. The second will be a kind of musical comedy wherein ABBA is going to star. We've promised you to tell you more about these projects. Youpi has kept its promise and presents you, exclusively, the first pictures of these three projects. But behind the cameras!

When will these films be released, where will they be released? Well, no one knows exactly. Obviously, they will be released first in Sweden, but they will probably be released all over the world. Anyhow, the entire ABBA team, headed by their manager Stig Anderson, is already working on the project. Like in all movies, they will be filmed in all kinds of circumstances and situations. But for the documentary, parts of the footage have already been filmed during their last European tour. The direction of the movie has been entrusted to a befriended Swedish director, the same director who is responsible for their promotional films.

"He is a real genius," Benny told us. "He could be famous internationally if he wanted to. But he works almost exclusively for us."

After this first film, there is going to be a musical comedy, in the broad sense of the word. "Yes," Benny continues, "you will be able to see a couple of sketches. There won't be a main theme, nor one single subject."

Benny and Björn have already started working on composing the music, while another person in their team is working on the screenplay. But nothing seems to be definitive yet.

"For now, the idea that we are exploring is the story about a girl that experiences an enormous success but eventually gets crushed by her fame, squeezed out by the people around her like a lemon that's tossed away after it has been used..."

A project like this will take them more than six months. "But at the moment we can afford ourselves to release a little less singles, so that we can prove that we are more than just a simple pop group."

The third film they are planning will be a beautiful love story. The story about all members of the group. Thanks to Youpie, you already know how Anna and Björn got acquainted. At first, they only knew each other from television, and as such they appreciated their individual artistic qualities. Then one day they appeared together in the same television programme. From that day onwards they stayed together...
Benny and Frida, they worked at competitive clubs that were situated right in sight of one another. One day, Benny came over to have a drink at the club where Frida performed and he asked if he could meet her behind the scenes. Once again, it was love at first sight.
Of course, in the cinema these stories will be a little romanticized and apart from that, the film will show how the four members of ABBA got together. But the true story will be respected and we will get to see a kind of charming autobiographical story.

Mix, July 1977: Dysfunctional sound equipment almost cost ABBA the Eurovision Song Contest

ABBA reached the top thanks to the Eurovision Song Contest. But before that happened, a lot of obstacles had to be overcome. First, stubborn 'experts' dismissed the group and after that, sound equipment threatened to be a spoil-sport...

"1973 was going to be our big year," Björn says. "We were going to make it at the Eurovision Song Contest and our success there would give us a push on our way to international fame."
Benny and Björn worked themselves to the bone to compose a winning melody, together with Stikkan Anderson, who would contribute the lyrics. "That was 'Ring Ring'", says Benny. "And we were all convinced that it was a good song. We felt that we had a real winner on our hands, but the experts dropped us like a hot brick. In Sweden, the song for the Eurovision Song Contest is being chosen by a couple of people who call themselves experts in the music industry. The general public is never asked for an opinion."
'Ring Ring' didn't appeal to the experts in any way. An enormous disappointment, especially for Björn and Benny who saw the results of their toiling go to waste completely. Stikkan immediately proved the experts wrong by releasing 'Ring Ring'. The record stormed to the top of the charts right away...
ABBA didn't grieve for long. They knew for themselves that they had sensed the taste of the general public. Four days after the Swedish pre-selection Agnetha gave birth to her daughter Linda and when she was up to working with the other three again for one hundred percent, ABBA started preparations for the year 1974. What hadn't happened in 1973, should come to fruition in 1974 in Brighton.
Stikkan's office changed into the headquarter of a General, who is going to stage the crucial battle. His 'secret service', spread all over the world, supplied worthwile information almost on a daily basis about the kind of music and lyrics that were popular at the moment and with that information as their starting point, they got to work.
Stikkan had already come up with the title of the song. It was going to be called 'Waterloo', a title that was familiar all over the world and that could be pronounced by everybody. Furthermore, it was decided in advance that the song should have a strong rhythm and Björn and Benny spent hundreds of hours searching for a catchy piece of music. ABBA couldn't leave anything to chance. The impression on the five hundred million people that would watch their performance on television had to be overwhelming. Once again, the last obstacle in the shape of the Swedish pre-selection had to be taken. But this time the choice for the winning song wasn't left to the experts but to three hundred randomly picked Swedish men and women. ABBA won!
Stikkan immediately made the most of this success and started to sell the 'Waterloo' record all over Europe. He was glowing with pride when the sales figures indicated that the record would be a surefit hit, regardless of the outcome of the contest in Brighton.
"On our flight to England we were strikingly quiet," Benny remembers. "There were no jokes being made like we usually did and everyone admitted that it was like we all had a heavy heart."
"We were reasonably satisfied with our first rehearsal," says Anni-Frid, "but then it turned out to our dismay that the music we had recorded on tapes in Sweden didn't sound right because the sound equipment was dysfunctional. Honestly, we were sweating with anxiety! If that sound problem couldn't be fixed, the entire effect of 'Waterloo' would be lost. A sound technician started to work on the speakers and he assured us that he would undoubtedly succeed in fixing the problem. We all hoped for the best."
Of the seventeen contestants - France had withdrawn due to president Pompidou passing away - ABBA was by far the least well-known act. No one had ever heard of the Swedish group and the quartet was placed worryingly low with the numerous bookmakers. The most likely candidate for the victory seemed to be the English singer Olivia Newton-John.

