In their official website on September 2nd' 2021,
Abba announced that they have released new songs for the first time in 40 years, and that music videos for the new songs "I Still Have Faith in You",
and " Don't Shut Me Down " are now available, and all members have announced that they will resume their activities.
Wow!
We are very happy to hear this news !
ABBA - Don't Shut Me Down (Lyric Video)
I Still Have Faith In You
In addition, the New album "Voyage" containing all new songs including these two songs will be released in November, 2021
and then in May next year ( 2022 ) , a concert will be held in London, England,
which expresses the past and present performance scenes of ABBA by making full use of stereoscopic images.
My husband and I both love the song " Don't Shut Me Down " and already listened to it many times.
It sounds just like they did back in the 70's.
It would fit just fine if you heard it in the middle of the ABBA Gold album.
It also reminds us of the music in the Disco generation which was our youth.
Besides doing many styles of music, and always with that distinct Abba sound, Abba's music was also at the center of the disco music scene at that time in the 1970's and early 80's.
Their next year's London concert sounds interesting, too.
It's really new for me and it's so surprising to know such a high technology, which can make the performer appear virtually on stage and look absolutely real, and not only that, but present them as they were during their best looking times.
The audience will be able to feel like ABBA are really there, and they can hear the new songs live in concert and see ABBA as they looked in their prime.
There may be many opinions about this new concert style , and there are some people who don't like the virtual aspect of the new concert tour, and they see it in a negative way, but it's nice to see many fans are excited and happy about it.
ABBA members Benny and Bjorn revealed dates and ticket information for the ABBA Voyage tour plus a full album of completely new songs and two new videos.
The show will feature VR digital versions of the four band members like this incredible one of Agnetha.
Watch a new video showing how it was done.
In a flurry of huge news, Benny and Bjorn confirmed there is an entire album of new music:
"The album is done.
If we were not proud of it we would not have released it.
There is a proverb in the music industry. You should not wait more than 40 years between albums…"
It will be released on November 5 and the stars added there is also " a little Christmas song."
Benny said: "First there were just two songs and then we thought maybe we should do some more
and said,
'What do you think girls?'
And then we did a new album."
Bjorn said: "We never looked at the charts. We just wrote the best songs we could.".. Writing songs is our lifeblood."
Benny said: "We are not competing with Drake and all these guys.
I don’t understand what the ingredients that work today are… We’ve done as good as we could at our age!"
Bjorn added: "I just knew it had to be about us. It’s about realizing it's inconceivable to be where we are.
To release a new album after 40 years and still be there, best of friends and enjoying each other's company,.. who has experienced that? Nobody."
They also opened up about the extraordinary technology involved in creating these new 'digital versions' of themselves for the upcoming shows next year.
The process involved weeks of filming in Stockholm.
All four members of the band performed all the numbers that will be in the show and had their movements captured by virtual reality technology that has been featured in blockbusters like The Lord of The Rings films and the new Star Wars trilogy.
Benny said: "The only big problem was we had to shave our beards. After 40 years!
Frida and Agnetha didn’t shave…They should have been here but they don’t enjoy doing this.”
Bjorn added: “We did motion capture in a studio that looks like NASA.
We were there for five weeks in leotards with dots on our bodies and helmet and then the four of us were on stage doing these songs… We looked ridiculous.”
Benny previously described how Pop Idol supremo Simon Fuller had come to the band with the original idea.
Benny said: " He came to Stockholm and he presented this idea to us that we could make identical digital copies of ourselves of a certain age and that those copies could then go on tour and they could sing our songs, you know, and lip-sync.
"I’ve seen this project half-way through and it’s already mind-boggling."
And now the whole world has seen the incredible results.
Everybody gets older and older, and it's not easy to go on a concert tour when they became senior ages ,especially when they have not been doing those activities for a long time.
As an audience, I'm fine to see their digital copies concert performances with their best time's looks.
The best version of them, live on stage.
Because when you think about it, the world is already an illusion.
This way, I can feel they are actually there.