‘We have made a new album’: ABBA unveils first new songs in decades
Swedish supergroup ABBA has released new songs and revealed details about their ‘revolutionary’ virtual tour in a massive event that included a nod to Australia.
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Nearly four decades after they broke up – and vowed never to reunite – Swedish superstars ABBA have released new music.
Their upcoming album Voyage, to be released on November 5, will be the group’s first in 40 years.
Speaking at a launch in London, ABBA members Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson confirmed what fans had been waiting for: “We have made a new album with ABBA”.
They also revealed that a tour performed by digital avatars – dubbed “ABBAtars” – will be staged at a 3000-seat capacity London venue in 2022.
ABBA marked the news with a global digital event, including having their “ABBAstars” on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
In a live event that was streamed worldwide, the group debuted two new songs, I Still Have Faith in You, a rousing emotional ballad performed by their holograms, and Don’t Shut Me Down, a classic ABBA disco belter.
Ulvaeus and Andersson said “it was time” to get back together.
“We’ve been longing for this for such a long time,” Ulvaeus told British DJ Zoe Ball during the official launch in London. “It’s new album and tour after 40 years – it’s incredible,” he added.
“First it was two songs, and then I thought, why don’t we do a few more? And the girls said yes.”
“It’s inconceivable to release a new album after 40 years and still be best friends and still enjoy each other’s company and have total loyalty.”
“The album is in the can now, it’s done,” said Andersson, describing the group’s return to the studio.
“It’s been 40 years, or 39, it was like no time had passed. It was quite amazing,” he said.
“We’ve done as good as we could at our age.
Andersson also revealed that going back into the studio as a foursome was “emotional”.
“It was so great being back, the four of us – it was joyful, it was very emotional,” he said.
“The memories came rushing back, the bonds we had. It all came rushing back in a manner of seconds,” added Ulvaeus.
“At our age there’s a certain depth to the whole thing,” continued Ulvaeus. “There’s a lot of experience to that, a lot of years, that I hope people can feel”.
“It’s the most fun thing you can do: to write songs,” he added.
But putting a slight dampener on things, the group’s iconic frontwomen, Anni-Frid (known as Frida) Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog, did not appear at the event. Ulvaeus, who was once married to Agnetha, said the two “don’t enjoy media like I do”.
Andersson and Ulvaeus also revealed the group voiced digital avatars of themselves in their heyday for a “state-of-the-art” show called ABBA Voyage to be staged at a 3,000-capacity theatre in London’s Olympic Park.
“It’s inconceivable to be where we are,” singer-guitarist Bjorn Ulvaeus said on Friday, before unveiling new songs I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut me Down.
“No imagination could dream up that; to release a new album after 40 years, and still be the best of friends … and enjoying each other’s company, and have total loyalty. Who has experienced that? Nobody.”
ABBA - Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Frida Lyngstad and Agnetha Faltskog - reunited two years ago to work on new songs and devise a live show featuring digital characters.
The album, comprising of 10 tracks, is titled Voyage, and will be released on November 5.
“What can you say about the songs? You have to hear it,” Andersson said at a media call on Friday. “It’s a little mixture of everything, like it has been on our records through the years.
He added: “There are a number of pop songs. I think it’s pretty good. We’ve done as good as we could at our age.”
Ulvaeus said: “At our age, there’s a certain depth to it … musically and lyrically, and of course, the way (Agnetha and Frida) sing, and the way they deliver. There’s a lot of experience, a lot of years in that, that I hope people can feel.”
Andersson said ABBA is not trying to compete against chart-topping rapper Drake and other modern-day artists.
“We never look at what the charts look like today, we never speculated,” he explained. “We decided ... just to write the best songs we could, and record them as best we could.
“We’re not competing with Drake and all these other guys. We can’t do that because I don’t understand what’s up there. I don’t understand the ingredients in the songs that work today. “It’s impossible to emulate,” Andersson said. “I don’t mind Drake, I just don’t know what they’re doing; the modern pop artists.”
Ulvaeus said regrouping with Faltskog and Lyngstad brought the “memories rushing back ...the relationships, bonds that we have. It all came back in a matter of seconds.”
Andersson: “It’s a funny thing. It’s been 40 years (since last recorded) … and it was like no time had passed.”
“We went into the studio knowing that if we didn’t think it was up to scratch, we would never release. But we are proud of (the new album),” Ulvaeus said.
Andersson said it was “joyful” to make music as ABBA again.
