Frida was interviewed by Lars Lerin at her home in Majorca.

She described how she had suffered several traumatic sorrows in her life: Her grandmother passed away early, before the ABBA days. She was her role model and who raised her when her mother died when she was two years old. Then, in the late 90's both her daughter and husband passed away within the space of two years.

She said that it had been difficult to get back to seeing the joy in life.

She now lives in Majorca and Switzerland with her partner Henry Smith, Count of Hambleden.

Lars: A day by the sea.
Junior: Today in the sea.
Lars: A day by the sea.
Junior: Today.   Look. What a neck she has. (Although SVT subtitled "What a voice she has")
Lars: She started out as a jazz singer.
Junior: Ok.
Lars: She sang jazz. She has even been in Sandgrund and sung jazz when she was 16.
Junior: Really?

Lars: My name is Lars Lerin and I am an artist from Värmland and I live in Hammarö with Junior, my husband, and our cats. This program series will be about friendship. I will meet six different persons and see how it goes, if we can find a spark and make it feel right. I have had a few close friends but unfortunately gotten rid of them. Either we have become foes or someone has died or become senile or something. I have Junior and the cats and I still talk to my mother on the phone. But when I hear that people have friends who they share deep interests with, then I become a bit jealous. I would be nice to have that. So that's why I think this is such a fun way to discover life and face my fear.

Lars: Dear Anni-Frid, excuse me! You must wonder what this is all about. You see, I'm going to do a program series on TV and actually I don't really know myself how to do it. I remember you from back when I was a teenager and I sat in my room dreaming and fantasizing and listening to charts on the radio. I maintained statistics on everything and I thought you sang so good. I would have liked if you had recorded more music after ABBA because you have such a unique and beautiful voice. Sincerely, Lars Lerin.

Lars: Well, where are we? We are in Majorca or on Majorca and now we're looking for Frida, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, with lower back pain and all different kind of afflictions. But I will try to get through this somehow. It is such a comfort to have him with me.
Junior: My name is Manoel Marques but I'm called Junior. I am from Brazil and I have lived with Lars for almost 8 years. I am an open and social person. I enjoy to meet with and talk to people. Lars has his own world. His best friends are his paintings.Lars: You never know if this will lead to a continued friendship, but it could at least be social skills training. And in life I think that it could be of some kind of use for something and a meeting is never wrong. It can always give something. You can't have too big expectations. In life it's difficult to demand love and friendship. The easiest and most comfortable thing would be to stay at home. But how fun is that in the long run? A social experiment.

Lars: Hello.
Frida: Hi! Welcome. So good to see you here. Finally.
Lars: Oh God, it's nice to finally arrive.
Frida: Was it a tough trip? Have you walked all the way from Sweden?
Lars: I can't remember when we left. I think it was sometime this morning.  What a beautiful eagle's nest you have.


Text on the side of the screen that says:

Anni-Frid Lyngstad
Singer

Born 1945 in Norway but grew up in Sweden with her grandmother.

Had worldwide success with ABBA 1972-1983. Several solo albums, the latest in 1996.

Married three times and given birth to two children. Lives in Switzeerland and on Majorca. Currently writing a book about her life.

Suffered two tragedies in the end of the 90s that changed her life dramatically.

Frida: I am very restrictive with agreeing to (interviews), I get a lot of requests. What I did was to watch different programs and documetaries that Lars and Junior have participated in and I felt it was a good person. And if I'm going to do this, it has to be with someone I have chemistry with.
Lars: Here is our beautiful view.
Frida: Yes.  I show the way.
Lars: Yes, maybe you should go first. It should be nice to sit in the shade today.
Frida: Yes, very nice, it is so hot. It's funny, it's been stormy and rainy for several days and when you arrive, it's sunny.
Lars: Well, Frida, thanks for inviting us. This is so much fun that we're here and Majorca and I get to meet you who I've had such a... God!!    It's actually very exciting and at the same time tiring. It takes a lot of energy to meet new people and then you're supposed to right away go below the surface and talk about death and love and everything. But anything else would be meaningless. That's the fun thing when you meet someone, that you right away can talk about the important things.

Well, I know Anni-Frid as Anni-Frid because I was a boy who listened to all the pop charts and Svensktoppen and I really liked your early solo recordings.

Frida: From the 60s?
Lars: Yes.
Frida: Is it true?
Lars: Yes, I loved that, you know, that... well, God...
Frida: The first record I made was "En ledig dag", which I won Nya ansikten/Barnens dag-contest at Skansen, the big final at Skansen and then I appeared on Hylands hörna.
Lars: Yes, we have seen that clip from Hylands hörna. It's quite nice. And you sing so good there. You're qute shy.
Frida: Very shy.
Lars: But you were only 16 years old.
Frida: No, I was much older.
Lars: You were?
Frida: Yes. I was... I must have been 21 yers old then.
Lars: Yes you looked quite grown-up.
Frida: Yes, it was the clothes. I always sewed my own clothes. So this black top I had on, I sewed it myself, and the pants. That's what I did.

