Agnetha Fältskog

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Agnetha Fältskog
Fältskog in 2004.
Fältskog in 2004.
Background information
Birth name Agneta Åse Fältskog
Born April 5, 1950
Origin Jönköping
Genre(s) Pop, Folk
Instrument(s) Vocals, keyboards/piano
Years active 1967–2004
Label(s) Polar Music, CBS Cupol, Agnetha Fältskog Production, Universal Music, WMA
Website http://www.agnetha.se/

Agnetha Åse Fältskog (born April 5, 1950 in Jönköping) is a Swedish pop singer. She is best known as "the blonde one" from the Swedish pop group ABBA.

Her name was originally spelt Agneta; she added the h later herself.

Contents

[edit] Before ABBA

Agnetha Fältskog was born as the first of two daughters to 27-year-old department store manager Ingvar Fältskog and his 32-year-old wife Birgit (née Johansson). Her sister Mona followed in 1955. Ingvar Fältskog showed much interest in music and show business while Birgit Fältskog was a very calm and careful woman who devoted herself to her children and household.

Prior to joining ABBA, Fältskog was a successful solo artist in Sweden with several chart singles and best-selling albums.

At the age of fifteen, she joined the local dance band as a vocalist. Soon afterwards she wrote a song called "Jag var så kär" (I Was So in Love) that became a number one hit in Sweden in 1967. Other hit singles and albums with most of the music self-penned followed, and she established herself as one of the most popular female singers in Sweden at that time. Fältskog also released several singles in German and worked in West Berlin for a few months in 1968 with the German songwriter Dieter Zimmermann with whom she was briefly engaged.

In 1975, already being a member of ABBA Fältskog released her last original Swedish-language album Elva kvinnor i ett hus (Eleven Women in A House). Arguably the artistic pinnacle of her solo career, it prompted New Musical Express to suggest that few songs from the album "wouldn't be out of place on Kate Bush set".

Although they met a year before at a concert engagement, Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus became romantically involved while filming a Swedish TV special together in May, 1969. They married in July, 1971, but divorced in July, 1980.

In 1972, Fältskog starred as Mary Magdalene in the original Swedish production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar and provided vocals for its original Swedish Cast recording.

[edit] After ABBA

In the 1980s, Fältskog released three English-language solo albums. Their success was mostly limited to Europe, especially Scandinavia, except the first post-ABBA album, Wrap Your Arms Around Me, that became a moderate hit also in North America and Australia.

At the end of 1982, she duetted with Swedish singer (and former ABBA backing vocalist) Tomas Ledin on a song "Never Again" that became a sizeable hit in Europe and South America. In the summer of the same year, Fältskog starred in a hit Swedish movie "Raskenstam" and received positive reviews for her film début.

In May 1983, her first post-ABBA solo album Wrap Your Arms Around Me was released. It sold about 1.2 million copies worldwide and reached higher echelons of the charts across Europe, including No. 18 in the UK. In the US, the album peaked just outside the Top 100 on Billboard Top 200 album chart and made it into the Top 50 on Billboard Top Rock Albums chart. In Canada, it reached No. 34 on The Record album chart and No. 79 on RPM album chart. Critically, the album received a mixed reaction. "[This] treacly, string-sopped outing doesn't begin to do [Fältskog] justice", wrote Rolling Stone, however Stereo Review magazine concluded that it's a "highly entertaining piece of good commercial record making". The singles from the album, a cover of Manfred Mann/Noosha Fox 's "The Heat Is On" and the title track "Wrap Your Arms Around Me", became hits in continental Europe, while in North America "Can't Shake Loose" was released as a single. It reached No. 29 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 23 on RPM Top 50 singles chart in Canada. The single also received a good deal of airplay on the US radio peaking at No. 23 on Radio & Records airplay chart.

In 1983, Fältskog received a Swedish music award Rockbjörnen for Best Female Artist.

Her next album Eyes of a Woman, produced by Eric Stewart of 10cc fame, was released In 1985. "She is quite content to grace the works of various other lesser mortals with her immaculate, sugar-sweet voice", wrote Barry McIlheney in Melody Maker. The album sold well in parts of Europe but failed to match the success of Fältskog's previous effort.

