After 40 years since their heartbreaking 1981 release “The Visitors”, Swedish pop quartet Abba have announced the upcoming release of their brand new album, “Voyage”. Along with the 10-track album, the group also announced a ground-breaking concert experience featuring digital avatars of each member performing with a 10-piece live band.
Prior to the addition of the two female members Anni Frid “Frida” Lyngstad and Agnetha Fälstkog in 1970, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus had already been active musical collaborators. They had been performing and recording as “Björn & Benny” and were mainly romantically involved with the other two, although Frida and Agnetha — both amazing singers — would occasionally be asked by the duo to add vocal harmonies to their recordings and even perform with them live. Benny & Frida met and became a couple in 1969, and Björn & Agnetha met in the same year and got married in 1971.
That same year, the foursome started working more closely as a group. In 1973, band manager Stig Anderson started referring to the group as ABBA, which is an acronym of the members’ initials.
In 1974, they won the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Waterloo”, which eventually became their first major international hit as ABBA. In November of the same year, they began their first European tour while releasing hit songs, “SOS”, “Mamma Mia” and “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do”.
By 1976, ABBA had reached international stardom, releasing hit after hit such as “Fernando”, “Money, Money, Money”, “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and “Dancing Queen”. By 1978, they had become one of the biggest bands in the world. They decided to convert an old cinema in Stockholm into a state-of-the-art recording facility, Polar Music Studio. Legendary albums such as “Duke” by Genesis and Led Zeppelin’s “In Through The Outdoor”, to name a few, were recorded in the studio.
In the beginning of 1979, Björn and Agnetha announced their divorce. But this did not deter the band from continuing their work together, proceeding with their international tours and releasing their second compilation album, “Greatest Hits Vol 2” which included the chart-topper “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)”.
The following year, the band released their 8th UK chart-topping single “The Winner Takes It All” and, 4 months after, their 7th album “Super Trouper”.
In January 1981, ABBA released their 8th album “The Visitors”, and then one month after, Benny and Frida announced their divorce.
40 years later, the band decided to work with each other again to produce their new album “Voyage” with brand new material, including a Christmas song. Two brand new singles from the album have already been released: the monumental ballad “I Still Have Faith In You” and the elegantly groovy “Don’t Shut Me Down” — both songs very reminiscent of the classic 80’s ABBA-style pop.
Both singles were released along with music videos featuring footage from their upcoming live performances also entitled “Voyage”. Voyage is a ground-breaking concert experience that will feature digital avatars (aka ‘ABBAtars’) of each band member, capturing their 1979 selves to perform on stage with a 10-piece live band. According to Benny Andersson’s son and concert producer, Ludwig Andersson, “It is not a version of, or a copy of, or four people pretending to be ABBA. It is actually them.” The concert will run for 100 minutes with no interval for a fully immersive audience experience.
The concert will be held in an especially constructed arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic park starting in May of 2022. Named the Abba Arena, the venue has a 3,000-person capacity and will have tickets available on sale to the public from the 7th of September 2021.
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