This programme about Agnetha was made to promote her new album My Colouring Book and she talked about her life in and outside of the limelight; about ABBA, the world tour and the hysteria surrounding the band. The programme also showed a private part of Agnetha.

The programme also contained parts of the music PROMO videos for songs from the album and glimpses of Agnetha's work on the My Colouring Book. In between the songs Agnetha spoke about what led up to the recording of the album, the recording itself and her feelings about each of the songs.

The interviewer was Lotta Bromé who was chosen by Agnetha herself. The programme was directed by Magnus Skogsberg Tear and produced by Ola Johansson.  The filming date was given away by a single camera shot.

Most of the interview was in Swedish, but Agnetha did also answer a handful of questions in English.

There were three versions of the Agnetha programme:

1. UK version - part English, part Swedish (30 minutes)
   See below for a press release regarding this version.
2. German version - as above but dubbed with German voiceover
3. Swedish version (40 minutes)

Songs featured in the programme (Swedish (ie. longest) version:

1. My Colouring Book (excerpt)
2. If I Thought You'd ever Change Your Mind (black and white and colour excerpts)
3. Pa Turné (very brief clip)
4. Jesus Christ Superstar rehearsals clip from Landet Runt
5. Dancing Queen from Mr Trendsetter (very brief clip)
6. Summer Night City from ABBA in Concert (very brief clip)
7. Money, Money, Money from ABBA - The Movie (very brief clip)
8. Sealed with a Kiss (black and white
9. Crowd scenes at Melbourne Town Hall and airport from ABBA - The Movie
10. When You Walk in the Room (excerpt)
11. Past, Present and Future (excerpt)
12. Fly Me to the Moon (excerpt)
13. My Colouring Book (very brief clip)
14. Nu ska vi op op op 
15. If I Thought You'd ever Change Your Mind over footage on a boat/diferent mix of the song (excerpt)
16. Sometimes When I'm Dreaming - colour clip of the side view
17. Past, Present and Future ... bloke walking across fild
18. Sometimes When I'm Dreaming in full
19. What Now My Love

Agnetha listed her early influences as Connie Francis, Petula Clark, Sandie Shaw, Sylvie Vartan and Rita Pavone. A picture of Dusty Springfield was also featured on her wall.

The camera-work was an acquired taste, flitting from hand-held, unsteady and grainy (arty?!) to steady and clear; from colour to black-and-white; and zooming in and out at speed throughout. Agnetha was interviewed outside in the sunshine and inside (her home?) in a bright room.

In a couple of the film clips shown during the programme, Agnetha played the part of "Lena", and a Swedish actor called Magnus Krepper played "Leif". He's the guy who gets to snog the face off Agnetha! In fact it is the longest kiss in film history (apparently). The record previously belonged to Jane Wyman and Regis Tommey in You're n the Army Now from 1974 lasting 3 minutes and five seconds.  Agnetha and Magnus beat it by 22 seconds.

There were complaints in Sweden about concealed advertising on the 'documentary channel', SVT, after the programme was broadcast. However in November 2004, the programme was cleared of the accusations. One of the people reporting wrote: "The programme didn't seem to be a real interview or documentary, but instead an ordered or promotional film". But the review board has chosen not to condemn it as "improper favouring" or "sponsoring". The board wrote that "...there was a significant entertainment- and informational interest."

Broadcast information:
Monday 31 May 2004, 18:35, SAT1, Germany
Tuesday 1 June 2004, 05:10, SAT1, Germany
Thursday 3 June 2004, TV2, Finland
Friday 4 June 2004, 20:00, SVT, Sweden (watched by 1,350,000 people)
Saturday 5 June 2004, 02:10, SAT1, Germany
Saturday 10 July 2004, 20:00, TV2, Finland
Saturday 17 July 2004, 14:40, ETV, Estonia
Tuesday 3 August 2004, 23:10, SVT1, Sweden
Sunday 8 August 2004, 15:30, DR1, Denmark
Saturday 28 August 2004, 15:10, Channel 1, TVP, Poland (billed as Znana z ABBY - Agnetha Fältskog (Agnetha Fältskog of ABBA fame)) (watched by 1,300,00 people)
VH1, UK (billed as Agnetha After ABBA)
Netherlands

PRESS RELEASE TV Holementary AGNETHA 30 min ENGLISH VERSION

PRODUCTION: Agnetha Fältskog Production AB

BRIEF - TV holementary 'AGNETHA' - 30 min - The English version

Director Magnus Tear and creative director Ola Johansson has with great enthusiasm developed the idea and concept for the TV holementary AGNETHA. The idea has during production changed and developed much because of the sensitive collaboration of the media-shy Agnetha Fältskog. The TV holementory is shot over three days spread out on a period of one month.

