Anni-Frid Lyngstad

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Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad, better known as Frida (born November 15, 1945) is the singer, best known as one of the four members (often simply called "the brunette") of the Swedish pop music group ABBA. She is of German and Norwegian origin.

In the summer of 1969 Lyngstad met Benny Andersson, and later became engaged for about 9 years. Lyngstad married Andersson on October 6, 1978 while both were performing as part of ABBA, but after 3 years of marriage they divorced in 1981).

In 1982, Lyngstad left Sweden and moved to London. In the mid-1980s, she relocated to Switzerland where she has been living since.

On August 26, 1992, Lyngstad married her longtime boyfriend, Fürst (Prince) Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen (May 24, 1950–October 29, 1999), born from the German father of Reuss family and the Swedish mother. Upon marriage, Lyngstad acquired the title of Her Serene Highness Princess Anni-Frid Reuss von Plauen. Sadly, von Plauen died of lymphoma in 1999. Two years before that, in 1998, Lyngstad's daughter Ann Lise-Lotte Casper (February 25, 1967–January 13 1998) was fatally injured in a road accident in the United States where she lived. Lyngstad's marriage to Plauen gave her the title of Her Serene Highness Princess Anni-Frid Reuss von Plauen, and through her late husband who was a student at the same boarding school as the reigning King of Sweden she became acquainted with the Swedish Royal family and eventually became close friends with Sweden's Queen Silvia. Today, Anni-Frid still resides in Switzerland, and engages in charity work - drug prevention in particular. Her interest in a music career is non-existent, a fact she revealed in an interview for her DVD called Frida The DVD which was released in conjunction with her 60th birthday in 2005.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Awards and Recognition
4 Compilations Discography
5 Singles
6 Books, Biographies, Bibliography
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early life

Lyngstad was born out of wedlock in Ballangen, near Narvik, Norway, as a result of a liaison between her mother Synni Lyngstad and a married German sergeant, Alfred Haase, during the Second World War German occupation of Norway.

In 1947, Anni-Frid, her mother Synni, and her grandmother Agny Lyngstad were forced to move to Sweden because of fear of reprisals from the Norwegian population, who were angry at and vengeful towards those who had dealings with the Germans during the occupation, which resulted not just in insult, but also in forced separation of infants from their parents and relatives. Synni died before Anni-Frid was two, so she was brought up by her grandmother in the town of Torshälla, near Eskilstuna, Sweden.

Lyngstad believed that her father had died when his ship to Germany was sunk during the war. However, after the German teen magazine Bravo published her biography and a background story in 1977, she discovered that her father was alive and they were reunited that year.

[edit] Career

Lyngstad got her first job as a jazz singer in 1958, at the age of 13. She formed her own band, the Anni-Frid Four, marrying the bass player Ragnar Fredriksson in 1963, at age 18. The marriage produced two children, but the couple divorced by the late 1960s.

In 1967, Lyngstad won a TV talent contest, and in the next few years released several marginally successful singles for EMI. The lack of commercial success at that time even made her contemplate a career change: she was always interested in fashion and considered becoming a fashion designer. Her first album Frida, produced by her then fiancé Benny Andersson came out in 1971. The album received unanimously generous praise from the critics, who especially noted the precision and versatility of Lyngstad as a vocalist, but commercially it was not very successful.

Between 1972 and 1982, Lyndstad's career was extensively tied up with being part of the Swedish pop group ABBA.

Her next solo album in Swedish, "Frida ensam", that included the original Swedish version of the future ABBA megahit "Fernando", was released in 1975 when she already was a member of ABBA. The album became an enormous commercial and critical success in Scandinavia, topping the Swedish album charts for six weeks and remaining in the charts for 40 weeks. The album was mostly a collection of covers of songs by artists like Beach Boys, 10cc and David Bowie and received this notice from Melody Maker; "The album portrays Frida as a very strong and emotive singer and shows the true value of the music, that if sung properly and with enough feeling it transcends all language barriers".

In 1982, during ABBA's last year as a working band, Lyngstad released her first solo record in English, a Phil Collins-produced album, Something's Going On that topped the charts in Sweden and reached the Top 20 in the UK and the Top 40 in the US. It sold around 1.5 million copies worldwide and spawned a hugely successful single "I Know There's Something Going On" that made Top 10 charts across the world and sold around 3.5 million copies. In the US, the single reached No.13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 9 on Radio & Records airplay chart. The music video for the song was heavily promoted on MTV. The album was well received by the critics. Billboard wrote that "Abba's auburn-haired songstress makes a bold solo project a stunning success", while Mark Coleman described "Something's Going On" in the 3rd edition of Rolling Stone Album Guide as "sharp, rock-oriented, delightfully eclectic album". William Cooper had a similar opinon in All Music Guide: "Frida escapes the creative limitations of being a member of one of the world's most popular groups on this solid and often riveting album."

In 1983, Lyngstad assisted with 'Abbacadabra - the Musical', and featured with Daniel Balavoine on one track 'Belle, Belle' of the resulting album, 'Abbacadabra - Conte Musical'. This track was a cover of 'Arrival', an instrumental track on the ABBA album' Arrival'. She also recorded 'Time' with B. A. Robertson in 1983, which was also a cover of 'Arrival'

Her next album, Shine (1984) enjoyed moderate success. It reached the Top 20 in several European countries, No. 6 in Sweden and No. 9 in Belgium being the highest positions, and proved to be her last foray into the international music world.

In the years that followed, she was seriously engaged in environmental work but also found time to make a couple of guest appearances on recordings by Swedish artists, former colleague and husband Benny Andersson's 1987 album in particular.

In 1992, she performed live at the Stockholm Water Festival and released an environmental charity single with her cover of Julian Lennon's song Saltwater.

In 1996, Lyngstad recorded a Swedish language album Djupa Andetag that topped the Swedish charts and attracted positive reviews. A follow-up album was reportedly in works, but eventually shelved due to personal reasons.

Several one-off recordings followed, including a 2002 duet with Filippa Giordano on the Barcarolle from opera Les contes d'Hoffman by Jacques Offenbach, and the song "The Sun Will Shine Again", written for Lyngstad by former Deep Purple member Jon Lord and recorded in 2004. Both performances were not released as singles: "Barcarolle" is only available on the special Japanese edition of "Rosso Amore" album by Giordano, and "The Sun Will Shine Again" can be found on Jon Lord's album "Beyond The Notes".

Also in 2004, Lyngstad appeared with Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus at London's fifth anniversary performance of Mamma Mia!, the musical based on ABBA songs. In 2005, she joined all three of her former ABBA colleagues at the Swedish premiere of Mamma Mia! at Cirkus in Stockholm.

Allegedly, Frida discussed a potential come-back of Abba together with Robbie Williams in November 2006