Benny Andersson Biography

NAME: Göran Bror Benny Andersson

OCCUPATION: Songwriter, Pianist

BIRTH DATE: December 16, 1946 (Age: 64)

PLACE OF BIRTH: Stockholm, Sweden

ZODIAC SIGN: Sagittarius

Born Göran Bror Benny Andersson on December 16, 1946, in Stockholm, Sweden, to a musical family. Andersson's father and grandfather both loved to play music, and at the age of 6 the future ABBA star was introduced to the accordion. Like he would with almost every other instrument he'd pick up later in life, Andersson took to it without much effort.

Following his time in high school, Andersson signed on as the keyboardist for The Hep Stars, a successful pop band in the 1960s that was affectionately known as "The Swedish Beatles." While touring, Andersson met Björn Ulvaeus, a songwriter and member of the folk band The Hootenanny Singers. ABBA's foundation was slowly being laid. Not only did Andersson and Ulvaeus quickly become friends, but Ulvaeus' group had signed with the recoding label Polar Music, whose owner, Stig Anderson, would eventually become ABBA's manager.

During the next eight years, Benny & Björn wrote music to and produced eight studio albums for ABBA. Benny was engaged to Frida 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, and released a successful solo album in Sweden.

In 1990, he 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.

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".

For the 2004 semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Istanbul thirty years after ABBA had won the contest in Brighton, Benny appeared briefly in a special comedy video made for the interval act, entitled "Our Last Video". Each of the four members of the group appeared briefly in cameo roles, it was billed as the first time the four had worked together since the group split. In fact, they each filmed their appearances separately.

In April/May 2007, Benny worked on the film soundtrack for a film version of Mamma Mia!, re-recording the old ABBA songs with musicians from the old ABBA recording sessions. Mamma Mia the movie premiered on 18 July 2008 and has now become the most successful movie musical of all time and has been named the number one box office smash of 2008, and the biggest-selling DVD ever in the UK.