Agnetha’s Birthdate: April 5th, 1950 / Björn’s Birthday: April 25th, 1945
Band: ABBA
Instrument: Vocals & Guitar
Agnetha’s Age in 2024: 74 / Björn’s Age in 2024: 79
ABBA members Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus both celebrate their birthdays this month! Agnetha was born on April 5th, 1950, in Jönköping, Sweden, and Björn was born on April 25th, 1945, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
About Agnetha Fältskog
A musician from a very young age, Agnetha wrote her first song at six and began to take piano lessons at 8, around the same time she joined her local church’s choir. At 10, she formed a musical trio with friends, and at 15 she decided to drop out of school and pursue music.
Before she turned 20, she had a recording contract and a chart-topping single titled “Jag var så kär”, or “I Was So in Love” in English. As her career progressed and her stardom grew, including portraying Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar, Agnetha eventually met Björn Ulvaeus, with whom she formed ABBA along with Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson.
After ABBA disbanded without any official announcement, Agnetha continued her solo career, releasing her first post-ABBA work Wrap Your Arms Around Me in 1983, which topped the charts across Europe and included the hit single “The Heat Is On”. She would continue to release music until taking a 17-year hiatus between 1988 and 2004.
Upon her return with a cover of Cilla Black’s “If I Thought You’d Ever Change Your Mind”, it was as if she never left, charting well and receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews. Since her return, she has released a covers album titled My Colouring Book in 2004, a studio album in 2013 titled A, and 8 total singles, all of which doing remarkably well.
About Björn Ulvaeus
Much like Agnetha, Björn had a strong passion for music and songwriting. Before he was 20, he was a member of the Hootenanny Singers, a Swedish folk schlager band that was extremely popular in Scandinavia. While touring, he met and befriended Benny Andersson, another passionate songwriter for the group Hep Stars. The two began composing songs together for use by each other’s bands and even contributing to their recordings.
Eventually, Björn would take a job as an in-house producer for Polar Record Company with Benny as his partner. The duo wrote and produced for acts such as Arne Lamberts as well as other Polar artists and would later begin to release tracks as a duo such as “She’s My Kind of Girl”.
After ABBA, Björn along with Benny, turned to creating musicals, including Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!, the latter of which was based on ABBA songs and would win a Tony Award for “Best Orchestrations” and be nominated for a Grammy. Björn is still greatly involved in music, composing the anthem for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest, arranging English versions of songs, and being a representative of the music industry at conferences.
About ABBA
ABBA was formed in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus. The group is widely regarded as one of the most popular and most successful musical groups of all time and is one of the best-selling acts in history. All of this is despite the group’s remarkably short time together, as they were only around 10 years prior to disbanding.
The group was known for hits such as “Dancing Queen, “Fernando”, and “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”, “Mamma Mia”, “SOS”, and “Waterloo”, with countless others receiving high praise from fans and critics alike. Following their disbanding in 1982, the members rarely came together again, shutting down reunion rumors whenever possible. That is, until 2016 when the group reunited to work with Simon Fuller on a virtual experience.
The experience using their virtual avatars, dubbed ABBAtars, unfortunately, was scrapped, as was a TV special that was to feature two new songs from the group by the end of 2018. However, while these projects didn’t come to fruition, a new project using the ABBAtar idea, known as ABBA Voyage came to be, a virtual residency with the 4 virtual avatars and a 10-piece live band taking place at a custom-built venue.
Preceding the virtual project was the release of the band’s first album in 40 years Voyage (2021). This ninth and final album consisted of 10 songs including the two songs originally for the TV special. Following the ABBA Voyage experience’s premiere, Andersson confirmed in an interview that the residency and Voyage album was the official end of ABBA.
