Mamma Mia, here they go again. Almost 40 years after they broke up, Abba have announced plans to release a new album with a dramatic and digitally enhanced tour in the pipeline for next year.
The album, Abba Voyage, is to be released in November with a “revolutionary” set of concerts featuring Abba avatars – as opposed to the real people – set to take east London by storm in 2022.
The super troupers from Sweden provided the soundtrack of the seventies and despite the fact that they split up – both romantically and professionally – four decades ago they never really went away and have remained wildly popular in many parts of the world including Ireland.
They have sold more than 400 million albums and singles worldwide and inspired the stage musical Mamma Mia!, based on their songs which later became a massively successful film of the same name. They also gave Alan Patridge a most memorable catch phrase: "Ah ha".
In addition to announcing their comeback Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad also released two new songs, the first fresh music from the band since the early 1980s.
I Still Have Faith In You and Don't Shut Me Down, were given their first public airing at a press event at the top of the Orbit sculpture at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London, which was also livestreamed to thousands of fans.
I Still Have Faith In You is a ballad focussing on the bond the four band members still share while Don’t Shut Me Down is a more typically Abbaesque melodrama featuring a woman who goes back to her partner years after walking out.
Benny and Bjorn were the only two members of the band to attend the London event in person and they said the album was born after the quartet came together to film the digital concert which will star their avatars.
Bjorn said I Still Have Faith In You was “about realising it is inconceivable to be where we are. No imagination can dream up that. To release an album after 40 years and still be the best of friends and enjoying each other’s company and still have total loyalty. Who has experienced that? Nobody.”
Benny, meanwhile, said the band had chosen to host their digital concert in a purpose built site in east London because it is “the best city to be in When it comes to entertainment — theatre, musicals, concerts — it is all here. It has been here for years and years and years. There is a big audience travelling here for that reason. It was a no-brainer.”
