Abba star Frida made her stage debut aged 11 but no one could have guess from there the global stardom that was to come
“I am turning 80 this year,” declared Anni-Frid Lyngstad with a real sense of pride to the crowds attending the latest performance of ABBA Voyage earlier this year.
She made a surprise appearance to support the hugely-successful avatar concert in London and also to show fans how much she appreciates their never-ending love over the past 50 plus years.
It’s hard to believe it but the singer from the chart-topping Swedish band who gave us Mamma Mia, SOS and Take A Chance On Me celebrates her eighth decade today as she turns 80.
Anni-Frid, or Frida as she is best known to millions, has certainly had a public and private life full of ‘times of joy and times of sorrow’ – just like the lyric to their song The Way Old Friends Do.
In fact, her rags-to-riches story (she’s said to have netted a £220 million fortune to date) is so incredible that fellow band member Bjorn Ulvaeus once quipped it could be a play or a musical.
He said: “Out of all four of us, Frida has had the most dramatic life. Her life is the classic rags to riches story. I can just picture the scenes and the cliff hangers.”
Today we celebrate Anni-Frid through the decades and say: “Without a song or a dance what are we? Thank you for the music for giving it to me.”
1945
Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad is born in Bjørkåsen, Norway. Her young mum Synni fell pregnant after a relationship with a German SS officer called Alfred Haase who had been stationed there during the Nazi occupation. He returned to Germany and Synni wrongly believed he died on the way home when his ship sank. She found herself ostracised in the local community when people discovered who the father of her ”war baby” was. The pair moved to Torshälla, near Eskilstuna in Sweden with Synni’s mother Arntine. Shortly before Frida turned two years old, her mum died of kidney failure aged just 21. Left ‘an orphan’, her gran steps in to raise Frida working as a cleaner, a seamstress and a dishwasher to bring in the money.
1956
Her interest in music is already starting to shine through as she makes her stage debut aged 11 at a charity event. At school in Torshälla. fellow classmates have since revealed how she was ‘a bright student’ often gaining higher grades than other children of her age. Later when asked how she felt growing up without a mother or father, she admits: “When you are a teenager you see all the other kids with their parents and, of course, sometimes it felt like a bit unfair that I could not have it too but we get the lives we are supposed to have and we live only the life we get.”
1964
She and childhood sweetheart Ragnar Fredriksson – also a bassist in the jazz band she performs with – get married. The pair have two children (Hans in 1964 and Ann Lise-Lotte in 1967). Then Frida makes a decision which will change her life forever. She enters a Swedish TV talent contest Nya Ansikten (New Faces) in 1967 and wins it with the ballad En Ledig Dag (A Free Day). The first prize is the chance to perform on another show called Hylands Hörna. She lands a record deal with EMI afterwards and later releases a solo album in Swedish simply called Frida. In 1969 she meets musician Benny Andersson from a band called The Hep Stars and the pair strike up a friendship.
1974
With Benny and fellow Swedish artists and married couple Agnetha Faltskog (a successful solo singer) and Bjorn Ulvaeus (a member of the skiffle band The Hootenanny Singers), they form ABBA and enter Eurovision in Brighton with Waterloo and win. She recalls about their victory: “It was just unbelievable! There I was, a former band vocalist from Eskilstuna, and the BBC and all the major newspapers in Europe were mobbing us, demanding interviews about how we felt.” By now Frida has divorced Ragnar and is engaged to Benny. Global success awaits them with the help of their manager Stikkan Anderson and they score hits with Frida taking lead vocals with her mezzo-soprano voice on many of the songs including Fernando, Knowing Me Knowing You, I Have A Dream, Money Money Money and Super Trouper. One of their biggest is Dancing Queen which is one of her favourites: “I cried the first time I heard it. It’s a masterpiece.” The band releases numerous number one albums and tours Europe, Australia and North America. She and Benny finally wed in 1978. And at the height of ABBA’s fame, Frida is contacted by her father who is still alive and the pair have an emotional reunion. But she admits: “It would have been different if I’d been a child. But it’s difficult to get a father when you’re 32 years old. I can’t really connect to him and love him the way I would have if he’d been around when I grew up.”
