Agnetha Faltskog 'Loose Women' Interview - UK 16 May 2013

Agnetha Faltskog Becomes Loose Woman !

Abba's Agnetha Faltskog becomes Loose Woman for the day

and admits "there's no way the band will reunite"

The Swedish legend was quizzed by Carol Vorderman about duetting with Gary Barlow on her new album and why there'll never be an Abba reunion

ABBA singer Agnetha Faltskog has become a Loose Woman for the day as she was quizzed by Carol Vorderman.
The pair met up in London in front of the ITV cameras to discuss Agnetha's new solo album, her first music for over three decades.
But first she spoke about the UK's Eurovision hopeful Bonnie Tyler, and 63-year-old Agnetha said: “Does she need any advice? I don't think so. I think she has a great voice. I wish her all the best. Really.”
The former Eurovision winner went on to say that Sweden have a “very strong song” themselves for the event in Malmo at the weekend and that she would be watching.
Referring to her own music, Agnetha said: “It came out like this, I have a girlfriend who was calling me and saying that Jorgen Elofsson who was the producer and also composer of the record and Peter Nordahl the arranger would like to meet me and play three new songs for me. I was very curious and exciting and I just felt I had to do this.”

Agnetha Faltskog

 She took vocal lessons to get back to her best and the new album A even includes a duet with Gary Barlow, although it was not recorded together.

“When he did his recording in Stockholm, I was on vacation so I didn't meet him,” Agnetha said of the Take That star.
“I just heard his voice in the ear phone and I thought I have to match this wonderful voice in a duet, how can I do that? I just imagine him standing beside and we sang to each other.
“I recently met him here for the first time.”
Agnetha, who was married to bandmate Bjorn Ulvaeus as they had huge success in the Seventies, talked about her Abba roots for the interview which goes out on Loose Women today(THURS).
She is delighted people are still fans of the music and said: “Oh that means a lot, it goes from generation to generation and you can wonder why, it's because it's such a good energy in it, I think the girls and the boys want to dress like us and they want to sing along.”
But she admitting continuing in the band after her divorce from Bjorn was tough and put on a strain on everything.
Asked if she was still in touch with the other members, she added: “Yes I met Anni-Frid last summer in vacation, we sat down and had a long talk and got very nostalgic, we have a lot of good memories together and I meet Benny now and again in his studio and I meet Bjorn often because of the children and grandchildren.
"We see each other now and again.”
Sadly Agnetha finished the chat by confirming Abba would not be reforming.
As Carol, 52, cried “noooooo”, Agnetha said: “There's no way I think. We have our own separate lives now and it's so long way back, we are getting older and I think in a way we should let Abba rest.”

You can see the full chat on Loose Women today (Thurs) on ITV.

Agnetha recently revealed that she did not think Abba "sounded, or looked very good" even when they were selling millions of records in the 1970s.

In her first interview for almost 30 years, Agnetha said the band's shows were nothing compared to today's acts as they were not taught how to perform on stage.

And the reclusive star also admitted she never enjoyed appearing live.

She said: "I'm more of a recording person, I prefer to be private.

"I didn't mind doing videos, I can take that, but walking on stage in concert and singing live, that is a bit difficult. And I don't think we sounded or looked very good."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/abbas-agnetha-faltskog-becomes-loose-1891442

 

 

Agnetha Faltskog Interview - BBC1 'Breakfast'

'Breakfast' on BBC 1
10 May 2013

Agnetha Australian TV Interview - Part 2 !!

Channel 7 - Sunday 12 May 2013 - 6.30pm

On Sunday Night, there will be even more footage of former ABBA star Agnetha Faltskog, after an “overwhelming response” to Rahni Sadler’s story.
With “behind the scenes” footage of the interview it sounds like they’ve gone back to the edit suite to give us more.
By the looks of this shot, even a normally complacent crew were swept up in the moment. Who can blame them?

http://www.tvtonight.com.au/2013/05/sunday-night-may-12.html

Watch out for more info here:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/

Agnetha In UK Mail - Sunday 5th May 2013

Be on the lookout for this on Sunday !

Image courtesy of Chris Williams

 

 

Agnetha Interview ZDF 02 May 2013

Interview is in English with voice over in German.

Click this link to watch it on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw7JwUYcylc&list=UUkPmQJPTQHlLCZ5Swna6XdQ&index=1

Or if able, check the original video here:

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/1893154/Ex-Abba-Star-Singen-verlernt-man-nicht#/beitrag/video/1893154/Ex-Abba-Star-Singen-verlernt-man-nicht

 

Agnetha - Australian Women's Weekly Interview - Complete Article

 

 

 

Agnetha Faltskog TV Interview Preview - Australia 5 May 2013

Agnetha interview will air on Australian TV on 'Sunday Night' Channel 7 at 6.30pm Sunday night.
Their website now has the video preview:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/video/watch/9ce085e9-bf76-3e71-a3c4-31dc56712b0b/agnethas-return/

Agnetha Faltskog TV Interview - Australia 5 May 2013

Agnetha has been interviewed for the Australian TV Program 'Sunday Night' which will air on channel 7 on Sunday 5th May at 6.30pm.


