Mamma Mia, here we go again – ABBA is alive and back after a 40 year hiatus but in the form of avatars to dazzle fans via a set of virtual concerts
The pop legends will release 10 songs in their album called Abba Voyage, teasing the new hits via a globally streamed press conference.
The first, I Still Have Faith In You, is a piano ballad that pays homage to the friendship formed by the four musicians.
“When Benny played the melody, I just knew it had to be about us,” said Bjorn Ulvaeus, a member of ABBA.
The group split in the early 1980’s and organically ended back in the studio recording together.
“At first it was just two songs, and then we said, ‘Well, maybe we should do a few others,'” said Benny Andersson.
My my! Abba avatars to take the virtual stage
The band’s new songs will be played during the band’s virtual concert, also titled Abba Voyage.
The four musicians will perform in a set of virtual concerts, where avatars of the four band members will play hits like Waterloo and dancing queen.
This virtual experience is set to open next year in a specially-built arena in east London.
The quartet who are now in their 70s, are transported back to the 1970’s.
Almost one thousand people worked to re-create Abba “in their prime” using motion capture technology that scanned “every mannerism and every motion”.
The clones of ABBA will appear in various virtual guises, from their satin-clad 1970s pomp to futuristic Tron-style space suits.
“Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Bjorn got on stage in front of 160 cameras and almost as many VFX geniuses, and they performed every song in this show, to perfection, over five weeks,” Ludvig Andersson, a producer said.
Why London? Bjorn said “London is the the best city to be in when it comes to entertainment, theatre, musicals… We have always felt that the Brits see us as their own.”
“There’s no real need for ABBA to be on TikTok because their music is all over it anyway, but it’s about making sure people connect their music with ABBA the brand, and that will feed back into other areas of the empire,” Sutherland says.
