Agneta Åse “Agnetha” Fältskog is a Swedish singer, songwriter, and a member of the pop group ABBA. She first achieved success in Sweden with the release of her 1968 self-titled debut album. She rose to international stardom in the 1970s as a member of ABBA, which is one of the best-selling music acts in history. After the unofficial break-up of ABBA in December 1982, she had success later in the decade as a solo artist with three albums and a leading role in a movie. She became reclusive in the 1990s, avoiding outside publicity and residing on the Stockholm County island of Ekerö.
t the end of 1982, Fältskog duetted with Swedish singer (and former ABBA backing vocalist) Tomas Ledin on a song called “Never Again”, which became a Top Five hit in Sweden, and Top 10 in Norway, Belgium, and Finland. The song was also released in a Spanish-language version, entitled “Ya Nunca Más”. In May 1983, Fältskog released her first post-ABBA solo album, Wrap Your Arms Around Me, produced by Mike Chapman. The album became a moderate hit in North America and Australia but reached the higher regions of the charts across Europe, Two singles from the album became hits in continental Europe: “The Heat Is On” became a No. 1 hit in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Belgium and No. 2 in The Netherlands and Germany. In 1986, Fältskog recorded another duet, “The Way You Are”, with Swedish singer Ola Håkansson, which became another No. 1 hit in Sweden, Norway and Brazil.
In the summer of 1987, Fältskog travelled to Malibu, California, to record her fourth post-ABBA solo album, I Stand Alone, produced by Peter Cetera (formerly of the band Chicago) and Bruce Gaitsch, who had collaborated on Madonna’s La Isla Bonita. In Sweden, it spent eight weeks at No. 1 and became the best-selling album of 1988. The single “I Wasn’t the One (Who Said Goodbye)”, on which Fältskog duetted with Peter Cetera, was released primarily in North America, and became her second solo single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 93. It was also a Top 20 Billboard Adult Contemporary hit. The track (along with “The Last Time” as “La Última Vez”) was also recorded in Spanish for the Latin American market as “Yo No Fui Quién Dijo Adiós”. Fältskog refused to promote the album in major TV shows in West Germany, but she made a promotional visit to London in February 1988, appearing on the Terry Wogan Show.
In April 2004, Fältskog released a new single, “If I Thought You’d Ever Change Your Mind” (a cover of the song originally recorded by Cilla Black). It peaked at No. 2 in Sweden and became Fältskog’s highest charting UK single to date, reaching No. 11. One week later, the album My Colouring Book, a collection of Fältskog’s covers of 1960s classic oldies, was released, topping the chart in Sweden, reaching the top 5 in Finland and Denmark, and peaking at No. 6 and No. 12 in Germany and the UK respectively. A second single release from the album, “When You Walk in the Room”, peaked at No. 11 in Sweden and entered the UK Top 40 at No. 34 (which was still higher than any of her UK singles in the 1980s).
In May 2013, Fältskog released a new album called A, produced by Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl. In the UK, the first single, “When You Really Loved Someone”, had previously been released for download on 11 March, with the accompanying video also released on the same day. In Germany, the first single was “The One Who Loves You Now”, and it was also released for download on 11 March 2013. The album includes a duet with Gary Barlow of Take That, called “I Should’ve Followed You Home”. In September 2021, via YouTube Livestream, ABBA announced their upcoming virtual concert residency “ABBA Voyage”, as well as the imminent release of an eponymous album, recorded between 2017 and 2021. The new record, their first studio album in 40 years, features ten tracks, including “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down”, which were first shown in the aforementioned Livestream event and released as a double A-side single.
