Bjorn Again
Almost 30 years after Abba shot to success, blonde singer Agnetha Faltskog is preparing for an encore.
She plans to release a solo album next year as part of a showbusiness comeback.
And with the Abba musical Mamma Mia! doing a roaring trade around the world, she hopes to impress a new generation of fans.
Agnetha, now 53, was only 17 when she married Bjorn Ulvaeus in their native Sweden. They formed a fourpiece group with brunette Anna- Frid Lyngstad and Benny Anderssen, who were also to marry.
Abba, so called after the initials of their first names, won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo and went on to have a long string of hits.
Although Anna-Frid, or Frida, had her fans, Agnetha soon gained the status of the band's sex symbol with her golden hair, kinky boots and tight trousers.
Before disbanding in 1982, Abba became Sweden's most successful export after Volvo, selling more than 350million albums worldwide, but Agnetha's success did not bring happiness. She broke up with Bjorn and a second marriage also failed. She had a series of high-profile fights with her costars, suffered the trauma of a coach crash and eventually needed psychiatric help for a string of debilitating phobias.
Agnetha developed an allconsuming desire for privacy and, Garbo-style, retreated from the world. She was the only member of Abba to remain absent from the premiere of Mamma Mia! in London's West End, an event that was attended by the Queen.
Live performances of their hits are now restricted to tribute bands such as the Australian Bjorn Again.
Agnetha now lives on a tiny island outside Stockholm, where she has been plagued for the last two years by the attentions of a Dutch stalker.
She started work on her new album three years ago but temporarilyhalted the project when her friend and sound engineer Michael Tretow suffered a stroke.
Recently she resumed the project, however, and is recording in the studio. She plans to release the album early next year.
As for the rest of Abba, Bjorn and Benny continue to be involved in musical projects while Frida last recorded an album in 1996.
