When Abba broke up in 1982, Agnetha Faltskog walked away from the public eye. In her first major interview for three decades, she talks about the loves and losses of the intervening years – and about ending her seclusion to record an album once again
By MOIRA PETTY
PUBLISHED: 23:01 GMT, 4 May 2013 | UPDATED: 23:01 GMT, 4 May 2013
Agnetha Faltskog breaks her silence: 'I was so tired once Abba was over'
Agnetha performing on stage with Abba in 1975, and today, opposite
Agnetha FALTSKOG
Agnetha today, and performing on stage with Abba in 1975
Passengers arriving at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport trundle through to the feel-good beat of Abba’s greatest hits. Honestly, it takes restraint not to execute a few dodgy disco moves as the tunes blast out from huge screens advertising Abba The Museum.
Once Sweden’s second most important export after Volvo, Abba is still, more than 30 years after disbanding, helping to sell the country’s brand to visitors. The new monument to the group’s decade of dancefloor dynamite is timely, as Agnetha Fältskog, always the most retiring of the Abba four, has emerged from her Swedish island home to release an album of new songs.
But my first glimpse of her is the 1978 Agnetha, all 1970s knitwear, high boots and pale blue eyeshadow, as the video for ‘Take A Chance On Me’ beams out across the arrivals hall. Then she’s full screen, eyes full of inky emotion, lips sticky with gloss, a bit tremulous, voice sliding magnificently from euphoria to anguish.
Agnetha with her co-producer Jörgen Elofsson in his studio
Agnetha with her co-producer Jörgen Elofsson in his studio
Since Abba abandoned a half-finished album in 1982, Agnetha has mainly hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The catalogue of disasters includes two broken marriages and a series of failed love affairs, a road traffic accident in 1983 – when she was thrown out of the window of a bus on a solo tour – an accumulation of phobias, the suicide of her mother in 1994 and the persistent attention of stalkers, with one obsessive ruining her last album release in 2004 (her first since the 1980s) when his threats caused all interviews to be suddenly cancelled.
We meet in a brick, wood and slate house overlooking a sparkling lake on one of the many islands that surround Stockholm. This is home to Jörgen Elofsson, the co-producer and writer of her new album A. I am hanging out in the kitchen, a little bit tense, as she’s somewhere in this house having her make-up done. Then she pads into view, en route to the bathroom, in white towelling dressing gown and slippers, hair in rollers, smiling broadly, with a friendly ‘Hi’ to everyone. She exudes a Zen-like calm, the advantage no doubt of spending decades standing on her head because, as she tells me later, yoga and meditation helped rescue her from depression.
She is excited about her album and a little nervous, but it is full of lushly orchestrated numbers, every track about love and heartbreak, including a seductive duet with Gary Barlow. Her voice throughout sounds fantastic. ‘I will always be compared with Abba, with what was. I can only produce a good album, otherwise why would I do it? We had a joke about it. I said: “If I sound like an old woman, we won’t give it out. After a few times,
I kept saying: “This is not good.” So I trained and trained, took a couple of lessons, and suddenly on the third take it was there, and my voice sounds really young. I thought my previous record in 2004 was going to be my last. It’s not very common that you do records when you get past 60. Your voice changes, and your body, and you don’t have the same energy.’
Arlanda airport
Agnetha Faltskog and Bjorn Ulvaeus with their newborn daughter Linda
right: Sweden's most famous sons and daughters welcome visitors at Stockholm's Arlanda airport left: Agnetha with Björn and their daughter Linda in 1973
Has she sung in the interim? ‘For myself, yes; at home, at the piano and with my grandchildren, but nothing professional.’
Oddly, the only people who have been shielded from the Abba legend are her three grandchildren, aged 12, six and three, the offspring of her actor daughter Linda, 40. Her son Christian, 35, a computer programmer, has no children but Agnetha, an ardent grandma, is keeping her fingers crossed. She is cautious about talking about the little ones for security reasons but says, ‘I spend a lot of time with the grandchildren. They love it when we sing together. It’s fantastic to hear them and they really can sing. I don’t talk to them so much about Abba and the past, but as they get older they will become more aware. Already the eldest one, Tilda, knows a little bit more.’
‘I married, was in Abba, had my children, divorced – all in ten years. I wonder how I managed it, but I was young’
She apologises for her English, which becomes charmingly fractured under pressure. She is creamy-skinned, well preserved, robust looking, and emanates a mature beauty. She gave up smoking in the 80s, rarely drinks, and leads a healthy life tucked away on another Swedish island far removed from the stresses of youth culture and cosmetic surgery. She listens to some contemporary pop on the radio (‘I like it if it’s not too hard and has melody...even rapping can be nice’) but doesn’t know who the performers are.
