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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
Faltskog - Emotional
Generator -
Biography