ABBA is ready for some more of that “Money, Money, Money.”
Fans of the iconic Swedish pop band “Dancing Queen,” who have earned a reported $2 billion in a career that has spanned arena stages, 400 million record sales, the Broadway stage, and movie screens, have been waiting for the band’s first new music in nearly four decades.
The band’s new official Twitter account dropped a bombshell on Thursday morning, cryptically hyping an upcoming reunion “Voyage” of some sort.
This “Mamma Mia” of a big comeback tease is accompanied by a website for the mystery project, as well as the option to “Register your interest to be the first in line to hear more about ABBA Voyage”.
All of this was accompanied by the obligatory Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram links, which Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad could never have imagined when ABBA was formed in 1972.
The “Voyage” is expected to be a long-awaited “hologram tour” that Abba first announced in 2016, according to BBC. As part of the show, the band is expected to release five new songs as well as a documentary.
According to an insider who spilled some “huge” tea on The Sun, Björn, 76, Benny, 74, Agnetha, 71, and Anni-Frid, 75, have teamed up with “American Idol” mastermind Simon Fuller to bring the ideas to life.
“Fans should hold on to their hats because this is going to be one wild ride,” the tipster gushed. “Bjorn, Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid will all be there on the opening night, and they will finally unveil their Abba-tars, which are like holograms of themselves. The show will feature the Abba-tars performing and speaking to the audience. It will be like taking a step back in time for those watching.”
Ulvaeus told the BBC during the show’s pre-production in 2019, that Spice Girls manager Fuller pitched the idea to the Swedish supergroup.
“He came to Stockholm and he presented this idea to us that we could make identical digital copies of ourselves of a certain age,” Ulvaeus said, “and that those copies could then go on tour and they could sing our songs, you know, and lip sync. I’ve seen this project half-way through and it’s already mind-boggling.”
The concept may appear far-fetched, especially after some clunky pop superstar holograms were slammed, but experts told The Washington Post that cutting-edge technology has never been better.
“It’s like nothing has ever existed like that before,” Dave Nussbaum, the founder and CEO of PORTL, told The Washington Post of his company’s technology, which allows people to summon real-time holograms of performers virtually anywhere.
Meanwhile, ABBA’s first two new songs, “I Still Have Faith In You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down,” have been repeatedly postponed since their return to the studio in 2018.
Now, the band plans to thank fans for their patience by releasing three bonus tracks, with Ulvaeus confirming that the music will “definitely” be released this year.
He teased a possible reunion tour in The Herald Sun, saying, “It’s not a case of it might happen, it will happen.”
ABBA went on to sell nearly 400 million singles and albums worldwide after winning the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with their song “Waterloo.” Their final recording sessions as a band took place in 1982, but their music has been featured on the soundtracks for the cult hit “Muriel’s Wedding” and the smash international stage musical “Mamma Mia,” which has also spawned two hit big screen adaptations starring Meryl Streep and Cher.
