By: Kaitlin Dellaposta
For anyone who is paying attention to the music industry, there is news that the popular Swedish band from the 70s and 80s, ABBA, is coming out with a new album. If hearing the name ABBA still does not ring a bell, the band’s music was used to create the musical’s Mamma Mia! (2007) and Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again! (2018). Before this, ABBA had already been blessing the music industry with their music, but for our generation who has only grown up on the Meryl Streep version of ABBA music, the question is, who really is ABBA?
This band’s story begins in 1969 in Sweden; the original four members of the band were Benny Anderson, Björn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Fältskog, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. Benny and Björn were previously in two different Swedish bands before they met each other. They both eventually meet their future wives Anni-Frid and Agnetha who also end up becoming the second part of the band. They released their first song together in 1972 called ‘People Need Love’ which had become popular enough for the band to sign up for the famous European song contest, Eurovision Song Contest. They originally were called Björn and Benny, Agnetha and Anni-Frid, but they decided to shorten it and just use their first initials, ABBA. They finished in third place, but decided to sign up for the contest again with a new song ‘Waterloo’ in 1974. Waterloo is one of their most popular songs to this day and took them all the way to the Eurovision finals, where they became the first Swedish band to win in the Eurovision Song Contest. ‘Waterloo’ even ended up being a hit in the U.S.
It was difficult for ABBA to follow up on their previous success of winning Eurovision. Eighteen months after winning, their song ‘SOS’ from their album ABBA, became a worldwide hit. It wasn’t until 1976 that ABBA established themselves as one of the most popular groups in the world, releasing ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Fernando’, and more. ABBA was a sensational band with the two couples, Benny and Frida and Björn and Agnetha being loved by people all over the world, this took a turn in 1979 when Björn and Agnetha announced their divorce, tainting the happy couple image the band once had. The band did not let this break them apart at first and they released songs such as ‘Chiquitta’ that year. Frida and Benny also ended up divorcing each other in 1981. The band announced that they would be taking a break a year after in 1982. Despite hopes of a reunion the band remained broken up for many years. In 1999, the successful musical Mamma Mia!, which is based on ABBA’s songs, premiered in London and then moved to Broadway two years later. Eventually the film version starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan was released in 2008. Despite the success of the film it was not until this year, more than 10 years later, that ABBA announced a new album, Voyage, coming out November 5, 2021. The band has already released two of the songs that will be appearing, ‘I Still Have Faith in You’ and ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’.
The reunion concert, which is called, ABBA Voyage, will take place in a custom-built arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London; and will feature ABBA’s avatars and a ten-piece live band. The avatars will allow the group to look the way they did forty years ago when they were in their prime to allow the audience to get the full effect of an ABBA concert. The concert will feature 22 songs, all of ABBA’s favorite hits. Despite the chaos of the past years at least we can all say that we lived through ABBA!
