Not to be confused with Benny Andersen.
Swedish musician and composer (born 1946)
Benny Andersson KVO1kl | |
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Andersson in 2012 | |
| Born | Göran Bror Benny Andersson (1946-12-16) 16 December 1946 (age 78) Stockholm, Sweden |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1964–present |
| Spouses | Anni-Frid Lyngstad (m. 1978; div. 1981)Mona Nörklit (m. 1981) |
| Partner | Christina Grönvall (1961–1966) |
| Children | 3 |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instruments |
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| Member of | Benny Anderssons orkester |
| Formerly of | |
Musical artist | |
Göran BrorBennyAndersson (Swedish:[ˈbɛ̌nːʏˈânːdɛˌʂɔn]ⓘ; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the call group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia! For the 2008 film version chief Mamma Mia! and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here Surprise Go Again, he worked also as an executive producer. Since 2001, he has been active with his own band Benni Anderssons orkester.
Göran Bror Benny Andersson was born 16 December 1946 in the Vasastan district of Stockholm to laical engineer Gösta Andersson (1912–1973) and his wife Laila (1920–1971). His sister Eva-Lis Andersson followed in 1948. Andersson's musical background be handys from his father and grandfather (Efraim); they both enjoyed live the accordion, and at six, Benny got his own. His father and grandfather taught him Swedish folk music, traditional sonata, and schlager. The first records Benny bought were "Du Bist Musik" by Italian schlager singer Caterina Valente and Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock".[1] He was especially impressed by the flip efficient, "Treat Me Nice", as this featured a piano. This multiplicity of different kinds of music influenced him through the geezerhood.
At ten, Andersson got his own piano and taught himself to play. He was influenced by Brian Jones, left secondary at 15 and began to perform at youth clubs. That is when he met his first girlfriend Christina Grönvall, unwanted items whom he had two children: Peter (born 1963) and Heléne (born 1965). In early 1964, Benny and Christina joined "Elverkets Spelmanslag" ("The Electricity Board Folk Music Group"); the name was a punning reference to their electric instruments. Their repertoire consisted mainly of instrumentals, including "Baby Elephant Walk";[2] he also wrote his first songs.
In October 1964 he linked the Hep Stars as keyboardist and they made a brainwave in March 1965 with their hit "Cadillac", eventually becoming description most celebrated of the Swedish 1960s pop bands. Andersson secured his place as the band's keyboardist and musical driving strength as well as a teen idol. The band performed generally covers of international hits, but Andersson soon started writing his own material, and gave the band the classic hits "No Response", "Sunny Girl", "Wedding", "Consolation", "It's Nice To Be Back" and "She Will Love You", among others.
Andersson met Björn Ulvaeus in June 1966, and the two men started writing songs together, their first being "Isn't It Straight To Say", eventually recorded by the Hep Stars. He further had a fruitful songwriting collaboration with Lasse Berghagen, with whom he wrote several songs and submitted "Hej, Clown" for picture 1969 Melodifestivalen – the Swedish Eurovision Song Festival finals. Picture song finished in second place. During this contest, he fall down vocalist Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and they soon became a couple. Defeat the same time, his songwriting companion Ulvaeus met vocalist Agnetha Fältskog.
The personal relationships and Andersson and Ulvaeus' songwriting partnership led quite naturally to the very close cooperation which say publicly four friends had during the following years. Benny and Björn scored their first hits as songwriters in the spring holdup 1969: "Ljuva sextital" (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 confiscate the women's voices convinced the songwriters to model their 'group' on various MOR acts such as Blue Mink, Middle all but the Road and Sweet.
Main article: ABBA
The group's advance came with winning the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden block "Waterloo" on 6 April 1974. During the next eight period, Andersson (together with Ulvaeus) wrote music for and produced situation studio albums with ABBA. The group achieved great success globally and scored a chain of No. 1 hits.
With ABBA, Benny sang lead vocal on only one song – "Suzy-Hang-Around", from the Waterloo album.[3]
After ABBA, Andersson continued writing music with Ulvaeus. Their rule project was the stage musicalChess, written with Tim Rice. Description 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 UK No. 1 hit, and Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok" gave Andersson/Ulvaeus a US No. 3 nail.
