One of the most talked about reunions is happening and the music world may get divided over this. After four decades, ABBA is going to release an album — Voyage — on November 5. Two tracks from it — I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down — are already out and in the mix will also be a Christmas track.
The quartet of Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Bjorn Ulvaeus decided to go their separate ways in 1982 after bitter divorces but lately, they have been on good terms and ended up back in the recording studio and also working on an upcoming stage show.
“At first it was just two songs, and then we said, ‘Well, maybe we should do a few others,’” Benny Andersson has said. Ultimately, they recorded 10 songs and the two that are already out have a typical ABBA feel. I Still Have Faith in You is a piano ballad that captures the camaraderie the four members share while Don’t Shut Me Down has a disco element, reminding one of The Day Before You Came which talks of a woman who returns to her partner years after walking out.
The reunion had have always appeared unlikely, with the band reportedly turning down $1bn to tour in 2000. The iconic Swedish group will also go on a new concert experience, which is called ‘Voyage’, beginning in May 2022. Digital versions of the members will appear with a 10-piece live band at a new 3,000-capacity venue in London’s Olympic park.
Though ABBA members were rarely seen together in the last few decades but the four appeared during the premiere of the film Mamma Mia! in 2008. The film collected more than £440m in global box office takings and also gave birth to a 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which made £285m globally.
Formed in 1972, the group delivered one hit after another. Lyngstad and Andersson were engaged in 1971 and that year Faltskog and Ulvaeus married but by 1981 their romantic lives had fallen apart. But the problem with such reunions is expectations. ABBA fans will expect something like Dancing Queen and Money, Money, Money but can the members — all in their 70s — deliver with the same gusto? They sing Through joy and the sorrow/ We have a story/ And it survived on I Still Have Faith in You. We will soon see how far can they push their vocal and disco magic.
