Agnetha Faeltskog, the reclusive former star of Abba fame, has decided to return to the studio following a nine year absence from recording music. The Swedish songstress announced her retirement from the music industry nearly a decade ago, but her distance from music has proved unsuccessful as the lure of the recording studio was clearly too much for Faeltskog, who is believed to have already returned to her place in front of a microphone to begin recording the new release.

Although being known as 'the quiet one' to the press for most of her life, especially after ABBA disbanded in 1982, she recently told the BBC that this view of her is a disconception. She said, "I have been described as a very mysterious human being and that hurts a little bit, because it's not like that at all."

The singer also discussed how she has taken to writing some of her own material too, although most of the credit for song writing goes to her producers. She told the BBC, "For this album, we had an idea that maybe I should try to write one song. I didn't want to do more. I'm not that composer that composes every day. But it was very exciting to see if it still worked - and it did!"

The new album, which will be simply title A, will be produced by fellow Swedes Jörgen Elofsson and Peter Nordahl, who have previously worked with the likes of Britney Spears and Westlife. Pre-orders for the album have already appeared on the New Zealand, Australia,Russia & the UK iTunes Store, with the album officially being released on 10 May 2013 (May 13 in UK). The album will also featuring a guest appearance from Take That's Gary Barlow.

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Watch the video for Agnetha's new single 'When You Really Loved Someone':