Frida Beyond ABBA - A MUST have for ABBA fans

 So I've been on a bit of an ABBA book reading kick lately, and bought myself a few books over the course of this year.  Unfortunately the two that I had bought before, both pieces by Carl Magnus Palm, were not my favorite books in the world.  I've read plenty of ABBA books from the library over the years, but never really in full detail (I was a kid who mostly enjoyed looking at the pretty pictures Hahaha), and my not overly pleasant experience reading CMP's books had me wondering if all ABBA books were like this - overly sensationalized, focusing more on the drama than the people and the music themselves, and mostly highlighting the negatives.  Now I'm not saying that ABBA and its members' story is all perfect with no drama whatsoever, but to only focus on the details that are key to sell a book seems wrong.

Up until recently, there hadn't really been any books that take a big deep dive into the ABBA members' individual stories and lives.  Of course, with Agnetha being the PreTTy BlONdE oNe, there are certainly plenty of books all about her, but none that I had seen that were very respectful and didn't sexualize her.  That is until I read Agnetha Faltskog - The Girl With The Golden Hair by Daniel Ward.  I think I failed to give the book a proper review when I got it back in 2023, but I actually really enjoyed it.  The author spent a lot of time compiling quotes from Agnetha over the decades from various interviews, and you really get a feel for her personality, what she was like, how she's really not this quiet, pretty, blonde girl that you perceive during interviews, but rather she had quite the temper and was very outspoken and opinionated, and we love that for her.   And his intention was to actually tell the story of Agnetha Faltskog, omitting the "AgNeThA iS SeXY" narrative because most people only ever see her as a sex icon and he was trying to prove that she is actually a person.  Of course I question the validity of some sources, especially the story about STIG BANGING ON AGNETHA'S HOTEL ROOM DOOR AFTER THE TRAUMATIZING BOSTON FLIGHT AND HER GETTING SICK, and the only source for that incident is Carl Magnus Palm's totally 100% truthful Bright Lights, Dark Shadows book, and the claim allegedly comes from Bosse Norling, ABBA's tour manager, but Bosse Norling was not interviewed for the book, so... where does it actually come from?  Tabloids?  Sensationalized stories that aren't 100% accurate?  Which does also lead me to question the validity of other quotes because they too could come from interviews that aren't 100% true and are sensationalized.  But aside from that, I found the book to be absolutely delightful and enjoyable.

In February 2022, author Remko van Drongelen released a book all about Frida's story, spanning her entire career from childhood, becoming a singer at age 13, all the different competitions she entered to try and get somewhere with her career, the ups and downs of it all - a feat that hadn't actually been touched on until that point. When the book first came out, I really wanted to get my hands on it, but the book is pricey and I didn't really have that kind of money to justify spending on a $100+ book.  But, now that I have my hands on the book, I just have to say, this book was worth every penny.

In many ways, there are overlaps with Bright Lights, Dark Shadows, which I had literally just finished reading, but Frida Beyond ABBA goes into so much more detail.  I had mentioned that one think I didn't like about Bright Lights, Dark Shadows was the fact that the author has to remind us constantly about Frida's struggle with depression, and it basically only focuses on that fact and makes you think that Frida had no positivity in her life, and she is always going to be Depressed Frida.  Frida Beyond ABBA is the opposite.  Yes Frida's depression comes up a lot in the book, but it never makes you feel that she is just a depressed person, that the depression enveloped her entire personality and she was only Depressed Frida.  We actually follow her depression in real time, see what triggered it and how it got better.  We learn all about Frida's motivation in life, why she wanted to start singing.  We learn about her family history as well, all about her mother Synni and her father Alfred Haase, but most importantly, the book kept things respectful.  

 Bright Lights, Dark Shadows had been rather explicit, talking all about how Synni and Alfred Haase first made love, and like, I don't know about you but I don't think that's details that we should or need to know, especially as what does it matter how and where they were when they did?  Did the author only include it because Sex is a SENSATIONAL TOPIC and Sex sells??????  Frida Beyond ABBA wasn't like that in any way at all.  It does explain how children out of wedlock had been a common occurrence in Frida Lyngstad's family history, but like, that's all.  And it's fine.  I'm not judging of course, I just don't think we need to know all the little details on how each person was intimate together, and where and when.  That's too personal and feels disrespectful to include in a biography.  This book (as did Bright Lights, Dark Shadows) also confirms that Frida was not a child of the Lebensborn program, a rumor that goes around every once in a while.  (Like it's even stated as a "fact" on the wikipedia page for Lebensborn, even though it was never proven to be true.)

 Speaking of respectful, this book included a paragraph about personal details and whether to included them or not in this book.  The line "A determining factor in this was also whether Frida had spoken publicly about these periods in her life or not, and whether a certain detail as a fact or just somoene's opinion, in which case it would often only be included as a quote, if relevant at all."  AND THIS QUOTE IS SO IMPORTANT TO ME!  And that quote alone proved to me that this author was trying his best to share a respectful, non-sensationalized story, and I agree that the end result was just that.

I should also mention, this book also did not vilify Stig Anderson in anyway.  Even in the events that Stig allegedly was mean to Frida, specifically in the making of her Something's Going On album, you learn that his telling Frida that none of her songs had hit potential came from a place of caring, as he was worried that this new musical style she was taking on wouldn't sell or have success.  Ultimately he was proven wrong, as I Know There's Something Going On went on to become a very big hit, but never once in this book do you see Stig as EVIL, a theme that shows up constantly in all the Carl Magnus Palm books that I have read. (CMP's books really had me thinking that it is the general consensus that Stig Anderson is BAD, but this book proves to me that maybe CMP is the problem....)

Now the one thing that I am confused by is the book's statement that after ABBA, pre-Voyage of course, Frida was the only one to be in support of ABBA recording anything again but the rest of the ABBA members, including Agnetha, would constantly make statements that no, ABBA is over.  No more ABBA.  I get I haven't read all that many paper interviews, but that's not the tune that I've ever gotten from Agnetha..?  Like she of course would reiterate that the guys are busy writing a musical and "ABBA is sleeping," but as far as I know she's always had a "never say never" philosophy.  A good example of it is this interview on the Mike aan Zee show in 1985.

Now, I should mention, this book glosses over all of ABBA's career, and doesn't go into much detail about ABBA at all.  I would say this book is definitely not for those who don't know ABBA's full story, but at the same time it makes a wonderful companion book to those who do.  It's just full of so much rich detail, tons of rare and new information that I had never heard of before.  I learned about songs that Frida contributed backing vocals to, I learned all about the early dance-band years, and I feel like I really got to know Anni-Frid Lyngstad as a person. 

Now while I do of course still question the validity of some quotes and their sources, there is no doubt that the author did so much work and research on this book, and even gives a PDF to the reader when you buy the book that includes all the sources, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this.  This book was nothing other than respectful, and there is no doubt that this book was created with love

I just really liked this book, and I would honestly give it a 10/10, and definitely a must have for all ABBA fans (if you can afford it of course.)  I think Remko van Drongelen is now one of my favorite authors. :)