Agnetha Fältskog is widely known for her part as a vocalist in the 1970s band, ABBA, a band that is known for it’s songs that are used in 2008 movie “Mamma Mia” and the 2018 “Mamma Mia 2.”

Fältskog was born on April 5th, 1950, in Sweden. She was the first daughter to her parents Ingvar and Birgit. At a young age, Fältskog was encouraged by her father to participate in music and theater and she immediately fell in love with music. At the age of 13, she formed a musical group called The Cambers with two of her best friends. Growing up Fältskog released many hit singles and four albums but still wasn’t known nationwide.

In 1969, Agnetha Fältskog became engaged to Björn Ulvaeus. At the time, Ulvaeus was working with a songwriter named Benny Andersson, who was engaged to singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad, who like Fältskog was becoming popular around Sweden. The two women sang backup vocals for their fiancés and performed at small concerts. Fältskog and Ulvaeus got married in 1971.

Ulvaeus and Andersson decided to enter a song that they had written to a contest under the name of ABBA in 1971. The song didn’t make it through.

Despite their lack of success the year before, ABBA was asked to enter a song to the same contest the next year. The song they entered was “Waterloo,” and it hit the mark. The song didn’t only win the contest but also made the number one song in most European countries. ABBA then decided to head onto an international tour.

ABBA soon became internationally popular and released an album the featured the hit songs “S.O.S” and “Mamma Mia.” they performed at sold-out shows and were selling millions of albums.

Fältskog soon became concerned with how much time being in the band was taking up and how she was missing out on her child’s life.

In 1979, Fältskog and Ulvaeus ended their marriage but agreed to stay in the band. ABBA finally broke up in 1983 and by that time the marriage of Andersson and Lyngstad had also ended.

After the band broke up, Fältskog went back to her solo career. She lives in Sweden. Although her solo albums haven’t earned as much popularity, she says that she never wanted to have a popular career she always wanted it to be a “little” star.

This article first appeared in The Daily Chomp.