"Olivia was followed closely by a Dutch duo with the peculiar name Mouth and McNeal," says Stikkan Anderson. "But that didn't bother me one bit. I was so convinced that ABBA would win that I spontaneously bet twenty pounds on their victory."
On the day of the dress rehearsal the sound technician came over to tell everybody to their relief that the problems with the speakers had been solved. Björn, Benny, Anni-Frid and Agnetha put on their colourful, glittery costumes (Benny's pants were so tight that he didn't dare to sit down until after the end of the contest, six hours later) and ascertained to their satisfaction that the inimitable boom-boom sound was coming out of the speakers again in the familiar way.
Benny and Anni-Frid went out to have dinner together, Björn and Agnetha did the same and only shortly before the Eurovision Song Contest commenced they saw each other again in the room where the contestants were waiting for their turn.
"The tension in that room was beyond words," Anni-Frid says. "You could cut the atmosphere with a knife. The competitors looked at each other with faces tensed with nerves. It was terrifying. Everyone wanted to be the first to perform to get it over with. When you finished your performance, a burden was lifted from your shoulders and you could sit back and watch the others sweat. We were assigned by lot to perform in eighth place. Exactly in the middle. In deadly silence we watched the first seven contestants on the television in our waiting room. Our mouths were dried out."
"Like in a dream, we heard our call," Benny continues. "We walked through a hallway and all of a sudden we were on stage. Five hundred million people are watching us now, was the only thing going through my mind. Then we performed 'Waterloo' and we thought everything went as we had hoped. During the first bars of the song our nerves disappeared. The bond that tied us together was stronger than all the emotions and our performance went very smoothly. And then suddenly it was all over and we could go back to the waiting room."
"While waiting for the votes to come in, our nerves were boiling up again," says Agnetha. "The excitement was so intense that it almost hurt. My head was buzzing and my heart was pounding peculiarly."
"Then," she continues, "the votes of the international jury started to come in. You could hear a pin drop in the waiting room. At one moment one contestant was ahead, at another moment the other. In a fascinated manner we all gazed at the screens on which the results were projected. At one moment I got the impression that we didn't make it after all. I felt like a deflating balloon. Then Finland gave us five points which gave us the lead position again."
"And then it was all over. 'Waterloo' had acquired 24 points, six more than the Italian song 'Si'. Mouth and McNeal finished honourably in third place. A very sympathetic couple, these Dutchmen. Mouth and McNeal were the first who came over to congratulate us with our victory. They said that the best song and the best group had won. A heartwarming gesture of these young people who must have felt a little disappointed with their third place."
The next few days were a continuous frenzy of press conferences, performances on British television, honourings, champagne, official receptions, champagne, interviews, flash lights, gala dinners and even more champagne. Still intoxicated by the success of 'Waterloo', the quartet could finally find some peace and quiet, after a week of non-stop parties. Stikkan Anderson had kept his promise. ABBA, unknown Swedish ABBA, was on top.

Story, January 1981: ABBA's music is keeping a mortally ill little boy alive

Making millions and millions every year with your music is very nice. But keeping a five-year-old boy alive with your music, now that's a different story. ABBA knows something about that.