Since Agnetha has decided to not give any more interviews it was decided initially that a hole, covering her work with her latest album and the comeback of a great artist, was supposed to replace the need of further interviews and public exposure. In that work a close relationship and trust was developed between Agnetha, Ola and Magnus and the hole treat was re-written several times. After further weeks and the 2nd shooting day they decided against all odds to suggest well-known reporter Lotta Bromé to get close to Agnetha in a real interview- her first in 17 years.

Lotta got into the production and together they all convinced Agnetha that a real life interview was the only right thing to do. Agnethas fallback would be to have the say-so to trash the material if she felt it was going to be unnatural, stiff or bad for any other reason.

Because of this silent agreement and in an attempt to keep the crew very small Magnus decided to shoot the interview himself with his father's old antique super 8 mm camera. The edited and completed TV hole AGNETHA speaks for itself and so does the openhearted, frank and relaxed interview by Lotta that is the backbone in the TV hole.

It should also me mentioned that Agnetha has not been involved in the editing, on the contrary approved all versions of the hole at first sight. Apart from the interview the hole has real life scenes from Agnethas work in the studio, clips from music videos from her latest album "My Colouring Book", retro stuff and "film-noir" sequences where Agentha is playing a role, LENA, in a love story with LEIF, played by actor Magnus Krepper. The TV hole AGNETHA is a piece of TV history about one of our times most significant musical heroines and voices that finally comes to life in holementary suited and made to her taste. The English version of the program is in mixed English and Swedish with subtitles. It also contains the sensitive question if ABBA will ever re-unit or not and a brief Swedish language course for the needy...


The TV TEAM

Ola Johansson
Ola founded the design agency Destrito in 1993. Since then Ola have been given a number of acclaimed artists their graphical package and design on record covers, point of sales material, posters etc. With the work of Agnetha Fältskogs comeback CD "My Colouring Book" he is taking one step further offering the whole package of stills, press releases and a TV dock collecting and handpicking all the appropriate people for the dock.

Magnus Tear - Director of Film
Magnus background is from a spread field from fashion designer, stylist to actor but in the early 90s he more and more was established behind the camera as a director. Since then he has directed both drama and comedy series for Swedish Television channel 1,2 and 4 as well as commercials and music videos with mega stars such as Anita Ekberg, Magnus work with Agnetha started off as covering 3 studio performance videos from the CD "My Colouring Book". In mutual trust the work developed between Olla, Magnus and Agnetha so that when they proposed to her to do an interview with well-known reporter Lotta Bromé she finally agreed. Magnus directors technique would easiest be defined of how to make a nice dinner - it's in the preparations of every detail you can make the actors/artists that has to be in front of the camera comfortable and relaxed.

Lotta Bromé - REPORTER
Lotta Bromé started her career within media by calling the local radio station, offering her talents - since she thought their shows weren't any good. After a year in Toronto, Canada, she moved to Stockholm and started working for the National Radio (Swedish Radio) 1984. She worked at their biggest Channel at that time P3 and was very appreciated doing shows like "Sommartoppen" (top 10 music charts), "Klang & Co" (humour and music live) and "Café Bromé" (interviews, talks, music humour and listeners) 1990 she was awarded Sweden´s biggest Radio Prize for "her capacity to mix high and low". In the midst 90´s she was one of the first within commercial radio when it started in Sweden - but chose to return to the Swedish Radio. This time doing Social Science shows and talk-radio. After that she did Sportsradio and "Efter 3" (the biggest daily news and entertainment show) for P4 - now the biggest radio channel in Sweden. In the autumn of 2003 Lotta Bromé got her own show, Sundays on National TV. hosting the show "Söndagsöppet" (Sundayopen) in the evening became a big success and Lotta was appreciated for interviews with people like Jan Guillou, Ricki Lee Jones, Hans Blix, Deep Purple, BB King - among others. After her one season with the show she was awarded 2 different prizes for being "TV-personality of the year". The interview technique of Lotta Bromé is best described as a "wish to meet" the person she interviews - rather than a traditional interview. Her goal is to find communication and she uses warmth, her sense of humour and ability to "be there" to reach her goal. Her interviews involve seriousness as well as light subjects - but always done with the same effort. Lotta Bromé dream guests/interview people are Yoko Ono, David Beckham and - Agnetha Fältskog. One of her dreams has, with this interview, now become fulfilled.

