Agnetha Faltskog’s Timeless Stardom: From ABBA Superstar to Ageless Icon at 72!

techleaks | December 30, 2023 | Celebrity | No Comments

ABBA is a really famous band, and everyone knows them. Even today, people all over the world still love their music. One of the members, Agnetha Faltskog, who used to sing a lot of the songs, decided to live a quieter life away from the attention.

In ABBA, Agnetha sang songs that made people dance and feel emotional. She had an amazing voice that people loved. The whole band became iconic in the world of music.

Now, Agnetha lives a calm life in Sweden, but she hasn’t stopped making music. And guess what? She looks fantastic!

Almost everyone knows about ABBA; whether you were there when they first sang “Waterloo” or if you’re not even born yet, their music is still loved today. Even 10-year-olds can’t resist dancing to their songs!

ABBA’s music is so good that it’s hard to pick just one favorite song. They have a song for every moment – happy, sad, inspiring, or regretful. That’s why they became super famous around the world.

After their last album, all the members of ABBA kind of disappeared. It’s a unique thing about them.

So, what happened to Agnetha Faltskog after ABBA? And how did she join the group in the first place? Let’s hear Agnetha’s interesting story.

Agnetha Faltskog was born on April 5, 1950, in Jönköping, Sweden. She was the oldest of two sisters, and her parents were Birgit Margareta Johansson and Knut Ingvar Fältskog, who worked in a department store.

Agnetha always loved music. Even when she was just five years old, she wrote a song about two little “trolls.” At eight, she started taking piano lessons and practiced at her neighbor’s house. She even sang in the church choir.

When she was 13, Agnetha and her two friends formed a band called The Cambers. They did a few small shows in the neighborhood, but after two years, Agnetha felt it was time for something new.

Next, she joined the Swedish folk band Bernt Enghardt. They traveled around Sweden, playing dance music. Agnetha remembered, “They had a singer named Agneta before me who quit. They put up posters looking for a new singer, and when they found me and heard me sing, it was a big plus that my name was also Agnetha.”

Faltskog had a busy life – she was on tour with Bernt Enghardt and also worked as a telephonist for a car company. But it wasn’t easy. She would come home really late, sometimes around two or three in the morning, and then had to go to work shortly after. One day, she even passed out at the car company.

Her mom gave her a choice: “Either you work like a regular person or you fully dedicate yourself to singing.” For Agnetha, the decision was easy – she wanted to keep singing.

Even though things were tough, Agnetha continued singing with the Bernt Enghardt band for another two years. Eventually, she decided to go solo and changed her last name to include an “h” after releasing her first solo album.

Agnetha’s first single, “Jag var så kär” [I Was So In Love], came out when she was just 17. It quickly became a hit, reaching No. 1 on the Swedish sales chart in 1968. Bjorn Ulvaeus, one of the members of ABBA, heard it on the radio and was captivated. “I remember hearing Agnetha’s first single on the radio. There was something so special about her voice and the fact that she had written that song herself – it was magic,” Benny said in the BBC documentary “Agnetha: ABBA and After.”

Benny Andersson said, “Agnetha did a couple of good songs, singing in harmony with herself.”

Now, Bjorn and Benny were already great musicians who had worked together before. After Agnetha’s first single became a hit, her career soared, and she was set to perform with Bjorn Ulvaeus.

“We did a TV show together, and Agnetha and I sang a duet. It was a magical moment,” Bjorn remembered. “That night is when it happened – we fell in love, and soon after, we became a couple.”

While Agnetha and Bjorn were making music together, Benny also fell in love with another performer, Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

Even though all four of them were incredibly talented musicians in the same circle, they didn’t plan to start a band at first. In the 1970 album “Lycka” [Happiness] by Bjorn and Benny, Anni-Frid and Agnetha were just background singers.

Ring, Ring” became really popular in many European countries and the group was getting famous. They would achieve even bigger things in 1974.

They competed again in Melodifestivalen, but this time with the song “Waterloo.” Before performing at the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, they decided to change their group’s name, which turned out to be a big deal in music history. They won the Swedish qualification.

While ABBA went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest, Agnetha had different things on her mind. She married Bjorn Ulvaeus in 1971, and they had their first child, Linda, in 1973. Agnetha was pregnant during the crazy time when ABBA was becoming one of the biggest groups in the world.

It must have been tough to have kids while also becoming super famous. Agnetha even said that, considering she was about to have Linda, she was kind of relieved that “Ring Ring” didn’t help them win Melodifestivalen.

