Before joining ABBA, Anni-Frid Lyngstad (also known simply as Frida) had a decade-long career in Sweden and Norway, performing with various jazz and dance bands, winning a national talent competition, and releasing several solo singles and two solo albums.
At age 11, Lyngstad first performed publicly at a Red Cross charity event. By 13, she was a paid vocalist for a local dance band and continued singing with various acts for the next eight years, initially lying about her age to meet performance requirements. She primarily worked in jazz and cabaret music, influenced by singers like Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee.
In 1963, she was the vocalist with the Gunnar Sandevarn Trio before forming her own band, the Anni-Frid Four. These groups all contained her husband, Ragnar Fredriksson. Her major breakthrough came on September 3, 1967, when she won the national talent competition “New Faces” (Nya Ansikten) with the song “En ledig dag” (“A Day Off”). The first prize was a recording contract with EMI Sweden and a live television performance on the popular show Hylands Hörna, which brought her national recognition.
She released several schlager-style singles with EMI, though with mixed commercial success initially. Her musical taste began shifting toward a more contemporary pop-rock sound after meeting Benny Andersson, who produced her recordings starting in 1971.
Before ABBA became a global phenomenon, the four members collaborated on a cabaret act called Festfolket in 1970 (later known as Festfolk in a 1971 revue). This project was a critical and commercial failure at the time. Despite this, the individual members were already known to the Swedish public, setting the stage for their collective international success after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with “Waterloo.”
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