Swedish superstars ABBA on Thursday announced a musical comeback with a new album and a London show featuring their performances captured by digital avatars. The group’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson said via a video presentation in London that “we have made a new album with ABBA”.
ABBA is releasing its first new music in four decades, along with a concert performance that will see the “Dancing Queen” quartet going entirely digital. The forthcoming album “Voyage,” to be released on November 5, is a follow-up to 1981’s “The Visitors,” which until now had been the swan song of the Swedish supergroup and a virtual version of the band will begin a series of concerts in London on May 27. Almost as famous for their over-the-top outfits as their music, the group notched up over 400 million album sales over 50 years despite parting ways in 1982 and resolutely resisting all offers to work together again — until now. The presentation came after the group — Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 75, Agnetha Faltskog, 71, Ulvaeus, 76, and Andersson, 74 — announced on Twitter last week: “Thank you for waiting, the journey is about to begin.”
The Swedish pop icons had announced they were returning to the studio in 2018, saying: “We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio.” They have mentioned five new songs, including “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down”, both of which were played in London Thursday. According to the release, the members of ABBA, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, wore these outfits for “weeks and months,” working alongside an 850-member team from ILM, owned by filmmaker George Lucas.
