ABBA guitarist Lasse Wellander has died at the age of 71 as a result of cancer. This was announced on April 9 by entertainment portal It’s online.
The musician passed away on April 7, his family said.
“It is with unspeakable sadness that we must announce that our beloved Lasse has fallen asleep. Lasse recently contracted cancer and passed away early on Good Friday morning, surrounded by his loved ones.
Wellander began his guitar career as a teenager in the early 1960s and was a member of local bands in his hometown of Nora.
In October 1974, the artist began recording with ABBA their hits Intermezzo No.1 and Crazy World. He became the main guitarist for the Eurovision winning band and toured with them on world tours in 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1980.
In 2007, the guitarist helped record the soundtrack for the musical Mamma Mia starring Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried. The work was carried out at the Atlantis studio in Stockholm. In addition to his work with ABBA, Wellander released seven solo albums, two of which entered the top 40 album charts in the mid-1980s.
In 2005 the Royal Swedish Academy of Music awarded him the Albin Hagström Memorial Prize and in 2018 Wellander was awarded the Swedish Musicians Union’s Studioräven Award for his work as a session musician. Wellander’s latest singles were released in 2022.
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