Born in Bjørkåsen (in Ballangen Municipality), Norway, to a Norwegian mother and a German father, she grew up in Torshälla, Sweden, and started her first solo career there, as a jazz singer in 1967, through a talent competition called New Faces.

Lyngstad did not find international fame, however, until she joined ABBA, who have sold over 150 million albums and singles worldwide, making the group, which included her second husband Benny Andersson, one of the best-selling music acts in history.

Anni-Frid Synni Lyngstad[1] was born on 15 November 1945 in Bjørkåsen, a small village in Ballangen Municipality near the town of Narvik, in northern Norway.

[2] In early 1947, Synni, her own mother Arntine and infant Anni-Frid left their small village in Ballangen, fearing reprisals against those Norwegians that had children conceived by German military fathers during the occupation of their country.

Anni-Frid would grow up believing her father had died during World War II as his ship had been reported to have sunk on its return to Germany.

[5][2] In 1977, the German teen magazine Bravo published a poster and a complete biography with details of Anni-Frid's background, including the names of her mother and father.

Later, she teamed up with the 15-piece Bengt Sandlunds Bigband, who performed a jazz repertoire covering Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington and Count Basie, her vocal idols being Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee.

On 3 September 1967, Lyngstad won the Swedish national talent competition "New Faces", arranged by record company EMI Svenska, and held at Skansen, Stockholm.

Unbeknownst to Lyngstad, the winner of the contest was also expected to appear the same evening in the country's most popular TV show at that time, Hylands Hörna.

EMI executives, fearing they might lose their new singer, took the precaution of driving from Stockholm to Lyngstad's home in Eskilstuna the next morning with a recording contract for her to sign.

"[8] On 11 September 1967, Lyngstad recorded the vocals for "En ledig dag", which was to become her first single for EMI Sweden, under the company's His Master's Voice label.

A reviewer for the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter wrote: "Professional, sure and certain LP-debut ... low-key but self-assured personality with sprinkles of temperament, humor and tenderness.

The success of the single led EMI Columbia to re-issue the Frida album with "Min egen stad" added to the beginning of side two of the LP.

Andersson and Ulvaeus were busy producing other artists, but soon discovered the qualities of Lyngstad's and Fältskog's voices combined; thus, the band was formed initially as Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid, later renamed ABBA.

Possessing a wide mezzo-soprano vocal range, that covers C#3 to Eb6,[15] Lyngstad sang solo parts in the following ABBA songs: "Andante, Andante", "Bumblebee", "Cassandra", "Fernando", "Get on the Carousel", "Gonna Sing You My Lovesong", "I Am the City", "I Have a Dream", "I Let the Music Speak", "On Top of Old Smokey", "I Still Have Faith in You", "I Wonder (Departure)", "The King Has Lost His Crown", "Knowing Me, Knowing You", "Like an Angel Passing Through My Room", "Lovers (Live a Little Longer)", "Me and Bobby and Bobby's Brother", "Me and I", "Money, Money, Money", "The Name of the Game", "No Doubt About It", "One Man, One Woman", "Our Last Summer", "Put On Your White Sombrero", "Should I Laugh or Cry", "Super Trouper", "Tropical Loveland", "The Visitors", "The Way Old Friends Do" and "When All Is Said and Done".

The album was mostly a collection of covers of songs by artists such as the Beach Boys ("Skulle de' va' skönt"), 10cc ("Guld och gröna ängar") and David Bowie ("Liv på Mars?

"), receiving positive reviews from Melody Maker: "The album portrays Frida as a very strong and emotive singer and shows the true value of the music, that if sung properly and with enough feeling it transcends all language barriers".

William Cooper had a similar opinion in AllMusic: "Frida escapes the creative limitations of being a member of one of the world's most popular groups on this solid and often riveting album".

Owing to the success of the album (selling 1.5 million copies worldwide),[6] and its lead single, Frida was voted "Best Female Artist Of The Year" 1982, by the readers of Sweden's biggest evening paper Aftonbladet, receiving the Swedish Music Award Price Rockbjörnen.

[20] Also in 1992, Lyngstad performed live at the Stockholm Water Festival at the Kings Castle and released the environmental charity single with her cover of Julian Lennon's song "Saltwater".

Lord and Lyngstad made several TV appearances in Germany performing the song, on shows like The Sunday Night Classics and The Golden Henne Gala.

Also in 2004, Lyngstad appeared with former bandmates Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus in London at the fifth-anniversary performance of Mamma Mia!, the musical based on ABBA songs.

It was a project several years in the making; what started as an upbeat reflection on fame and being a fan developed into a meditation on the communication between two people and coping with the blows life deals.

[23] In the summer of 2017, Lyngstad joined her ABBA bandmates Agnetha Faltskög, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to record two new songs, "I Still Have Faith in You" and "Don't Shut Me Down".

These songs were meant to be part of an ABBA-themed TV special that was eventually discarded and replaced by the more ambitious, digital-laden Voyage show.

The new record, their first studio album in 40 years, features ten tracks, including "I Still Have Faith In You" and "Don't Shut Me Down", which also were first shown in the aforementioned livestream event and released as a double A-side single.

[25] On 13 January 1998, Lyngstad's 30-year-old daughter Ann Lise-Lotte Fredriksson Casper died of injuries sustained in a car accident in the United States in Livonia, New York.

[30][31] She appeared in a Swedish Employers Association advertisement, Satsa på dig själv ("Invest in yourself"), in 1979,[32][33][30] which caused controversy and objections from the left, especially from Mikael Wiehe, who rejected her offer to record a cover version of his song "Flickan och kråkan", because of political differences, in the 1980s.

[39] She was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ABBA in 2010,[40] and she represented the group in their acceptance speech, along with Benny Andersson.

[23] On 21 March 2024, all four members of ABBA were appointed Commander, First Class, of the Royal Order of Vasa by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.