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Anni-Frid, Princess Reuss von Plauen (born 1945, age 64), is a Norwegian-born singer, best known as Frida Lyngstad, one of the four members of Swedish pop group ABBA.[1] Of the four ABBA members, she was the only one who really liked to tour and to meet audiences live. Lyngstad also clearly enjoyed the spotlight more than the other three members.
2. Born in Ballangen, Norway, Lyngstad got her first job as a dance band and schlager singer with The Evald Eks Orchestra at the age of 13, where she performed on weekends in front of a dancing audience. To further develop her singing career, she took singing lessons and later, teamed up with a 15-piece 'big band' which performed a jazz repertoire. In early 1963, then aged 17, she formed her own band, the Anni-Frid Four, and married fellow bass player, Ragnar Fredriksson. The marriage produced two children but they were officially divorced by 1970.
3. In 1967, Lyngstad participated in the national Swedish talent competition, New Faces, at Skansen, Stockholm, winning the first prize which was a recording contract with EMI Sweden. Subsequently in 1969, she participated in Melodifestivalen, the Swedish heats for the Eurovision Song Contest and finished fourth. Backstage, she met her future spouse Benny Andersson, who also participated in the contest as a composer. They soon met again and were engaged in August. (By 1971, they were living together but did not marry until October 1978, during the height of ABBA's success.) Her relationship with Andersson and friendship with Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog eventually led to the formation of ABBA in 1972.
4. ABBA's breakthrough came with winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden with the song, Waterloo, in April 1974. As their popularity grew, they were sought after to tour Europe, Australia, and North America, drawing crowds of near-hysterical fans. Touring, however, became a contentious issue, being particularly unpopular with Faltskog, but they continued to release studio albums to great commercial success. At the height of their popularity, however, both marriages failed, and ABBA finally broke up in 1982.
5. In 1982, Lyngstad released Something's Going On, her first post-ABBA as well as her first solo album in English. It became a big success worldwide, selling 1.5 million copies and spawned the successful single, I Know There's Something Going On, selling 3.5 million copies to become the bestselling solo record for any of the four former ABBA members. In 1992, Lyngstad, then age 46, married 41-year old Prince Heinrich Ruzzo of Reuss von Plauen. [1] The prince died of lymphoma in 1999. Throughout her third marriage and beyond, Lyngstad continued with her musical career. In 2004, however, she declared in an interview that she had no more interest in a music career, only to return to the recording studio 18 months later. more... at Chronology
