Abba star Frida made her stage debut aged 11 however nobody might have guess from there the worldwide stardom that was to return

“I’m turning 80 this yr,” declared Anni-Frid Lyngstad with an actual sense of delight to the crowds attending the newest efficiency of ABBA Voyage earlier this yr.

She made a shock look to assist the hugely-successful avatar live performance in London and in addition to point out followers how a lot she appreciates their endless love over the previous 50 plus years.

It’s onerous to imagine it however the singer from the chart-topping Swedish band who gave us Mamma Mia, SOS and Take A Probability On Me celebrates her eighth decade right this moment as she turns 80.

Anni-Frid, or Frida as she is finest recognized to thousands and thousands, has actually had a private and non-private life stuffed with ‘instances of pleasure and instances of sorrow’ – similar to the lyric to their tune The Manner Previous Mates Do.

The truth is, her rags-to-riches story (she’s mentioned to have netted a £220 million fortune so far) is so unimaginable that fellow band member Bjorn Ulvaeus as soon as quipped it could possibly be a play or a musical.

He mentioned: “Out of all 4 of us, Frida has had probably the most dramatic life. Her life is the basic rags to riches story. I can simply image the scenes and the cliff hangers.”

At present we rejoice Anni-Frid by the a long time and say: “And not using a tune or a dance what are we? Thanks for the music for giving it to me.”

1945

Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad is born in Bjørkåsen, Norway. Her younger mum Synni fell pregnant after a relationship with a German SS officer referred to as Alfred Haase who had been stationed there throughout the Nazi occupation. He returned to Germany and Synni wrongly believed he died on the best way house when his ship sank. She discovered herself ostracised in the area people when individuals found who the daddy of her ”battle child” was. The pair moved to Torshälla, close to Eskilstuna in Sweden with Synni’s mom Arntine. Shortly earlier than Frida turned two years previous, her mum died of kidney failure aged simply 21. Left ‘an orphan’, her gran steps in to lift Frida working as a cleaner, a seamstress and a dishwasher to usher in the cash.

1956

Her curiosity in music is already beginning to shine by as she makes her stage debut aged 11 at a charity occasion. In school in Torshälla. fellow classmates have since revealed how she was ‘a shiny scholar’ typically gaining greater grades than different kids of her age. Later when requested how she felt rising up with no mom or father, she admits: “When you find yourself an adolescent you see all the opposite children with their dad and mom and, after all, typically it felt like a bit unfair that I couldn’t have it too however we get the lives we’re purported to have and we stay solely the life we get.”

1964

She and childhood sweetheart Ragnar Fredriksson – additionally a bassist within the jazz band she performs with – get married. The pair have two kids (Hans in 1964 and Ann Lise-Lotte in 1967). Then Frida decides which can change her life ceaselessly. She enters a Swedish TV expertise contest Nya Ansikten (New Faces) in 1967 and wins it with the ballad En Ledig Dag (A Free Day). The primary prize is the prospect to carry out on one other present referred to as Hylands Hörna. She lands a report take care of EMI afterwards and later releases a solo album in Swedish merely referred to as Frida. In 1969 she meets musician Benny Andersson from a band referred to as The Hep Stars and the pair strike up a friendship.

1974

With Benny and fellow Swedish artists and married couple Agnetha Faltskog (a profitable solo singer) and Bjorn Ulvaeus (a member of the skiffle band The Hootenanny Singers), they kind ABBA and enter Eurovision in Brighton with Waterloo and win. She remembers about their victory: “It was simply unbelievable! There I used to be, a former band vocalist from Eskilstuna, and the BBC and all the foremost newspapers in Europe had been mobbing us, demanding interviews about how we felt.” By now Frida has divorced Ragnar and is engaged to Benny. International success awaits them with the assistance of their supervisor Stikkan Anderson and so they rating hits with Frida taking lead vocals together with her mezzo-soprano voice on most of the songs together with Fernando, Understanding Me Understanding You, I Have A Dream, Cash Cash Cash and Tremendous Trouper. Certainly one of their greatest is Dancing Queen which is one in all her favourites: “I cried the primary time I heard it. It’s a masterpiece.” The band releases quite a few primary albums and excursions Europe, Australia and North America. She and Benny lastly wed in 1978. And on the peak of ABBA’s fame, Frida is contacted by her father who remains to be alive and the pair have an emotional reunion. However she admits: “It might have been totally different if I would been a baby. Nevertheless it’s tough to get a father while you’re 32 years previous. I can not actually hook up with him and love him the best way I’d have if he’d been round once I grew up.”

