ABBA, a 70’s Swedish pop group with hits like ‘Waterloo’ and ‘Dancing Queen’, has announced the release of their new album and a virtual concert in 2022. The band split up in 1982 after the four members decided to part ways. But their music has never lost its luster, and fans are enthusiastically greeting the return after 40 years.

The two songs from Voyage released so far, ‘Don't Shut Me Down’ and ‘I Still Have Faith In You’, are nostalgic and sing-able in ABBA’s fun, silly signature style. The full album will be released in May 2021.

ABBA released a video for ‘I Still Have Faith In You’, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAzEY1MfXrQ Beginning with clips of past performances, backstage production work, and moments shared between the members, it crescendos with a preview of their avatars and a cheering, illuminated audience. The chorus, with “we do have it in us / new spirit has arrived / the joy and the sorrow / we have a story / and it survived…” is a sentimental greeting, echoed by the refrain: “do I have it in me? / I believe it is still there / for I know I hear a bittersweet song / in the memories we share.”

Their upcoming concert, Voyage, will be held in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Digital avatars have been designed for the four members (Benny Andersson, Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, and Anni-Fred Lyngstad). ABBA will perform as their younger selves, a novel production that will soften their decades-long absence.

In ABBA’s livestream discussing their return (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJBGk9Hed8o) Ludvig Andersson (Benny’s son and the producer), explained the process behind animating the band: “Agnetha, Frida, Ben 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, the soul of their beings. So, that becomes the great magic of this endeavor; that when you see this show, it is not a version of, or a copy of, or people pretending to be ABBA. It is actually them.”

ABBA was brought through another wave of popularity with the jukebox movies Mamma Mia! in 2008 and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again in 2018. The ending notes of ‘Chiquitita’ have been used in a popular TikTok sound, and ‘Dancing Queen’ is always a classic. Their new venture will perhaps become a way to create nostalgic performances of idols as we remember them.