Mamma Mia! Abba to release new music
Pic: AVRO / CC BY-SA 3.0
It’s official! Abba have been secretly recording music in the studio and will release two new tracks for the first time in 35 years.
In a post on Instagram, the foursome revealed that the new songs were an “unexpected consequence” of their work on a virtual tour, which initially was believed to only focus on their existing catalogue of hits.
“We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the studio,” the Swedish band said.
“So we did. And it was like time stood still and that we only had been away on a short holiday. An extremely joyful experience,” they revealed.
One of the tracks, I Still Have Faith In You, will debut in a TV special in December. The two songs will also be included in the Abba “avatar tour.”
The band added: ‘We may have come of age, but the song is new. And it feels good.”
Abba spokesperson Gorel Hanser told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that the new songs’ sound “will be familiar, but also modern.”
Plans to produce an Abba virtual tour were announced last year. It will not feature the band itself performing but holographic “digital avatars” of Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus.
The four members have been digitally scanned and ‘de-aged’ to look like their younger selves at the height of their fame and success.
“It’s a kind of Abba tribute show, but the centerpiece … will be something I call ‘Abbatars’. It is digital versions of Abba, from 1979,” Ulvaeus told AFP last week. “It’s the first time it’s ever been done.”
The tour is planned to kick off in 2019. Fans of the group are also eagerly awaiting the release of Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the sequel to the hit Abba musical, in cinemas in July.
It’s been reported that Abba, who made music from 1974 to 1982, once turned down a $1bn offer to reunite for a tour in 2000. The band has sold an estimated 500 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling music acts of all time.
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