In a revelation that has left ABBA fans reeling, Benny Andersson, the musical genius behind the Swedish supergroup’s iconic hits, has finally come clean about a dark secret the band buried for over 40 years. The 78-year-old composer and keyboardist dropped the bombshell during an interview with Rolling Stone to mark the 50th anniversary of ABBA’s 1974 Eurovision win with “Waterloo”—and it’s a confession that could rewrite the quartet’s glittering legacy.
“We hid it for decades,” Benny admitted, his voice heavy with emotion as he sat in his Stockholm studio, surrounded by the synthesizers that shaped songs like “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia.” “It’s eaten at me all this time, but the truth has to come out now. ABBA wasn’t always what it seemed—we were living a lie, and it nearly destroyed us.”
According to Benny, the “awful truth” centers on the band’s meteoric rise—and the personal toll it took behind the scenes. “Everyone thinks the ’70s were all sequins and harmony,” he said. “But there was a moment—a breaking point—where we almost didn’t survive. It was 1978, right after ‘Take a Chance on Me.’ Agnetha [Fältskog] and I were crumbling, Björn [Ulvaeus] and Frida [Anni-Frid Lyngstad] were barely speaking, and the pressure was suffocating. We faked it for the fans, but offstage, it was chaos.”
The bombshell? Benny confirmed long-whispered rumors that ABBA nearly disbanded mid-tour—and that a secret pact forced them to stay together. “We’d signed a deal with our label that locked us in,” he revealed. “If we’d walked away, we’d have lost everything—royalties, rights, the lot. So we made a choice: pretend we were fine, keep smiling, and bury the pain. It saved ABBA, but it cost us our souls.”
Fans on X are reeling from the news. “Benny saying ABBA was a lie is breaking my heart,” one user posted alongside a crying emoji. Another wrote, “I knew those smiles were too perfect—1978 ABBA was a soap opera we never saw!” The confession has sparked heated debate, with some hailing Benny’s honesty and others accusing him of tarnishing the band’s joyful image.
Benny didn’t stop there. He hinted at a deeper betrayal, though he refused to name names. “Someone close to us—someone we trusted—fed the machine that kept us trapped,” he said cryptically. “It wasn’t just the label. There was blackmail, tears, ultimatums. I’ll take the full story to my grave, but I’m done carrying the weight alone.”
Speculation is rife that he’s pointing to ABBA’s former manager, Stig Anderson, often credited with masterminding their success but also rumored to have ruled with an iron fist. Björn Ulvaeus, Benny’s longtime songwriting partner, has stayed silent, while Agnetha and Frida have yet to respond. A source close to the group claims the women were “blindsided” by Benny’s candor. “They thought the pact was sacred,” the insider said. “This could reopen old wounds.”
The timing of Benny’s revelation isn’t random. With ABBA’s Voyage hologram show still dazzling audiences and a new generation rediscovering their music via TikTok, he said he felt compelled to speak. “The kids deserve to know the real ABBA—not just the fairy tale,” he explained. “We were human, flawed, and sometimes broken. That’s the truth behind the disco beats.”
Not everyone’s buying it. Some fans on X speculate Benny’s drumming up hype for a tell-all memoir, with one posting, “Awful truth or PR stunt? I’m skeptical.” Others are devastated, flooding social media with clips of “The Winner Takes It All,” now seen as a haunting clue to the band’s strife. “That song hits different now,” a commenter noted.