#ABBA Officially Announces New Album and Digital Concert After 40 Years Away

It was back in 2018 that Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, collectively known as pop royalty ABBA, first announced that they were reuniting to produce new songs for the first time since they split in 1982. Now they have made it official, and it is more than any Abba fan could have hoped for as the group make their return with a brand new album and a digitally created live concert that will feature a 10 piece band in an area specially built in London, which begins on May 27th, 2022.

The new album, entitled Voyage will be released worldwide on November 5th this year, with two new Abba songs available to listen to now via the usual outlets. The album marks the first new collaborative release since 1982, and with over four decades having passed and the band members all now in their 70s, it was a day that many fans of the iconic group never believed they would see.

The new announcement follows the arrival of ABBA’s official TikTok channel earlier this week, which already had fans in a whirl, and we now know that the band will be back on stage as digital versions of themselves next year thanks to the technology of the George Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic, who have worked for months with the band in motion capture suits to bring this event to life in a way never seen before. The concert, entitled ABBA Voyage, will open in May at the state-of-the-art ABBA Arena, a purpose built 3000 capacity venue in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, England.

In a statement released earlier today, the group finally revealed the information fans had been waiting to hear for over three years.

“It’s been a while since we made music together. Almost 40 years, actually. We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it. They say it’s foolhardy to wait more than 40 years between albums, so we’ve recorded a follow-up to [1981’s] ‘The Visitors.’ To tell the truth, the main inspiration to record again comes from our involvement in creating the strangest and most spectacular concert you could ever dream of.”

“We’re going to be able to sit back in an audience and watch our digital selves perform our songs on a stage in a custom-built arena in London next spring. Weird and wonderful! To all of you who patiently have followed us in some way or another these past decades: Thank you for waiting – it’s time for a new journey to begin. We simply call it ‘Voyage’ and we’re truly sailing in uncharted waters. With the help of our younger selves, we travel into the future. It’s not easy to explain but then it hasn’t been done before.”

ABBA were one of the biggest pop groups in the world at the height of their fame, and despite having split up before a large portion of their fans were even born, their popularity has not waned over the years, with stage shows, tribute acts and constant appearances in various Top Ten lists continuing to prove just how influential they have been to multiple generations of music lovers.

Information and pre-registration for tickets can be found at abbavoyage.com, with ticked going on general sale from September 7. This news originated at https://variety.com/2021/music/news/abba-voyage-new-album-concert-1235054254/Variety}.