Is she ready to leave this haven and embrace her public again, with all the madness it might bring? ‘I know that it is necessary if I am to get this CD out. It feels fantastic to meet new people again. I was very afraid of flying – I still am – so I had therapy. Now I am able to fly for three to three-and-a-half hours, no longer. The press has always written that I am a recluse and a mysterious woman, but I am more down-to-earth than they think. I live on a farm and there is a little bridge to get to Stockholm. I live a normal life there with my pug Bella and my puppy Bruno, a rare breed, just a little bigger than a chihuahua, with these big ears. I chat to other dog walkers, I go shopping and out to restaurants with friends. I don’t mind signing autographs as long as there’s not a queue forming,’ she says with a hearty laugh. She is estimated to have a £20 million fortune. ‘It helps, but I don’t think about it much,’ she shrugs. ‘You can go shopping, and if you see something very special you can buy it.
the couple in 1977 with baby son Christian
Agnetha and Linda
Left: The couple in 1977 with baby son Christian; Right: Agnetha and Linda in 2009
‘Maybe I was a recluse for some years. I was so tired once Abba was over and just wanted to be calm and with my children. I married, was in Abba, had my children, divorced, all in ten years. I wonder how I managed it, but I was young.’
The pop behemoth that became Abba was formed in 1970, when Agnetha and her boyfriend Björn Ulvaeus teamed up with his songwriting pal Benny Andersson. Soon, Benny’s girlfriend Anni-Frid – also known as Frida – Lyngstad joined them. Both couples went on to marry and divorce. Abba has sold 378 million records since 1972, the figure rising annually with new generations becoming fans after the success of Mamma Mia!, the stage musical and film. Having shunned other premieres of the musical, she turned out for the film premiere in Stockholm in 2008. ‘That was so exciting. Meryl Streep was really good in it.
I didn’t know that she could sing. She was very fresh and down-to-earth, not like a big star, and said, “It’s so good to meet you. I love these Abba songs.” She’s been into it a long time, singing the Abba songs. I think the Mamma Mia! craze is great.’
Adding to the buzz, Abba The Museum, an interactive exhibition in which visitors can record as if part of Abba, as well as peruse the band’s artefacts, will open on the island of Djurgården off Stockholm on Tuesday. ‘I didn’t keep any of my stage costumes from the Abba days. I have donated items to the museum, not very much but some things I had at home, some gold records, I can’t really remember. I think it’s nice that these things are in a place where they will be taken care of.’
Agnetha recalls Abba days with mixed emotions, as she found it hard dealing with global fame. ‘Fans would become really hysterical – banging on car doors. But very, very nice as well,’ she adds, not wishing to sound ungrateful for all this adoration. ‘Things that happened were quite incredible. We would arrive in our cars and there would be small children there and we were so scared that we were going to drive over someone or hurt them. Sometimes we could hardly leave our hotels. It was frightening, but we had so many people taking care of us and everyone wanted to show us the best [of their country] wherever we went. ’
The group in Germany in 1975
The group in Germany in 1975
She admits that she grew to dread going on stage. When she and Frida caught the whiff of cannabis from the audience, they would joke about taking in a few lungfuls, but Agnetha preferred a glass of champagne to fire her up. ‘Performing live is not my favourite. I am more of a recording person; I prefer to be private. I didn’t mind doing videos, even if they came very close with the camera. I can take that, but walking on stage in concert and singing live, that is a bit difficult. And I don’t think we sounded or looked very good.’
For a minute I am in shock, thinking that she means the platform boots, satin jumpsuits and glittery make-up, but she is talking about their lacklustre choreography, which wouldn’t stand muster next to routines by Lady Gaga or Rihanna, with their troupes of backing dancers.
‘It was nice to look how we looked, but we had no professional dance help.
We did it on feelings, so when we had our concerts it was different every night. Frida and I didn’t talk beforehand about what we were going to do.
We were very different types. We have been described as not being friends and in competition with each other, but we had something concrete between us on stage. There was some bad feeling when we were weary with our heavy schedule; little niggles, differences of opinion when we were a little irritated and tired of each other – and of ourselves.
Agnetha
Agnetha
‘But we helped each other a lot. If I felt I had a little cold, or Frida did, the other would work harder that night. During all of those times we worked so hard, through fevers and flu, and only ever cancelled two shows. The costumes were designed for us. I didn’t have the time to get involved with that, but Frida was more into it and had more time. We had to go and try everything and get measured, and I think they did a good job. Dancing in those platforms was OK, but I couldn’t do it today.’
Tours were never protracted, often 14 days off and 14 days on, which helped when she had her children. Did separations hurt? ‘Yes, but I didn’t feel guilty. I didn’t have any choice. When I was at home, I concentrated on the children. Linda was with us in California, but she was so little then, and my son was with us in London. I tried to explain [their lifestyle and work] to the children but it was hard for them to understand. It is difficult if your parents are famous but I tried not to spoil them.’
What is Agnetha’s favourite Abba song? ‘“The Winner Takes It All”,’ she says immediately. ‘Björn wrote it about us after the breakdown of our marriage. [They divorced in 1980.] The fact that he wrote it exactly when we divorced is touching really.’ Didn’t she hate reliving all that grief? ‘I didn’t mind.
