They famously vowed never to reform, to the disappointment of their legions of fans. But nearly four decades after disbanding, Swedish superstars ABBA were yesterday expected to announce a “sensational comeback” collaboration.
Almost as famous for their over-the-top sparkly outfits as their music, the group notched up over 400 million album sales over 50 years.
They enjoyed phenomenal success with a string of chart hits in the 1970s and early 1980s after winning Eurovision in 1974 with Waterloo.
Photo: AFP
Since parting ways in 1982 they have steadfastly resisted all offers to work together as a foursome again.
But later yesterday they were expected to delight fans with news on a fresh collaboration.
The now septuagenarian stars of pop classics such as Dancing Queen, The Winner Takes It All and Take a Chance on Me, said they will make an “historic” announcement.
Photo: AFP
Details are still under wraps, but the group is expected to announce the release of their first new songs since the 1980s and the launch of a new theatrical show in which they will perform as hologram “Abbatars”.
Last week, the group — Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 75, Agnetha Faltskog, 71, Bjorn Ulvaeus, 76, and Benny Andersson, 74 — announced on Twitter: “Thank you for waiting, the journey is about to begin.”
A Web site promises an “historic livestream” and Universal Music Group was to hold an event at the ArcelorMittal Orbit observation tower in east London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
‘SENSATIONAL COMEBACK’
The group is to release a whole album’s worth of new songs in a “sensational comeback,” according to British tabloid The Sun.
This comes after the Swedish pop icons announced three years ago they were returning to the studio to record new tracks.
“We all four felt that, after some 35 years, it could be fun to join forces again and go into the recording studio. So we did,” the group said.
Earlier this year, Ulvaeus told Australia’s Herald Sun: “There will be new music this year, that is definite. It’s not a case any more of it might happen, it will happen.”
Ulvaeus told The Times in April he wrote lyrics for new songs with Andersson composing the music, and the group “still sounds very much Abba.”
The group has mentioned five new songs, including I Still Have Faith in You and Don’t Shut Me Down.
The Sun reported they have recorded at least eight songs together.
‘STATE-OF-THE-ART SHOW’
The tabloid also reported that the group will voice holograms of themselves in their heyday for a “stage-of-the-art” show called “Abba Voyage” to be staged at a 3,000-capacity theater in London’s Olympic Park.
The show will launch next May and run eight times a week, featuring a blend of previously filmed and projected content and live performers. The plan is for the show to run to 2025 and then transfer to Stockholm or Las Vegas. Building work on the theater has begun, The Sun reported.
The group has not released any new music since 1981 and broke up the following year after both of the quartet’s married couples divorced.
They steered clear of a reunion despite their music’s enduring popularity, fueled by a hit compilation album in 1992 and the Mamma Mia musical and later spin-off films starring Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan.
“There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were,” Ulvaeus said in a 2008 interview.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, each member of Abba is worth between US$200-300 million. In 2000, the band turned down a US$1 billion offer to perform a 100-show world tour.
May 26 to June 1 When the Qing Dynasty first took control over many parts of Taiwan in 1684, it roughly continued the Kingdom of Tungning’s administrative borders (see below), setting up one prefecture and three counties. The actual area of control covered today’s Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung. The administrative center was in Taiwan Prefecture, in today’s Tainan. But as Han settlement expanded and due to rebellions and other international incidents, the administrative units became more complex. By the time Taiwan became a province of the Qing in 1887, there were three prefectures, eleven counties, three subprefectures and one directly-administered prefecture, with
It’s an enormous dome of colorful glass, something between the Sistine Chapel and a Marc Chagall fresco. And yet, it’s just a subway station. Formosa Boulevard is the heart of Kaohsiung’s mass transit system. In metro terms, it’s modest: the only transfer station in a network with just two lines. But it’s a landmark nonetheless: a civic space that serves as much more than a point of transit. On a hot Sunday, the corridors and vast halls are filled with a market selling everything from second-hand clothes to toys and house decorations. It’s just one of the many events the station hosts,
Among Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) villages, a certain rivalry exists between Arunothai, the largest of these villages, and Mae Salong, which is currently the most prosperous. Historically, the rivalry stems from a split in KMT military factions in the early 1960s, which divided command and opium territories after Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) cut off open support in 1961 due to international pressure (see part two, “The KMT opium lords of the Golden Triangle,” on May 20). But today this rivalry manifests as a different kind of split, with Arunothai leading a pro-China faction and Mae Salong staunchly aligned to Taiwan.
Two moves show Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is gunning for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party chair and the 2028 presidential election. Technically, these are not yet “officially” official, but by the rules of Taiwan politics, she is now on the dance floor. Earlier this month Lu confirmed in an interview in Japan’s Nikkei that she was considering running for KMT chair. This is not new news, but according to reports from her camp she previously was still considering the case for and against running. By choosing a respected, international news outlet, she declared it to the world. While the outside world
RSS