ABBA are celebrating one year since the launch of their epic digital concert residency show, ‘ABBA Voyage’, this weekend.
The groundbreaking concert – which features the band, starring Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, depicted as ‘ABBAtars’ – opened to the public on May 27, 2022 at east London’s ABBA Arena to rave reviews.
One year on, organisers have marked the anniversary by releasing new images of the production, while the group themselves have reflected on its success.
Celebrating the creation of the concert, Björn says, “If you build the right machine, and you build it well, then it exceeds the sum of its parts. The soul of the songs comes alive. And that soul isn’t just down to what you see on stage. It’s the stories and memories that come with it. Both yours and ours.”
Anni-Frid Lyngstad goes on to talk about her astonishment of seeing her digital self on stage, admitting: “It’s hard to fully grasp that it isn’t me and yet it is me. I can certainly see myself in the digital figure, the gestures, the facial expressions, the eyes that express all sorts of feelings. It’s absurd but it’s real!”
Agnetha Fältskog adds: “For a whole month, we got into our ‘space suits’ and helmets to perform our songs. A fantastic team behind hundreds of monitors, following it all, from tip to toe, to capture our movements and facial expressions. Sometimes all four of us wondered what we had got ourselves into, but we had many wonderful laughs, looking at one another.”
To summarise the whole project Benny Andersson reflects, “Did we expect the response to be so intense? No. We didn’t know at all. And, do you know what? It’s always been that way. From day one.
“You start with a song and beyond that you have no control. Will people like it as much as we do? Will people ignore it? People will tell you that they know – people in the business. But no one ever knows. And it was the same with this…”
Check out new images from ‘ABBA Voyage’ below.
