It’s official! ABBA will retire following the release of their early-November comeback album.
The legendary Swedish pop act members – Agnetha Faltskog, 71, Bjorn Ulvaeus, 76, Benny Andersson, 74, and 75-year-old Anni-Frid Lyngstad – have decided to call it quits after the release of their upcoming and final full length, ‘Voyage’ – that features their first new music in almost 40 years – including the recently released singles ‘I Still Have Faith In You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’.
In his own words Anderson stated: “I never said myself that ABBA was never going to happen again. But I can tell you now: this is it.” “This is it. It’s got be, y’know.” And Ulvaeus agreed: “Yeah.”
Following the November 5 release of their next and last LP, fans of the Scandinavian hitmakers have the ‘ABBA Voyage’ concert experience to look forward to. Opening May 27, 2022, at the ABBA Arena, a state-of-the-art 3,000 capacity arena located at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London, the quartet will be performing digitally as ‘Abbatars’ with a live 10-piece band.
Using months of motion-capture and performance techniques ABBA teamed up with an 850-strong team from Industrial Light & Magic – the company founded by George Lucas – to create digital versions of each member for the concert.
Bjorn said that this type of digital concert could go on forever as the members aren’t physically required to take to the stage, saying: “Abbatars never tire. They can do 10 shows a day. No private jets. No riders. No worries about voices.”
Faltskog previously admitted that their future was “uncertain” due to their “minor ailments” and not getting any younger: “I don’t really dare to say … We’re a bit older now and have our minor ailments. We struggle on. But I don’t dare say, because it’s a bit uncertain.At the moment we feel happy that we got this together and let’s hope everything goes well in London at the premiere over there.”
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: AVRO