2013 Year In Review

Undoubtedly 2013 was an incredible year for Agnetha. The long awaited return of Agnetha to the music world did not fail to impress her many adoring fans, and indisputably saw the beginning of a love affair for many new fans with her new album “A”.

Speculation of Agnetha coming back to the music world has circulated for years but this speculation was finally realized with the announcement in early 2013 that Agnetha was indeed back and had been in the studio working on new original material alongside Grammy-nominated Swedish songwriter/producer Swedish songwriter Jörgen Elofsson. Earlier in the year Jörgen knocked on Agnetha’s door hoping to play three songs he had written for her, we are all very pleased he did!

The launch of the video ‘When You Really Loved Someone’ on the 11th of March was the start of the rollercoaster year that was ahead for Agnetha’s fans and caused what the Guardian called “something of a media frenzy”.
The world loved the new video and the song had great reviews. The Guardian described the new song as ‘a classic pop ballad’ and the Daily Mail labelled Agnetha’s voice ‘as lovely as ever’. The world was just as excited, as we were, to have Agnetha back, doing what she does best.

The year of 2013 also saw Agnetha being launched into the world of digital and social media, with a new official website,Facebook, Soundcloud and Twitter accounts where Agnetha’s loving fans from all over the world were given a voice to communicate with Agnetha’s team and Agnetha herself. Agnetha took part in a YouTube fan Question & Answer‘#AskAgnetha’. Official photos, breaking news, videos and appearances are often published first on her official networks and these are thriving communities. It was also through these networks that Agnetha chose to reveal her new album to her fans, #A was tweeted with an image of the album cover to announce her forthcoming album.

Snippets of the much-anticipated album ‘A’ were first teased out to fans via Soundcloud in the run up to its release on 13th May with many critics and fans alike praising Agnetha for her magical comeback album. ‘A Dancing Queen Extends Her Reign’ said the New York Times, ‘Thank You For the Music: ABBA’s Agnetha Fältskog Has a Schmaltzy, Perfect New Song’ said The Backlot. The headlines came in from all around the world with Channel News Asia reporting ‘Agnetha stages comeback’.

The album also featured a duet with Gary Barlow, which The Independent described as ‘annoyingly good’ and gave it 4 stars; and Agnetha’s second single from ‘A’, ‘Dance Your Pain Away’ became an instant club classic, released on the 15th July.

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by the producer/arranger Peter Nordahl, contributed throughout the album and between 60 – 70 string instruments were used on many of the tracks. These beautiful recordings were released on YouTube. Peter explained this process and the need for such a vast amount of strings for a pop album in an article published on the Agnetha website. You can read it here.

Agnetha treated the UK to a very special London promo trip in May. During her time in London she carried out a series of interviews and guest appearances and most notably filmed the documentary for the BBC ‘Agnetha: ABBA and After…’, which also documented the first meeting between Agnetha and Gary Barlow who had unfortunately previously missed each other when recording the duet. The documentary premiered on the BBC in June and was subsequently broadcast around the world.

At the start of August a much-overwhelmed crowd welcomed Agnetha on stage at Stockholm Pride, and it was here that she was presented with a Gold record for the album sales of ‘A’ in Sweden. The album proved so popular that ‘A’ also received a Gold record in the UK, Germany and Australia in the following months.

Agnetha continuously demonstrated her love and appreciation for her fans, and this time she gave her fans the opportunity of a lifetime with the facebook competition launch of #DanceYourPainAway. This gave her fans a chance to star in the video of the single Dance Your Pain Away by uploading a video of themselves boogying to the song. There were hundreds of entries from all over the world with the top 10 most voted videos being chosen to feature in the video.

Many other fun competitions also followed on the official Agnetha Facebook and Twitter pages, such as the Disco Ball competition, the Christmas Facebook Banner comp, #PhotoFriday, Fan of the Week and many instant win competitions, which many of you have participated in.

Agnetha who has previously stated that she thought that she’d never sing again, released not one but two singles throughout November. ‘I Should’ve Followed You Home’ the beautiful duet with Gary Barlow was released on the 18th November around the world. In the UK Agnetha released ‘The One Who Loves You Now’ on November 25th, this was the third single released from the album.

To much surprise, Agnetha made not just an appearance at the BBC’s Children In Need Rocks charity concert, but also performed ‘I Should’ve Followed You Home’ as a duet with the co-writer and host, Gary Barlow. This was Agnetha’s first stage performance in 25 years, and it did not disappoint. Watch the amazing performance below:

The Deluxe Version of the album ‘A’ was released in Austria, Switzerland and Germany on the 22nd of November and since has also been launched in Sweden. This Deluxe Version contains a bonus DVD with the one hour documentary ‘Agnetha: ABBA and After…’.

As you have been reading the year 2013 was an incredible year for Agnetha. At 63 years of age she managed to blow everyone away with the amount of energy and conviction given throughout the year, not to mention her amazing talent as a musician and songwriter. We thank Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl bringing out the best in our beloved Agnetha and sparking her love for making music again.

What a year it’s been! Bring on 2014!