- Agnetha Fältskog and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus discuss balancing parenthood and superstardom in ABBA: THROUGH TIME — the a new CW documentary premiering Saturday, May 11.
- After the couple competed and won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, they said their daughter Linda didn’t recognize them when they got home.
- The couple, who began dating in 1969 and married in 1971, had two children during their time together. They later divorced in 1980.
The hectic lifestyle that comes with working in one of the world’s biggest bands sometimes meant that Agnetha Fältski and Björn Ulvaeus had to be away from their daughter Linda in the 1970s. And, at one point, it led to what Ulvaeus called a “terrible” experience where the child didn’t recognize his mom and dad.
IN ABBA: THROUGH TIME — the new CW documentary that premiered Saturday, May 11, and explores the story of ABBA — viewers get an inside look at how Fältskog and Ulvaeus balanced parenthood and superstardom.
The couple, who started dating in 1969 and married in 1971, had two children during their time together: daughter Linda Elin, now 51, and son Peter Christian, now 47. (They divorced in 1980.)
As Fältskog explained, her earliest years of parenthood marked “a difficult time for me.”
“We had our daughter in ’73, so she was only one year old when we won in Brighton,” Fältskog, now 74, said in the documentary, referring to ABBA’s iconic 1974 Eurovision win for “Waterloo “.
“So it all happened at the same time. But that’s often the case, I think. You start your career at the same time you want to be a mother,” she continued.
New ABBA document recalls Agnetha Fältski being ‘talked about like a body part’ at the height of the band’s fame
Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältski in Sweden in July 1971.
Leif Skoogfors/Getty
While ABBA won Eurovision that year with their hit song, Ulvaeus, now 79, added that back then new parents had to be away from their baby for what he believed to be “fourteen days [or] three weeks” for the competition.
“When we came back, our daughter didn’t recognize us. It was a difficult experience,” he said, and Fältskog added: “It was horrible. She was so small.”
When asked by a reporter in the documentary if she sees a conflict between motherhood and pop stardom, Fältskog said she does. “I think so, really,” she explained. “It’s hard work and you always make them aware. She wants me and ABBA wants me.”
“It’s very difficult to do all that,” Fältskog added.
Parenthood also inspired the couple to travel separately when possible, as the documentary also touched on one moment when ABBA traveled by plane to Warsaw, Poland – with Fältska already in the city after flying alone.
“When we fly, since we have a daughter who is 3 1/2 years old, we try to fly separately whenever we can,” Ulvaeus said in an archival recording of the band from the ’70s.
“Now I’ve flown, a lot around the world,” Fältskog added in another interview. “And I never liked it, and now I’m very, very afraid of it.”
Ingmarie Halling, who worked with ABBA as a costume and make-up artist, elaborated on how Fältskog’s fear of flying was related to parenthood. “I’m sure other parents would reason the same way,” she said. “Both parents fly together. What if, what if?”
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Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Faltski at the opening of the Abba Voyage digital concert in London on May 26, 2022.
Ian West/PA Images via Getty
How Agnetha Fältskog and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus turned their ‘difficult’ divorce into a chart-topping hit
The new documentary also explores the genesis of the band’s hit “The Winner Takes It All,” which followed Fältski and Ulvaeus’ divorce after seven years of marriage.
“Going through a divorce is difficult, because everyone would know who did it. That of course occupied my mind. But in our case there was no single winner,” he said.
It stands out from the songs Super Trouper the 1980 album, “The Winner Takes It All” also came before members Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson also parted ways. “It wasn’t just music. It was also love. It was a life we lived together. Somehow, all four of us,” said Lyngstad (78), while Andersson (77) added: “It was powerful. One of of our best I mean.”
Fältskog also noted that the song “suddenly became a bit heavy”, calling it “a bit tragic”.
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ABBA: AGAINST OWN explores even more about the band and its iconic story, which ended momentarily when they broke up in 1982, in a documentary directed by James Rogan.
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Source: HIS Education