One letter out of the tens of thousands that are being delivered at the offices of the ABBA management. A letter from grateful parents. At first, Agnetha doesn't even want to talk about it. It's an emotional matter between these parents and ABBA. Finally, she hands over the letter for us to read if we promise that we don't mention any names. It's a moving letter.
"Our litte son has become a victim of a traffic accident," the father writes. "He has been hit by a truck and brought over to the hospital more dead than alive. We were desperate. We didn't know what to do. He had always been so cheerful and full of life. And he loved your music. He sang along to all the songs."
The little boy remained in a coma for weeks. He didn't respond to all the sweet words that were whispered to him. Then his father got an idea. He brought along a cassette player to the small hospital bed and softly played tapes of ABBA. The little boy responded. At first almost imperceptible. Later on he moved his lips and eyelids.
"Afterwards he has been in critical condition a couple of times. When the situation was critical, no one was allowed near him," the father writes. "But I managed to persuade the doctors that they still had to play ABBA's music. After all, that had been his major joy in life."
It is unknown whether the upbeat sounds of the Swedish group played any part in it, but the boy is recovering. It will take a long time, but someday he will be healthy again. Agnetha feels a lump in her throat when she talks about it.
"It can't be described what you feel when you realize that you can mean something like this to people. It moves me deeply. And then we can't even be really credited for it. Anni-Frid and I are only singing it. It's Björn and Benny who write the music. I know it's an enormous gratification for them that they can make people this happy."
Benny confirms this. He nods and smiles modestly. "Money doesn't play any part anymore at such a moment," he says. "It would also be a big misunderstanding to think that our most important aim is making money. Then we would have quit a couple of years ago, because then we already had more than enough resources to lead the rest of our life in leisure. Music is communication. You achieve something with other people. That's important. This father's letter is proof of that. At moments like this I can only be thankful that I have the gift to be able to write such music."
Indeed, this isn't the only letter that shows what kind of impact ABBA's music has on people. Somewhat smilingly, Benny says that they have saved a couple of marriages already, that they kept desperate people from committing suicide and brought lovers together. "In their gratitude, these people write letters. We don't get to see everything that's written to us. Then we wouldn't have any time left to do other things. But we always see letters like this. It's inspiring."
It's remarkable that the four ABBA members are making millions of people a little happier with their music, but they don't get any happier themselves. Sometimes even on the contrary.
"There's an enormous amount of pressure on us," Benny Andersson says. "It has become necessary to shut ourselves off from the outer world, otherwise we wouldn't have a moment of peace anymore. That's not much fun, because in a way you are locked up. Personally, I don't mind it that much. Nor does Björn. Most of the time we are busy with our music and then we don't even notice what's happening around us. But the girls are having a difficult time with it. Especially Agnetha can't handle it sometimes."
"That's true," she says. She doesn't want to talk about her marriage to Björn anymore. That subject is closed. Everything that was true and untrue about that subject has been written already. Still she admits that the pressure of fame has had something to do with it. "The irritating thing is that this emotional turmoil had a physical effect on me as well. Time and time again I had to see a doctor. I had headaches, pain in my chest, in my arms, you name it. It was clear to that man that there was nothing wrong with me physically. He explained to me that when you are having emotional problems, it shows through your body. So I went to see a psychiatrist to explore this."
Agnetha rubs her temples for a while. Obviously, this hasn't been easy on her. All of a sudden she seems tired. "Going to a psychiatrist is a big step. Like many other people, I thought you had to be really crazy to reach that stage. But later on I came to realize that that's nonsense of course. A human being consists of a body and a mind. When there's something wrong with your body, you go to the doctor. When your mind isn't working properly, then you deserve a treatment too. But from a different kind of doctor."
It's the price she has to pay for the mind-boggling successes that ABBA has experienced, after winning the Eurovision Song Contest more than six years ago.

How is Agnetha doing now? She looks healthy and radiant, so she seems to be doing fine. "I feel good too. Psychotherapy has helped me a great deal. I try to look after my body to the best of my ability. If I can manage it, I eat as healthy as possible and I exercise a lot."
It's obvious that performing and working with her ex-husband Björn has been the cause of tensions too. It's not easy staying in each other's company when you have decided to separate.
"Oh well," Agnetha plays down that explanation. She rummages in the pile of mail and takes out the letter of the grateful father. "I could tell you long stories about my so-called inconveniences. But then I should actually be deeply ashamed. Mail like this is very instructive for me. When I lose myself in things like this, then I think that there can't be anything wrong with me. Nothing at all. Only when I would write letters like this myself, I would have a reason to complain."