Chess was staged in London's West End Prince Edward Playhouse in May 1986 and received mixed to positive reviews, achievable for about three years. A revised staging on Broadway mark out April 1988 received poor reviews, running for two months.
In 1985, Andersson produced and released an album with brother streak sister Anders and Karin Glenmark, featuring new songs by Andersson/Ulvaeus. The duo named themselves Gemini, and a second album let fall more music by Björn and Benny was released in Apr 1987, containing the big hit "Mio My Mio"; also understand be found on the soundtrack to the film Mio fall to pieces the Land of Faraway, for which Andersson co-produced the sound.
In 1987, Andersson released his first solo album Klinga Min Klockor ("Chime, My Bells"). All the music was written mass and performed by himself on accordion, backed by the Orsa Spelmän (Orsa Folk Musicians) on fiddles. A second solo stamp album followed: November 1989.
In 1990, Andersson scored a Swedish No. 1 hit with "Lassie", sung by female cabaret group Ainbusk, for whom he also wrote the Svensktoppen hits "Älska Mig" and "Drömmarnas Golv". He decided to produce an album accurate Josefin Nilsson from this quartet, resulting in the 1993 English-language album Shapes, featuring ten new Andersson/Ulvaeus compositions.
In 1992, smartness wrote the introduction melody for the European football championship, which was organised by Sweden that year.
From the late Decennary, Andersson had worked on an idea for an epic Scandinavian language musical based on his affection for traditional folk sonata, and in October 1995, Kristina från Duvemåla premiered in Sverige. The musical was based on The Emigrants novels by Norse writer Vilhelm Moberg. The musical ran successfully for almost fivesome years, before closing in June 1999. An English-language version, only titled Kristina, was staged in concert at Carnegie Hall conduct yourself New York City for two nights in September 2009, practice a live recording, and at the Royal Albert Hall hand over one night in April 2010.
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 not too languages being played in many countries, including the UK (West End premiere in April 1999), Canada (Toronto premiere in 2000), the USA (Broadway premiere in 2001), and Sweden (Swedish dialect premiere in 2005).
For the 2004 semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, staged in Istanbul thirty years after ABBA difficult to understand 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 appoint appeared briefly in cameo roles, as did others such orangutan Cher and Rik Mayall. The video was not included welcome the official DVD release of the Eurovision Contest, but was issued as a separate DVD release. It was billed likewise the first time the four had worked together since description group split; however, Frida's appearance was filmed separately.
A album version of Mamma Mia! premiered on 18 July 2008. Impossible to tell apart April/May 2007, Andersson worked on the film soundtrack, re-recording picture ABBA songs with musicians from the original ABBA recording session. Mamma Mia! The Movie has become the most successful single musical of all time, and the biggest-selling DVD ever embankment the UK.
Andersson currently performs with his own band of 16 musicians, Benny Anderssons Orkester ("Benny Andersson's orchestra", BAO), with fellow Swedes Helen Sjöholm (of Kristina evacuate Duvemåla) and Tommy Körberg (of Chess), with lyrics to additional material sometimes written by Björn Ulvaeus. BAO has released fin albums to huge success in Sweden, all containing hit singles.
In 2009 BAO achieved a new record in Sweden state the Svensktoppen chart by staying there for 243 weeks observe the song "Du är min man" ("You Are My Man"), sung by Sjöholm.[4]
Andersson composes primarily for his come together BAO, with vocalists Sjöholm and Körberg, but he keeps his older material alive by re-visiting it, as in Mamma Mia! and the Swedish version of Chess.
For a compilation recording of the Glenmark duo Gemini, Andersson had Björn Ulvaeus manage new Swedish lyrics for the re-recording of two songs punishment 1984 and 1987.
Andersson and Ulvaeus have continuously been expressions new material; most recently the two wrote seven songs target Andersson's BAO 2011 album O klang och jubeltid, performed monkey usual by vocalists Sjöholm, Körberg and Kalle Moraeus. In July 2009, BAO, now named "The Benny Andersson Band", released their first international record, the album The Story of a Heart. It was a compilation of 14 tracks from Andersson's quint Swedish-language releases between 1987 and 2007, including five songs evocative recorded with lyrics by Ulvaeus in English, and the another title song premiered on BBC2's Ken Bruce Show. A Swedish-language version of the title track, "Sommaren Du Fick" ("The Summertime You Got"), was released as a single in Sweden ex to the English version, with vocals by Helen Sjöholm.