‘You carry pain through your life…you survive – but it never leaves you’
It was fantastic to do that song because I could put in such feeling. I didn’t mind sharing it with the public. It didn’t feel wrong. There is so much in that song. It was a mixture of what I felt and what Björn felt, but also what Benny and Frida went through.
I always thought about the story behind those songs. I used to wonder what Björn and Benny were thinking about.’
Perhaps the hardest blow for Agnetha, who says she is ‘very sensitive’, was the death of her parents. Tragically, her mother Birgit, a former shop cashier, threw herself to her death from the sixth-floor flat in Jönköping where Agnetha had been raised. She was 71. ‘You knew about that?’ she whispers. ‘It was terrible. You wonder if you could have done something. Then my father [Ingvar, 73, once an administrator for a power company] died a year later. It’s so painful. You want them with you and to have known your grandchildren. I was depressed after that. Those were terrible years. I withdrew into myself and that was when I really began practising yoga because there was so much [emotion] coming out. I stayed at home a lot, meditated, listened to very special songs, lit candles. It helped heal me. You carry pain through your life, and when you get distance from it, you survive – but it never leaves you.
Agnetha and Anni-Frid performing in Amsterdam, 1977
Agnetha and Anni-Frid performing in Amsterdam, 1977
‘They were good parents. I started to compose when I was five years old, but had to use a neighbour’s piano. My parents made sacrifices to buy me a piano when I was seven. I used to play the harpsichord alone in the church. When I was 12, I played a fooj’ (fooj? Fudge? Ah, fugue!) ‘by Bach to an audience. I could never do that today.’
By 1965, aged 15, she was in a pop trio, the Chambers, with her friends Lena and Elisabeth, all hoping to become ‘world famous’. Then she became a singer with a dance band, and when its leader sent a demo to a record company, they were only interested in Agnetha. At 17, she had her first solo number one in Sweden and was on her way. Her younger sister, Mona, took over her job as a switchboard operator, and took the bus 175 miles with her parents to visit Agnetha in Stockholm. Agnetha couldn’t persuade the family to take money from her or move to the city because they felt that they would be out of their depth.
Back in those more unguarded days, she offered tantalising glimpses of herself in interviews with Swedish publications, which visited her at home with Björn. He was then a member of popular folk group The Hootenanny Singers, and she had fallen in love with him when they recorded a TV show together in 1969. ‘He’s grumpy in the morning.’ ‘He buys me flowers after I’ve done the cleaning.’ ‘Sometimes I fall out of love with life.’ The happy housewife, the sensitive soul, the occasional depressive were laid bare.
Abba performing 'Waterloo' at Eurovision in 1974
Abba performing 'Waterloo' at Eurovision in 1974
The teenage Agnetha drove men crazy, especially when she wore a pink jumpsuit with a large heart-shaped cut-out on the abdomen, which caused one Swedish reporter to slaver unpleasantly about her ‘sexy little tummy’. Another declared his temperature had been normal before he knocked on her door and dissolved into a description of ‘peachy skin’ and ‘hair like frozen waterfalls’.
This was just from Swedish journalists, so no wonder she became alarmed when stalkers became a fixture. Probably the worst was Dutch forklift truck driver Gert van der Graaf, 16 years her junior, who set up home a quarter of a mile from hers on the island of Ekero, west of Stockholm. When he turned sinister, police raided his cabin, which had become a shrine to her, and he reappeared with threats in 2004.
Does she find it easy to decide who is genuine? ‘I don’t think I’m very good at judging people. Sometimes I get a bad feeling but not very often. I have a very open heart and mind.
I want to give everyone a chance.’ I sympathise that it must be hard to meet new people, and in a mastery of understatement she replies: ‘Yes, I’m not only well-known in Sweden.’
She once compared the behaviour of poker-faced Swedes in a lift adversely with the chattiness of Americans, but now talks approvingly of ‘Swedish reserve: they respect you a lot’. The Swedish winter she finds less congenial – ‘It is too long and cold and can really make you tired’ – but now that she can fly, she breaks it up with holidays in sunnier spots such as Majorca. ‘On my ordinary days I don’t look like this,’ she says pointing to photo-ready hair and make-up. ‘So people don’t recognise me. And in winter we are fully dressed [she mimes pulling a hood over her head] so as not to freeze.
‘I see Björn now and then, when the children have birthdays, but he moved to London and started a new life, and he and his wife are grandparents too.’
It was reported that he was suffering from some kind of memory loss and had forgotten parts of his early career and life. ‘I know, but I haven’t talked to him about that,’ she says. ‘We don’t have that sort of relationship.’
She doesn’t seem to regret her absence from music for so long, saying, ‘I’m not jealous of the boys,’ as she calls Benny and Björn, who have continued songwriting, mainly for musicals. In 1969, she joked that when it came to songwriting, ‘Björn is almost as good at me.’ By the time they were in Abba, he could not persuade her to take time away from the children to compose for the group.