1982

Frida embarks on a solo music profession after ABBA take a break. Relations throughout the band had modified – each {couples} had divorced and their music had grow to be loads darker. Frida remembers about her cut up from Benny: “There have been loads of tears and loads of discussions. However there was no method again. Breaking apart turned a necessity.” She additionally has to combat off reviews that she and Agnetha didn’t get alongside sustaining: “We could not hang around a lot, however now we have a really deep connection. There may be actually no rivalry between us. The connection has deepened throughout the years we labored collectively.” Free from ABBA and sporting a punky brief hair-do, Frida launches her personal album referred to as One thing’s Going On which is produced by Phil Collins in 1982 and that is adopted by Shine which is produced by Steve Lillywhite in 1984. Phrase reaches Frida in 1989 that her father has handed away aged 89.

1992

Marriage ceremony bells sound as Frida marries Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen in 1992 and the couple stay collectively in a fort in Switzerland. She additionally releases her first new music in additional than a decade with a Swedish solo album referred to as Djupa Andetag (Deep Breaths). Nonetheless, double tragedy strikes for her. In 1998, her daughter Ann Lise Lotte dies in an horrific automobile accident in New York aged 30. After which only a yr later her husband Ruzzo dies from most cancers aged 49. In an interview some years later she speaks about how she struggled to take care of her grief: “I needed to have one thing to imagine in, in any other case it will have been very tough to deal with. It took a really very long time (to seek out pleasure once more). It took very a few years and incomprehensible grief. You are feeling which you could hardly survive. It was a tough journey.”

2004

Having maintained a reasonably low profile, Frida emerges with some public performances of a brand new tune referred to as The Solar Will Shine Once more. It’s been written particularly for her by her buddy and Deep Purple member Jon Lord. Frida could be very moved by the observe’s message about hope after loss and she or he claims: “It gave me goosebumps.” And it appears the tune proves a superb omen. In 2007 Frida meets and begins courting WH Smith inheritor Henry Smith, fifth Viscount Hambleden. She calls him “My rock, my buddy, my love in my autumn years”. The pair arrange house in Switzerland.

2018

Having loved a while again within the highlight attending large occasions such because the opening of the ABBAWorld exhibition in London, the launch of The ABBA Museum in Stockholm and the premiere of the film sequel Mamma Mia: Right here We Go Once more in London, behind the scenes Frida meets Benny, Bjorn and Agnetha in secret to debate an thrilling new undertaking. It’s a hi-tech live performance present that includes digital variations of themselves on stage. In April 2018, ABBA announce they’re reuniting for ‘an thrilling ABBA avatar tour undertaking’ which can function two new songs I Nonetheless Have Religion In You and Don’t Shut Me Down. The web goes into meltdown over the information.

2021

Frida and the opposite members face delays to their ‘ABBAtar’ enterprise because of the pandemic and lockdowns. However unbeknown to followers they’ve an enormous shock up their sleeve. They’ve been within the studio and recorded a brand new album referred to as ABBA Voyage – their first in 40 years. It’s launched to large vital acclaim within the autumn of 2021 after which ABBA Voyage The Present launches in London in Could 2022 and remains to be going sturdy. Frida – now typically seen with a strolling cane having had hip surgical procedure – has visited the spectacle a number of instances and says: “It is onerous to completely grasp that it’s not me up there and but it’s me. I can actually see myself within the digital determine, the gestures, the facial expressions, the eyes that specific all types of emotions. It is absurd nevertheless it’s actual.” In Could 2024, Frida and the opposite three members obtain The Royal Order of Vasa (a Swedish knighthood) from The King for his or her contribution to music through the years.

2025

As Frida enjoys her forthcoming 80 ^th birthday with accomplice Henry and shut associates, she admits she has needed to be a robust lady and have religion to get by a few of the issues which were thrown at her. She says: “I’m a very sturdy lady. I’ve realised this. Then I’ve a very sturdy perception in God. Truly, it was that which helped me.” And though she can’t say whether or not that is the tip of ABBA’s story (“Consider our ages, we’re not younger any longer however you by no means know.”), one factor is definite. The legacy of ABBA, the music and the recollections are one thing that can keep together with her ceaselessly as she explains: “ABBA will all the time be there. It has been an enormous a part of my life. I can by no means go away it. Part of me has been educated by what I’ve gone by with ABBA, with the music, with the completely happy instances..it has left an enormous print on me and my life.”

* Large hearted Frida has requested followers to not ship presents for her birthday however, if they want, to present donations to charities together with Läkare Utan Gränser/Médecins Sans Frontiers/Medical doctors With out Borders or UNICEF – organisations near her coronary heart.

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