Story, October 1979: Agnetha is always welcome to have a good cry with Anni-Frid

The envy that Anni-Frid once felt towards the blonde, pretty Agnetha has turned into compassion. All of a sudden, the ABBA singers have become good friends because of Agnetha's problems.

"It's always Agnetha, Agnetha, Agnetha! I've had it!" Anni-Frid once cried out, green with envy, when she read a review of their concert, the morning after ABBA had performed in England. In the newspaper it was written for the umpteenth time how attractive the blonde singer of ABBA, Agnetha, is. Meanwhile they devoted only one sentence to the dark-haired Anni-Frid: that she had an outstanding voice as well.
Until recently, falling-outs like these - fuelled by envy - occured regularly, and they obviously put their mark on the atmosphere in the group. But it was understandable too. It was extremely frustrating for Anni-Frid that the sexy looks of her blonde colleague always get a lot of praise. Because she is an illegitimate child and she was raised by her grandmother, Anni-Frid has had to deal with feelings of inferiority and these feelings only increased because of ABBA's success.
But last year, Anni-Frid's feelings of envy towards Agnetha suddenly turned into feelings of deep compassion. Frida (like she is called in short) got these feelings of deep compassion when her blonde colleague divorced from Björn. Due to the fact that the ABBA members are often in each other's company day and night, Frida and her husband Benny have witnessed up close how Agnetha and Björn drifted apart.
Frida: "It was awful seeing it happen without being able to do something about it. We saw how desperately Agnetha tried everything to save her marriage, but unfortunately she and Björn had grown apart too much already to patch things up. Björn is completely dedicated to music, while Agnetha prefers a cosy, homely kind of lifestyle. Things became increasingly painful between those two. It was terrible! When they finally decided to go their separate ways as friends, it was kind of a relief for all of us. A certain amount of tension disappeared."

In these very difficult times, Frida tried to look after and comfort Agnetha as much as possible. She knows very well from her own experience how miserable one can be when a marriage falls apart. Anni-Frid has gone through a divorce herself, before she found happiness with Benny. Because Anni-Frid knows the intense lonely feeling that comes over you in such a situation, her envy turned into compassion. "A divorce is something you wouldn't want your worst enemy to go through," she once stated. Due to this, a solid friendship evolved between Anni-Frid and Agnetha. When Agnetha told her friend Frida a couple of months after her divorce from Björn that she was head over heels in love with ice hockey star Lars Eriksson, Frida was truly happy. "I hope you will be as happy with Lars as I am now with Benny," she said cordially. And she meant it from the bottom of her heart.
But unfortunately it wasn't to be. Eriksson, about whom it has to be said that he likes to be the centre of attention, has left Agnetha's mansion in Sweden's Stockholm again. He couldn't deal with the fact that his famous girlfriend got a lot more attention than he did.

When Eriksson broke off his relationship with Agnetha, the blonde singer was sadder than ever. She loved the 29-year-old sportsman and she had high hopes that she would be happy with him. And even this time, it was Anni-Frid who was there for her right away to comfort her. "You can always call on us if you are having a bad time," she said. "Just call me when you want to have a good cry. Day or night."
Anni-Frid: "This is simply a very difficult time for Agnetha. But I'm positive that she will see it through. She just has to bite the bullet. I'm sure she will eventually find someone who will make her happy."
Isn't there any possibility that Agnetha and Björn will get back together again? "Oh no," Anni-Frid replied resolutely. "That will never happen. Thankfully they are still good friends, but there is not a bit of love between them any longer."

Pop Foto, 1977: Become a real pepparkakor baker with ABBA

There's a lot of cheering and shrieking coming from the enormous kitchen. Cautiously, ABBA's Agnetha is trying the door handle. It's locked. The shrieking turns into a joyful, two-voiced burst of laughter and on the other side the door is being unlocked. "Do come in," it sounds in a strangled voice. We push the door open and we are looking at the biggest ABBA mess ever!