She talks about being ‘self-critical’ and ‘lacking self-confidence’, especially in this new and exposing project. She has written just one song for the album, ‘I Keep Them on the Floor Beside My Bed’, about the mementos of love. It contains lyrics such as: ‘I never thought my heart would break so easily…I should have stayed and worked it out.’ She had a German record producer fiancé before Björn, and after her divorce had a series of high-profile boyfriends, including a fashion designer, ice hockey star and police inspector. There was also a second marriage in 1990 to a surgeon and karate expert, which lasted two years.
‘'In love there are many ups and downs, but I remain optimistic’
I wonder if her new song was about Björn, but she says, ‘Björn and I have dealt with the heartbreak. It is amicable. In love, there are so many ups and downs, but I remain optimistic about it. I haven’t closed any doors.’
Jörgen, who has written for Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Westlife and many others, contacted Agnetha last year, and he and co-producer Peter Nordahl got to know her and then presented her with their new songs. ‘My God!’ she squeals. ‘A Swedish girl was on the demos and I said, “Why can’t she do this?”’ But the songs reflect the romantic war wounds of an older woman.
‘I was a little scared of the mic and thought, “How am I supposed to do this?”
The answer was, “In your own way” because it’s one of the few things I really can do and am good at. I go into a bubble as if I was in a film role and bring my life and experience into that.’
Anni Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog
Anni Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog
Gary Barlow flew to Jörgen’s home studio to co-write a song, ‘Should Have Followed You Home’. Despite the title, it is not about stalkers but a missed romantic opportunity after a dancefloor meeting. Agnetha was away in Majorca but due to fly back for Gary’s last day until her travel plans changed. It isn’t clear whether this was a mishap or due to her anxiety over singing the duet, but they recorded separately. Still, her eyes glitter as she says: ‘When I heard his voice in the headphones, I thought: “Oh, I have to match this enormous, cool voice and the way he sings.”’ She purrs, ‘It’s verrry sexy and a very good song. I hope to meet him in London.’ The album also contains a 1970s disco-style number, ‘Dance Your Pain Away’, which Jörgen wrote with her gay fans in mind.
After so many half-hearted forays back into music, this seems the right album – mature, considered, sounding like a hit – at the right time. Other forces were needed, she agrees, to kick-start this return, but now she believes, ‘It was really meant to be.’
Agnetha’s new album A will be released by Polydor on 13 May.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2318878/When-Abba-broke-1982-Agnetha-Faltskog-walked-away-public-eye-In-major-interview-decades-talks-loves-losses-intervening-years--ending-seclusion-record-album-again.html
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Agnetha 2013. Mostrar todas las entradas
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sábado, 4 de mayo de 2013
martes, 12 de marzo de 2013
Primera entrevista de radio con Agnetha Fältskog 2013
Agnetha con Lotta Bromé 12 de marzo de 2013
Audio
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TISDAG 12 MARS
Exklusivt i P4 Extra: Första radiointervjun med Agnetha Fältskog
Det blev en himla fart och uppståndelse igen....
- Rösten hade nästan rostat igen så jag hade lite problem i början, jag fick ta några sånglektioner för att komma tillbaka till hur det var man gjorde. Jag tog två sånglektioner sen kom rösten tillbaka avslöjar Agnetha
Agnetha har bara sjungit hemma i duschen
- Ibland har det hänt att jag suttit vid pianot med barnbarnen, säger hon i P4 Extra.
Fältskog berättar att när hon fick erbjudandet kände hon till namnet Jörgen Elofsson men inte riktigt vad han hade gjort.
- Men när jag kollade upp honom insåg jag ju att han hade en enorm meritlista.
Om Garbo ryktet
Den tidigare ABBA-medlemmen säger till Lotta Bromé att hon är ungefär samma människa i dag som hon var när hon var 17 år.
- Men jag har en enorm livserfarenhet och har blivit luttrad i det här yrket.
"Jag är väldigt vanlig"
Hon kräver väldigt mycket av sig själv. Men känner sig väldigt vanlig.
- Men därifrån att jag skulle vara mystisk - det har formats av media. Jag blir fortfarande sårad av det. Det har uppstått under vägen när jag drog mig undan ett litet tag.
Om Melodifestivalen
- Det var en fantastisk låt som vann, säger Fältskog.
Hon har inte röstat själv, men hon trodde hela tiden på Robin säger hon.
- Jag blir imponerad över dagens unga artister. Robin var jätte duktig. Det fanns många duktiga. Jag trodde att Robin skulle vinna.
Agnetha Fältskog favoriter i Melodifestivalen
- Robin - en fantastisk låt som vann och en jätteduktig kille. Jag trodde att den här skulle ta den
- Yohio - jag tycker Yohio är bra
- Anton Ewald - den här killen som dansar är bra
Agnetha Fältskog säger till Lotta att hon följer Melodifestivalen och tycker att det är en fantastisk tävling. Men själv har hon inte röstat på någon av artisterna.
