ABBA thrills fans with comeback album after decades apart
LONDON
Nearly four decades after disbanding and vowing never to get back together, Swedish superstars ABBA on Sept. 2 announced a musical comeback with a new album and a London show featuring its performances captured by digital avatars.
ABBA notched up over 400 million album sales over 50 years despite parting ways in 1982 and resolutely resisting all offers to work together again, until now.
“We have made a new album with ABBA!” the band’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson announced via a video presentation in London, delivering the news fans have waited decades for.
The pop maestros had a string of hits in the 1970s and early 1980s after winning Eurovision in 1974 with “Waterloo.”
But on Sept. 2, Ulvaeus and Andersson put an end to the suspense, following hints that something was in the pipeline.
After the video announcement, both men appeared in person, dressed in black, for a presentation of the forthcoming album.
“The album is in the can now, it’s done,” said Andersson, describing the group’s return to the studio, against the spectacular backdrop of the view from the top of London’s ArcelorMittal Orbit tower.
“It’s been 40 years, or 39, it was like no time had passed. It was quite amazing,” he said.
“We’ve done as good as we could at our age.”
The pair looked relaxed and described their reunion as very friendly.
The album will come out on November 5, the musicians said, with the show expected in May 2022.
The now septuagenarian stars of pop classics such as “Dancing Queen,” “The Winner Takes It All” and “Take a Chance on Me”, last recorded new music together in the 1980s.
British radio presenter Zoe Ball, hosting the interview, said: “This is huge: Yes ABBA are back together officially.”
She hailed this as “one of the biggest reunions ever.”
The group’s show will feature 22 songs, mostly the group’s classic hits, and last 90 minutes, the musicians said, with tickets going on sale later this month.
The group broke up in 1982 by which time both of the quartet’s married couples were divorced.
