Legends of the 1970s: What happened to the members of the legendary group "AVVA" after its collapse

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This legendary band was so popular 45 years ago that the 1970s. even called "the decade of" ABBA ". This is one of the most successful and famous bands in the world in the history of pop music. The songs "Mamma Mia", "Dancing Queen" and "Happy New Year" have become hits all over the world. But in the early 1980s. the group broke up, and each of its members took up solo careers. Since then, little has been heard about them. How their fates developed after the breakup of the group - further in the review.

The first success came to them in 1972, and 2 years after winning the Eurovision Song Contest the whole world learned about them with the song Waterloo. The name of the group was made up of the first letters of the names of the participants: Agneta Feltskog and her husband Bjorn Ulveus, Benny Andersson and his common-law wife Anni-Fried Lingstad. "ABBA" became the first group to take first places in the music charts of all English-speaking countries. In just 6 years of vigorous activity, the musicians have set a world record: their records have sold 375 million copies!

In the 1980s. the members of the legendary four stopped performing together, although they never officially announced the breakup of the group - they just played the last concert, after which each of them, starting in 1982, took up solo careers. Both couples had broken up a year earlier. Since then, their popularity has waned.

For a long time Agneta Feltskog was called “the blonde from the ABBA group”. She began her musical career at the age of 10, and at 15 she already became a soloist of the Bengt Engharts Orchestra. At 17, she wrote a song that became a hit in Sweden. However, worldwide popularity came to her only after she became a member of the ABBA group. But after parting with her husband, their creative tandem also broke up. Later, the singer admitted that it was a great shock for her, and for several years she was treated for depression. The accumulated fatigue also aggravated the situation - 7 years of continuous touring activity completely depleted her.

In the 1980s. Agneta Feltskog tried to build a solo career by releasing several albums. But none of them won the recognition of the audience. After that, the singer disappeared from the field of view of fans for a long time. She led a solitary life and rarely appeared in public. Only 17 years later, she reminded the audience of herself by releasing a new album with covers of the hits of her youth, and it sold 500 thousand copies. And in 2013, she released another album, which consisted entirely of new songs, and in the same year she appeared on the screens live for the first time in 25 years. Now 68-year-old Agneta Feltskog lives on an estate in the suburbs of Stockholm and is raising her grandchildren.

Bjorn Ulveus, who was called the ideological inspirer of the "ABBA" group, took up a musical career as a child: at the age of 12 he created his first musical group, 10 years before the creation of "ABBA" he managed to work with many Swedish groups. Then he began to collaborate with Benny Andersson, who became his friend. Their creative tandem continued to exist even after the breakup of the group. In the late 1980s. they worked together on the Gemini project, and today they are considered one of the most successful and wealthy people from the world of show business in their country. But now 73-year-old Bjorn Ulveus devotes more time not to music, but to social activities and producing.

Benny Andersson first appeared on stage at the age of 8, and at 18 he was already a member of one of the most popular bands in Sweden “Hep Stars”. Today he is known not only as a former soloist of the ABBA group, but also as a composer, arranger and producer. Back in the 1970s. he began to write music for feature films and continues to do so to this day. In addition, today the 72-year-old musician leads the Benny Andersson Orchestra, which is quite famous in Sweden.

Anni-Fried Lingstad also began performing early on stage - at the age of 13, she sang cover versions of songs by famous artists with a jazz band. At the age of 18, the girl created her own group, and later joined the tandem of Benny Anderson and Bjorn Ulveus. 10 years after parting with a common-law spouse and the collapse of the group, the singer married the German prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reiss von Plauen, but 7 years later her husband died of cancer, and their daughter had died a year earlier in a car accident. At first, Annie-Fried tried to pursue a solo career, released several albums, but today the 73-year-old singer devoted herself entirely to charitable work, became an honorary member of several public organizations, is engaged in the affairs of a fund to help orphans and is a sponsor of a music festival in Switzerland. She is one of the richest people in Sweden.

In 2016, the band members got back together and performed at a private party celebrating the 50th anniversary of the friendship between Bjorn Ulveus and Benny Andersson. They say that a new tour of the group "ABBA" is planned for 2019, but instead of the participants themselves, fans will see their holograms, which have already been nicknamed "abbatars".

And in the 1990s. the most popular in the world is another Swedish group: Members of "Ace of Base" then and now.