(clip from Hylands hörna)

Lennart Hyland: Here is today's winner: Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Congratulations! It's been a very exciting day.
Frida: Yes, really.
Lennart: Are you used to competing?
Frida: Not that used to.
Lennart: Where do you come from?
Frida: Eskilstuna.
Lennart: But you have appeared in this kind of context before, haven't you?
Frida: Yes, I have.
Lennart: What has been your best placing?
Frida: I have won Flugan once in 1964.
Lennart: Then you're a professional young woman. What's your occupation?
Frida: I'm married with two children. That's my occupation.

(end of clip)

Junior: Do you think Frida could become a friend of yours? What do you think?
Lars: I have no idea. There are so many people who want to meet her and I think she wants to live quite quietly. Someone from Värmland shouldn't bother her.
Junior: I think you fit together. She enjoys being at home and is going to write a book, just like you.
Lars: You see, she is born almost in Lofoten, she's from northern Norway. So that's in her blood. She is a person by the sea.

Lars:  It's been quite a long journey from Lofoten and northern Norway where you are born. I have a great love for that area, northern Norway so I think it's very special that you're from there. But you moved away very early so maybe you don't have any memories from there.
Frida: I have memories from there but not from then. I was only 2 years old when I moved from Ballangen with my grandmother. And she was a great role model for me, which I didn't appreciate then because she was very strict. But in hindsight I see how fantastic she was and how well she raised me and taught me to take care of myself. Then I thought I was very lonely, which I was, since she worked during the day. But that has been helpful in life that I have learned to be lonely. But you have also lived quite an eventful life. You know what surprises me a lot is that you who are quite a shy and withdrawn person, you're quite open and talk about who you are and what you have gone through. I am impressed by that. Because I think it is very difficult for me to open up in that way and talk about who I am.

Lars: Well it's not really something to strive for, to tell the whole world who you are. I think it was becuse I was so shy and afraid in the beginning of my life and later when I got away from pills and drugs, I went to extremes the other way. I really wanted to open myself up to the world. I didn't want to be ashamed for anything so it was just to go ahead.
Frida: But it is a feeling that has struck me in recent years. Now I a 70 and it has taken me a long time to open up as a person and show who I really am, bot good and bad. For me it's taken a long time because I think I have been trapped in some kind of role play where my private life has melted into my professional life and the other way around. And when I let go of that several years ago I had the time to get to know myself.

Lars: As shy as she was then, she must have dared a lot. When you see her in Hylands hörna when she was so young. She really must have conquered her fear. But it's fun when you have such a talent that she really allowed herself to follow that path. Because there are people who never dare even though they have a big talent. That makes her a person who really dares. You still have had a lot of love in your life and a huge success and still you have had severe sorrows to process and deal with. Maybe your grandmother helped you deal with it.
Frida: No, the sorrows... my first sorrow was when I lost her. All the other sorrows I've had, I have processed more or less alone, with my family, my children and friends. She passed away early, she passed away before ABBA started. When I lost my daughter and my husband Ruzzo I had to have something to believe in. Otherwise it would have been difficult to get through it.
Lars: Those two sorrows, did they happen very near each other? Maybe we shouldn't talk about it.
Frida: Yes, but I had to swallow.
Lars: But it was 1980, 1990?
Frida: No it was during the 90s. My daughter passed away 1998 and my husband 1999.
Lars: Oh, that was quite a lot... But think of how strong you still have been, to move on and not... That you managed to take another step and create new conditions for yourself and a new life.
Frida: It's a good thing I'm wearing glasses. It took a very long time - it took several years. It was an incomprihensible sorrow. You feel... I'm beginning to cry, I shouldn't do that. That you're hardly able to survive. Now I have to take a break.
Lars: It's also interesting to see how they have dealt with their difficulties in different ways. I have done it my way and then there are other paths to get through life. And how you can see it as something you could learn from in life. You don't go through bad things and difficulties just for the sake of it, instead you learn something, and maybe it could be of help for others.
Frida: I don't know what you do to me but you push buttons. I haven't talked about this for quite a while. I didn't mean to start crying but that's what happened. It was a difficult journey. It took very many years. I had gone through a divorce that was kind of sad before I met Ruzzo. Ruzzo changed my life quite a lot. He brought along joy and love and two new children, my stepdaughters. He was a fantastic wonderful, spiritual and funny person. I loved him more than anything so of course it was a huge sorrow that this would strike us, that he was diagnosed with cancer 49 years old. Henry is now my support, my friend and my love as I'm getting older. And I hope it stays that way. But you never know. But I can tell you, Lars, when it comes to the men who have shared my life - I love them all, they have been great. They have done something for me, making me the the person I am today and who I am quite proud of now. But without them and their love, life wouldn't have been the way it is today and everything I have received through these fantastic men. You talked about your sorrow when you moved from Yngve and Norway and that it took a long time to get through it.

