ABBA announced their retirement following the release their first album in 40-years and the completion of their recently announced stage shows.
The Swedish pop pioneers split in 1982. However, they reformed earlier in the year to record Voyage, their ninth studio album, and to announce plans for a digital stage show. This will be held in London’s Stratford next spring.
However bandmembers Benny Andersson, 74, and Bjorn Ulvaeus, 76, insist the reunion is a one-off, with the band unlikely to record more music following the release of Voyage on November 22.
End of an era. ABBA announced their retirement following the release their first album in 40-years and the completion of their recently announced stage shows.
Speaking to The Guardian, Benny said: ‘This is it… It’s got to be, you know.’
Touching on the band’s original break-up, which followed almost a decade of chart domination, he added: ‘I didn’t actually say that, “This is it” in 1982.
‘I never thought that ABBA would never happen again. But I can now tell you: This is it.
The group, which also includes Agnetha Fältskog, 71, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 75, became household names after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with hit single Waterloo.
Legends: The Swedish pop pioneers originally split up in 1982, but reformed earlier this year to record ninth studio album Voyage and unveil plans for an immersive digital stage show
They released songs like Mama Mia!, Dancing Queen and Take a Chance on Me before leaving the music business.
The band announced that additional tickets will be available for their upcoming avatar tour.
Additional tickets for ABBA Voyage will be available starting at 10 a.m. on November 3, two days before the album’s release.
Tickets will be available at abbavoyage.com. There will be a pre-sale to Amazon UK customers who pre-order a physical copy of the new ABBA album starting Monday November 1, and a priority booking window open to ABBA Voyage subscribers starting on November 2 at 10am.
Bjorn Ulvaeus (76) and Benny Andersson (74), insist that the reunion is a one-off. The band won’t be recording any more music after Voyage was released on November 22nd.
The performance will be held in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s ABBA Arena, London, starting 27 May 2022.
After weeks and months of motion-capture, performance and other techniques, digital versions of each member of the quartet were created.
An 850-strong team from Industrial Light & Magic, the company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, led the company’s first foray into music.
Despite their worldwide popularity and sales of more than 400 million albums over 50 years, the foursome had previously stated that they would not reform.
Interview: Speaking to The Guardian, Benny said: ‘This is it… It’s got to be, you know’
In an interview with Australia’s A Current Affair on Friday, Björn teased: ‘That’s the vision we have, an experience that nobody has ever had in music.’
He added, “You know to sit in front of the audience on opening night, and see this whole thing, and see ourselves… It’s going be weird and wonderful.”
The singer promises it will be as authentic as possible.
“It will be Us, in the manner that we have infused ourselves into these avatars of movement, with facial expressions and with the voices, all that stuff makes it, it’s Us,” he said to the program.
Stars: The quartet previously stated they would never reorganize despite their immense popularity worldwide and having sold more than 400,000,000 albums in 50 years (pictured circa 1976).
According to The Sun, ‘The state of the art concert will run until 2025 and will feature Abba performing in holograms of their heyday.
‘It will be situated in a purpose-built 3,000-capacity venue in the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, where it will open next spring and an entire album of new music is being readied.’
It said: “The theatre, measuring 6,710-square metres, will host eight shows per week and will offer a 360-degree immersive environment, giving fans the opportunity to get up close with the recreations and real performers.
The Sun has seen plans that show that the building’s design allows it to be dismantled for transportation.
Histories: The group was a household name after they won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with their hit single Waterloo (pictured in holograms).
Preliminary plans are for a future move to Las Vegas, or Stockholm.
At the height of their careers, Waterloo’s group split up. Bjorn and Agnetha divorced during their final years, while Benny, Frida, and Frida also split up.
They performed together in concert for the first-time in decades in 2016 at an exclusive event that marked the 50th anniversary the first meeting of songwriters Bjorn & Benny.
Split: The Waterloo group went their separate ways at the height of their career, and during their final years Bjorn divorced bandmate Agnetha whilst Benny and Frida split up, too (pictured in 1973)