Abba Reunites After Nearly 40 Years, Announces New Album and Digital Concert

Mamma Mia! ABBA is making a comeback and is releasing its first studio album in 40 years. The popular Swedish pop group split in 1982 and decided to get back together after working on a stage show. The band announced it would be releasing a new album titled Voyage on November 5 and will contain 10 tracks. ABBA's new album will be released through Universal Music Group’s Capitol label, reported NBC. "We are on our way back! Thank you for waiting. ABBA Voyage is the concert we've always wanted to perform for our fans. The journey is about to begin!" read a tweet from the group. The pop group will also be hosting virtual concerts where Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson, and Björn Ulvaeus will appear as avatars and will perform at a specially built venue, called ABBA Arena, in London's Olympic Park starting next May and play six nights a week. The revolutionary concert will see ABBA band members appearing in digital form with a live 10-piece band. The group said the reunion was inspired by their area of "creating the strangest and most spectacular concert you could ever dream of."

It was a surreal experience for the ban, to reunite after so many years. “Such joy it was to work with the group again — I am so happy with what we have made,” said Lyngstad, before calling Andersson and Ulvaeus “exceptionally talented, truly genius songwriters,” reported The Guardian. "I was completely floored by the way they delivered those songs," said Ulvaeus referring to Fältskog and Lyngstad. Andersson said, “I think hearing Frida and Agnetha singing again is hard to beat,” before adding, “We’re truly sailing in uncharted waters. With the help of our younger selves, we travel into the future.”

"The Voyage project has injected new life into us in more ways than one," said Ulvaeus. “So, again, thanks for waiting! We hope to see you in the 'ABBA Arena' and yes — see — because we have infused a good deal of our souls into those avatars. It’s not an exaggeration to say that we’re back.” The band made live-streamed the announcement and also played two tracks — I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down — from the album. More than 200,000 people tuned in. "Join us for a concert 40 years in the making. A concert that combines the old and new, the young and not-so-young. A concert that has brought all four of us together again," reads a piece on their website. The digital 'ABBA-tars' for the concert were made possible by visual effects company Industrial Light and Magic, founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas. The 'ABBA-tars' were "created following weeks and months of motion-capture and performance techniques with the four band members and an 850-strong team from Industrial Light & Magic, the company founded by George Lucas, in what is the company’s first foray into music," said the band in its news release.

ABBA is one of the most successful pop bands of all time, selling close to 400 million albums worldwide. TikTok has also seen a renewed spike in the pop group with many younger fans discovering their popular hits including Dancing Queen, Chiquitita, and Slipping Through My Fingers." The group also witnessed a resurgence after the musical Mamma Mia! debuted, followed by the films starring Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård among others.

After gaining popularity on TikTok, the group also started its own TikTok account and has already garnered more than 738,000 followers and 3.2 million likes. "It’s been a while since we made music together. Almost 40 years, actually. We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it," said the band in a statement. 

References: 
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/abba-reunites-after-nearly-40-years-announce-new-album-digital-n1278397
https://twitter.com/ABBAVoyage/status/1433475335773954048
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/02/abba-reunite-for-voyage-first-new-album-in-40-years 
https://abbavoyage.com/

Image source: Instagram/abbavoyage