She was born in Jonkoping,
Sweden and originally
known as Agneta, adding the "h"
later.She was
a member of the group ABBA
.Prior
to joining ABBA
she was a successful artist and composer in her own right with several
chart hits and best selling albums in Sweden.In 1966 she joined the Swedish dansband Bengt Engharts
and in 1967 wrote the Swedish No.1 hit "I Was So in Love".She was criticized for "Gypsy
Song" for which she wrote the music and met with racist remarks.She was then accused of plagiarism
in 1968 by the Danish composer Per Hviid who
claimed she had copied one of his tunes for her song "If Tears Were
Gold" but the lawsuit he had taken out was dropped when his
accusations were found to be groundless.She
first met Bjorn
Ulvaeus when
they did a pop TV show in 1969.They were married in 1971 and had two children, Linda and Christian,
but divorced 8 years later.She
briefly married for a second time and was also the victim of an
ex-boyfriend stalker.In 1972 she appeared in Jesus Christ Superstar
as Mary
Magdalene.In 1982 she won the the Swedish music award,Rockbjornen,
for Best Female Artist.After ABBA
ceased working together she has continued with a solo career with her
singles and albums making it onto the UK
and US charts.She released her memoir book called As I Am
in 1996.
