Benny Andersson isa swedish musician,one of the founders of the famous ABBA.
He is an owner of the Hotel Rival in Stockholm, which was opened in 2003. He belongs to Kulturslussen-gängen (the group which takes a stand against construction reforms in the old part of Stockholm).
Benny Andersson has a fortune worth at least US$ 130 million.
Background
Benny's parents are Gösta and Laila Andersson.
In 1949-1952 the Anderssons lived in Eskilstuna. In 1948 Benny's sister, Eva-Lis Andersson, was born. At the age of 6 Benny got his first musical instrument - accordion, as both his grandfather and father enjoyed music. He was greatly influenced by his grandfather. At the age of 10 he started to take the piano lessons. He was taught by his father Gösta and grandfather Efraim to play Swedish traditional and folk music, as well as popular compositions and songs.
Education
After he finished high school Andersson joined his first band "The Hep Satrs". When it disbanded, he had to pay tax debts for four years.
Career
When Benny met Björmn Ulvaeus their fruitful cooperation began. It’s interesting enough that they two invited their girlfriends Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog to sing back-vocals in the song "Hej gamle man". It was a solid basis for further development of their common career.
In 1964 he was invited by Sven Hedlund to the "Elverkets Spelmanslag", a folk music ensemble. About that time he started to write songs for the group ("No Response" & "Sunny Girl"). He entered the "Hep Stars", which were known as "The Swedish Beatles", in October the same year as a pianist. <br/>In 1966 he met Björn Ulvaeus and their cooperation began. Their first thing was "Isn't It Easy to Say". <br/>In 1973 the group under a new name, Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid, participated in Melodifestivalen and took the 3d place with the song "Ring, ring". <br/>In 1974 ABBA was formed, the group wan Eurovision Song contest in Brighton with their hit "Waterloo". The majority of ABBA's songs were written by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus. <br/>In 1982 the group split since its participants had difficulties to combine their public and private lives. <br/>In 1982-1990 after ABBA disbanded Benny-Bjorn went on and gave fruitful results in the form of stage musicals "Chess"(included even rap-lines) of Tim Rice and "Kristina från Duvemåla"(classical and folk music, based on Vilhelm Moberg's novels). He is also known for his cooperation with other musicians, with the Swedish band “Gemini”. He coproduced music for the film "Mio in the Land of Faraway". <br/>In 2001 Benny Anderssons Orkester (BAO) was formed; it consisted of 16 participants. <br/>In 2003 he was even represented in supplement to Verbums Psalmbook. <br/>In 2004 Benny, as well as other 3 members of ABBA appeared in project "Our last video" dedicated to Eurovision Song Contest that year. <br/>In 2005 he became the first Swedish pop-billionaire. <br/>In 2007 Benny worked on the music for the film "Mama mia!", rerecording old ABBA songs. <br/>Benny wrote a special work "En skrift i snön " with lyrics of Kristina Lugn for the opening ceremony in the concert house Studio Acusticum in Piteå. He also composed music to the film "Sånger från andra våningen" by Roy Andersson. <br/>In 2010 ABBA was included in the Rockn'Roll Hall Of Fame. <br/>In November 2012 Andersson was recognised by Glamour's magazine as “the Sexiest Musician Alive”.
Politics
In 2010 Danish People's Party, far-right political party, used the song "Mama Mia" in its campaign. Andersson said that they couldn't rewrite songs as they liked and that ABBA had no interest in supporting their party. Benny Andersson invested some of his money in Gudrun Schyman in order to make it possible for her to make it into the EU parliament. He supports Schyman’s political ideas by donating SEK 300,000 ($38,981.06) to Feministiskt Initiativ (Feminist Initiative, a feminist political party in Sweden). He said that he sympathized with Schyman’s unyielding fight for equality.