ABBA blog

Ploughing through innumerable articles and features about ABBA, as I've been doing for several decades now, I regularly come across all sorts of weird and wonderful spellings of the ABBA members names. Benny seems to have been the least afflicted, as his name is common in many countries outside Sweden - although back in 1976 one Australian reporter insisted on referring to him as "Ben" in a series of articles. And, of course, who can forget the American review of the People Need Love single, where the artists were credited as Bjorn and Penny.

Indeed, Björn often loses the umlaut to become Bjorn, which is understandable. Agnetha was often referred to as Anna, but that was encouraged by Polar Music and ABBA themselves, so it doesn't really count as an error.

No, I believe Anni-Frid/Frida has been the most frequent victim of having her name spelled or written incorrectly. The German press seems especially fond of "Anna-Frid" for reasons unclear to me, while "Anni-Frida" and "Frieda" are quite common elsewhere. Somehow, I had always thought that the Swedish press usually got her name right, but researching my forthcoming book ABBA On Record, I've come to realise that articles from ABBA's home-country are littered with "Annifrid". Because it was easier for the typesetters not to have to insert the hyphen? I don't know, but you'd think the Swedish press would have known better.

I'm sharing with you here one of my favourite examples of getting Frida's name wrong. It's pre-fame, so whoever put together this ad for a dance event in Eskilstuna in November 1959 could perhaps be excused for not realising that "Frid" is not a part of her last name.

Oh, by the way: Someone who definitely gets everything right concerning Frida is Remko van Drongelen, author of the fabulous book Frida Beyond ABBA, which chronicles her solo career in great detail, with many previously unknown facts and stories between its covers. It really is an essential addition to the ABBA library, so if you haven't ordered your copy yet, I urge you to do so while it's still available.