Joy was heard all over the world when the legendary Swedish band ABBA announced their comeback recently after nearly 40 years apart. For their new album Voyage, they have gathered together again in the recording studio. The new album is coming out in November of this year and has already broken records before it's even been released.
ABBA announces band-out
But after Voyage, the comeback will be over for ABBA - once and for all. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus confirmed this in a very rare interview with The Guardian. In the eighties, the band never expected ABBA to even return.
"In the beginning of the 80s, when we stopped recording, it felt as though Abba was completely done, and there would be no more talk about it. It was actually dead. It was so uncool to like Abba," Ulvaeus revealed in the interview.
Nevertheless, there will soon be a tour of the cult musicians - a purely virtual one with "Abbatars". There will be an "immersive live experience" in London with computer-animated avatars - revolutionary in the music business.
To prepare for this new experience, "being on a stage together, recording everything, singing those 24 songs or whatever it was, performing them as we would have done if there was a stage, but in front of 75 guys with computers and hundreds of cameras," Ulvaeus revealed what it was like. These avatars will look like the younger version of the band members, but they have no problem with that.
Björn explains: "You have to realize, that we are confronted by our younger selves all the time on television, in pictures and all of that. Everyone asks us if it must have been very weird, but for me, I don’t think so. It’s completely natural. Everyone should have their own avatar."
It would be possible to expand this technology and use it in several cities as the rush for tickets was enormous. The band's website even collapsed. But then there won't be more music, as Andersson confirms. After the comeback, ABBA will be done for good.
They did not announce an official break-up in the eighties, but that changes this time, as Andersson confirms: "I never said myself that Abba was never going to happen again. But I can tell you now: this is it."
ABBA Voyage opens on May 27, 2022 at the ABBA Arena in London and the new album Voyage will be released on November 5, 2021.
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