Göran Hallberg -D.O.P
Göran is originally educated to work in the psychiatric hospital. As a D.O.P. he has been working since 1993 with commercials, short films and feature films. His Swedish feature films Skenbart and Details were both nominated best Cinematography in the Guldbagge Award 2003.

Espen Bekkebråten - PRODUCER
Espen has produced more than 200 commercials for major companies like Telia, Ericsson, Skandia, Ramlösa, Statoil and more. Espen is also working for advertising agencies like BBDO, Grey. Publics & Bates. He is one of the co-owners of Resoucefilm in Stockholm producing mainly TV commercials.

Ulla Fluur - Producer
Ulla is originally a trained teacher for children but slipped into the film business in the early 90s. Magnus Tear and Ulla worked together on a sitcom at Swedish TV channel 1 in 1999 but after that they have also worked together onshort films, commercials and music videos.

The full Swedish version translated.
Note that some of it was removed for the English (and German) version(s).   
See below for the interview parts conducted in English.

________________________________________________________

Lotta Bromé: How would you describe me?
Agnetha Fältskog:  Describe you?!
Lotta: Go ahead - describe me.  You're usually the headline setter. Let's change roles.
Agnetha: Describe you, describe you? Oh Jesus, I hadn't counted on that question, of course!
Lotta: Go on, describe me!
Agnetha I would describe you as 'curious'
Lotta: How would you describe yourself?
Agnetha: Well ... careful ... in certain situations...
Lotta: Lotta is my name. Hello!
Agnetha: Agnetha. Hello!

[If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind]

Lotta: Have you missed your own voice?
Agnetha: My own voice? Nah. No, but I've missed singing. That's what I've done. And I felt: perhaps I'm not really too old - perhaps I could do another record. But there was also another question: was the voice still there? That is one thing you don't know. So it took some time before I had "sang up", so to speak.
Lotta: Can't you try that at home?
Agnetha: Yes, you can, but that's not the same thing as when you stand in the studio in front of the microphone - then things starts to happen and that's where you really get to see if it really is good enough. But it's not like that that I've maintained the voice and been singing through all years and been singing scales or so. It has been lying fallow. Indeed it has been doing. It has rested.

Lotta:The young girl from Småland comes to Stockholm with her father. 
Agnetha:Yes that was exciting. That was fantastic.
Lotta: Who were you then?
Agnetha: Then I was a young, unexperienced, naïve girl who shined with happiness who would be able to go up to Stockholm and do a record for Little Gerhard, and for the record company Cupol as it was called back then. And my father followed up me and we went by train to Stockholm. And it was really exciting we stayed with my aunt. And then we were to have the first recording day at the Philips Studio, and it was my own songs, and the strings played: Oh, God! That's my song. It was such a big experience for me.

Lotta: What were you doing in Sten and Stanley's tour bus?
Agnetha: We actually toured both them and I and Björn Ulvaeus and I've been out very much in the Swedish folkparks before ABBA - from north to the south.
Lotta:  When you became a singer in the first band in Jönköping. What was its name?
Agnetha:  Bernt Enghardts.
Lotta: Was it like that that they already had a singer called Agnetha before you?
Agnetha:  Yes, exactly.
Lotta: The posters were ready?
Agnetha:  I don't know exactly how everything turned out but she wasn't able to go on with the orchestra so they had already printed posters with the text "FEATURING AGNETHA", and then she quit the group, and they actually looked for someone who was called Agnetha, and then it was very suitable that I came.

Lotta: What were your dreams as a kid?
Agnetha:  The dream was to become this singer and I had many idols back then: Connie Francis, Petula Clark, Sandie Shaw, Sylvie Vartan, Rita Pavone - I could go on and on. That was almost about the only thing I did - to play the gramophone and sit and mime to these songs.
Lotta:  What was it in that dream? To be famous? What was that? What did it mean?
Agnetha: I don't think I was thinking so much about me becoming famous, or that it was that thing that was the ambition of my dreams. The most important was to be able to get into a recording studio and sing - and sing my own songs.

