ABBA

LONDON (AP) — “ABBA Voyage” is certainly a trip. Four decades after the Swedish pop supergroup last performed live, audiences can once again see ABBA ...

Producers bill the show as “revolutionary.” Time will tell. “That’s the fantastic thing.” "But now we are taking revenge.” They were in the audience, though. It's a fusion of tribute act and 3D concert movie that transcends that description. LONDON (AP) — “ABBA Voyage” is certainly a trip.

Members of ABBA, from left, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid · Sweden's King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia arrive for the ABBA Voyage concert.

Producers bill the show as “revolutionary”. Time will tell. “That’s the fantastic thing”. "But now we are taking revenge”. They were in the audience, though. It's a fusion of tribute act and 3D concert movie that transcends that description. The Times of London reviewer Will Hodgkinson judged the show “essentially an ABBA singalong with added sound and light show”, though he called the effect “captivating”. Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis called the concert “jaw-dropping” and said “it’s so successful that it’s hard not to imagine other artists following suit”.

Lifelike 'Abbatars' take showbiz illusionism to new heights with virtual concert in London.

The iconic Swedish pop stars attended the premiere of the show on Thursday (26MAY2022) night at the specially made ABBA Arena on Pudding Mill Lane in London.

We would like to hear your thoughts about Abba's new concerts in which the band performs via digital avatars.

You can get in touch by filling in the form below. How do you feel about the return of the band? “By the time the show hits its finale with Thank You for the Music followed by Dancing Queen, any lingering sense that you’re not actually in the presence of Abba has dissolved.”

The iconic pop group, Agnetha Faltskog, 72, Benny Andersson, 75, Bjorn Ulvaeus, 77, and Anni-Frid 'Frida' Lyngstad, 76, opened their long-awaited digital ...

Performing their much-loved hits like "Mamma Mia!" and "Dancing Queen", Swedish supergroup ABBA returned to the stage on Thursday, albeit as digital avatars ...

It goes right into your heart." Their last performance together was some 40 years ago. "It is so nice to see all the faces and all the expectations and everything.

The Swedish superstars — or digital versions of them, at least — performed on Thursday to 3000 enthusiastic fans with the help of 140 animators, ...

Ulvaeus said he wouldn’t be surprised if some of the group’s contemporaries consider a similar undertaking: “If they ask me for advice, of course, I would say, ‘It takes a long time and it’s very expensive.’” “I felt very emotional at certain times during that performance, which I’m calling a performance but it wasn’t — it was a projection,” he said. “I was scared what I would find underneath,” Ulvaeus said.) Lyngstad had just had hip surgery and was using a cane. The group needed to get creative because Faltskog and Lyngstad had made it clear that they didn’t “want to go on the road,” Andersson told The New York Times in 2021. Around 2016, Simon Fuller, the producer behind the “Idol” franchise and the Spice Girls, suggested a show starring a 3-D version of the group “singing” while backed by a live band. The idea started around 2014, Gisla said, when she was brought in to help make music videos for the band involving digital avatars, a process that was “a total nightmare,” she said. During test shoots in fall 2019, the group’s male members “leapt in with no qualms,” Ben Morris, I.L.M.’s creative director, said. “We kissed a lot of frogs,” Gisla said. For the stadium disco of “ Summer Night City,” it appeared in pyramids made of dazzling light, with the rings of Saturn twirling in the background. For the Spanish-tinged “ Chiquitita,” the group sang in front of a solar eclipse. As a synthesizer blared and lights pulsed, the singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad twirled her arms skyward, unveiling a huge cape decorated with gold and fire red feathers, while she sang the slow-burn disco of “ The Visitors.” Benny Andersson, poised at his synth, grinned like he couldn’t believe he was onstage again. The audience — some already out of their seats dancing, glasses of rosé prosecco in hand — laughed because the comment went straight to the heart of the event.