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Agnetha Åse Fältskog (b. April 1950) is a Swedish pop singer. She was a
member of the world best-selling Swedish pop group ABBA.
In 1983, Fältskog received a Swedish music award Rockbjörnen for Best Female
Artist.
Her next album Eyes of a Woman, produced by Eric Stewart of 10cc fame, was released
In 1985. "She is quite content to grace the works of various other lesser mortals
with her immaculate, sugar-sweet voice", wrote Barry McIlheney in Melody Maker. The
album sold well in parts of Europe but failed to match the success of Fältskog's
previous effort.
In the summer of 1987, she travelled to Malibu, California, USA, where she recorded
the album I Stand Alone produced by Peter Cetera and Bruce Gaitsch and released in
November of 1987. It was a minor hit in Europe, except for Sweden where it spent
eight weeks on the top of the charts and became one of the most popular records of
the year. The single from the album "I Wasn't The One (Who Said Good-Bye)", on
which Fältskog duetted with Peter Cetera, was released primarily in North America
and became her second single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and also became a
Top 20 Billboard Adult Contemporary hit. It has sold more than 500,000 copies
worldwide.
After the release of I Stand Alone - in mid 1988 -, Fältskog took a break from her
musical career and completely withdrew from the public life. In 1996, her
autobiography "As I Am" was published in Swedish (1997 in English) followed by
several compilation CDs of her Swedish and English recordings.
In April 2004, after years of silence, Fältskog's new single, "If I Thought You'd
Ever Change Your Mind" (a cover of the song originally recorded by Cilla Black),
was released. It reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and became a sizeable hit
in the rest of Europe. "It is exciting to hear her voice, utterly undimmed,
delivering a tellingly-titled song", commented London's Music Week. A few weeks
later, the album My Colouring Book, a collection of Fältskog's covers of the
oldies, saw the light of the day. It topped the charts in Sweden, peaking at No.6
in Germany and No.12 in the UK, and reached mostly Top 10 and Top 20 chart
positions in the rest of Europe (outside Scandinavia also in the Netherland, Poland
and Switzerland) and No.50 in Australia. "I love this record", enthused Pete Clark
in London's Evening Standard, while Daily Mail pointed out that "it reveals a
genuine affection for the era's forgotten pop tunes". The Times reviewer noted that
"her voice is still an impressive pop instrument", and The Observer shared the same
sentiment suggesting that "time hasn't diminished her perfect voice". Reviewing the
release in The Guardian, Caroline Sullivan wrote: "Agnetha Faltskog has a
vulnerability that gets under the skin of a song. She may be cheating a trifle by
including no original material on this collection of 1960s covers, but if anyone
can do justice to the likes of Sealed with a Kiss, it's her. The soaring
sentimentality evokes Cilla Black and Sandie Shaw in their mini-skirted pomp, and I
don't say that lightly". The release attracted major media attention across Europe,
but Fältskog staunchly refused to be involved in any extensive promotion of the
album, including personal appearances, and limited her public exposure to the
several short newspaper interviews, a few videos and a Swedish-language low-key TV
special. Yet, the album managed to sell more than 500,000 copies worldwide,
including 50,000 in the UK.
In 2004, she was nominated for Best Nordic Artist at the Nordic Music Awards (but
did not win), and during Christmas of that year, for the first time in almost 20
years she gave an extensive interview which was filmed by the Swedish TV. In
December 2004, Sony Music released a lavishly produced 6 CD boxed set comprising
Fältskog's Swedish solo career before ABBA (5 original solo albums - 1968, 1969,
1970, 1971, 1975 - and additional compilation disc with bonuses).
In January 2007, Agnetha appeared at the final performance of Mamma Mia! in
Stockholm (as she had at its opening in 2005). Together with ex-husband and former
colleague Bjōrn, she appeared on stage at the after show party held at Stockholm's
Grand Hotel. She also sang a duet, "True Love", with Tommy Kōrberg of Chess
fame.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Agnetha
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