Frida Lyngstad -Then and Now | home
Extras
Interview with Frida at the ABBA Movie in Stockholm 2004
Speaker:
It has been 26 years since Lasse Hallström made the movie "ABBA - The Movie". Now
the film will be shown again and it`s a new, restored version.
Tonight there was a special showing with ABBA members present.
Frida: Well, it`s both strange and exciting of course. There has been some time
since we made this movie. But I think it`s fantastic that the Swedish
Filminstitute takes good care of these old - well I guess I can`t call our
movie *that* old -but it`s important what they do, "renovating" the movies
so they can be preserved the way they were.
Speaker:
The Swedish Filminstitute has restored Lasse Hallström`s movie "ABBA -The Movie".
1977 it was shown in mono, now it`s a surround stereo version that`s being shown.
The new version will be shown two times in Stockholm in December and one time each in Gothenburg
and Malmo inJanuary. The DVD will be released in 2005, even though ABBA has their 30th
anniversary next year. 
Frida:
I don`t attend big gatherings very often nowadays,
especially not events that have connections to ABBA.
Not that there are very many.
Reporter:
So now ABBA is also a part of the film history...
Frida:
I haven`t had time to reflect over that yet. I have to digest it
first. But naturally I think it`s wonderful that we are a part of
it too. It makes me think of how it was when we first started
and noone accepted us anywhere because of the leftwing
music movement was so strong. But eventually we have gotten accepted in all institutions. I think that feels very good.
Reporter:
So it was you who won in the end, one could say?
Frida:
Yes, in a way, it feels like a good victory.
A piece of an excellent article found on Mickory's ABBA Blog. If you haven't seen that site Please go visit there soon.
You will find the rest of this article as well as many others...all very rare, along with photos and more.
Ulf Elfving interviewed Frida in 1994 when she lived in Fribourg.
Asked her what she had been doing after she left Sweden in the early 1980's.
"I didn't do very much actually. There was a lot of of turbulence in my life. It was just after the
divorce from Benny, I guess I 
wasn't feeling very well. I tried to search in my life what I wanted
and should do. What I wanted to dedicate my life to. The kind of question we
all have to ask ourselves every now and then. This period gave me the time
to go on this quest and so I did for several years. I had a house in Mallorca
during these years and I spent a lot of time there contemplating my life,
how I felt, what I believed would be most important to me."
Have you always beleived in God?
"Yes, I have, but not very actively during the career years, but as a child I
was deeply religious, so I guess you can say that it has come full circle.
I live with my faith again and I live close to the nature that I love so much."
Do you miss ABBA?
"No, I don't miss ABBA, it was a different kind of life which gave me such
great joy, but now I live another type of life which brings me another
kind of joy."
About ABBA
"ABBA means a lot to me, there's no way to deny that."
"Memories should remain memories. Something to look back to fondly. It can be pathetic
when you get middleaged people together to recreate something that happened so long ago."
About the fans
"I have never said this before....: Everyone says how nice Frida is to her fans, but I do think that
the fans can be a pain sometimes. When they try to "own" you. Many times you give a little of
yourself and it only leads to them wanting more and more. And they adapt a sort of a snobbery
and think that "they know Frida" and use that against other fans to get a better status in their
group. I really find it difficult to accept it when people live their lives through others. It's totally
unnatural to me."
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Jeffrey de Hart, Stockholm 2005
Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad has considered a reunion of the Swedish supergroup of which she was once part.
"I've felt that it would be fun to do something with ABBA in recent years," she says. However, because of bandmates Benny
Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus' success with three stage musicals and Andersson's solo work, "Basically they're not interested."
The revelation comes in a new interview featured on the Universal Music DVD "Frida the DVD" released today (Dec. 5) in Europe, with Asia, Australia and the Americas expected to follow -– Lyngstad also states that, despite persistent rumors to the contrary, she maintains contact with co-vocalist Agnetha Fältskog.
"Our relationship is warm and sisterly," she says.
The interview was filmed July 22 at Chez Vrony in Zermatt, Switzerland, and conducted by producer Mats Jankell. It is interspersed with four hours of comprehensive footage dating from 1967, including rare Swedish Television performances, record company promotional films, solo videos, personal footage and a clip of her most recent recording, "The Sun Will Shine Again," written by and performed with Deep Purple's Jon Lord in 2004.
Marie Ledin of Anderson Records -– named in honor of her late father, ABBA mentor Stikkan Anderson –- is responsible for the project.