När spelar ABBA ihop igen
En återförening med Abba är ingenting som Agnetha tror kommer att hända igen.
- Ingen av oss är lockad av det. Men vi får ju brottas med frågan hela tiden. Men jag tror det är väldigt liten chans att vi skulle göra någonting tillsammans.
Hon kommer inte att stå på scenen på Eurovision Song Contest i Malmö, säger hon.
- Men jag kommer att titta på finalen.
På frågan hur det går med kärleken svarar Agneta - det där är nog lite för privat.
FLER LJUDKLIPP
Agnetha Fältskog. FOTO: Universal
Abba Agnetha: "I've taken singing lessons"
Lyssna på Abba-Agnethas nya sorgliga kärlekslåt i P4 Extra
P4 Extra spelar "When you really loved someone" med Abba-Agnetha
Agnetha Fältskog sjunger igen i P4 Extra
This is the first newly written material by Agnetha in 25 years, and will also include a song she wrote herself.
The rest of the song has been written by Jörgen Elofsson, the man behind huge hits for Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys for example.
In an exclusive interview with Swedish Radio's P4 Extra programme, Agnetha explained how the project came about.
"It was a process, you could say. Firstly I was contacted by Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl and they wanted to play some songs for me. And I thought that that sounded really nice, I've never closed any doors and I wanted to listen to the songs, I thought it'd be fun. And then I thought that, wow, the songs are really good, how will I be able to say no to this?
So then I said ok, they sound fantastic, but how will I be able to interpret these songs in a good way? What if my voice sounds old? 'No, we don't think so at all', they said. But I wasn't at all sure. When you haven't sung for a while your voice gets almost rusty, you feel that you haven't kept that muscle working. "
Agnetha told presenter Lotta Bromé she even took singing lessons to freshen up her vocal chords.
"Two, actually. Then I didn't need any more. It might sound a bit cocky, but once I learnt how to breathe properly again I felt, no, this might work. And then it started sounding better and better."
One of the tracks on the album was written by Agnetha herself. She wrote a lot of songs before the Abba years, but since then had left songwriting behind her. But she decided to sit back at the piano just this once.
"Yes, exactly", she told Lotta Bromé. "I felt that this was an album with Jörgen's songs, at least nine of them, and he writes together with others too, but I thought it'd be fun to have one song on there. And then I started to write songs as well and that started to work well, I managed to squeeze a song out, and it will actually be the last song on the album. It's called "I keep them on the floor beside my bed". A long title."
The media image of Agnetha is of some kind of recluse, almost the Greta Garbo of pop, but that is an image she resents.
"I'm very down to earth, I think I'm the same person now as I was when I first went into a studio to record my first song when I was just 17 years old. I'm the same, but I have a load of life experience now. A lot of experience, and you get quite hardened in this industry, but you never get free from.... you want to do a good job the whole time, the best. So I have high expectations on myself. But to go from that to say that I'm mysterious, that's been created by the media.
I actually get quite hurt by it actually, it's something that has sprung up along the way, because of certain things. Maybe because I withdrew for a little while, but there are periods in your life when you have to take care of yourself, and things happen and you have to be alone and have things quiet around you for a while."
Agnetha has also suffered from a fear of flying for years, following a traumatic experience during one of the ABBA tours, but now she says that she has learnt to deal with it, somewhat.
"Well, I'm not out flying all the time, but I've had some therapy and learnt to think in a different way. That helps a bit, but I never think I'll be free of it. I've spoken to the therapist to find out what my hang-up is. I'll never sit there and be thinking there is nothing to worry about, I do have worries and fears. But I have learnt how to deal with it to some extent now, so I can deal with a flight of about 3 1/2 hours. But I don't fly several times a year, or once a month, I make some trips every now and then when I feel that I can cope with it."
But those hoping to see Agnetha appear at the new Abba Museum may be disappointed, she is booked for promotional appearances in London at the same time as the museum opens. And she also says that she has left the days of live performances behind her, so there will be no performing at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö either, but she will watch it, she adds. She says she saw the Swedish contest at the weekend, and thought that the right song won.
"I thought it was fantastic", she told Lotta Bromé, "I'm so impressed by these young artists today who can deal with all the pressure, and that they can dance so well as well. I thought the winning song was fantastic, a really talented guy. I thought there were a lot of good songs there. It's a fantastic competition."
And the obligatory question. Will ABBA ever reform?
"I don't think it's going to happen. It doesn't feel like any of us are particularly tempted to do it, because we all have our own lives now and it was such a long time ago. We have to deal with that question all the time, but we'll take it easy and see what the future holds. You never know what might happen. But I think there is a only a very very small chance that we'll do anything together again."
Reporter: Lotta Bromé, P4 Extra.
