Göran Bror Benny Andersson (born in Stockholm, Sweden on 16 December 1946) is a Swedish
musician, composer, a former member of the Swedish musical
group, ABBA (1972-1982), and co-composer of the musicals
Chess, Kristina från
Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!. Currently active with his own band
Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO!), and co-producing forthcoming film
Mamma Mia!.
Early years
Benny was born to 34-year-old constructional engineer Gösta Andersson and his 26-year-old wife Laila. His sister Eva-Lis
Andersson followed in 1948.
Andersson's musical background comes basically from his father and grandfather; they both enjoyed playing the accordion, and at six, Benny got his own. Father Gösta and grandfather Efraim taught him Swedish
folk music, traditional music, and the odd
schlager. Benny recalls the first records he bought, were by Italian schlager singer Caterina
Valente: "Du Bist Musik" and Elvis'
"Jailhouse Rock"; this smorgasbord of
different kinds of music was to influence and follow him through the years.
When Andersson was ten he got his own piano, and taught himself to play. He left school at the age of fifteen and began to
perform at youth clubs. This is when he met his first girlfriend Christina Grönvall, with whom he
had two children: Peter, born in 1963, and Helen, born in 1965.
In early 1964, Benny and Christina joined a group with the odd name "Elverkets Spelmanslag"
("The Electricity Board Folk Music Group"), who by no means was a folk music ensemble: the name was a punning reference to their
electric instruments. The repertoire was mainly instrumentals, and Benny recalls one of his standout numbers was
"Baby Elephant Walk". Andersson also wrote his first pieces of songwriting around
this time for this band.
In March 1964, 'Elverket' was up against another band in a talent contest: The Hep Stars,
and when Benny stepped in as their keyboardist in October that year, he knew this was what he wanted to do.
The Hep Stars years (1964-1969)
The Hep Stars got their breakthrough in March 1965 with their massive hit "Cadillac",
eventually becoming the most celebrated of the Swedish 1960s pop bands. Andersson consolidated his place as the bands'
keyboardist and musical driving force as well as a teen idol. The band performed mostly covers of international hits, but
Andersson soon started writing own material, and gave the band the classic hits "No Response",
"Sunny Girl", "Weddings", "Consolation", "It's Nice To Be Back", "She Will Love
You", and others.
Before ABBA (1969-1972)
Andersson met Björn Ulvaeus in 1966, and the two started writing songs together; their
first being "Isn't It Easy To Say", eventually recorded by The Hep Stars. He also had a fruitful
songwriting collaboration with Lasse Berghagen, with whom he wrote several songs and
submitted "Hej, Clown" for the 1969 Melodifestivalen-the Swedish Eurovision Song Festival
finals. The song finished #2, and during the contest he also met vocalist Anni-Frid
Lyngstad (who participated in the contest), and soon they became a couple. Around the same time his songwriting companion
Björn Ulvaeus met vocalist Agnetha Fältskog.
The personal relationships and Andersson's and Ulvaeus's songwriting collaboration has led quite naturally to the very close
co-operation which the four friends had during the following years. Benny and Björn scored their first hits as songwriters in the
springtime of 1969: "Ljuva Sextiotal" (a hit with Brita Borg) and
"Speleman" (a hit with The Hep Stars). As the two couples started
supporting each other during recording sessions, the sound of the girls' voices convinced the songwriters to model their 'group'
on the like of MOR acts Blue Mink,
Middle of the Road and The Sweet, and thus,
ABBA came to life.
The ABBA years (1972-1982)
The foursome had their breakthrough with winning the Eurovision Song Contest
for Sweden with Waterloo on April 6 1974, and during the following 8 years, Andersson together with Ulvaeus
wrote music to and produced 8 studio albums with ABBA. The group achieved great success globally and scored a chain of #1
hits.
After ABBA: "Chess" , "Kristina" and "Mamma Mia!"
After ABBA broke up in 1982/83, Andersson continued writing music with Björn Ulvaeus. Their
first project was the stage musical Chess, written with Tim Rice. The "Chess" concept album - with
vocals by Elaine Paige, Murray Head, Barbara Dickson and Swedes Tommy Körberg and Björn Skifs - was released in October 1984, and sold two million copies worldwide. The Paige/Dickson duet
"I Know Him So Well" became a major #1 hit, and Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok" gave Andersson/Ulvaeus another US #3. 'Chess' was staged in London's West End Prince Edward Theatre in May 1986, and ran for almost three years. A Broadway staging in April 1988 received disastrous reviews, and closed after two months.
In 1985, Andersson produced and released an album with brother and sister Anders and
Karin Glenmark (old friends of ABBA -and they both added vocals to the Chess recordings),
featuring new songs by Andersson/Ulvaeus.The duo named themselves Gemini, and a second album with
more music by Björn and Benny was released in April 1987, containing the big hit "Mio My
Mio"-also to be found on the soundtrack to the film Mio in the Land of
Faraway, which Andersson co-produced the music to.