"The idea that we should make a DVD came from a Frida fan from the beginning," she said. "Then I spoke to [Universal Sweden managing director] Mårten Aglander about it. Since Frida turned 60 this year we thought it would be a good idea to do the DVD and also do a box set
with the Polar [Music] albums."
The box set "Frida 4xCD 1xDVD," also released today, includes the DVD along with four of Lyngstad's five solo albums. It excludes her 1971 debut, her only album for EMI, although some of that material is represented with early live televised performances.
The box contains a 20-page booklet with a "unique, poetic short story" about Lyngstad by Greek-Swedish author Theodor Kalifatides.
The albums included are Polar Music's
The albums included are Polar Music's "Frida Ensam" (Frida Alone), produced by Andersson in 1975, "Something's Going On" produced by Phil Collins in 1982 and "Shine" produced by Steve Lillywhite in 1984. Her most recent album -- 1996's "Djupa Andetag" (Deep Breaths), produced by Anders Glenmark -– is on Anderson Records, distributed by Universal.
"It was not hard to convince Frida to do this project," Ledin says. "We discussed it about a year-and-half ago and she said, 'Yes, that's a good idea.' Mats did the research and got the clips. Then we sent them to Frida on a DVD and she liked them. The best part is with Lars Berghagen." The two perform a version of Ray Stevens' "Gitarzan."
"It's amazing that ABBA is always relevant," Aglander says. "There's always something happening with ABBA even 23 years after their last recording. You never know, but it feels like it will keep going. I'm sure the popularity of ABBA always exceeds every expectation."
According to Lyngstad, there isn't much room for another album for the time being. "My motivation today when it comes to my musical career is pretty non-existent," she says. "It was there up until a few years ago, but there's a time for everything and that ship has sailed."
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ANNI-FRID TALKS ABOUT THE SORROW FOR HER HUSBAND
by Mats Larsson - 2000
The last years of the 90s were very dark for Anni-Frid Reuss-Lyngstad. In a short time she lost her daughter and her husband.
Expressen met her last night in Toronto and she spoke for the first time about the sorrow and the loss.
Anni-Frid Reuss-Lyngstad came to Canada last Sunday and will travel back today. It was Björn Ulvaeus who several weeks ago asked
if she didn't wish to come to the premiere of the ABBA musical "Mamma Mia".
" Why not, I thought. At the same time it gave me the opportunity to meet my family here.
My grandchild Jonathon lives in the USA, not so far from here. And my daughter
Henriette studies in Boston. Both of them are here now. "
When the request came, she still had not seen "Mamma Mia" although it had been running for a year in London.
" I have not been so absorbed in work. And then there are private things which meant that I never came over."
But last weekend she finally came to England and saw and heard the 22 ABBA songs in the musical for the first time. Sang along with the audience.
" It was very exhilerating. It was fantastic how they got the story and integrated it with the music
in such a completely natural way. It was exciting to hear ABBA music in this way."
"The audience sang along. Me too. My son sat next to me and nudged me with his elbow. He thought I should stop.
I am not singing so loud, I said. I turned to Görel and asked her.
Yes you are, Görel said."
Afterwards, Anni-Frid was invited up onto the stage.
"I wondered how it would be. Would the audience recognise this old woman? I look a little different now
than I did with ABBA. But it was a fantastic reaction. I felt very appreciated. It was a kind of joyful trip."
Joy is something that Anni-Frid has been deprived of in the last few years. In 1998 her daughter Lise-Lotte Casper died in a car
accident in the USA.
Last year was the next tragedy. Her life companion of 15 years, husband Ruzzo Reuss, died from cancer on 30 October.
He was only 49.
How have you found the strength to continue to meet the future?
" In the first place I am a really strong woman. I realised this. Then, I have a really strong belief in God.
Actually, it is that which helped me. "
"I have a very strong belief in a force and an eternity, and it helped me through my day.
Plus I have a great family. We are incredibly close. We support each other. It isn't only me who's suffering.
There are others. Both family and friends."
Step daughters Henriette and Pauline both study overseas. Henriette studies economics in Boston and Pauline studies art in London.
"They are 23 and live their own lives. But we get together regularly and have lots of contact. It helps a lot. "
Anni-Frid has lived in Switzerland for about 18 years now. She has no plans to move back to Sweden, she says.
She feels at home for good there.(in Switzerland)
"It has been great to avoid being recognised."
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