One of the most anticipated returns in pop culture has finally come true: the return Abba.
After 40 years after the two bands divorced and wrote bitter songs for their last album, the visitor in 1981, the Swedish Pop Quartet reunited Voyage. This is a brand new album that will be released on November 5th. ——Including, they said, a Christmas song. Its two tracks, solemn and epic ballads I still have faith in you, and trembling don’t let me down, are now out.
The bands Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Björn Ulvaeus also announced that they will host a new concert experience in London in May 2022, also known as Voyage. Their digital version (not a hologram, their team claims) will appear every night in a new 3,000-seat venue in the city’s Olympic Park (called Abba Arena) with a live band of 10 people. Tickets General sales will start on Tuesday, September 7.
Lyngstad said of their reunion: “It’s really nice to work with the band again — I’m very happy with what we did,” and said Anderson and Urvaus were “talented and truly talented songwriters. “.
Ulvaeus said of Fältskog and Lyngstad: “I was completely blown away by the way they delivered these songs,” Andersson said: “I think it’s hard to beat when you hear Frida and Agnetha singing again.”
Anderson added: “We are really sailing in unknown waters. With the help of our young self, we move into the future.”
The digital avatar of Abba was created using motion capture technology, similar to that used by Andy Serkis and others when portraying CGI beasts in Hollywood movies: the team shot in tight suits for realistic entertainment. Wayne McGregor, The resident artist of the Royal Ballet of London, choreographed the band’s performance. The 850-person team of the effects company Industrial Light & Magic founded by George Lucas designed and animate the aging avatars in the lens.
McGregor said: “Imagine this: I grew up in the north of England in the 1970s and learned ballroom dancing, Latin dance and disco dancing to Abba’s incredible songs. I was eight years old and I was completely transported. Fast forward to 2020, exist Sweden Dancing with Abba-in real life! I’m almost 50 years old, and I have been completely removed again. This is the magic of Abba. He promised “technical magic, the most advanced immersive experience and entertainment innovation.” Still in its scorching heart, we only have new songs, new actions, classic songs, and classic actions. “
This video is directed by the filmmaker Baillie Walsh and directed by Johan Renck (most famously the Emmy Award-winning director of the TV miniseries “Chernobyl”) Produced with Svana Gisla, who collaborated with Lenk to produce a video for David Bowie’s last album “Blackstar”. Also on the creative team is Ludwig, the son of Benny Andersson’s filmmaker.
Both the concert and the album were discussed for a while. The concept of avatars—or “Abbatars” as Ulvaeus called them—was announced in 2016 by music manager Simon Fuller (who was not involved in the 2022 iteration). In 2017, Andersson elaborated on the project. He said: “It takes a while, and it takes time to digitize a face. Its technology is so advanced, it’s very interesting.” In 2018, the BBC and NBC jointly produced a virtual The image is a featured TV show, but it has not yet been broadcast.
The organization also announced that the meeting for the project had “unintended consequences. We all felt that it might be interesting to join forces again to enter the studio after about 35 years. So we did it. It’s as if time has stopped, we just Leaving in a short vacation. Very pleasant experience!”
Two songs were originally written and recorded, including that I still have confidence in you, but their release was postponed to the beginning of 2019 and then the end of 2019, but they never appeared. Since then, the group continued to write and record, eventually ending with a complete album.
During this period, their pop culture influence continued to grow.this Music stage mommy!It debuted in 1999 and recently reopened in London’s West End, reintroducing the band’s hit songs to the new generation. The 2008 film version earned more than £440 million at the global box office and is the enduring favorite of the family: it is the best-selling DVD of all time in the UK. The 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, global revenue is 285 million pounds.
Their continued popularity means that their 1992 hit single album, Abba Gold, is the longest-released album on the British album charts. In July, it became the first company to be there for more than 1,000 weeks and is currently ranked 14th.
However, long before the appearance of musicals and movies, their song catalogs were already one of the most successful and brilliant songs of all popular music. Established in 1972, when it gained fame in the mid-1970s, six of the seven consecutive singles ranked first in the UK: Fernando, Mama Mia, Dancing Queen, Know Me Know You, the name of the game, and Take a chance in me Body. They also have three top rankings, for a total of 19 top 10.
The reunion also brought the two former couples together again. Lyngstad and Andersson were engaged in 1971, and Fältskog and Ulvaeus were married in the same year, but by 1981, the two couples divorced within a year. Their romantic conflicts were frankly discussed in songs such as The Winner Takes It All and the psychodrama of their last album in 1981.
The organization failed in 1983 without officially announcing the breakup. In the following years, Fältskog released 13 solo albums, the most recent one was A in 2013; Lyngstad released three albums and occasionally made one-time recordings.
Andersson and Ulvaeus have co-written many musicals, including chess Cooperated with Tim Rice and in 2013 with EDM producer Avicii for Eurovision Song Contest, They won the game with Waterloo in 1974.
The group has long denied that they will perform live again. In 2014, Lyngstad said: “We only have one answer, and that is no… No amount of money will change our minds. Maybe we sometimes say that it would be nice to make a song together again, just recording.”
In 2016, they did perform a song together at a party celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Anderson-Ulvaus songwriting collaboration: The Way of Old Friends.
in a London During the Voyage launch event, Ulvaeus said that the band is as close as ever. “We are in an unbelievable position now, which is unimaginable by any imagination. After releasing a new album 40 years later, I am still a best friend… and still completely loyal. Who has had this experience? No one… …This is so interesting, we have been looking forward to it for a long time.”
Why do this project now? “We want to do this before we die,” he said.
Anderson also showed up, and he said that the worst part of the filming was that they had to shave. “I have been there for 50 years.”
Ulvaeus said that they chose London for their live performances because “London is the best city in terms of entertainment, theater, and musicals… We always feel that the British see us as their own people.”
When asked what is the best thing about Abba, Anderson replied refreshingly and frankly: “Don’t worry about money. You are free to do anything and continue to make music.”
