Abba back together again

– “Mamma Mia! Here we go again.” Sweden’s legendary disco group Abba announced yesterday that they have reunited to record two new songs – 35 years after their last single.

“We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did,” the group said in a statement after repeated comments that they would never reunite.

They said they had recorded two new songs, one titled I Still Have Faith In You.

The quartet split up in 1982, after dominating the disco scene for more than a decade with hits like Waterloo, Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia and Super Trouper.

“It was like time had stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience,” members Agnetha Faltskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson said.

The group, who sold more than 400 million albums, have not sung together on stage since 1986.

But now, computerised avatars are to perform I Still Have Faith In You in a TV special produced by NBC and the BBC to be broadcast in December, the group said. “We have come of age, but the song is new. And it feels good.”

They said the “exciting Abba avatar tour project had an unexpected consequence”.

Bjorn, 73, was married to Agnetha, 68, and Benny, 71, was married to Anni-Frid, 72.

The group dominated the ’70s disco scene with their glitzy costumes, kitsch dance routines and catchy melodies.

They first found global fame after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with Waterloo.

While they have appeared in public together on rare occasions, they have never reunited to perform as a group.

Manager Gorel Hanser told TT news agency hearing them record again was “just like in the Abba days”. –

Stockholm