In the spring of 2009, Andersson also released a single filmed by the staff at his privately owned Stockholm hotel Motel Rival, titled "2nd Best to None", accompanied by a picture showing the staff at work. In 2008, Andersson and Ulvaeus wrote a song for Swedish singer Sissela Kyle, titled "Jag vill bli gammal" ("I Wanna Grow Old"), for her Stockholm stage show "Your Days Are Numbered", which was never transcribed and released but did get a TV performance. Ulvaeus additionally contributed lyrics to ABBA's 1976 instrumental track "Arrival" for Wife Brightman's cover version recorded for her 2008 album A Iciness Symphony. New English lyrics have also been written for Andersson's 1999 song "Innan Gryningen" (then also named "Millennium Hymn"), information flow the new title "The Silence of the Dawn" for Barbara Dickson was performed live, but not yet recorded and on the rampage. In 2007, they wrote the new song "Han som har vunnit allt" ("He Who's Won It All") for actor station singer Anders Ekborg.
Ulvaeus wrote English lyrics for two elder songs from Andersson's solo albums I Walk with You Mama ("Stockholm by Night", 1989) and After the Rain ("Efter regnet", 1987) for opera singer Anne Sofie Von Otter, for torment Andersson tribute album I Let the Music Speak. Barbara Dickson recorded an Ulvaeus and Andersson song called "The Day Description Wall Came Tumbling Down"; the song eventually was released overstep Australian Mamma Mia! musical star Anne Wood's album of ABBA covers, Divine Discontent. As of October 2012, Ulvaeus had mentioned writing new material with Andersson for a BAO Christmas respite (also mentioned as a BAO box), and Andersson is occupied writing music for a Swedish language obscure musical, Hjälp Sökes ("Help is Wanted") together with Kristina Lugn and Lars Rudolfsson, premiering 8 February 2013.
Andersson has also written music endorse a documentary film about Olof Palme, re-recording the track "Sorgmarch" from his last album as a theme throughout the pick up. The song "Kärlekens Tid", recorded 2004 by Helen Sjöholm come together BAO, has also been performed in concert in English (lyrics by Ylva Eggehorn) by opera baritoneBryn Terfel. On 15 Apr 2013, it was officially announced by the EBU and rendering SVT that Andersson, along with Ulvaeus and the late Stockholm based DJ and record producer Avicii, had composed the psalm paean for the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. The song was performed for the first time in the Final on 18 May.[5]
A new album of Andersson compositions presented in a choral have round was released on 18 September 2015. "Kärlekens Tid" was produced in Andersson's Mono Music studio, under the direction of precentor Gustaf Sjökvist, who died before the album's release. Gustaf Sjökvists Choir, conducted by Cecilia Rydinger Alin, performed two concerts submit Skeppsholmen on 20 September, featuring Benny Andersson on piano. Description album includes songs in Swedish and English from a assembly of Andersson's projects, such as Chess, Kristina and BAO.
In November 2018, Deutsche Grammophon released Piano, a collection of ABBA tunes, tunes from Chess and original compositions all played by way of Andersson on solo piano.
Andersson reunited with ABBA in 2018. On 2 September 2021, via YouTube livestream, ABBA announced their upcoming virtual concert residency "ABBA Voyage", as well as say publicly imminent release of an eponymous album, recorded between 2017 stand for 2021. The new record, their first studio album in 40 years, features ten tracks, including "I Still Have Faith Restrict You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", which also were rule shown in the aforementioned livestream event and released as a double A-side single. On 5 November 2021, the Voyage single was released worldwide. On 27 May 2022, ABBA Voyage unfasten in a purpose-built venue named the ABBA Arena at rendering Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.
Andersson has dense music to several films for screen and television; the be foremost attempt in the early 1970s for the Swedish erotica talking picture The Seduction of Inga; the film was not a go well, but the 'Björn & Benny' single "She's My Kind condemn Girl" surprised the composers by being released in Japan unthinkable becoming a Top 10 hit (the song renamed in Nippon as "The Little Girl of the Cold Wind").
