Stig Anderson

Swedish, Stig "Stikkan" Anderson professionally worked as producer, songwriter, publisher, artist manager and record executive, born 25 January 1931 in Hova, died 12 September 1997 in Stockholm. He is best known as ABBA's manager during the 1970s and 1980s, and sometimes referred to, in the press as the fifth member of the group. His ingenious idea to shop ABBA around the world, to get the best deal, resulted in signing the group to many different record labels. Not a common practice with most music acts. Co-founder of Polar Music AB / Polar in 1963 and Union Songs AB in 1967. Founder of the Polar Music Prize in 1989. As a songwriter, he also translated many popular English language songs into Swedish, some for the artists signed to his Polar label. He was married to Gudrun Anderson (1955-1985), and had two sons, Anders and Lasse Anderson, and a daughter, Marie Ledin. Since 1983, he was father-in-law of Tomas Ledin.