Abba

The Swedish pop superstars - Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad - were last together in the capital for an appearance on ...

On why they had chosen the UK for the project, he said: "The UK has always been close to our hearts and the Brits have always taken us to their heart, and also the infrastructure for a huge project like this is here in London - so many reasons." Speaking about why she had enjoyed the project so much, Lyngstad said: "I think the most exciting thing about this project was to come together as a group again after so many years not doing anything as a band together." All four members of Abba have reunited in London for the first time since 1982 for the opening night of their Voyage live show.

Agnetha, Frida, Benny and Bjorn reunited for the opening night of the concert, which features digital versions of the band. Frida watched the show with a wide ...

"Being able to be on stage and perform for an hour or two, while being home walking the dog or making a carbonara? "And the absolute highlight was that they came on stage at the end." The show, which takes place in a purpose-built arena in east London, is currently due to run until December 2022. We were intrigued by that," Benny Andersson told the BBC last year. The band perform Chiquitita against an eclipsing sun, and are surrounded by pulsing laser beams during Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight). - The Visitors (One more look and you forget everything, to coin a phrase.) "I just look very good for my age." "So if you come out of here and feel like you've seen a visual spectacle, we will have failed. "I cried four times. "I don't think any hologram shows have been successful," producer Baillie Walsh told Dazed magazine last year. I didn't know I was going to feel like that."

The Swedish band's live avatar show in London is the latest way of reviving a timeless catalogue.

For me it was about capturing the essence of ABBA and sort of like fast-forwarding it in time,” says costume designer Bea Åkerlund.

Åkerlund has been working on the project since 2019, which is when she first got a call from the Emmy Award winning director Johan Renck. “I’ve done some other big Swedish iconic brands and I thought, of course ABBA would be the ultimate Swedish icon pop stars to work for,” she said on a Zoom call. The band will not be wearing the flared-leg jeans, clogs, or cat dresses they favored in the Me Decade. Bea Åkerlund, a fellow Swede, well-known for working with musicians, was engaged as the costume designer. This Voyage concert, which will be performed in residency a custom-built arena in London, is big, big news not only because ABBA, one of the best-selling acts of all time, had been dormant for 40 years until returning in 2021 with an album, also called Voyage, but because this newfangled concert will attempt to bridge the digital and physical worlds with light, sound, and “ABBAtars”—not holograms—using performance capture that’s combined with archival footage.

Members of ABBA, from left, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Benny Andersson arrive for the ABBA Voyage concert at the ABBA Arena in ...

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.

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

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com It goes right into your heart." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Their last performance together was some 40 years ago. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com "It is so nice to see all the faces and all the expectations and everything.

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.

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.”

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

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.

Onstage at the specially built 3,000-seat ABBA Arena next to east London's Olympic Park were a 10-piece live backing band and a digital ABBA, created using ...

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. “There’s an emotional connection between the avatars and the audience,” he said.