[Dancing Queen]

Lotta: I wasn't blonde, so of course I wasn't Agnetha when the class had its "fun hour".
Agnetha: You had to be Frida, I understand.
Lotta: Yes, or Björn because I thought it was so cool to have a guitar so we were together at that time. But if you were able to choose, who would you choose to be in ABBA?
Agnetha: Perhaps Frida.
Lotta: Why?
Agnetha: Yes, because she was funnier to watch on stage and when it comes to the voices I believe we were quite equal, equally important because the voices complemented each other so extremely well. But when it comes to the appearance to move on stage I thought Frida was much cooler, much more comfortable and carefree on stage. So I'd probably want to be Frida there.

[Summer Night City - ABBA in concert]

Lotta: But your bottom was considered the sexiest
Agnetha: Yes, that's right. Well, I guess that was my contribution! (laughs)

[Sealed with a Kiss]

Lotta: Explain to me - I've never been on a world tour - what does it involve?
Agnetha: It's a big thing taking off for a world tour, with both positive and negative aspects. It's fun also, but it's nothing I would do today. And that hysteria we experienced in Australia that was verging on nasty. I was so scared many times when we were in the cars and drove to and from the stage that someone would be pinned or ran over because there were people pounding on the car, and there were guards everywhere so that was a nasty feeling. It really was.

[footage from ABBA - The Movie]

Lotta: Did you have a period when it was completely quiet?
Agnetha: Oh, absolutely. A long period after we stopped with ABBA, then I couldn't stand listening to music, I couldn't stand listening to ABBA, or anything else. And I also often have very quiet around me - I can't stand too much noise and sound quite simply, for example if there is a airplane coming, or if there's a machine on at home that there are sounds that "cross" each other - that makes me stressed. But I can have strong sounds in the headphones for example, when I'm about to sing, and when I'm listening to music I often want it a bit loud but different sounds at the same time can stress me.
Lotta: How long was that quiet period?
Agnetha: It was quite long. Perhaps five-six years or even ten years. Not that it was deathly quiet all the time at home, I just didn't want to turn on an ABBA record - I couldn't stand hearing it - because it had been so much of it. And it is in the background all the time. And even today I can still feel... There isn't one day without me thinking about ABBA, or me dreaming about ABBA. I dream about one of the people, about Frida or Björn or Benny or myself in different situations. So I have it with me all the time. And it has meant a lot to me.

[When You Walk In The Room]

Lotta: Before ABBA you had done six LPs, and then you release a new record now. Why don't you have any of your own songs on the record?
Agnetha: Yes, because I've released so much of my own material before, so I've always stood for original material, for the most of the time. Own songs or like in ABBA, where we had original songs, not from me but...
Lotta: Well, one time?
Agnetha: Yes, one sing have I written.
Lotta:  Disillusion?
Agnetha: Yes, Disillusion. And now when I wanted to do a record after so many years I felt that the reason for doing it is that I wanted to sing more myself. I felt I couldn't leave everything behind me, I felt I have to sing more. The difficult thing was picking out 13-14 songs that I felt most for. Because there is any number of songs...
Lotta: And then one favourite more showed up. The ABBA-producer Tretow.
Agnetha: Yes, first it was me myself and then I felt that I really wanted to work with Micke B., because we are so used to working with each other. He is a real mainstay who knows exactly if I get stuck somewhere in the song, which you do from time to time. Then he can say: don't take so seriously upon it - he knows exactly how I am to do to get out of it. So we were working a time on it, but then Micke got ill. But he is absolutely on the way to get better, so everything is on the right track. So that feels great. But it felt hard that he couldn't be on the record after his illness. But then Anders Neglin and Dan Strömqvist joined the team, and I must say I think it has been great working with them. It feels as if we've known each other for a long, long time. We've really been complementary to each other. This with producing is so interesting also. And we have complemented each other so very well mainly because I'm not a technical producer - I don't know so much about the buttons or so, instead I've got a picture in my head, and I know exactly how I want it to sound. If there's certain things in the songs like: "Oh, no! I want that part there instead" or "That should be weaved together with that song" or "It begins like this and it should end like that". I have many ideas as such in my head, and we've been together during the whole period of recording the album, with musicians, choir and strings and everything.

Lotta: It's funny that you're thanking Demis Roussos.It's not that many who understands what he has done.
Agnetha: No. I heard his voice... I was in town, then I heard the music coming out of a shop. It was this "Goodbye my love, goodbye" or if it was something else. Then I thought "What is this for kind of superb voice?" So I really stood there listening to it, and it was Demis Roussos. Fantastic, and I love that kind of songs too.

