VOULEZ DEJAVU
FINALLY, after 39 years, Swedish legends ABBA are making a comeback.
They’ve launched a new website – ABBA Voyage – which is expected to be the title of the long-awaited “hologram tour” that the group initially announced in 2016.
And perhaps more exciting for fans, they will release new music next Friday – the first new tracks by Agnetha Faltskog, 71, AnnaFrid Lyngstad, 75, Bjorn Ulvaeus, 76, and Benny Andersson, 74, in almost four decades.
ABBA had returned to the studio in 2018, promising two new songs later that year.
Those tracks, I Still Have Faith In You and Don’t Shut Me Down, have been repeatedly delayed – and the band are now planning to release five tracks to accompany the show.
Earlier this year, Bjorn confirmed that the music would “definitely” come out this year.
As well as the new tracks the show will see, Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid’s younger selves dubbed Abba-tars – performing hits like Dancing Queen and SOS.
A purpose-built theatre in London will kick off the hologram show and will reportedly be ready by next month.
The tour is expected to stop at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro given the group’s connection with the city thanks to the lyric in Super Trouper: “I was sick and tired of everything, when I called you last night from Glasgow.”
THE SUCCESS
Formed in 1972, ABBA were essentially a Swedish supergroup, consisting of songwriters Bjorn and Benny from The Hep Stars and singers Agnetha and Anna
Frid, who had scored success as solo artists. The quartet had their first No1 in Sweden with Ring Ring in 1973. But it was winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo that started their world conquering rise. It went to No1 and was followed by another eight British chart-toppers including Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, which was also a No1 in America and Take a Chance on Me.
It’s estimated they’ve sold 385million records.
The group split in 1982 when personal tensions got too much. Agnetha and Bjorn were married in 1971 but divorced in 1980 while Anni-Frid and Benny had married in 1978 although they’d been together since 1969 and also divorced in 1981. Some of their best-loved songs such as Knowing Me, Knowing You and Winner Takes It All chart the couples’ break-ups.
Abba were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010 and had their music adapted into a musical Mamma Mia! which has been seen by more than 50million people and was also made into two films.
WHAT DID THEY DO AFTER ABBA?
Agnetha became something of a recluse although she did release solo albums in Swedish and English but not with the same success. She had to deal with a stalker and stopped recording music for 16 years until 2004. Her 2013 album A reached UK No6. A solo Anni-Frid reached No18 in 1982 with Something’s Going On. She has recorded several guest spots but in 2017 claimed she wouldn’t go back to touring. The boys continued their songwriting partnership with musicals Chess and Mamma!
WHY ARE THEY STILL SO POPULAR?
ABBA Gold, which was released in 1992, has spent 1000 weeks in the UK charts and is the second highest selling album in UK music history. The music is timeless, the lyrics still strike a chord dealing with love and break-ups and ABBA music, like Queen, has been used in the stage show and the movies to connect with new generations. Other musicians have also
expressed their love. Erasure’s 1992 Abbaesque EP and Madonna 2005 smash Hung Up (sampling Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!) both reached No1.
As Abba prepare to release new tracks and launch a hologram tour, RICK FULTON looks at why their popularity endures