Here is the tv commercial on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4OXqNWbUD8

And keep an eye on the program's site for updates:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/

Agnetha Interview in 'Attitude' UK April 2013

Interview from UK's 'Attitude' Magazine - April 2013

Agnetha Faltskog Radio Interview With Lotta Brome

Here is the English translation - in summary - of the interview Anna did recently with Lotta Brome in Sweden.

 

Exclusive Interview with Swedish Radio

Abba Agnetha: "I've taken singing lessons"

 

 

This is the first newly written material by Agnetha in 25 years, and will also include a song she wrote herself.
The rest of the song has been written by Jörgen Elofsson, the man behind huge hits for Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys for example.
In an exclusive interview with Swedish Radio's P4 Extra programme, Agnetha explained how the project came about.
"It was a process, you could say. Firstly I was contacted by Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl and they wanted to play some songs for me. And I thought that that sounded really nice, I've never closed any doors and I wanted to listen to the songs, I thought it'd be fun. And then I thought that, wow, the songs are really good, how will I be able to say no to this?
So then I said ok, they sound fantastic, but how will I be able to interpret these songs in a good way? What if my voice sounds old? 'No, we don't think so at all', they said. But I wasn't at all sure. When you haven't sung for a while your voice gets almost rusty, you feel that you haven't kept that muscle working. "
Agnetha told presenter Lotta Bromé she even took singing lessons to freshen up her vocal chords.

"Two, actually. Then I didn't need any more. It might sound a bit cocky, but once I learnt how to breathe properly again I felt, no, this might work. And then it started sounding better and better."
One of the tracks on the album was written by Agnetha herself. She wrote a lot of songs before the Abba years, but since then had left songwriting behind her. But she decided to sit back at the piano just this once.
"Yes, exactly", she told Lotta Bromé. "I felt that this was an album with Jörgen's songs, at least nine of them, and he writes together with others too, but I thought it'd be fun to have one song on there. And then I started to write songs as well and that started to work well, I managed to squeeze a song out, and it will actually be the last song on the album. It's called "I keep them on the floor beside my bed". A long title."
The media image of Agnetha is of some kind of recluse, almost the Greta Garbo of pop, but that is an image she resents.

"I'm very down to earth, I think I'm the same person now as I was when I first went into a studio to record my first song when I was just 17 years old. I'm the same, but I have a load of life experience now. A lot of experience, and you get quite hardened in this industry, but you never get free from.... you want to do a good job the whole time, the best. So I have high expectations on myself. But to go from that to say that I'm mysterious, that's been created by the media.
I actually get quite hurt by it actually, it's something that has sprung up along the way, because of certain things. Maybe because I withdrew for a little while, but there are periods in your life when you have to take care of yourself, and things happen and you have to be alone and have things quiet around you for a while."

Agnetha has also suffered from a fear of flying for years, following a traumatic experience during one of the ABBA tours, but now she says that she has learnt to deal with it, somewhat.
"Well, I'm not out flying all the time, but I've had some therapy and learnt to think in a different way. That helps a bit, but I never think I'll be free of it. I've spoken to the therapist to find out what my hang-up is. I'll never sit there and be thinking there is nothing to worry about, I do have worries and fears. But I have learnt how to deal with it to some extent now, so I can deal with a flight of about 3 1/2 hours. But I don't fly several times a year, or once a month, I make some trips every now and then when I feel that I can cope with it."

But those hoping to see Agnetha appear at the new Abba Museum may be disappointed, she is booked for promotional appearances in London at the same time as the museum opens. And she also says that she has left the days of live performances behind her, so there will be no performing at the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö either, but she will watch it, she adds. She says she saw the Swedish contest at the weekend, and thought that the right song won.
"I thought it was fantastic", she told Lotta Bromé, "I'm so impressed by these young artists today who can deal with all the pressure, and that they can dance so well as well. I thought the winning song was fantastic, a really talented guy. I thought there were a lot of good songs there. It's a fantastic competition."

And the obligatory question. Will ABBA ever reform?
"I don't think it's going to happen. It doesn't feel like any of us are particularly tempted to do it, because we all have our own lives now and it was such a long time ago. We have to deal with that question all the time, but we'll take it easy and see what the future holds. You never know what might happen. But I think there is a only a very very small chance that we'll do anything together again."

