Dancing Queen Returns

For men of a certain age, and women of a certain era, there will always be a bond of affection for one band  ..... ABBA, who defined the 1970's as surely as anything else, and Agnetha Fältskog (The 'Blonde' one) was one of the pin up girls of a generation of young males. Of course they broke up in 1982, and all had some individual successes (particularly the two males Benny and Bjorn), but like 'The Beatles' before them, they were so much more than the sum of their parts when they were together.

ABBA - Agnetha is 'The Blonde One'

So it was with some interest that I read that Ms Fältskog ('Agnetha' to most of us), had made her first recordings in over nine years, and was planning to come to the UK on tour ..... not that I am planning to go and see her or anything (sometimes maintaining the illusion is better than spoiling it with the harsh light of reality).

But the news article prompted me to look up her recording history post ABBA, and in fact she has only released four official recordings in that period .... none have been big in the UK, although most have done well in Sweden and Denmark, with mixed sales elsewhere, and across Europe .....

It was widely reported in the more sensational press that she was some sort of secluded hermit, who had never faced up to the legacy ABBA left ..... and when she entered into a perhaps ill advised relationship with a Dutch 'uber fan', who was almost 20 yrs her junior, the press reported that he turned into a stalker when that relationship ended ..... he was deported from Sweden, but apparently returned when the banning order expired ... this kind of suggested that she was still having personal life issues but apparently there was nothing further from the truth.

She has admitted that she is a 'home loving girl', who had never wanted to be away from her children, but hardly a recluse. Money, Money, Money, has allowed her to live as she wished on the secluded island of Ekero, west of Stockholm, where she chose to make her home.

Agnetha Fältskog

Still, as a man who fits into that certain age criteria, I can't help recalling her as one of the Dancing Queen's of the 70's.