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BENNY ANDERSSON
Sunday 5th July

Göran Bror Benny Andersson (born in Stockholm, Sweden on 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer, a former member of the Swedish musical group ABBA (1972-1982), and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia!. Currently active with his own band Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO!), and executive-producing the film version of the musical Mamma Mia! ABBA is one of the best known 70's musical groups.

Andersson was born to 34-year-old constructional engineer Gösta Andersson and his 26-year-old wife Laila. His sister Eva-Lis Andersson followed in 1948.
Andersson's musical background comes basically from his father and grandfather; they both enjoyed playing the accordion, and at six, Benny got his own. Father Gösta and grandfather Efraim taught him Swedish folk music, traditional music, and the odd schlager. Benny recalls the first records he bought were "Du Bist Musik" by Italian schlager singer Caterina Valente and Elvis Presley's rendition of "Jailhouse Rock"; this smörgåsbord of different kinds of music was to influence and follow him through the years.

When Andersson was ten he got his own piano, and taught himself to play. He left school aged 15 and began to perform at youth clubs. This is when he met his first girlfriend Christina Grönvall, with whom he had two children: Peter (born 1963) and Helen (born 1965).

In early 1964, Benny and Christina joined a group with the odd name "Elverkets Spelmanslag" ("The Electricity Board Folk Music Group"), who by no means was a folk music ensemble: the name was a punning reference to their electric instruments. The repertoire was mainly instrumentals, and Benny recalls one of his standout numbers was "Baby Elephant Walk". He also wrote his first pieces of songwriting around this time for this band.

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