Reporter: Lotta Bromé, P4 Extra.
Transcription: Kris Boswell, Radio Sweden

Agnetha Faltskog on Skavlan TV Show - Pictures !

Agnetha on Skavlan Talk Show in Sweden on 13 March 2013.

This is the recording of the show to be aired on 14 March.

The show claims to be one of Europe's largest talk shows, offering in-depth and earnest interviews with some of the world's most famous politicians, musicians, stars, etc.

 

 

Agnetha New TV Interview - Italy - In English !

Click the link to watch this fabulous new interview with Agnetha on Corriere TV in Italy !

 

Interview is in English with Italian subtitles :)

 

http://video.corriere.it/ritorno-agnetha-scordatevi-abba/24fad104-8b46-11e2-b7df-bc394f2fb2ae

Agnetha Faltskog On TV ! New Interview

Agnetha to appear on Skavlan TV show on Friday.

This is a rough translation of the announcement:

Weekly Skavlan attended by Agnetha Fältskog and after several years of silence is back with new album. Even tennis star Mats Wilander, Norwegian author Dag Solstad and Danish actress Sidse Bebett Knudsen, known from the television series Castle, interviewed in Friday's program.

After nine year hiatus from the music could Agnetha Fältskog not say no when the producer Jorgen Elofsson got in touch with the three songs he had written to her. The album "A" comes out in May and the first single "When you really loved someone" was released earlier this week. In Friday's episode of Skavlan we will see the former ABBA star in his first Swedish TV appearance in a long time.

One of the greatest Swedish tennis star Mats Wilander, is current in the tournament the Kings of Tennis in Stockholm this month. Between games against big names like John McEnroe and Henri Leconte takes Mats Wilander time for a visit to Skavlan.

Dag Solstad is one of Norway's most award-winning and critically acclaimed author. In the new book "Dag Solstad. Oskriva memoirs "we learn a lot, not the least of man Solstad and the life he has lived.

Even Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen comes to weekly schedule of Skavlan. She has become a favorite of many politicians through its role as prime minister Birgitte Nyborg in "Castle".

SVT121:00 Friday, March 15.

 

Skavlan SVT1 21:00 fredag 15 mars (9:12) Gäster: Agnetha Fältskog, Mats Wilander, Dag Solstad, Sidse Bebett Knudsen Pressansvarig: Malin Nyberg malin.nyberg@svt.se 0768-672548

 

 

Agnetha Faltskog Promotional Tour UK !

Abba's Agnetha comes out of retirement

 

By Mark Savage Arts and entertainment reporter, BBC News

Agnetha Faltskog says the media has formed the wrong impression of her as a mysterious Greta Garbo of pop

One of pop's most enigmatic voices has emerged with her first album in nine years. Agnetha Faltskog's new album sees her duet with Gary Barlow and collaborate with Britney Spears' Swedish songwriting team. Just don't call her "mysterious".

Forty-five years ago, before Abba were even a twinkle in Eurovision's eye, Agnetha Faltskog made her very first TV appearance.

Aged just 17, she performed Jag Var Sa Kar (I Was So In Love), a syrupy self-penned waltz, on Swedish TV show Studio 8.

The melancholy lyrics, inspired by her idol Connie Francis, were a stark contrast to the exuberant blonde singer, who "took the radio in my arms and danced around" when she first heard her single on the air.

Little did she know, misery would become her musical forte, especially when she teamed up with Benny, Bjorn and Anni-Frida to form Abba.

"I'm very earth-grounded and very normal, I just like to stay at home”

The songs on which Faltskog took lead vocals - Hasta Manana, The Name Of The Game, Chiquitita - were the band's biggest tear-jerkers.

On The Winner Takes It All, recorded as her marriage to Bjorn Ulvaeus fell apart, the emotion is almost too much to bear.

Faltskog is by turns defiant and broken. "I was in your arms, thinking I belonged there," she cries, as her husband merely shakes her hand and turns away.

Oddly, the singer calls it "her biggest favourite" from the band's back catalogue. "It's a shame we never got to play it live," she adds.

Since the band went their separate ways in 1982, the girl with golden hair has been the band's most elusive member. She largely shuns the limelight, living quietly on the secluded island of Ekero, west of Stockholm.

Perhaps because of those world-weary lyrics, she was portrayed as a frail recluse - the Greta Garbo of pop.

The revelation in 2000 that she had entered a relationship with an obsessed Dutch fan, 16 years her junior, who turned dangerous when she broke off the affair, only added to the perception that she was lonely and unhappy.

Nervous return

Today, she cannot talk about the relationship for legal reasons, but Faltskog says the media have the wrong impression of her private life.

"I have been described as a very mysterious human being and that hurts a little bit, because it's not like that at all," she says.

