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| Birth Name(s) : Benny Andersson |
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Full Benny Andersson Biography
Göran Bror Benny Andersson (born in Stockholm, Sweden on December 16, 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!.
Andersson 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 Presley's "Jailhouse Rock"; this smorgasbord of different kinds of music was to influence and follow him through the years.
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". He also wrote his first pieces of songwriting around this time for this band.
In March 1964, "Elverket Spelmanslag" was up against another band in a talent contest, The Hep Stars. When Benny stepped in as the Hep Stars' keyboardist in October of that year, he knew this was what he wanted to do.
The personal relationships and Andersson and Ulvaeus' 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 spring of 1969: "Ljuva Sextiotal" (a hit with Brita Borg) and "Speleman" (a hit for The Hep Stars). As the two couples began 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. Thus, ABBA came to life.
After ABBA broke up in 1983, Andersson continued writing music with Ulvaeus. Their first project was the stage musical Chess, written with Tim Rice. The "Chess" concept album - with vocals by Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson, Murray Head and Swedes Tommy Körberg and Björn Skifs - was released in October 1984, selling 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 a US #3 hit.
In 1987, Andersson released his first solo album "Klinga Mina Klockor" ('Chime, My Bells'). All the music was written by and performed by himself on accordion, 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, the Ainbusk Singers, for whom he also wrote the Svensktoppen hits "Älska Mig" and "Drömmarnas Golv". He decided to produce an album with Josefin Nilsson from this quartet, resulting in the 1993 English-language album Shapes, featuring ten new Andersson/Ulvaeus compositions.
Andersson's next project was Mamma Mia!, a musical built around 24 of ABBA's songs, which has become 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/May 2007, Andersson worked on the film soundtrack, re-recording the old ABBA songs with musicians from the old ABBA recording sessions.
BAO! recently avhieved a new 'record' in Sweden on the Svensktoppen chart by staying there for 169 weeks with the song "Du Är Min Man" ('You Are My Man'), sung by Helen Sjöholm.
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 (featuring new lyrics) with BAO! with vocals by Helen Sjöholm).
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.
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, as well as 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".
Andersson was engaged to Lyngstad for about nine years. They married in October 1978 but divorced in 1981. He married Swedish TV presenter Mona Nörklit in November 1981, and had a son, Ludvig (born January 1982). Ludvig has since followed in his father's footsteps in forming his own band, Ella Rouge. |
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