Editing Anni-Frid Lyngstad (section)

===1958–1969: Early work===
Lyngstad stated in several interviews that her grandmother frequently sang songs to her (such as old Norwegian songs), which resulted in her love for music. She showed musical talent at a very early age from her earliest school years. On Fridays, she was often asked by her teacher to sing in front of the class and soon became known in school and in the neighbourhood for her beautiful voice. Although her grandmother encouraged her to sing (according to Lyngstad herself), she never attended any of her performances. Her grandmother died shortly before ABBA formed, so she never witnessed the success of the group.

[[File:Anni Frid Lyngstad on Expressen 4 September 1967.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Lyngstad in September 1967]]
At the age of 13, Lyngstad gained her first job as a [[Dansband|dance band]] and [[schlager]] singer in 1958, with the Evald Ek's Orchestra. Evald Ek himself remembers: "It was hard to believe, such a young person could sing that well. She was so easy to rehearse with and she was never shy onstage. The only thing I taught her was to sing out. In those days, she had a tendency of holding back her voice a little." With the Evald Eks Orchestra, the 13-year-old Lyngstad, performed every weekend in front of a dancing audience. The sets often lasted up to five hours. The songs she liked most to sing were standards such as "[[All of Me (Ruth Etting song)|All of Me]]", "[[Night and Day (song)|Night and Day]]" and "[[Begin the Beguine]]".<ref>[[Palm, Carl Magnus]] ''ABBA THE STORY'' (Swedish Edition), pp. 73–74.</ref> To advance and develop, she also started to take singing lessons with opera tenor Folke Andersson. 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]]. 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.

On 3 September 1967, Lyngstad won the Swedish national talent competition "New Faces", arranged by record company [[EMI|EMI Svenska]], and held at [[Skansen]], Stockholm. The song she chose to sing was "''[[En ledig dag]]''" ("A Day Off"; original title "Week-End in Portofino"). The first prize in this contest was a recording contract with EMI's Swedish subsidiary. 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''. This happened on the same day [[Dagen H|Sweden switched]] from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right-hand side. Driving on that day was discouraged, so most of the nation was watching TV that night. Lyngstad performed her winning song live. The performance can be seen on ''[[Frida – The DVD]]''.

This first exposure to a wider television audience caused a sensation, and many record companies and producers contacted Frida immediately. 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. EMI producer Olle Bergman remembers: "We got so interested and fond of her and I thought she had everything a person needs to become something."<ref>Inner sleeve of EMI compilation album Frida 1967–1972.</ref>

On 11 September 1967, Lyngstad recorded the vocals for "''[[En ledig dag]]''", which was to become her first single for EMI, under the company's British [[His Master's Voice (British record label)|His Master's Voice]] label. Professional and self-assured on this first day in the studio, she recorded the vocals in just one take.<ref>Inner sleeve of EMI compilation album ''Frida 1967–1972''</ref> The early songs she recorded for EMI are included in the compilation album ''[[Frida 1967–1972]]'', released by EMI Sweden in 1997.

On 29 January 1968, she performed this song on ''Studio 8'' on national television and on this occasion briefly met future ABBA member [[Agnetha Fältskog]], who also performed her first single on the same SVT1 programme. Lyngstad toured Sweden with Lasse Lönndahl and Bengt Hallberg in 1968, and recorded several singles for EMI. At the same time, she decided to leave her family and move to [[Stockholm]] to start working full-time as a singer.

In 1969, she participated in [[Melodifestivalen]], the Swedish heats for the [[Eurovision Song Contest]], with the song "''[[Härlig Är Vår Jord|Härlig är vår jord]]''" ("Our Earth Is Wonderful"), and finished in fourth place. Backstage she met her future second husband and ABBA bandmate Benny Andersson.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.europopmusic.eu/Scandanavia_pages/Frida.html|title=Anni-Frid Lyngstad (Frida) – Europopmusic|website=europopmusic.eu|access-date=5 March 2018}}</ref>