[Past, Present and Future]

Lotta: The Past, the Present and the Future is an interesting song on the record. How sad it is!
Agnetha: Yes, it is. It really is a sad lyrics. But I have certain tendency to fall in love with the sad songs. I don't know why but it has always been that way, surely because of the drama in the songs. 
Lotta: With songs like that you have to have been there yourself.
Agnetha: That's true. The lyrics are important and so is understanding what the song is really about. I have a knack for interpreting the songs about unrequieted love.
Lotta: So you have been sad then?
Agnetha: Absolutely!  But I'm not sad all the time!

Lotta: Now you're doing that song, The Shangri Las did it once upon a time.
Agnetha: A girl group. It's one of these songs I had forgotten about, but when I started looking through all these boxes for this type of songs, I suddenly found this one.
Lotta: What boxes are that? Where are they?
Agnetha: At home. I went to different record shops were they had so many records from this time, and I was just wading through everything and brought heaps of records from there. And then there was some kind of CD with different girl groups and then suddenly that song was there in the middle of all the other ones, and which I remembered. And then I felt: "This song!", it was so deep in me. Really. And I felt that this song is going to be on the album. And then I thought it was a bit eccentric that you "talk yourself through the song", instead of singing.

[Past, Present and Future]

Lotta: Do you read music?
Agnetha: Oh yes, but I don't write it.
Lotta: How do you write songs then?
Agnetha: In a very special way. I can hardly describe it. But I write the words - often in some strange language, but most frequently in English actually. So I write the lyrics and then I write the note names above it and then I write the chords on the side. That's how I've always done like that, and it's probably only me who knows how to interpret it. I believe. And it's like this when you write songs sometimes, and lyrics as well, that you come up with something when you're heading for bed and when you're dreaming - "that was a good part" - then you hardly have the energy to get up and write it down. But it's often then it comes, I think it comes very often when you're relaxed.
Agnetha: The fantastic thing was that I started so early, with starting to feel that I could write. And I was only five-six years when I found out, so that was very early. I felt the keys - there was that, and there was that key. So very early I felt "Oh God, I can write a song of my own". So I started writing songs and the first one was Två små trol (Two Small Trolls) or something like that. 
Lotta: How did it go?
Agnetha: Två små troll (two small trolls)
träffades en dag (met one day)
Två små troll (two small trolls)
lekte med varann (played together)
Kom sa den ena (come said one)
Kom sa den andra (come said the other)
Kom ska vi leka med varann (so we will play with each other)
Agnetha: But it wasn't anything special.
Lotta: See! The song works! (pointing towards a duck). "Two little ducks..."
Agnetha: (giggles) Exactly!

[Fly Me To The Moon]

Lotta: What's the difference between the Agnetha that was in ABBA and the Agnetha who sits here now? How have you changed?
Agnetha: I think I am... I'm probably almost the same person but I'm much more harmonic today. During the ABBA-period everything was a muddle. More or less chaos. To cope with such a work. And then have the children at home, and lots of other things that had to be taken care of. When we were working as most with ABBA our children were so young, and both mum and dad went away so much and I had a bad conscience all the time. And apart from that they were children from a divorce. So they were really vulnerable. And for many people it gets like that. That the career and bearing children comes at the same time from 20 to 30 years or something like that. A bit unfortunate in a way, but you have to do the best out of it. And it is possible to take help from the surrounding people if it is like that that you have to take the chance. I felt I had to do it while I could - because I felt that this was "my thing", this was what I wanted to do.
Lotta: What is a good mother? Have you been a good mother?
Agnetha: I've tried to. I think I've been a good mother. Of course not faultless, but I believe I've brought up my children with these fundamental things.
Lotta: Which are they?
Agnetha: So that they can feel safe. And to be able to enjoy life, and to dare things. I don't want to pass on my "stuff". I want them to live happily and to feel good.

[My Colouring Book]

Lotta: I don't get the impression that you are a coward? 
Agnetha: No, but I probably am not. I like challenges.
Lotta: But there is a difference between being a coward and being scared?
Agnetha: Yes, I think so. You can have too much respect like I have for example with my fear of flying. I'm so fascinated about those planes that take off with all this stuff and you know what everything weighs. How does it work with all small screws and things. I'm very scared that there will happen accidents, I'm always feeling bad when my family flies too. I'm scared of that. Even though I know it's safe. That's the way I work.

