When I met Agnetha
When I met Agnetha
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It was the second time the doorbell rang that Sunday Night producer Erin Reimer went to answer it. We were setting up for an interview in the lounge room of Swedish songwriter Jorgen Elofsson, and clearly he hadn’t heard the doorbell.
Standing on Jorgen’s doorstep was a friendly and unassuming woman in a blue tracksuit top, with her hair in a ponytail and a big smile on her face. She was on her own. Sound recordist Sam Beattie assumed she was the make up artist.
Agnetha Faltskog had chosen Jorgen Elofsson’s house as the location for our interview. It was, she said a place she knew well and was comfortable in. Jorgen Elofsson is a hitmaker, responsible for chart toppers like Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger, and it was in his home studio Agnetha recorded her new album “A”.
Agnetha hates interviews, in fact for most of the last thirty years, she’s shied away from any kind of public appearance. She tells me later that she feels there’s too much pressure when she’s in the spotlight, people expect so much of her and she’s worried she’ll say or do the wrong thing. In her days with Abba she never felt she was able to give enough. Millions upon millions of fans expressed so much love that it was impossible to feel she was giving enough back. She couldn’t shake every hand, or sign every album, she couldn’t have a conversation with everyone who wanted one. She was overwhelmed.
For this fan, she was exponentially more than I could have ever dreamed. Like a large number of Australians in the seventies, I LOVED Abba. I fell in love when I was three and tortured my poor parents by demanding they play Abba albums again and again. When Abba toured Australia in 1977 I heard on the radio that they’d be marching down the streets of Sydney. I lived in Sydney, and I’d seen people marching in the army, so I got it into my little head that the four members of Abba would come marching army-style down my suburban back street. Apparently I waited for hours.
Agnetha is taller than I expected, she’s five seven to start and on this day even taller in super high ankle boots. She is slim and toned and if middle age spread had ever hit, by sixty three she has well and truly shaken it off.
“I know you hate interviews.” I say.
“We’ll go easy. Let me know if you feel uncomfortable. We can stop whenever you want and if you don’t want to answer any of the questions, that’s no problem.”
“I believe you.” She says, and smiles nervously.
It’s at this point I should admit I’m not sure I’ve ever been so nervous or excited in my life. My heart felt like it had quadrupled in size and was about to beat out of my chest. Not only was this the star I’d idolised as a child, as she rarely grants interviews, I assumed she would be a reluctant interviewee.
“I’m a bit nervous too.” I tell her.
“That’s okay.” She looks up at me.
“We will get through it together.” Her smile is warm and genuine.
As we sat in our chairs waiting for the cameramen to adjust lights and equipment
Agnetha gave me an insight into one of the reasons she has been so reluctant to do interviews.
“I forgot how to speak English,” she told me.
“I never speak it so I don’t have the words anymore. My family, my friends, we all speak Swedish. I can go ten or fifteen years without uttering a word of English.”
Far from reluctant, Agnetha couldn’t have been more enthusiastic. At times shy and tentative, she tried her hardest to give her best answer to every question. During the course of the day we canvassed most periods of her life. She had a number one hit in Sweden at the age of 17. She tells me about meeting Bjorn, how deeply they were in love and how difficult it was to live, work, tour and record with her partner. They often fought. Tension was exacerbated by the fact Agnetha wanted more than anything to stay at home and look after her children.
The foursome, she said, was like a four-way marriage. Benny and Bjorn knew each other first and when they began dating Frida and Agnetha they all started hanging out as friends. Benny and Bjorn were already collaborating so it was natural their musical girlfriends would join in.
She was happy to talk about the rivalry between herself and Frida. She told me how they used to compete for the attention of the audience. She talked openly about the reasons Abba broke up. I asked her the mandatory question about whether she’d consider reuniting with her Abba bandmates and was surprised by the response. It’s not as it has been painted all these years. I learned that she had a near death experience in a plane on a US tour and that her fear of flying will mean she will not be doing an Australian tour to promote this album.
Agnetha and Jorgen took us to the studio at the back of the house to play some tracks, from “A”. The title was Jorgen’s idea. I’m not sure what I thought it would sound like but it sounds better than whatever that was. Jorgen Elofsson wrote all but one track, which was written by Agnetha herself. Jorgen says that this is the closest thing to another Abba album fans will ever get. The music has a seventies feel to it and I fell instantly in love with a song called “Dance Your Pain Away”. Agnetha was worried she’d be too old to sing a dance track but Madonna can move over, this song is going to be a hit in every gay club across the world. It is reminiscent of Gimme Gimme Gimme and SOS and just begs you to start dancing.
Listening to the album, Agnetha was so full of pride. She really wasn’t sure if she’d have a voice left when Jorgen and producer Peter Nordahl approached her to work with them. She sure has.
Agnetha likes to sing songs that show off her range. Earlier she had told me that The Winner Takes It All is her favourite song. It’s a song that was inspired by her own marital breakup, although both she and Bjorn have gone to great lengths to explain it’s not literal, there was no clear cut winner or loser in their relationship. The pain expressed in the song came from the pain Bjorn felt when he was writing it.
One she doesn’t really enjoy singing is SOS, because it’s so easy to sing. I started to sing it and SHE JOINED IN! I kept singing, and so did she. I nearly fell off my chair. By the end of the day we’d done backyard duets of SOS, Knowing Me, Knowing You, Take A Chance on Me and So Long.
I’m not ashamed to say this was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Agnetha is charming, funny, relaxed, witty and most of all humble. There’s not an ounce of ego in her.
At the end of a long day of filming, we walked inside together for a closing shot. Once inside I said, “That’s it, we’re finished. Now we can relax. Thank God!” - as much for her benefit as mine. She stepped close and with the face of a conspiratorial schoolgirl, pointed to the microphones we had hidden under our clothes and said “Shhhhh. We have to be very, very quiet.” She giggled, knowing our conversation could still be being recorded if the cameras were shooting outside. We stayed like that for about thirty seconds, grinning and giggling.
I’ve often said you should never meet your idols, they’ll only disappoint you, but Agnetha Faltskog is everything you could hope for and much, much more.
Yes, I know how lucky I am.
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