Lyngstad was born out of wedlock in Ballangen, near Narvik, Norway, as a result of a liaison between 18 year old Synni Lyngstad, and a married German sergeant, Alfred Haase, at the very end of the Second World War German occupation of Norway. Norway was liberated in May 1945. Anni-Frid was born 6 months later, November 15th 1945.
In the spring of 1947, Anni-Frid, her mother Synni, and her grandmother Arntine Lyngstad left her birthplace because of fear of reprisals from people who were angry and vengeful towards those who had dealings with the Germans during the occupation. This could result not just in insult, but also in forced separation of infants from their parents and relatives.
Anni-Frid was thus taken at a young age by her grandmother across the Swedish border and eventually south to Torshälla, near Eskilstuna. Her mother stayed behind in Norway and worked for a period in the south, but then became ill and returned to Sweden, where she died from kidney disease soon afterwards, aged 21. Although it is said that Anni-Frid’s father, Alfred, had promised to return to Norway after the war, he never did (claiming to be unaware of Synni's pregnancy), and thus Anni-Frid was raised by her grandmother alone. However, a near contact with her family in Norway continued, and Anni-Frid recalls with warmth summer holidays spent with them at her birthplace.
Lyngstad believed that her father had died when his ship to Germany was sunk during the war. However, after the German teen magazine Bravo published her biography and a background story in 1977, she discovered that her father was alive and they were reunited that year.
In his book, “Bright Lights, Dark Shadows”, Carl Magnus Palm explained the apprehension Anni-Frid felt about meeting her father for the first time. For reasons unknown, Anni-Frid and Alfred no longer maintain contact. A couple of years ago, however, Haase appeared in a German tabloid magazine, pleading with Anni-Frid to resume contact.
Career
Lyngstad got her first job as a dance band and schlager singer in 1958, aged 13. Later she teamed up with a 15-piece 'big band' who performed a jazz reportoire covering Glenn Miller Duke Ellington and Count Basie; her vocal idols being Ella Fitgerald and Peggy Lee. In 1963 she formed her own band, the Anni-Frid Four, marrying the bass player Ragnar Fredriksson in 1963, aged 18. The marriage produced two children, but the couple divorced by 1969.
In 1967, Lyngstad won a national TV talent contest, and in the next few years released several marginally successful singles for EMI. She spent the summers touring and in January 1969, Lyngstad took part in a cabaret that toured the country. It was in February at a venue in southern Sweden that she met future spouse Benny Andersson. 1st of March the same year, Anni-Frid participated in Melodifestivalen the swedish heats for Eurovision Song Contest with the song Härlig Är Vår Jord -and finished 4th. The song became her first single in the charts. Her first album Frida, produced by her then fiancé Benny Andersson, was released in 1971. The album received unanimously generous praise from the critics, who especially noted the precision and versatility of Lyngstad as a vocalist. Anni-Frid played in cabarets, toured and performed regularly on tv and radio and her relationship with Benny Andersson and the friendship with Björn Ulvaeus and Agnetha Fältskog eventually led into the formation of ABBA.
ABBAs career took up most of Anni-Frids time between 1972 and 1983.
Her next solo album in Swedish, "Frida ensam", that included the original Swedish version of the future ABBA mega-hit "Fernando", was released in 1975 when she was already involved in ABBA. The album became an enormous commercial and critical success in Scandinavia, topping the Swedish album charts for six weeks and remaining in the charts for forty weeks.
In 1982, during ABBA's last year as a working band, Lyngstad released her first solo record in English, a Phil Collins-produced album, Something's Going On, that topped the charts in Sweden, and reached the Top 20 in the UK and Top 50 in the US.
In 1983, Lyngstad assisted with 'Abbacadabra - the Musical', and featured with Daniel Balavoine on one track 'Belle, Belle' of the resulting album, 'Abbacadabra - Conte Musical'. This track was a cover of 'Arrival', an instrumental track from the ABBA album of the same name.
In the years that followed, she was seriously engaged in environmental work but also found time to make a couple of guest appearances on recordings by Swedish artists, former colleague and husband Benny Andersson's 1987 album in particular.
Personal life
In May 1969, Lyngstad met Benny Andersson, and the couple were quickly engaged, although they did not marry until October 6, 1978, during the height of ABBA's suceess. However, after only three years of marriage, they divorced in 1981.
In 1982, Lyngstad left Sweden and moved to London, before relocating to Switzerland in 1986 where she has been living ever since.
On August 26, 1992, Lyngstad married her longtime boyfriend, Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen (May 24, 1950–October 29, 1999). Upon marriage, Lyngstad acquired the title of Her Serene Highness Princess Anni-Frid Reuss of Plauen. Prince Heinrich died of lymphoma in 1999, while a year eariler, Lyngstad's daughter Ann Lise-Lotte Casper (February 25, 1967–January 13, 1998) was fatally injured in a road accident in the United States. Through Lyngstad's marriage to Heinrich, who was a student at the same boarding school as the reigning King of Sweden, she became acquainted with the Swedish Royal family and eventually became close friends with Sweden's Queen Silvia. Today, Anni-Frid still engages in charity work - drug prevention in particular. In 2005 she stated in an interview that she had no interest in a music career, though 18 months later she would return to the recording studio.
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Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
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