Agnetha Faltskog says she had totally fallen out of the practice of singing since her Abba days

On the phone from Stockholm, she is neither awkward nor reticent, although she chooses her words carefully, sometimes with the aid of an interpreter.

Laughter peppers the conversation, and she denies any suggestion she's a hermit.

"I'm very earth-grounded and very normal," she says. "I just like to stay at home."

Fate came to her house 18 months ago, when Swedish producer Jorgen Elofsson rang the doorbell, hoping to to play Faltskog three songs he had written for her.

An internationally successful composer, his credits include Britney Spears' Crazy and Kelly Clarkson's Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You). His dream was to coax Faltskog out of a nine-year hiatus and back into the studio.

"It was flattering," says the singer. "It really was."

"I just couldn't say 'no'. I really loved the songs from the beginning."

But before Faltskog would enter the studio, she had some conditions.

"I told him, 'we have to talk about a lot of things first,'" she recalls. "It was nine or 10 years since I'd sung, so I didn't know if [my voice] worked."

"I said from the beginning, 'if it sounds old I don't want to do this, because... Why should I?'"

Tasteful and sumptuous

Listening to the album, simply titled 'A', it is clear that Faltskog's vocal cords are in fine shape.

Agnetha Faltskog has collaborated with Gary Barlow but they have never met

Elofsson, for his part, has ditched the upfront production of his teen pop hits for a sound Faltskog calls "very mature and worthy".

"When you love someone, and you've lost that one, then nothing really matters," sighs Faltskog on the first single, When You Really Love Someone.

On the closing track, the singer scatters photos of an old lover across her bedroom floor and wonders what happened to their relationship.

Ripe with bittersweet emotion, the song is her sole contribution as a composer. You wonder why she didn't write more.

Faltskog says she simply fell out of practice.

"During the Abba years the boys were writing nearly all the material and I didn't have any time. They asked me a lot - but when we were at home, I just wanted to be with my children.

"For this album, we had an idea that maybe I should try to write one song. I didn't want to do more. I'm not that composer that composes every day. But it was very exciting to see if it still worked - and it did!"

The album doesn't reinvent the pop wheel, but is tasteful and sumptuous, rarely raising its tempo above "mid".

One exception is Dance Your Pain Away, where disco strings stab at a gymnastic bassline, apparently summoned from the dusty off-cuts of Abba's Voulez Vous.

Another stand-out is I Should Have Followed You Home, where Faltskog trades lines with Gary Barlow.

"We haven't even met," Faltskog reveals. "I spoke to him once on the phone - but I was on holiday when he did his singing."

She hopes to meet Barlow on a forthcoming promotional trip to the UK, but says there are currently "no plans" for them to perform the song together live.

Tornado trauma

Faltskog's trip to the UK may come as a surprise to some seasoned Abba-watchers. During the band's heyday, she had a rule that she would never leave home for more than two weeks at a time, so she wouldn't be separated from her children (both born in the midst of Abbamania).

A nervous flyer, she arranged to travel separately from Ulvaeus for the sake of the children, in case anything should happen to either of them in mid-air.

Agnetha Faltskog says an Abba reunion is unlikely ever to happen

Then, towards the end of Abba's 1979 US tour, the band had a quick turnaround between gigs in New York and Boston.

Faltskog boarded a chartered jet, which previously belonged to millionaire aviator Howard Hughes, and flew straight into the middle of a tornado which forced Boston's airfield to close.

Running out of fuel, in a pitch black sky, the pilot performed an emergency landing in Manchester, New Hampshire. The first attempt was aborted at the last minute, pulling up just before the wheels hit the runway. Fortunately, the plane touched down on the second try.

Since then, she has largely avoided flying - even coming to the UK "by bus once" for a promotional trip.

"But nowadays I have started to fly again," she says. "I have gone to a man - a therapist - who taught me to think in another way, a very positive way. It works. It helps, at least."

The 62-year-old says she's looking forward to coming back to the UK, and speaks fondly of Abba's seven-day residency in London's Wembley Arena in 1979.

"People's reaction was fantastic on Dancing Queen," she says. "And otherwise, it was very nice with Thank You For The Music."

She enjoys the memories of Abba, and has donated costumes and memorabilia to the Abba Museum which will open in Sweden in May ("it is very strange to have a museum in your honour!"), but cannot see the band reforming.

"It was such a long time ago, and we are getting older, and we have our different lives," she says.

For now, she is concentrating on the new record - one she thought she might never make, and one which could be her last.

"I think to look in the future, to plan another one, it's not realistic right now. But I don't close any doors. I'm very open for what comes up. At the moment, we are so happy with this one. I really hope people will like it as much as we do."

Agnetha's single When You Really Love Someone is out now. Her album, A, follows later this year.