ABBA revealed the first look at their 2022 Voyage concert series. The 20-second trailer shows the digital avatars of the Swedish pop quartet of Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, and Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad, dancing to their 1978 song “Summer Night City,” donned in futuristic garb in a digitized setting with neon pyramids and other vivid imagery. The trailer comes days before ABBA releases their new album, and first in 40 years, Voyage (Universal Music Group), on Nov. 5.
Videos by American Songwriter
The group first revealed their reunion in September along with a new website, upcoming concerts beginning spring 2022, and new singles “I Still Have Faith in You,” “Don’t Shut Me Down” and a recent third “Just a Notion,” a song the group originally recorded in 1978 for their sixth album Voulez-Vous in 1979 that never made the cut.
“We took a break in the spring of 1982 and now we’ve decided it’s time to end it,” said ABBA said in a statement in September.
Along with the release of Voyage, ABBA’s concert series kicks off in London on May 27, 2022, and features the foursome in their avatar forms, or “ABBAtars” (circa 1979), along with a 10-piece live band, at the custom-built “ABBA Arena” at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Producer Ludvig Andersson (Benny’s son) recently explained how the avatars “came to life.”
“Agnetha, Frida, Benny, and Björn got on a stage in front of 160 cameras and almost as many VFX geniuses and they performed every song in this show to perfection over five weeks, capturing every mannerism, every emotion,” said Andersson. “When you see this show it is not a ‘version of’, or a ‘copy of’, it is actually them.”
Photo by Baillie Walsh / Universal Music Group