1982
Frida embarks on a solo music career after ABBA take a break. Relations within the band had changed – both couples had divorced and their music had become a lot darker. Frida recalls about her split from Benny: “There were a lot of tears and a lot of discussions. But there was no way back. Breaking up became a necessity.” She also has to fight off reports that she and Agnetha did not get along maintaining: “We may not hang out much, but we have a very deep connection. There is really no rivalry between us. The connection has deepened during the years we worked together.” Free from ABBA and sporting a punky short hair-do, Frida launches her own album called Something’s Going On which is produced by Phil Collins in 1982 and this is followed by Shine which is produced by Steve Lillywhite in 1984. Word reaches Frida in 1989 that her father has passed away aged 89.
1992
Wedding bells sound as Frida marries Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen in 1992 and the couple live together in a castle in Switzerland. She also releases her first new music in more than a decade with a Swedish solo album called Djupa Andetag (Deep Breaths). However, double tragedy strikes for her. In 1998, her daughter Ann Lise Lotte dies in an horrific car accident in New York aged 30. And then just a year later her husband Ruzzo dies from cancer aged 49. In an interview some years later she speaks about how she struggled to deal with her grief: “I had to have something to believe in, otherwise it would have been very difficult to cope with. It took a very long time (to find joy again). It took very many years and incomprehensible grief. You feel that you can hardly survive. It was a difficult journey.”
2004
Having maintained a fairly low profile, Frida emerges with some public performances of a new song called The Sun Will Shine Again. It’s been written especially for her by her friend and Deep Purple member Jon Lord. Frida is very moved by the track’s message about hope after loss and she claims: “It gave me goosebumps.” And it seems the song proves a good omen. In 2007 Frida meets and begins dating WH Smith heir Henry Smith, 5th Viscount Hambleden. She calls him “My rock, my friend, my love in my autumn years”. The pair set up home in Switzerland.
2018
Having enjoyed some time back in the spotlight attending huge events such as the opening of the ABBAWorld exhibition in London, the launch of The ABBA Museum in Stockholm and the premiere of the movie sequel Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again in London, behind the scenes Frida meets Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha in secret to discuss an exciting new project. It’s a hi-tech concert show featuring digital versions of themselves on stage. In April 2018, ABBA announce they are reuniting for ‘an exciting ABBA avatar tour project’ which will feature two new songs I Still Have Faith In You and Don’t Shut Me Down. The internet goes into meltdown over the news.
2021
Frida and the other members face delays to their ‘ABBAtar’ venture due to the pandemic and lockdowns. But unbeknown to fans they have a huge surprise up their sleeve. They have been in the studio and recorded a new album called ABBA Voyage – their first in 40 years. It is released to huge critical acclaim in the autumn of 2021 and then ABBA Voyage The Show launches in London in May 2022 and is still going strong. Frida – now sometimes seen with a walking cane having had hip surgery – has visited the spectacle several times and says: “It’s hard to fully grasp that it isn’t me up there and yet it is me. I can certainly see myself in the digital figure, the gestures, the facial expressions, the eyes that express all sorts of feelings. It’s absurd but it’s real.” In May 2024, Frida and the other three members receive The Royal Order of Vasa (a Swedish knighthood) from The King for their contribution to music over the years.
2025
As Frida enjoys her forthcoming 80 th birthday with partner Henry and close friends, she admits she has had to be a strong woman and have faith to get through some of the things that have been thrown at her. She says: “I am a really strong woman. I have realised this. Then I have a really strong belief in God. Actually, it was that which helped me.” And although she cannot say whether this is the end of ABBA’s story (“Think of our ages, we are not young any longer but you never know.”), one thing is certain. The legacy of ABBA, the music and the memories are something that will stay with her forever as she explains: “ABBA will always be there. It has been a big part of my life. I can never leave it. A part of me has been educated through what I have gone through with ABBA, with the music, with the happy times..it has left a big print on me and my life.”
* Big hearted Frida has asked fans not to send gifts for her birthday but, if they wish, to give donations to charities including Läkare Utan Gränser/Médecins Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders or UNICEF – organisations close to her heart.
