Princess Frida
Michael Johansson
Enjoy!
Mikael A
Sweden
****
Frida from simple carpet dealer¹s wife to princess and Queen
Silvia¹s best friend.
The night before the wedding between king Carl XII Gustaf and Silvia
Sommerlath there was a grand gala at the Opera in Stockholm. Among the
participants was ABBA who with much acclaim, performed ²Dancing
Queen².
18 years have passed since that performance and today the former
pop-star Anni-Frid Lyngstad has become Queen Silvia¹s best friend. She
has found herself a prince of her own and cand if she likes call
herself a princess.
But the way to this has been a long and winding one and also included
long search for her own identity.
Anni-Frid started out as a band singer, reached enormous success with
ABBA and then withdrew from the public life.
Her performances have been very rare lately, but when it came to
putting together a show to celebrate the queen¹s (her best friends)
50th birthday she didn¹t hesitate for a minute.
Even if Frida today no more wants to perform or likes to be an
official person there was a time when she did everything to be
successfull and famous. At that she was married to Ragnar Fredriksson,
lived in Eskilstuna and sang in a band.
The day Anni-Frid for the first time stepped right into our hearts was
September 3, 1967. She had won the ²Barnens dags² talent search and
was brought straight to television for a live appearance on the most
popular talk-show in Sweden.
Anni-Frid was only 22 at the time, but she was already married and had
two children.
I was young and insecure, missed being loved. Tbat¹s why I married
so young, she has explained later.
The cause of this insecurity was founded early in her childhood.
Anni-Frid was born in the little village Ballangen, outside Narvik in
the northern part of Norway. The year was 1945 and the war was finally
over. But the war had brought a lot of war romances and Anni-Frid¹s
mother Synni had one with the German soldier Alfred Haase. Their love
resulted in little Anni-Frid. Synni was alone with her little daughter
since Alfred had returned to his family in Karlsruhe in Germany. The
liasons between German soldiers and Norweigan girls was very much
disliked by the Norweigans so all of Synni¹s friends and neighbours
turned their back on her. This made Anni-Frid¹s grandmother Agny
Lyngstad decied to move to Sweden. She went to Torshälla outside of
Eskilstuna where she could find a job. Synni missed her daughter very
much so she joined her family in 1947. Tragically she got very ill
shortly thereafter and was brought to a hospital. Her life couldn¹t be
saved. So grandma Agny became Anni-Frid¹s mother. She supported
Anni-Frid, but she was an old lady who had taken care of six children
of her own, so she was tired mostly. Anni-Frid has described her
childhood as a lonely one. But of course there were some happy times
in her life. Especially the summers which she spent with her family in
Norway. They all adored her because of her lovely voice.
I sang all the time as a child, she said. Thirteen years old she
contacted Evald Ek who had a big band for an audition. A few days
later she made her debut as their lead singer. Three years later she
joined another band. Ragnar Fredriksson played the trombone and she
soon became his girlfriend. They got married as soon as she turned
eighteen. 1964 Anni-Frid gave birth to their son, Hans.
Even though she had just become a mother she wanted to perform.
Together with her husband and two other musicians she formed a band of
her own Anni-Frid Four. The band became a big success and played 4-5
times a week. 1967 Anni-Frid and Ragnar got their second child, a girl
they named Lise-Lotte. Only a couple of months after her birth
Anni-Frid entered the ²Barnens Dag² talent search. The day after her
victory she got three offers of recording contracts, and a chance to
go on tour in the folkparks together with one of Sweden¹s most popular
singer Lars Lönndahl.Anni-Frid was described as the happy mother of
two who successfully could combine her motherhood with a career.
Everything seemed just fine. So when she and Ragnar announced their
divorce it came as a big surprise for many people. Anni-Frid said:
I realized how wrong my marriage was. I had depended totally on
Ragnar.
The children stayed with their father. Today they are grown up and her
son Hans lives in Stockholm, where he works as a sound technician. Her
daughter Lise-Lott emigrated to USA a couple of years ago and got
married to the American Charles Geritt Casper. They now have a six
year old son.
After the divorce Anni-Frid decided to go for the big career. She made
records, toured in the folk parks appeared on Swedish TV etc. But in
the middle of all of this love struck her. The man was the Hep Stars
star Benny Andersson who she met in Malmö 1969. Benny had just gotten
a divorce and had left two children with their mother. They had a lot
in common. On August 18 the same year they got engaged.