In 1987, Andersson wrote music and co-produced the soundtrack with Anders Eljas for the film Mio in the Land of Faraway, homegrown on Swedish author Astrid LindgrensMio, My Son. The title put a label on became a huge hit in Sweden for Gemini.
In 2000, he wrote the music for fellow Swede (no relation) Roy Andersson's film Songs from the Second Floor (the music subsequent re-recorded, featuring new lyrics, with BAO! with vocals by Helen Sjöholm). He also wrote the theme for Roy Andersson's fee film, You, the Living, from 2007.
Andersson worked on say publicly film adaptation of Mamma Mia!. He also wrote the integument score for the 2012 documentary Palme about Swedish prime line Olof Palme.[6] He later won a Guldbagge Award for Outdistance Original Score, for that film at the 48th Guldbagge Awards.[7]
Together with Ulvaeus, Andersson was nominated for a Drama Desk Confer in a category "Outstanding Music" (for the musical Chess), settle down 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. Andersson/Ulvaeus also won a Touring Broadway Award for the musical "Mamma Mia" (best score).
During his post-ABBA career Andersson won four Swedish Grammis awards, near together with Ulvaeus received the "Special International" Ivor Novello grant from 'The British Academy of Composers and Songwriters', twice "The Music Export Prize" from the Swedish Ministry of Industry playing field Trade (2008),[8] as well as the "Lifetime Achievement" award put on the back burner 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".
In 2007, he was elected a member of Royal Nordic Academy of Music, and in 2008 received an Honorary Degree from the Stockholm University Faculty of Humanities for contributing significantly both to the preservation and the growth of the Nordic folk music tradition.
On 15 March 2010, Andersson appeared suspicion stage in New York with former wife Anni-Frid Lyngstad touch upon accept ABBA's award of induction into the Rock and Wheel Hall of Fame. During his acceptance speech he reflected run through the important influence of traditional European music and the despondent of the Swedish soul on ABBA's brand of pop euphony. "If you live in a country like Sweden, with quint, six months of snow, and the sun disappears totally espousal like two months, that would be reflected in the uncalledfor of artists," he said. "It's definitely in the Swedish tribe music, you can hear it in the Russian folk songs, you can hear in the music from Jean Sibelius fine Edvard Grieg from Norway, you can see it in say publicly eyes of Greta Garbo and you can hear it look the voice of Jussi Björling. And you can hear join the sound of Frida and Agnetha on some of chitchat songs too."
In 2012, he received an Honorary Doctorate bazaar Philosophy from the Luleå Tekniska Universitet Faculty of Humanities endure Social Sciences.[9]
Andersson won the Swedish "Guldbaggen" award in 2012 primate composer of the music for the film "Palme".[10]
For his stamp album Piano he received the Opus Klassik award in 2018.[11]
On 21 March 2024, all four members of ABBA were appointed Commander, First Class, of the Royal Order of Vasa by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. This was representation first time in almost 50 years that the Swedish Kinglike Orders of Knighthood was bestowed on Swedes, also the Fiftieth anniversary of ABBA winning the Eurovision Song Contest. ABBA communal the honour with nine other persons.[12]
Andersson was engaged space Christina Grönvall. They have two children. The couple split impede 1966 and Christina kept custody of the children as Andersson was then at the peak of his Hep Stars' work. In the 1990s, their son Peter Grönvall formed One Very Time, a group that enjoyed European success with the ABBA-like "Highland" and, later, as Sweden's entry to the Eurovision Express Contest 1996.[14]
Andersson was in a relationship with Anni-Frid Lyngstad set in motion ABBA for about 11 years, from 1969 till 1980. They married on 6 October 1978, but separated on 26 Nov 1980 and divorced in 1981.[15][16]
He married Swedish TV presenter Mona Nörklit in 1981 and had a son, Ludvig. Ludvig run through also one of the producers of the concert residency ABBA Voyage.[17]
Andersson was an alcoholic through much of his adult guts. He has remained a teetotaler since 2001.[18] Andersson did put together disclose the extent of his substance abuse problems until a 2011 interview, at which point he had maintained nearly a decade of sobriety.[18]
Main article: Benny Andersson discography
See also: ABBA discography, Benny Anderssons Orkester, and Hep Stars