Lars: It took me five years before I felt I could enjoy things again. But I focused my life on painting. I had dreamed of going to Lofoten ever since I was a teenager. I saw paintings by "X-et" Sven Eriksson and read a book about it by Per Olof Sundman. It was my ideal landscape and an a place I wanted to visit and I went there eventually and I met Yngve, a fisherman's son. It was like my dream came true. I lived there for 12 years. It was great there and I painted a lot and unfortunately also drank so things went out of hand. I became very ill. So one day I just packed my bag and left. I regretted my decision when I came home, but then it was too late. It was over. Yngve couldn't take it anymore. I had been so difficult. You're not so nice when you drink alcohol and take pills.

Frida: Do you think of Yngve? Do you miss him sometimes?
Lars: Yes, but I didn't know what I felt for him. I was never...
Frida: You were never really sharp.
Lars: No, but I still think of him.
Frida: Of course.
Lars: And I think of Lofoten and really long for it.
Frida: To the nature or to Yngve?
Lars: It is my best landscape.
Frida: You have many very beautiful paintings from there.
Lars: Yes, it was incredibly beautiful there. And it would be interesting to meet Yngve and see how things would work now when I am more healthy.
Frida: Is he together with someone else right now?
Lars: No. He lives by himself.
Frida: Were you the only man in his life?
Lars: Yes, I was the only one. He had been together with a woman for 2 years. There are so many mysteries in life that you never get the answers to.
Frida: I don't think you're supposed to know everything. And I think that's quite nice to have many questions during your life. And the dissatisfaction that you don't get an answer is something you have to accept.
Lars: And put certain things aside.
Frida: What happened when I met him was that I was very moved. I wonder if there was some kind of recognition, that I saw some part of me in his being. It is difficult to say what it really is. I can't put my finger on it and say this is it. It is maybe that moment of recognition, you recognize something in somebody else that's also inside yourself. The loneliness and silence which we both need.
Lars: Hi Tusse. Are you from Majorca?
Frida: It's called the connection of souls.
Lars: Can I say on TV that I have a back ache? Such terrible back pain. But it was nice to see the cat. These villages in the mountains are so wonderful.
Frida: Aren't they?
Lars: Yes. Incredible. It is probably too late for me to move to a new country. I feel too far from the ocean here up in the mountains. Do you exercise nowadays? You were always on the move physically.
Frida: I do... down here I become very lazy. I don't know why. I brought straps that I would exercise with but I haven't used them yet. But in Zermatt, when I'm there, I do pilates twice a week with a personal trainer and you also walk there all the time. We don't have any cars there, instead you walk. Whatever you have to do, you walk there.
Lars: We must ensure that there will be a new CD soon.
Frida: The problem, Lars, is that then I have to get out there again. I don't really think I have the desire or nerves for that. You expose yourself to criticism and put up with everything we did when we were young but then you can handle it in a different way, because you're constantly productive and you process certain things through constant work. But now I don't think I want to expose myself to that. I don't want to expose myself to criticism because regardless if you say you don't care, you actually do. You want people to enjoy what you're doing.
Lars: But you could rise above that.
Frida: But it's also that I think that ABBA has affected my life tremendously. Of course mainly because I met Benny and we became a couple and Agnetha and Björn who also met around the same time. So it wasn't only music, there was love and it was a life we lived together in a way, all four of us. And I am very proud of what we have done. I think that Agnetha and I was an absolutely fantastic combination and of course Benny and Björn who are geniuses in their own ways. I think that being disciplined and perfect also makes you down to earth. I have never ever felt like a star or a diva or anything like it, instead throughout my whole life I have felt like Anni-Frid or Frida. And I think that goes for the others in ABBA. Agnetha is also that way, very down to earth, and also Björn and Benny. We are very non-glamourous people, so to say.
Lars: She is such a humble and warm person who I liked very much.
Frida: There are moments in life when you meet people and suddenly something occurs that can be likened to love. Love at first sight. And it happened with Lars. To me he was like a being, an elf or a troll that had walked out of the forest. And there he was, this modest, shy and loveable man and greeted me. Then it has just continued. He is an absolutely wonderful person. I like him very much.
Lars: It was nice because she steered the conversation into what she wanted to talk about. It was very natural. I didn't have to ask about things that I didn't really want to ask about but she started talking about it anyway. It is nice to talk about it and it may comfort others as well. It feels like a very beautiful friendship. She is someone who I will think of and be in touch with.
Frida: I'm taking with me a longing until next time we meet again. He's looking for a friend and here he has found one. So i hope we will meet soon again. Why not here, or in Switzerland or Sweden. I would really like to meet him again.

Thanks to Monique Hoevens, Evelyn Nuyens, Pernille Bonné, Claes Davidsson c/o ABBAtalk. Thanks also to George Bourdaniotis, Pascale Ranson and Jeffrey de Hart c/o ABBA Village. Huge thanks to Claes Davidsson for the translation.
YouTube link c/o innomadi100