[Nu Ska Vi Opp, Opp, Opp]

Lotta:  I found an old film where you are going with nice guys in flying uniform and then you sing "Up, Up, Up".
Agnetha:: Ah, yes.
Lotta: And then you jump into some kind of Draken-plane. Isn't that ironic then?
Agnetha: Yes, but back then I wasn't that scared.
Lotta: If you look back on your life. When did you do something that you felt "Now I was really brave!".
Agnetha: (silence). Hmmm. I'm not that kind of brave type who jump with a parachute or something like that. (laughs). I'm not. I wish I was such a tough person who could say "I've started diving in the deep oceans" or something like that. But I'm not like that. I'm not really for adventures, in that way, I think it's brave not being scared of showing your own feelings, and express them. Because I really am a sensitive person. I very easily cries, and I go up and down like that. I'm not one of those who elbow my way forward, which you've read so many times that you have to do in this business. I don't think I've been like that. Maybe that's the key to success. Even further! (laughs)
Lotta: Is it possible to get any further?
Agnetha: Nah, maybe not.

[If I Though You'd Ever Change Your Mind - a different mix]

Lotta: One of the most personal songs on the album, Sometimes When I'm Dreaming.
Agnetha: Yes. That's one of my favourites.
Lotta: Tell me about it.
Agnetha: It was Art Garfunkel who did it and I believed for long that it was he who had written it. It really mesmerised me, both the melody and the wonderful lyrics. Sometimes it feels that something is very much of "one part" - that the melody and the text fits together well. It's as if both have been written at the same time. And that must be one of them. Then when we started investigating it when found out that it wasn't he who had written it instead it was an Englishman called Mike Batt who had written it.
Lotta: Extremely sad song.
Agnetha: Yes, once again. Typical for me to start liking it then.
Lotta: I fall in love first when I'm dreaming. In the dream.
Agnetha:: Yes, exactly.
Lotta: Yes.
(silence)
Agnetha: Yes? (laughs)
Lotta: Is there such a thing as true love?
Agnetha: There's supposed to be.  But there isn't always. Love is partly tragic, unfortunately. So anyonone who finds true love and knows how to make it last is lucky. But you have to work on it, I think.
Lotta: It's OK to dream about love.
Agnetha: Yes. You are allowed to do that too. Yes, to yearn is a wonderful thing.
Lotta: Do you ever yearn?
Agnetha:: Yes. I do.

[Sometimes When I'm Dreaming - complete video]

Lotta: How important is it what others thinks?
Agnetha: It becomes less and less important the older you get, I think. Because somewhere you feel: "I just want to be myself". I try not to worry about what other people think.
Lotta: Confidence - dos it take practice?
Agnetha:  Yes, and it's important to practice.
Lotta:  Have you?  Are you confident?
Agnetha:  No. I've very sensitive to criticism, especially when it's unjustified. I feel I know best. "This is my territory!"  ... you know?   But I don't have a good self confidence when it comes to myself and standing on the stage - I'm insecure about that ... although it goes with the territory of being a performer. 
Lotta: Because at the same time you seem to be very clear about what you want.
Agnetha: Yes, I know what I want to do, but I seem to have hard expressing it, with gestures and so - I easily feel stiff.
Lotta: But can you practise that then?
Agnetha: Yes, I think so. If I was interviewed all the time I would probably relax. Maybe then, I'd be hilarious! (laughs)
Lotta: But you're already hilarious!
Agnetha: Maybe... sometimes
Lotta: Do you want a pinch of snuff? (laughs)

[What Now My Love - over main credits]

Agnetha: This must have been the funniest interview I've ever done!  (laughs)

________________________________________________________

ENGLISH VERSION PARTS

Lotta: So we missed your voice, did you miss your voice?!
Agnetha: I missed singing.  It was a bit difficult in the beginning because I didn't know if my voice was still there, so it took some time really before I loosened it up .. so it took some time , I also had a little fear of the microphones  ... it took some time to take that away.

Lotta: So tell me, when you came to Stockholm for the first time with your father ...
Agnetha: We took the train from Jönkoping where I come from to the big city. And I was very nervous and very excited about - now I shall do a record on my own. It that was a big moment for me and I was very nervous and when I came to the studio and I heard all the musicians down there doing MY songs that I had been writing, it was a big moment and I was freezing like this and very excited. And I wanted so much to be a singer. So much.