Transcription: Kris Boswell, Radio Sweden
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traducción de google
MARTES, 12 DE MARZO
Exclusivo en P4 Extra: Primera entrevista de radio con Agnetha Fältskog
lunes, 11 de marzo de 2013
Agnetha Fältskog - When You Really Loved Someone
Un día volvió...!!!!
http://youtu.be/w95WdpE6QAI
http://www.agnetha.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/agnethaofficial
http://www.twitter.com/agnethaofficial
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It takes only a few seconds’ exposure to Agnetha Faltskog’s wonderful new album, A, to experience a familiar feeling. When Agnetha opens her mouth and sings the first lines of The One Who Loves You Now, our sense of recognition is immediate. A voice that soundtracked millions of lives, it has not been heard on record since the release, nine years ago, of her chart-topping album My Colouring Book, yet those opening notes demonstrate that nothing has changed.
H
er crystalline, precisely enunciated tones, that heartbreaking vulnerability, the sense that Agnetha is singing directly to each and every one of us. Plenty of singers have found that growing older can be unkind to their voices. Not Agnetha. Listen, back-to-back, to her early hits as a solo artist, to a song from the Abba years, to a track from her new album, and try playing spot – okay, hear – the difference. Exactly – it’s impossible, isn’t it?
Ask Agnetha if, when she first stepped into the vocal booth last year at sessions overseen by A’s producers, Jorgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl, she felt the same about her voice, and her answer is a surprising one.
”
I wasn’t scared about the project,” she says, talking in a suite in Stockholm’s Grand Hotel, “but I was scared about my voice. I hadn’t used it in such a long time, so I suppose I was thinking, ‘What if it’s not there anymore?’”
It was, of course. But that didn’t stop Agnetha from entertaining doubts about her singing – and doubts, too, about re-entering a world she had pretty much left behind following the release of her 1988 album, I Stand Alone. “I hadn’t closed any doors,” she continues, “but I didn’t think that I was going to record again. It is nearly 10 years since my last album, and almost 25 years ago since I recorded new original material. I thought at the time that maybe that would be my last one. And after that, I really didn’t think that much about it. My life contains so many other things, I have my children, my grandchildren, my two dogs, and a big place in the country. I have my own life.”
Home – on an island to the west of Stockholm – is where the heart is for Agnetha, a place she cherishes and spends as much of her time at as she can. You and I might find the desire for privacy, after years in the public eye, an understandable wish. But others have been determined to see it another way. Almost from the moment Abba split up in 1982, the world press has engaged in an endless game of conjecture – and no little cruelty – about the life of a woman catapulted to international stardom when Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo in 1974, and subjected to relentless media scrutiny over the course of the next eight years, and thereafter. “She’s a recluse,” they wrote. “She’s shut herself away.”
“I have been described as very mysterious,” Agnetha says, “but I’m not – I think I’m just very grounded. I took the decision to buy my house in the countryside in order to be away from all of this, and just be a person. I like going into town and having fun for a night, but then I love to get back, to wake up in the country. All artists are different, of course. Some of them love the glamour of it all, and that’s fun for me, too, for one night. But there’s too much noise nowadays, and it’s incredibly silent where I live. When people come and stay they go, ‘Wow, it’s quiet here – too quiet!’. But I love it.”
Into this idyll, 18 months ago, stepped Jorgen and Peter, who first made contact with Agnetha through a third party. Agnetha doesn’t quite say it but you sense that the producer – Jörgen famed for his work with other chart-topping artists such as Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson and Westlife – displayed a fair amount of doggedness in persuading her to return to the recording studio. Agnetha had made a conscious decision to step away from the limelight. Why return? “The project came about through a good friend of mine,” she explains. “She called me up and told me that Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl wanted to play me some music. They came to my house and played me three songs and I thought, ‘Oh my God, I have to do this’. It felt like a challenge.” Did she consult her family and friends? “I did say to my daughter, ‘Do you think I should do this?’, and she said, ‘Well, you have to think about this a lot before agreeing. You know it could all start again.’ The really nice part of it was the recording sessions, but you have to remember that other things happen as a result of that.” Those “other things” brought Agnetha fame and fortune, but there can be a price to pay. Abba’s records still sell in their millions every year, and the Mamma Mia! phenomenon rolls on. “You never get away from it,” Agnetha says. “And it starts up, over and over again. There’s a new generation, and then another, there’s a musical, a movie – and it goes on forever. It never stops. But I’m very, very proud of what we achieved. We took it incredibly seriously, throughout that period, and the quality of what we made endures.”
The recording sessions that Agnetha so enjoyed last year yielded 10 remarkable songs, including a duet – I Should’ve Followed You Home – with Gary Barlow, and the beautiful, confessional I Keep Them On the Floor Beside My Bed, which Agnetha co-wrote , in the country. Her verdict on working with Gary – “I think our voices work so well together” – is spot-on: it as if they were born to sing together. And writing by herself rekindled old fires (it is worth remembering that, long before Abba, Agnetha’s own compositions had topped the Swedish charts). “Jorgen kept saying, ‘You have to write a song for this record’,” Agnetha recalls. “I hadn’t written any music for a long, long time. But I sat at the piano, and suddenly it was there.” Old habits die hard? “Exactly. A friend of mine said a lovely thing: ‘It’s in your spine. Even if you feel tired, when it’s time, it will be there’.”
