ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus tells how to stay relevant
Bjorn Ulvaeus on his 20-coffees-a-day habit, fitness regime and how an ‘early’ breakup saved the pop superstars.
Wake up early. My first job daily is coffee. I have up to 20 cups a day — black with a dash of milk. I don’t start eating until noon. It’s a way to keep trim and not put on too much weight, which is at my age very easy to do and really difficult to get rid of. My wife, Lena, and I live on a little island just north of Stockholm, so if the weather permits I’ll start the day with a paddle on my surf ski. It’s a form of kayak but your legs are out in the open. Total isolation, and that lends itself very well to thinking.
Then music creeps in. I’m constantly thinking about lines and melodies, so sometimes I get very excited and have to paddle home quickly. Most days I’ll write music or have business meetings. Listen to the radio and the latest pop hits. But remember: it’s like what Rod Stewart once said — it feels like you’ve seen and heard it all. When Benny Andersson and I started writing together, we were just two guys sitting in a room with a stand-up piano and a guitar writing the best songs we could.
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Then we were just two couples – me and my future and first wife, Agnetha Faltskog, and Benny and Anni-Frid Lyngstad — who played and sang together and something magical happened. I still work because I get excited by new ideas, but I’m extremely cautious when it comes to anything about ABBA. I said from the start with Mamma Mia!, if it ever felt wrong for the four of us or the songs, we’d put a stop to it. But that moment has never come and now we have a musical, two films and a party experience. One of the reasons bands fall out is because they don’t split up in time. We split in 1982. But we’ve actually recorded a couple of new songs, which will be out this year. There won’t be a tour, though. That life never appealed to me. Staying grounded is important. Lena is a really good chef so I leave dinner to her. She’ll make something like my favourite, gravlax. Several nights a week, one of my daughters and her family will join us. My older grandkids are briefly impressed by my career, but then I’m just Grandpa again, which is perfect.
Bjorn Ulvaeus, 74, is a member of Swedish music group ABBA.
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