We still have faith in ABBA
Photo courtesy of NPR
Benny Andersson, Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad, Agnetha Fältskog and Björn Ulvaeus of ‘70s Europop sensation ABBA are back with new music and an upcoming London residency for the first time since 1982. On Thursday, Sept. 2, the group teased two out of 10 tracks from their upcoming album titled “Voyage” during a press conference streamed on their YouTube channel. The songs, “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” were released the next day and will be featured on their forthcoming album. So far, the songs are doing extraordinarily well on the charts, having reached more than 80,000 pre-orders for the album in just three days.
ABBA formed in Stockholm in 1972. It consisted of two married couples (Andersson and Lyngstad and Fältskog and Ulvaeus). The group won their first Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with their hit single “Waterloo,” which was later named as the most successful song in Eurovision history. Many of the group’s songs featured personal anecdotes about the tensions and complications within the band’s couples.
One of the most well-known songs of the group, “The Winner Takes It All,” was written around the time of the divorce of Fältskog and Ulvaeus in 1980. The power-ballad which is also featured in the hit musical “Mamma Mia!” tells the story of a woman accepting a breakup and expressing her regrets toward her former lover. Penned by Ulvaeus and sung by Fältskog, the song peaked at the top of the charts when it came out. Two years after the divorce of Fältskog and Ulvaeus, Andersson and Lyngstad faced the same fate. Eventually, the tension between the former couples became intolerable, leading to the band’s demise in the same year.
Now, 39 years later, the group is back and ready to relive their glory days. The stars, who joined TikTok earlier this month, continue to reach up and coming generations. With a rise in interest in hippie aesthetics and disco among Gen Z, ABBA’s music is rivaling the popularity it had during their height in the late ‘70s. Musicals such as the aforementioned “Mamma Mia!” are hitting high school stages all over the country and ‘70s fashion remains popular today. Trendy teenagers go through their grandparents’ closets and thrift stores for flared pants and go-go boots to pay tribute to the clothing the members of the group typically wore during their performances.
The residency will feature the members of the band as holograms in the “ABBA capital of the world,” which is similar to the look of their new music video in which they used CGI technology to appear younger. So far, many fans are speculating whether the group will enter the upcoming Eurovision contest, which is likely. One can only hope that the group will continue to ride the current wave of nostalgia they have been riding for the past month.
Though very few musicians can claim to achieve the status that ABBA holds, one thing is for sure: We still have faith in ABBA.