Other highlights on A include the contemplative Bubble, a song that encapsulates Agnetha’s attitude to fame, the rollercoaster disco ride of Dance Your Pain Away, the sugar-rush pop of Back On Your Radio, the emotional first single When you really loved someone and the tender, piano-led Past Forever, whose central refrain – “What can’t be broken: the kind of love that lasts” – sums up Agnetha’s beliefs, and the things she holds dear. Celebrity is fickle, she says; only love endures. “You never get away from fame, but it’s not real life. In my private life, I very seldom think of myself as a very good singer, or as this world-famous artist – it’s not in my head. But I also know that, when it’s time to sing, I focus on it, and it’s there.”
We have Jorgen and Peter to thank for reminding us that “it” is most definitely there. Agnetha’s new album is compelling evidence that one of the greatest voices in pop is still capable of stopping you in your tracks, of causing your heart to miss a beat. For the woman who started writing songs at the age of five, who played the harpsichord in her local church, and sang in its choir, who first had a No 1 single when she was 18, and then went on to conquer the world with Abba, the journey continues – at her own pace, and on her own terms. Life offers you lessons, Agnetha says: the key is to heed them. She’s been away, but now she’s returned – with an album of songs that are somehow timeless, and sung in a voice whose beauty time has not dimmed. Welcome back – you’ve been missed.
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traduccion por Google
Hay que exponer sólo unos pocos segundos "al maravilloso nuevo álbum Agnetha Faltskog, Un, experimentar un sentimiento familiar. Cuando Agnetha abre la boca y canta las primeras líneas de la que te ama ahora, nuestro sentido del reconocimiento es inmediato. Una voz que millones de vidas soundtracked, no ha sido oído en el expediente desde el lanzamiento, hace nueve años, de su exitoso álbum My Colouring Book, sin embargo, esas primeras notas demuestran que nada ha cambiado.
H
cristalino embargo, precisamente enunciada tonos, que desgarradora vulnerabilidad, la sensación de que Agnetha está cantando directamente a todos y cada uno de nosotros. Hay muchos cantantes han encontrado que el envejecer puede ser cruel con sus voces. No Agnetha. Escucha, back-to-back, a sus primeros éxitos como solista, una canción de los años Abba, a una pista de su nuevo álbum, y tratar de jugar al contado - está bien, escucha - la diferencia. Exactamente - es imposible, ¿verdad?
Pregunte si Agnetha, cuando por primera vez entró en la cabina de grabación el año pasado en las sesiones supervisadas por una de los productores, Jorgen Elofsson y Nordahl Peter, ella sentía lo mismo por su voz, y su respuesta es un sorprendente.
"
Yo no estaba asustado por el proyecto ", dice, hablando en una suite en el Hotel de Estocolmo Grand," pero yo tenía miedo de mi voz. Yo no lo había usado en mucho tiempo, así que supongo que estaba pensando, '¿Y si no está ahí? "
Era, por supuesto. Pero eso no impidió que Agnetha de entretener dudas sobre su forma de cantar - y dudas, también, acerca de volver a entrar en un mundo que había dejado atrás más o menos después del lanzamiento de su álbum de 1988, I Stand Alone. "Yo no había cerrado las puertas", continúa, "pero no pensé que me iba a grabar de nuevo. Es casi 10 años desde mi último disco, y hace casi 25 años desde que grabaron material nuevo y original. Pensé en ese momento que tal vez ese sería el último. Y después de eso, yo realmente no creo que mucho de ello. Mi vida contiene tantas otras cosas, tengo mis hijos, mis nietos, mis dos perros y un lugar muy grande en el país. Yo tengo mi propia vida. "
Inicio - en una isla al oeste de Estocolmo - es donde está el corazón de Agnetha, un lugar que ella cuida y gasta mucho de su tiempo en lo que pueda. Usted y yo podríamos encontrar el deseo de privacidad, después de años en el ojo público, un deseo comprensible. Pero otros se han decidido a ver de otra manera. Casi desde el momento en que Abba se separó en 1982, la prensa mundial se ha involucrado en un juego interminable de conjeturas - y no la crueldad poco - sobre la vida de una mujer que catapultó a la fama internacional cuando ganó el Abba Festival de la Canción de Eurovisión con Waterloo en 1974, y sometido a escrutinio de los medios implacable a lo largo de los próximos ocho años, y después de eso. "Ella es un solitario", escribieron los autores. "Ella se encerró".