Shortly thereafter Anni-Frid and Benny joined Benny¹s friend Björn
Ulvaeus and his girlfriend Agnetha Fältskog in a musical
collaboration. In 1973 they participated in the Swedish final for the
Eurovision Song Contest with their song ²Ring Ring². At the time they
just called themselves Agnetha, Björn, Benny & Anni-Frid.
About a year later Stikkan Anderson, their manager, came up with the
idea of putting their initials together to form the new name of the
group ABBA.
On April 6, 1974 the name ABBA got well known to a hundred million
people when they won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton, England
with the song ²Waterloo².
Shortly after almost all of the world wanted to see and hear ABBA.
²Waterloo² became the number one song in 14 countries. But this was
just the beginning. The fact is that during the 1970s ABBAs songs sold
more than any other artist in the world.
But the friendship between Agnetha and Anni-Frid were constantly
tested. Behind their smiles was not a lot of friendship. Agnetha and
Anni-Frid were to totally different personalities. Agnetha missed her
children and hated to tour. Frida on the other hand loved to be on
stage and be able to see the world.
I have a new sense of security a bigger self esteem which I never
thought I would get. Today I even dare to think that I¹m actually
pretty good at what I do, Anni-Frid said when ABBAs success was a
fact.
She loved to go to parties and be seen. And she always wore the latest
in fashion. She also kept changing the style and colour of her hair.
At the same time as Agnetha and Björn were separating Benny and
Anni-Frid decided to get married after nine years engagement. The
wedding was very secrete and was held in a church on Lidingö where
they lived at the time. It was just the day after friends were told
the big news at a party at Benny¹s and Anni-Frid¹s house.
I have this constant fear of being left alone, Anni-Frid said during
all the year with Benny.
So when Benny fell head over heels in love with Mona Nörklit, who he
met at a party, Frida was heartbroken.
We talked and talked but finally agreed on a divorce, Anni-Frid said
years later.
In 1983 when the ABBA years were over for good, Anni-Frid decided to
leave the country. She had sold her ABBA stocks in 1982 at their peak.
Anni-Frid moved to Mayfair in London, England.
I was desperate when i moved to London. I wanted to start a new life
and I felt I couldn¹t do that in Sweden.
She also started a new solo career and Phil Collins produced her first
album ²There¹s Something Going On² in 1982. It was quite a success in
most countries.
In 1984 Steve Lillywhite produced her second solo album ²Shine² a very
modern album which probably was a little a head of it¹s time, so it
didn¹t sell as well as ²Something¹s Going On².
Then Anni-Frid decided to leave the music industry for good.
I¹m retiring, she explained. And she had no financially problems.
She bought two new homes, one i Mallorca and one in Switzerland. She
really enjoyed having all the time in the world to do exactly what she
wanted to. She painted, read a lot of books and wrote poetry (she even
seriously considered to publish some of her poems).
There were a lot of changes going on in her life.
I became a vegetarian. The I started to read philosophy, studied a
lot of religions, I was searching for a meaning. The result of this
soul searching was a bigger inner peace.
It wasn¹t like I became another person, it was just that during the
years with ABBA there was no time.
Anni-Frid got more and more environmentally involved. She did no
longer buy expensive fur coats etc. She even stopped dying her hair.
Tben she joined ²Det Naturliga Steget² (The Natural Step) with artists
working for the environment.
When the rumour started that she was going to leave London to move to
Switzerland she denied it for a very long time. The reason was that
she had met the German/Swedish prince Ruzzo Reuss who is a friend from
school with King Carl XVI Gustaf. And the prince was already married.
But Ruzzo¹s and Anni-Frid¹s flirt proved to be more Ruzzo divorced
his wife and Anni-Frid moved in. After living together for five years
and constantly avoiding photographers they finally got married at
Hörsholms Church outside Copenhagen, Denmark.
Since they got married they are often seen in public and especially
together with the King and Queen of Sweden. Queen Silvia and Anni-Frid
are now the best of friends. So it really came natural to ask
Anni-Frid to arrange the celebrations for Silvias 50th birthday.
Well, she certainly has come a long way, the carpet dealer¹s wife from
Eskilstuna. Now she is the princess Anni-Frid Reuss.