Andersson, Benny

The Swedish musician and composer Goran Bror Benny Andersson, a member of the former singing group ABBA, has written many of the best known songs of the last forty years. Born in Stockholm, at the age of 6 he started playing the accordion like his father and grandfather who taught him Swedish folk music and schlager, the easy-listening music of “dansbands.” He got his own piano at the age of 10 and taught himself to play. At 15 he left school and was playing at youth clubs when he was invited to join the Hepstars, the most popular Swedish popband of the 60s. In 1966 he became friends with Björn Ulvaeus and began collaborating with him writing songs. This led to the formation, along with their girlfriends, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog, of the group ABBA, which won the Eurovision Song contest with “Waterloo” in 1974. ABBA was successful around the globe, recording many hit songs until the group broke up in 1982. Andersson and Ulvaeus continued to work together and created the musical “Chess” which was staged first in London in 1986. In 1995, Andersson’s Swedish language musical, Kristina från Duvemåla, premiered in Sweden and ran until 1999. The hit “Mamma Mia!” came next, incorporating around 24 of ABBA’s songs; the film version became the most successful film musical of all time and the best-selling DVD ever in Great Britain. In 2001 He formed a new sixteen-musician band, BAO or Benny Anderssons Orkester, that has been very popular in Sweden: one of their songs stayed a record 243 weeks on the Svensktoppen (Swedish top hits) chart. In 2007 the Royal Swedish Academy of Music elected him a member and the following year Stockholm University awarded him an honorary doctorate; in 2012, Luleå Tekniska Universitet, gave him another. For composing the music for the documentary film “Palme” about the assassinated prime minister, Andersson received the Swedish “Guldbaggen” prize in 2012.