In 1987, Andersson released his first solo album "Klinga Mina Klockor" ('Chime, My Bells')-all
music written by himself, and performed by himself on accordion and backed by the Orsa
Spelmän-'Orsa Folk Musicians'-on fiddles. A second solo album followed: November 1989.
In 1990, Andersson scored a Swedish #1 hit with Lassie, sung by female cabaret group
Ainbusk Singers, for whom he also wrote the Svensktoppen
hits Älska Mig and Drömmarnas Golv. Benny decided to produce an
album with Josefin Nilsson from this quartet, resulting in the 1993 English-language album
Shapes, with 10 all-new Andersson/Ulvaeus songs, even with a limited international release.
From the late 1980s, Andersson had worked on an idea for an epic Swedish language musical based on his affection for
traditional folk music, and October 1995 "Kristina från Duvemåla" premiered in
Sweden. The musical was based on the Immigrant novels by Swedish writer Vilhelm Moberg
(filmed by Jan Troell in 1971: The Emigrants,
with main actors Liv Ullmann and Max von Sydow). The
musical ran successfully for almost five years, closing in June 1999, and currently in workshops for an English production on
Broadway: "Kristina".
Andersson's next project was Mamma Mia!, a musical built around 24 of ABBA's songs
and produced by Ulvaeus, a worldwide box-office blockbuster with versions in several languages currently being played in many
countries, including the UK (West End premiere in April 1999, USA (Broadway premiere in 2001) and Sweden
(Swedish language premiere in 2005).
A film version of Mamma Mia! is scheduled to premiere on July
18 2008. In April and May 2007, Andersson is working on the film soundtrack, re-recording
the old ABBA songs with musicians from the old ABBA recording sessions.
Benny Andersson currently performs folk music on the accordion together with the Orsa Spelmän fiddlers, and since the late
nineties mostly with his own band of 16 musicians, BAO!; "Benny
Anderssons Orkester" (Benny Andersson's orchestra/band) with vocalists Helen
Sjöholm from Kristina from Duvemåla and Tommy Körberg (of Chess fame) with
lyrics sometimes written by his song-writing partner and best-friend of 40 years, Björn Ulvaeus.
BAO! recently avhieved a new 'record' in Sweden on the very popular radio charts Svensktoppen, by staying there for 169 weeks by October 6th 2007 with the song Du
Är Min Man ('You Are My Man'), sung by Helen Sjöholm.[citation needed]
Film music
Benny Andersson has written music to several films for screen and television; the first attempt in the early 1970s for the
obscure Swedish The Seduction Of Inga: the film flopped, but the 'Björn & Benny'
single "She's My Kind Of Girl" surprised the composers by being released in Japan and giving the duo their first #1 there (the song was in Japan re-named "The Little Girl Of The Cold
Wind").
In 1987, Andersson wrote some music and co-produced the soundtrack (with Anders Eljas for the
film Mio in the Land of Faraway, based on Swedish author Astrid Lindgrens Mio, my Mio. The title song "Mio My Mio" became a huge hit in Sweden for Gemini.
In 2000, Benny wrote the music for fellow Swede (no relation) Roy Andersson's film
Songs from the Second Floor; (the music later re-recorded with BAO!
with vocals by Helen Sjöholm and with new lyrics).
Currently, Andersson is working on the soundtrack to the film version of Mamma
Mia!.
Awards
Together with Ulvaeus, Andersson was nominated for a Drama Desk Award in a category
'Outstanding Music' (for the musical Chess) and for a Tony
Award in a category Best Orchestrations (for musical Mamma Mia!). Original Cast
recordings of both musicals were nominated for a Grammy Award.[citation needed]
During his post-ABBA career Andersson won four Swedish Grammis Awards, and together with
Ulvaeus received the Special International Ivor Novello Award from The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters, the Music Export Prize from the Swedish Government, and the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Swedish Music Publishers Association (SMFF). In 2002,
Andersson was given an honorary professorship by the Swedish Government for his "ability to create high-class music reaching
people around the world".
Private life
Andersson was engaged to Lyngstad for about 9 years. They married in 1978 but got divorced in 1981. He then married Swedish TV
presenter Mona Nörklit. Their son, Ludvig, was born in January 1982. Ludvig has since followed in his father's footsteps in
forming his own band, Ella Rouge.
Discography
ABBA
- Original albums
- Compilation and foreign language albums
Benny Anderssons Orkester
Björn & Benny
Gemini
Hep Stars
Musicals
Orsa Spelmän
- Orsa Spelmän (1988)
- Fiolen Min (1990)
- Ödra (1998)
Solo albums
See also
- List of Swedes in music
- Mamma Mia!
External links
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