“I managed to combine marriage, giving birth, divorce and a world-wide success during the 10-12 years we were doing ABBA,” Faltskog said. “It wasn’t easy, I can tell you that. It wasn’t easy leaving home, especially since dad [Bjorn] was away as well. We left our children but we made sure that they were being taken care off.

“We weren’t away as much as one might think. If we were away for 14 days, we decided that we’d be home for 14 days as well.”

All of ABBA’s members experienced incredible success on a global scale, but Agnetha continued to have trouble with having to leave her kids.

She even told herself that she might just leave the group because it was so difficult for her.

“It was tough times, ‘can I handle this or should I leave? How can we solve this?’” I said that we had to be at home the same amount of time we were out touring,” Agnetha continued.

“I was never going to leave [the group], but it was something I could tell myself just to manage, to get everyone to understand how tough it was.”

The Battle of Waterloo was a huge success. However, it was only the start of a brand-new era in music history. It took some time before ABBA had their next big hit because placing first in the Eurovision competition did not ensure success after the competition.

They then released the song SOS, which was also a big hit, 18 months later. The song Mamma Mia, which was included on the same album as ABBA from 1975, reached the top of charts all over the world.

It held the No. 1 spot for 10 weeks in Australia, and ABBA fever “down under” was insane. Australia, one of the ABBA fanatic nations, actually gave the group a total of six Number One hits.

ABBA released several albums over the ensuing years, and the hits just kept on coming. Songs like Fernando and Dancing Queen quickly became popular; the latter was the only No. 1 single for the group in the US.

At this point, ABBA had established themselves as one of the most well-known bands in the world, and for good reason.

In 1979, ABBA released their sixth album while Agnetha and Bjorn were getting a divorce. But it wasn’t a messy breakup, and the band kept working together as professionals.

The divorce became the inspiration for the song “The Winner Takes It All,” which Agnetha sang. She said, “It’s touching that he wrote it right when we divorced. I didn’t mind. Singing that song was fantastic because I could put so much feeling into it. I didn’t mind sharing it with the public. There’s a lot in that song.”

In a 2013 interview, Agnetha talked about her divorce from Bjorn. She said they remained friendly for the sake of their two kids. “Bjorn and I have dealt with the heartbreak. It’s friendly. Love has its ups and downs, but I stay hopeful. I haven’t closed any doors.”

Anni-Frid and Benny, who got married in 1978, also divorced two years later. The band thought they were pretty much done in 1982.

They released The Singles – The First Ten Years, a new album that included two brand-new songs in addition to all of their greatest hits. However, as New Years Eve that year approached, ABBA made the decision to take a break.

The group asserted that they could always reunite after a few years if they so desired. But it never took place.

Agnetha chose to pursue a solo career instead. She released a number of songs, with the wonderful Wrap Your Arms Around Me being considered her three 1980s albums’ biggest hit.

After some modest success, she made the decision to fade from view. Agnetha was a very private person who preferred to live a quiet life. She still resides on an island off the coast of Stockholm, Sweden. She still has a stunning appearance!

Faltskog made the decision to leave ABBA and her prominent career behind. But many people perceived her actions as being very enigmatic.

“I’m not very mysterious”

She came across as quite mysterious in her decision to isolate herself. Agnetha Faltskog, however, was unhappy with that impression.

“I have been described as very mysterious, but I’m not,” she mentioned. “I think I’m just very grounded. My life contains so many other things; I have my children, my grandchildren, my two dogs, and a big place in the country. I have my own life.”

Three grandchildren now call Agnetha their grandmother. They are still largely unaware of their grandmothers’ former fame as a global icon, though.

“I spend a lot of time with my grandchildren,” Faltskog said. “They love it when we sing together. It’s amazing to hear them sing, and they’re really good at it. I don’t talk to them much about ABBA and the past, but as they grow older, they’ll learn more. The oldest one, Tilda, already knows a little bit.”

Agnetha Faltskog is estimated to be worth about $20 million. With rumors of ABBA getting back together, that number might go up soon.

Her latest album came out in 2013, but Bjorn Ulvaeus just announced that there will be more ABBA music coming soon. “There will be new music this year, for sure. It’s not a question of if, it’s happening,” Ulvaeus said.

“We’re really good friends. The four of us are back in the studio for the first time in 40 years, and there’s just something about knowing what we’ve been through. It’s hard to describe, but there are such strong bonds between us.”