On 30 August 1984 at 6:30 pm I heared on the radio that Frida (from ABBA fame) was in Holland to a) make a video clip and b) promote her new Shine album. I decided that I just had to meet her.

There was no time to waste. I phoned the president of the fanclub. She told me that she didn't know where Frida was staying, which I didn't believe, but she expected Frida to stay in one of Amsterdam's luxury hotels.

A couple of phone calls later I knew that she stayed in the Sonesta Hotel. So I went to Amsterdam together with a friend of mine who happened to like ABBA too. The Sonesta people told us that she was out to dinner and they even told us to which restaurant.

We decided to go there and indeed we could see "her majesty the queen of ABBA" wining and dining. We didn't enter the restaurant, because we wanted to give her some privacy. So we waited outside of the restaurant and occasionally looked if she was still there.

By then she had noticed us and thought that we were journalists. So she sent one of the people from the restaurant staff to us. He asked if we were journalists. We said "No, just fans wanting an autograph and a photo."

The guy went back and a couple of minutes later Frida came to us, talked with us, willingly autographed a couple of records and posed for photos. In other words: I had a nice time.

And did we take brilliant pictures ...

Hover over the thumbnail pictures if you want to see the normal-sized pictures.

Frida and me

When the lady smiles ...

Is that woman really Görel?

Oh no, not him again