ABBA Teases First New Music in 40 Years — ABBA Voyage Coming

Members of ABBA in 2008 (photo: Daniel Åhs Karlsson CC by 3.0)

Swedish pop group ABBA is teasing new music with a social media post – ABBA Voyage.

The post invites fans to join the group on September 2nd to learn more about ABBA Voyage. Also shared with the teaser is a clip of their 1982 song, “You Owe Me One.”

Fans of ABBA have been awaiting new music since 2016 when the group announced they would reunite for a live entertainment experience. Produced by Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, the interactive experience will blend virtual reality and digital technology.

The project has been delayed for nearly five years, but ABBA has recorded five new songs. They’re also planning an avatar tour for 2022. The songs will be the first new material in nearly 40 years from the Swedish supergroup.

“I’m forbidden to say anything more about it,” Björn Ulvaeus told interviewers. “All I can say is that it was fantastic in the studio because it was like yesterday. It was so strange coming into that studio and the four of us looking at each other and thinking, ‘what is this?’ It all came rushing back.”

ABBA became international superstars overnight in 1974 when the song “Waterloo” won Eurovision.

The group split in 1982, but their music has found new life thanks to works like Broadway’s Mamma Mia! ABBA has also gained a huge following on TikTok, where songs like “Chiquitita” and “Slipping Through My Fingers” have trended in recent months.

ABBA Voyage may be the long-awaited hologram tour that was promised in 2016.

The quartet – Agnetha Faltskog, Anna-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson – returned to the studio in 2018. They were supposed to release two tracks, but they have been delayed. Ulvaeus has promised fans that the new music will definitely come out this year.

The Sun reports that ABBA Voyage will feature holograms beamed onstage in a purpose-built East London theatre. Fans will also be able to see a documentary-style film about the band’s comeback.

“He came to Stockholm, and he presented this idea to us that we could make identical digital copies of ourselves of a certain age and that those copies could then go on tour and they could sing our songs, you know, and lip-sync,” Ulvaeus told the BBC.

“I’ve seen this project halfway through, and it’s already mind-boggling.” Filming for the hologram tour took place at London’s Ealing Studios last year. Since 1974, the group has sold more than 400 million singles and albums across the globe.