He joked; “Five minutes before (Frida and Agnetha) came into the studio, I was thinking, I should have asked if they can still sing? But they could, and they can, and they have done so.”
Ulvaeus nodded in agreement. “They are genuine musicians and creative souls, it is a privilege to hear them sing your music and words.”
Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Bjorn performed every song in the show to 160 cameras over five weeks, “capturing every mannerism, every emotion, the soul of their beings.”
Ulvaeus said the process was like working at NASA.
“We dressed up in leotards with dots and little things on them, we had dots on our faces and helmets, with cameras. And there we were, the four of us on stage doing these songs,” he said.
Andersson said his only complaint was having to shave his beard for the 1979 look featured in the show.
“I’ve had my beard for 50 years,” he said, then chuckled: “I can say one thing, Frida and Agnetha didn’t have to shave.”
The pop masterminds behind classics like Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia and Waterloo say they’ve never predicted their hits, and they feel the same about the new music.
“It doesn’t work like that. It’s (like) having a job. My work is to write music,” Andersson said. “You go to work and you try to do it as perfectly as possible. That’s how it is. Nothing else.”
He said the band never takes their success for granted. “We knew we were sort of hot stuff,” Andersson said about releasing Arrival and Super Trouper albums, which became hits.”But that doesn’t mean the audience will like the next record ... and this (new album), I have no idea. We shall see.”
The tracks on ABBA’s new album Voyage are: I Still Have Faith In You, When You Danced With Me, Little Things, Don’t Shut Me Down, Just A Notion, I Can Be That Woman, Keep An Eye On Dan, Bumblebee, No Doubt About It, and Ode To Freedom.
The live show will launch next May with tickets to go on sale on September 7 and will run eight times a week, featuring a blend of previously filmed and projected content and live performers.
The project was delayed by the Covid pandemic and technological issues with the avatars.
Producer Ludwig Andersson (Benny’s son), said the animated avatars will show “ABBA in their prime – 1979”.
The four were recorded in a studio playing live so their performance could be used to construct the “ABBAtars”.
“It’s not four people pretending to be ABBA – it is actually them,” he added. “What you see when you come to this show is actually us,” Ulvaeus said. “We wanted to do it before we were dead.”
Andersson also revealed the 22-song, 90-minute concert would be a “greatest hits” show.
“There’s an old saying in the music industry, you should never go 40 years between albums,” Ulvaeus laughed.
First look: #ABBA in digital form at Waterloo Station, London, this morning! 📸 Sam Burgess. pic.twitter.com/lV9LSOCw3V
— ABBAtalk (@abbatalk) September 2, 2021
GIMME GIMME GIMME
Almost as famous for their over-the-top outfits as their music, the group have notched up over 400 million album sales over 50 years.
They had a string of hits in the 1970s and early 1980s after winning Eurovision in 1974 with “Waterloo”.
Since parting ways in 1982 they have resisted all offers to work together as a foursome.
The now septuagenarian stars of pop classics such as Dancing Queen, The Winner Takes It All and Take a Chance on Me, earlier told fans they would make a “historic” announcement.
Last week, the group announced on Twitter: “Thank you for waiting, the journey is about to begin.” A website called ABBAVoyage.com promises a “historic livestream” and Universal Music Group, which owns the band’s back catalogue, was set to hold an event at an East London observation tower.
Carl Magnus Palm, who has written several books on the band, had told reporters the group will debut at least one new song, appearing as digital avatars using hologram technology.
ABBA have recorded at least two new songs, said Palm, while British newspaper The Sun reported the group has recorded a whole album’s worth in a “sensational comeback”.
The songs were created for a show set to launch in London next year, Palm said. The Swedish pop icons announced they were returning to the studio in 2018, saying: “We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio.” They have mentioned five new songs, including I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down.
Ulvaeus told UK paper The Times in April he wrote the lyrics and Andersson composed the music.
The group “still sounds very much ABBA”, he said.
The group has not released any new music since 1981 and broke up the following year after both of the quartet’s married couples divorced.
They steered clear of a reunion despite their music’s enduring popularity, fuelled by a hit compilation album in 1992, the Mamma Mia musical and later spin-off films starring Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan.
“There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were,” Ulvaeus said in a 2008 interview.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, each member of ABBA is worth around $US300 million ($A410 million). In 2000, they turned down a $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) offer to perform a 100-show world tour.
“They’re very independently wealthy so I don’t think it’s because of the money,” Palm said of their comeback.
“I think they’re genuinely excited by the possibilities of this.”
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