"He sido descrito como muy misterioso", Agnetha dice, "pero yo no soy - Creo que estoy muy conectado a tierra. Tomé la decisión de comprar mi casa en el campo con el fin de estar lejos de todo esto, y ser una persona. Me gusta ir a la ciudad y que se divierte por una noche, pero me encantaría volver, para despertar en el país. Todos los artistas son diferentes, por supuesto. Algunos de ellos les encanta el glamour de todo, y eso es divertido para mí, también, por una noche. Pero hay demasiado ruido en la actualidad, y es increíblemente silencioso donde vivo. Cuando la gente venga y se quede dicen, 'Wow, es tranquilo aquí - demasiado tranquilo! ". Pero me encanta. "
En medio de este idilio, hace 18 meses, dio un paso Jorgen y Pedro, el primero que se puso en contacto con Agnetha través de un tercero. Agnetha no acaba de decirlo, pero usted siente que el productor - Jörgen famoso por su trabajo con otros superando carta-artistas como Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson y Westlife - muestra una buena cantidad de tenacidad para persuadir a volver al estudio de grabación . Agnetha había tomado la decisión de alejarse de los reflectores. ¿Por qué volver? "El proyecto surgió a través de un buen amigo mío," ella explica. "Ella me llamó y me dijo que Jörgen Elofsson y Peter Nordahl quería jugar un poco de música. Vinieron a mi casa y me jugó tres canciones y pensé, 'Oh mi Dios, tengo que hacer esto'. Se sentía como un desafío. "¿Ella consultar a su familia y amigos? "Yo le dije a mi hija:" ¿Cree usted que debo hacer esto? ', Y ella dijo: "Bueno, usted tiene que pensar en esto mucho antes de aceptar. Usted sabe que todo pudiera empezar de nuevo. "La parte realmente agradable de él era las sesiones de grabación, pero hay que recordar que otras cosas suceden como resultado de ello." Esas "otras cosas" Agnetha trajo fama y fortuna, pero no puede un precio que pagar. Registros de Abba todavía venden por millones cada año, y el Mamma Mia! fenómeno rodando. "Nunca salir de ella", dice Agnetha. "Y se pone en marcha, una y otra vez. Hay una nueva generación, y luego otro, hay un musical, una película - y se va para siempre. Nunca se detiene. Pero estoy muy, muy orgulloso de lo que logramos. Nos lo tomamos muy en serio, a lo largo de ese período, y sufre la calidad de lo que hemos hecho. "
Las sesiones de grabación que Agnetha tanto disfrutaba el año pasado produjo 10 canciones notables, incluyendo un dueto - Debería haberte seguido a casa - con Gary Barlow, y el confesionario hermosa, mantenerlos en el suelo al lado de mi cama, que co-escribió Agnetha , en el país. Su veredicto sobre el trabajo con Gary - "Creo que nuestras voces funcionan tan bien juntos" - es en el clavo: es como si hubieran nacido para cantar juntos. Y escribir por sí misma reavivó los fuegos antiguos (vale la pena recordar que, mucho antes de Abba, composiciones propias Agnetha había encabezado las listas suecas). "Jorgen decía: 'Tienes que escribir una canción para este disco", "Agnetha recuerda. "Yo no había escrito ninguna música durante mucho tiempo, mucho tiempo. Pero me senté en el piano, y de repente estaba allí. "Los viejos hábitos tardan en morir? "Exactamente. Un amigo me dijo una cosa preciosa: "Está en su columna vertebral. Incluso si se siente cansado, cuando llegue el momento, será allí ".
Otros puntos destacados de A incluyen la Burbuja contemplativa, una canción que resume la actitud de Agnetha a la fama, el paseo discoteca rusa de Danza tu dolor, el pop azúcar oleada de Back On Your Radio, el primer sencillo emocional Cuando realmente amaba a alguien y la tierno, piano-conducido pasado para siempre, cuyo centro estribillo - "Lo que no se puede romper: la clase de amor que dura" - resume las creencias de Agnetha, y las cosas que ama. Celebrity es voluble, dice, el amor sólo perdura. "Uno nunca alejarse de la fama, pero no es la vida real. En mi vida privada, muy rara vez pienso en mí mismo como un cantante muy bueno, o como este artista de fama mundial - que no está en mi cabeza. Pero también sé que, cuando llega el momento de cantar, me concentro en ella, y que está ahí. "
Tenemos Jorgen y Peter dar las gracias por recordarnos que "eso" es lo más definitivamente allí. Nuevo álbum de Agnetha pruebas convincentes de que una de las grandes voces del pop sigue siendo capaz de que le para en sus pistas, de la causa de su corazón para perder el ritmo. Para la mujer que comenzó a escribir canciones a la edad de cinco años, que tocaba el clavicordio en su iglesia local, y cantó en su coro, que primero tenía un solo n º 1 cuando tenía 18 años, y luego pasó a conquistar el mundo con Abba , el viaje continúa - a su propio ritmo, y en sus propios términos. La vida le ofrece lecciones, Agnetha dice: la clave está en prestarles atención. Ella ha estado fuera, pero ahora ha vuelto - con un álbum de canciones que son de algún modo eterno, y cantado con una voz cuya belleza momento no se ha atenuado. Bienvenidos de nuevo - que ha pasado por alto.
sábado, 9 de marzo de 2013
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