In the summer of 1987, she travelled to Malibu, California, USA, where she recorded the album I Stand Alone produced by Peter Cetera and Bruce Gaitsch and released in December of 1987. It was a minor hit in Europe, except for Sweden where it spent eight weeks on the top of the charts and became one of the most popular records of the year. The single from the album "I Wasn't The One (Who Said Good-Bye)", on which Fältskog duetted with Peter Cetera, was released primarily in North America and became her second single to chart in the Billboard Hot 100 and also became a Top 20 Billboard Adult Contemporary hit.

After the release of I Stand Alone, Fältskog took a break from her musical career and completely withdrew from the public life. In 1996, her autobiography "As I Am" was published in Swedish (1997 in English) followed by several compilation CD's of her Swedish and English recordings.

In April 2004, after years of silence, Fältskog's new single, "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind" (a cover of the song originally recorded by Cilla Black), was released. It reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and became a sizeable hit in the rest of Europe. "It is exciting to hear her voice, utterly undimmed, delivering a tellingly-titled song", commented London's Music Week. A few weeks later, the album My Colouring Book, a collection of Fältskog's covers of the oldies, saw the light of the day. It topped the charts in Sweden, peaking at No. 6 in Germany and No. 12 in the UK, and reached mostly Top 10 and Top 20 chart positions in the rest of Europe and No. 50 in Australia. "I love this record", enthused Pete Clark in London's Evening Standard, while Daily Mail pointed out that "it reveals a genuine affection for the era's forgotten pop tunes". The Times reviewer noted that "her voice is still an impressive pop instrument", and The Observer shared the same sentiment suggesting that "time hasn't diminished her perfect voice". Reviewing the release in The Guardian, Caroline Sullivan wrote: "Agnetha Faltskog has a vulnerability that gets under the skin of a song. She may be cheating a trifle by including no original material on this collection of 1960s covers, but if anyone can do justice to the likes of Sealed with a Kiss, it's her. The soaring sentimentality evokes Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw in their mini-skirted pomp, and I don't say that lightly". The release attracted major media attention across Europe, but Fältskog staunchly refused to be involved in any extensive promotion of the album, including personal appearances, and limited her public exposure to the several short newspaper interviews, a few videos and a Swedish-language low-key TV special. Yet, the album managed to sell more than half a million copies worldwide.

In 2004, she was nominated for Best Nordic Artist at the Nordic Music Awards (but did not win), and during Christmas of that year, for the first time in almost 20 years she gave an extensive interview which was filmed by the Swedish TV. In 2005, Sony Music released a lavishly produced 6 CD boxed set comprising Fältskog's Swedish solo career before ABBA.

The Daily Mirror in December 2006 revealed that Agnetha was recording a new album, for release in 2007 with all new songs. However, not much more is known about this.

[edit] Personal life

On July 6, 1971, Fältskog married Björn Ulvaeus; the marriage resulted in two children, Linda, born February 1973 and Peter Christian, born December 1977. The couple decided to separate and Agnetha moved out of their home on Christmas night, 1978. In 1979 the couple filed for a divorce, finalised the following year. Both Fältskog and Ulvaeus agreed to not let their failed marriage interfere with their responsibilities within ABBA. Fältskog subsequently married for the second time albeit briefly in 1990 to a surgeon named Tomas Sonnenfeld. She was also the victim of an ex-boyfriend turned well-publicised stalker from The Netherlands, Gert van der Graaf. [1]

Fältskog currently lives on the Swedish island of Ekerö. She was perceived as being a recluse for a while, although she claims that to be untrue, saying she just didn't court publicity, but has recently been seen at some public functions. She was a surprise guest at the Stockholm premiere of Mamma Mia! in February 2005.

[edit] Solo discography

[edit] Swedish albums

[edit] English albums

[edit] UK Singles

  • The Heat Is On (1983) UK #35
  • Wrap Your Arms Around Me (1983) UK #44
  • Can't Shake Loose (1983) UK #63
  • The Last Time (1988) UK #76
  • If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind (2004) UK #11
  • If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind (Almighty Radio Edit) (2004) UK Dance Chart #2
  • When You Walk In The Room (2004) UK #34

[edit] Compilations

[edit] Book

[edit] Reference

[edit] External links

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