ABBA drops new music and announces a holographic concert!
London, UK - Attention Dancing Queens!
You can dance, you can jive to some new ABBA tunes!
The wait for more music from the Swedish songsters is finally over.
ABBA dropped two new singles on Thursday and announced a release date for their first album together in 40 years.
Voyage will debut on November 5, and will include 10 new tracks from the pop sensations. Two of those, I Still Have Faith in You and Don't Shut Me Down, have now been unleashed.
The group also announced an upcoming "revolutionary concert" residency that they called "40 years in the making."
ABBA Voyage will feature the group members as avatars, accompanied by a live 10-piece band. The show will play seven times a week in a custom-built arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London beginning May 2022.
The concert will use "state-of-the-art motion capture technology" that combines light, video, and audio in an experience the group calls "neither digital nor physical."
The group touted the event and debuted their new songs at a press conference in London on Thursday, which was also livestreamed.
"No comeback would be complete without new music!" ABBA wrote on Twitter.
The newly released tracks have the same disco-pop beat paired with lyrical depth that the group has become known for. An accompanying video shows a compilation of past footage of the band during their touring heyday.
"Such a joy it was to work with the group again," said band member Frida. "I am so happy with what we have made, and I dearly hope our fans feel the same."
ABBA also joined TikTok on Monday, and already has over one million followers.
ABBA had previously planned an ABBAtar hologram tour
To celebrate the release on Thursday, bars in New York City were flooded with ABBA swag, while landmarks in the London skyline were lit up with the album's artwork.
The band had previously recorded footage for a planned ABBAtar hologram tour to mark their 50th Anniversary in 2020, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. In the past, they've reportedly turned down $1 billion to reunite in person for a reunion tour.
In 2018, the group announced they had recorded new material at member Björn Ulvaeus's (76) studio in Stockholm, but the release of the songs had been delayed – until now.
Björn combined forces with Agnetha Fältskog (71), Benny Andersson (74), and Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad (75) to catapult to international acclaim after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo in 1974.
They have since sold more than 400 million records to become one of the most successful music acts in history. Mamma Mia, a musical based on their songs, became a worldwide hit and sparked the creation of two movies. Dancing Queen is still one of the most recognizable songs of all time.
The quartet last performed together in 1982 at the height of their career, and reunited for a private event in 2016.
"The future of ABBA begins today," the band wrote of their new ABBA Voyage.
Cover photo: IMAGO / TT