Lotta: When I was a kid and we used to be ABBA in school, I couldn't be Agnetha of course because my hair wasn't blonde so I was Björn because I thought it was, you know, tough to have a guitar.  If you would have been in "happy hour", who would you have been in ABBA?
Agnetha: Maybe I would have chosen Frida because I always thought that she was much tougher on the stage and she had more control of her body and she was a bit (swedish word .. sounded like "raffiger") how would you say?
Lotta: Sexier?
Agnetha: Not sexier but ... (laughs at what she just said!) maybe we were equal, I don't know, we had a tough time!  But I think that was good becuase we had a little, maybe, competition on the audience so I think that meant we did our best, really.  And also the fact that we helped each other very much on the stage, so if someone was .. had a cold or something with the throat, we really could help each other and sometimes I have thought it must be very difficult for artistes that are alone on the stage who are alone because no-one can help them. So we really helped each other a lot.

Agnetha: When we came to Australia, there was a hysteria that was really scary to me. We drove off and on to the stage area, I was constantly afraid that someone in the crowd would get squeezed or hurt or .. by our cars or something. People were screaming and shouting. All the time we were escorted by security guards. It was really mixed feelings because at the same time, it was fantastic.

Lotta: There was, a very long time that was filled with silence ... the silent years for you.
Agnetha: After ABBA?
Lotta: Yeah
Agnetha: Yes, it was ... that was rather a long time , I think for maybe 8, 9, 10 years that I refused to listen to ABBA's music because I was really tired of it.

Lotta: 17 years of silence and now releasing a new album means you're meeting the audience again even if you're not on stage.  We can listen to you again.
Agnetha: Yes
Lotta: How does that feel?
Agnetha:  It feels good. I felt that I wanted to do some more records because I felt not too old .. yet. So also the nice letters I got, "we miss your voice", during the years, have also meant a lot to me and also the fact that I really love to work in the studio.

Agnetha:  It took a lot of time to choose all the songs. I could have chosen many, many more. I also did from the beginning so we had to cut some out.

Lotta:  Here we are sitting having a Swedish tea break.  We drink coffee in Sweden.
Agnetha: Yes
Lotta:And we eat 'buller' (buns)
Agnetha: "vi äter bullar och dricker kaffe" ("we are eating buns and drinking coffee")
Lotta: She's saying, "we are eating buns and drinking coffee".  Agnetha I think we should give them a Swedish lesson what do you think?
Agnetha: I think so too, really.
Lotta: Let's finish our coffee and then go down to the water.
Agnetha: Yes!
Lotta: I take it in English and Agnetha will explain to you so that you will learn some Swedish, it's about time to do that now ... Hotdog!
Agnetha: "Varmkorv"
Lotta: Hospital
Agnetha: "sjukhus"
Lotta: Nurse
Agnetha: "sjuksköterska"
Lotta: seven murses at the hospital
Agnetha: "sju sjuksköterskor på sjukhuset"
Lotta: Thank you
Agnetha: "tack så mycket"

Lotta: So you've been called the Garbo of this century 
Agnetha: I'm not like that at all
Lotta: You don't hide?
Agnetha: No, I don't hide. It's just the media that wants me to hide I think - or sees it like that but it's not the way I live.
Lotta: So you're like the phantom of the jungle - sometimes you walk the streets like an ordinary person?
Agnetha: Yes!  But you never know when!

Lotta: I found an old film with you walking around with good-looking guys in uniform singing Up, Up, Up
Agnetha: Yeah, that's right!
Lotta: And then they put you in Swedish war planes - isn't that ironic?!
Agnetha: answers in Swedish ("I wasn't scared then!")

Thanks to Monique Hoevens, Michael Price, Micke Hjernestam, Diego Lopez, Paul Carter, Robin Andersson, Claes Davidsson, Christian Thomasson, Lendy, Gabriel Zubowski, Petr Mlejnek, Anne Meski and Harry Ehler c/o ABBAMAIL (no longer online). Also thanks to Paul and Joey Russell, Erik Menkens, Jan Bach, Luz and Gabriela from Argentina.
YouTube links c/o Ljus85
The whole documentary is not availalbe on YouTube - at least the first part appears to be blocked by Warner Music Group in the UK.
The UK version can be seen in two parts on the following sites:
TU.TV - Agnetha documentary part 1
TU.TV - Agnetha documentary part 2