Benny Andersson

Göran Bror Benny Andersson was born on December 16, 1946, in the Vasastan district of Stockholm, Sweden, to civil engineer Gösta Andersson and his wife Laila. His father and grandfather Efraim both played accordion, and at age six Andersson received his own accordion and was introduced to Swedish folk music, traditional music, and schlager. Among his earliest records were "Du Bist Musik" by Italian schlager singer Caterina Valente and Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock," the flip side of which, "Treat Me Nice," made a particular impression on him because it featured piano. By age ten he had acquired a piano and taught himself to play, drawing influence from Elmore James and Brian Jones. He left school at fifteen and began performing at youth clubs. During this period he met his first girlfriend Christina Grönvall, with whom he had two children: Peter, born in 1963, and Heléne, born in 1965.

In October 1964, Andersson joined the Hep Stars as keyboardist. The band broke through in March 1965 with the hit "Cadillac" and became one of the most celebrated Swedish pop bands of the 1960s. While the group initially performed covers of international hits, Andersson began writing original material, contributing songs including "No Response," "Sunny Girl," "Wedding," "Consolation," "It's Nice To Be Back," and "She Will Love You." In early 1964, before joining the Hep Stars, he and Christina Grönvall had briefly been part of a folk group called Elverkets Spelmanslag, whose repertoire consisted mainly of instrumentals.

Andersson met Björn Ulvaeus in June 1966, and the two began collaborating as songwriters, their first joint composition being "Isn't It Easy To Say," later recorded by the Hep Stars. He also co-wrote songs with Lasse Berghagen, including "Hej, Clown," which was submitted to the 1969 Melodifestivalen and finished in second place. At that competition he met vocalist Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and the two became a couple. Around the same time, Ulvaeus met vocalist Agnetha Fältskog. The four began supporting one another during recording sessions, and the sound of the women's voices led Andersson and Ulvaeus to develop a group sound modeled on acts such as Blue Mink, Middle of the Road, and Sweet.

The group that became ABBA achieved its international breakthrough on April 6, 1974, when "Waterloo" won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden. Over the following eight years, Andersson and Ulvaeus wrote music for and produced eight studio albums with ABBA, generating a series of number-one hits worldwide. Andersson sang lead vocal on only one ABBA track, "Suzy-Hang-Around," from the Waterloo album.

Following ABBA's dissolution, Andersson and Ulvaeus collaborated with lyricist Tim Rice on the stage musical Chess. The Chess concept album, featuring vocals by Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson, Murray Head, Tommy Körberg, and Björn Skifs, was released in October 1984 and sold two million copies worldwide. The Paige and Dickson duet "I Know Him So Well" reached number one in the United Kingdom, and Murray Head's "One Night in Bangkok" reached number three in the United States. Chess opened at the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End in May 1986, running for approximately three years. A revised Broadway production opened in April 1988 but ran for only two months.

In 1985, Andersson produced an album for the sibling duo Anders and Karin Glenmark, who performed as Gemini, featuring new compositions by Andersson and Ulvaeus. A second Gemini album followed in April 1987, containing the hit "Mio My Mio," which also appeared on the soundtrack to the film Mio in the Land of Faraway, for which Andersson co-produced the music. His first solo album, Klinga Mina Klockor, was released in 1987, with all music written and performed by Andersson on accordion, accompanied by the Orsa Spelmän on fiddles. A second solo album, November 1989, followed two years later.

In 1990, Andersson scored a Swedish number-one hit with "Lassie," performed by the female cabaret group Ainbusk, for whom he also wrote the Svensktoppen hits "Älska Mig" and "Drömmarnas Golv." He subsequently produced an English-language album with Ainbusk member Josefin Nilsson, titled Shapes, released in 1993 and featuring ten new Andersson and Ulvaeus compositions. In 1992, he composed the introductory melody for the European football championship hosted by Sweden.

From the late 1980s, Andersson developed an idea for a Swedish-language musical rooted in his affinity for traditional folk music. The result, Kristina från Duvemåla, based on the Emigrants novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg, premiered in Sweden in October 1995 and ran for nearly five years before closing in June 1999. An English-language concert version titled Kristina was staged at Carnegie Hall in New York City for two nights in September 2009, producing a live recording, and at the Royal Albert Hall in London for one night in April 2010.

Andersson's next major project was Mamma Mia!, a musical built around twenty-four ABBA songs. The production premiered in the West End in April 1999, followed by a Toronto premiere in 2000, a Broadway premiere in 2001, and a Swedish-language premiere in 2005. For his work on the Broadway production, Andersson received Tony Award nominations for Best Musical and Best Orchestrations, both in 2002. A film adaptation of Mamma Mia! premiered on July 18, 2008, for which Andersson re-recorded the ABBA songs in April and May 2007 with musicians from the original ABBA recording sessions and served as executive producer. He also served as executive producer on the 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

Since 2001, Andersson has performed with his own ensemble of sixteen musicians, Benny Anderssons Orkester.