Grinning sheepishly and covered in white flour, the male half of Europe's most popular pop group is standing behind a large quantity of cake dough. Behind us, the female half of ABBA is bursting with laughter. "What's this?" we ask tongue-tied and bewildered. "We are baking pepparkakor," Benny and Björn proudly declare. "Pepparwhat?" "Pepparkakor," Anni-Frid - still chuckling - comes to the rescue. "Some kind of cookies that are being served with our Gluhwein here in Sweden. Normally these cookies are a real treat. But yesterday Benny was bragging that he had learned a very special pepparkakor recipe from his mother. Well, then Anna and I said: 'Just prove what you can do'. And this mess is the result!"
Cautiously we all look at the work of the pepparkakor master chefs. A little guitar, no surprise there, a little puppet with a bow in her hair and some troll-like creature. "Not bad," is what we think, "but you surely can't eat it like this?" Frida again comes to the rescue: "No, they have to go into the oven first. But if they've treated the cake dough properly, that shouldn't be a problem..."

She isn't able to elaborate any further because the men are pushing us out of their domain. They are going to bake now. When we look over our shoulder we see that Benny and Björn are rolling out the next piece of cake flour... We are very curious, and at the same time anxious. Just imagine that they don't succeed and we will still have to eat these cookies with a broad smile on our faces? But thirty minutes later it turns out that we have been worried in vain. Surrounded by a delicious smell the two chefs solemnly walk into the room, with a dish of cookies! And when we finally put our teeth into those (carefully at first), it's hard to catch our breath. This is really delicious. The puppets and the little guitar have miraculously remained intact in the oven. Only the real cookies, small and shaped like all kinds of flowers and stars, are eaten. The puppets are for Linda, Agnetha's little girl, and it turns out that ABBA has a surprise in store for us as well. Because when our craving for candy has been fully satisfied, Benny brings out a tattered piece of paper. "Here, this is the recipe. You can have it for your readers," he says, leaving us speechless for the next fifteen minutes. "I hope they will have as much fun preparing these genuine Swedish cookies as Björn and me!"
We went to a lot of trouble translating the recipe from Swedish and it's printed here for you. Good luck with it.

Das Freizeit-Magazin, 1978: Anni-Frid: this is my life

Because Anni-Frid grew up without a father, she always fantasized about a real family in her childhood. "When I'm grown up I will get married and then I will only care for my husband and children," she once said to her grandmother in the middle of Sweden, where she grew up after her mother had died at a young age. She was singing in the folk parks merely to keep her head above water until she got married. When she was eighteen she already reached the destiny of her dreams. Anni-Frid got married to the musician Ragnar Fredriksson and gave birth to two children. But the family bliss she was hoping for failed to materialize. Only today, with her Benny and the ABBA success, she is truly happy.

Pictures from left to right.
When she was only thirteen she already performed as a singer in parks and halls. Frida: "I had to make money to earn my living." That's what she kept doing after she got married as well.

Frida started concentrating more and more on her success as a solo singer, a pretty girl, constantly radiant and with many different looks.

In a 1967 TV show, Frida sang every competition into the ground. Although the long-desired breakthrough had been achieved, her private happiness was shattered. Because Frida hardly lived with her family anymore.

For 32 years, Anni-Frid had felt like an orphan. But her father had not - as it had been assumed for a long time - died in the turmoil of war in 1945. These days he is living as a pastry cook in Karlsruhe and he only found out about the existence of his daughter after stories about the ABBA girl's fate had appeared in the newspapers. In 1944, the then 26-year-old German sergeant had met Anni-Frid's mother in Norway. The war separated them.

This was the start of a tremendous career: in 1974, four unknown Swedes called ABBA sang a song at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton that would become a worldwide hit: 'Waterloo'. One of the girls on stage was Anni-Frid. The three others: Agnetha, Björn and Benny. This line-up remained and they scared the top class of pop musicians stiff. Two years after Brighton, the four Swedes had already sold more than 26 million records, mostly albums. Previously, only the Beatles had achieved such a feat. And that's how the story continued.

No matter what ABBA sang, it always became a worldwide hit, whether it was in the East or in the West. It was also raining gold records from all kinds of different countries. On their trip to Warsaw as well, where they are pictured here.

A happy family: Frida with her husband Ragnar and both of their children Lise-Lotte and Hans. But scenes like this were very rare in Frida's marriage. Frida: "It wasn't what I had always fantasized about."

In this building in Stockholm it all started for ABBA. The first songs of the group were created here. And today, ABBA's office is still located in this building.

The marriage to Ragnar fell apart. But Anni-Frid has found her private happiness: Benny, her partner in ABBA. "Benny is my security, I depend on him completely," Frida declared happily.