Anderson started as a composer and lyric writer and had his first song published
in Sweden in 1950, when he was 19 years old. During the 50s he wrote several songs,
a number of which became minor hits.
His first very big success, in 1959, was Klas-Göran, which gave him golden records
not only in all the Nordic countries, but also for instance in Holland (Rockin´Billy). At the
end of the 60s Sweden Music, Anderson´s company, was the biggest pop music
publisher in Scandinavia.
Anderson understood very early that he also needed a record label as a complement to
his publishing activity, so he formed Polar Music and had successes with local artists during
the 60s.
The big international break came with a Swedish group he came to call ABBA.
He was manager and lyric writer and they won the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton,
England, in 1974 with a song called Waterloo. The rest is history. In 1989 he sold his
companies to Polygram, but Anderson was still Chairman of the Board for Sweden Music
AB and Polar Music International.
Anderson received many Swedish and international awards during his years. For example,
he was an honorary member of The Royal Swedish Academy of Music, which was founded
in 1771. However, the International award he was most proud of was Billboard Magazine´s
Trendsetter Award´. Such a distinction had only been presented to one European person
before Stig Anderson, and that was Brian Epstein, The Beatles´ manager.
Stig Anderson died on September 12, 1997.
