(London) Swedish pop group ABBA rose to the top of the UK charts with Trip, the quartet’s first studio album since 1981, the official body announced on Friday.
Trip has achieved 204,000 sales in seven days since its launch last Friday, the strongest UK album launch in four years since the album Divide by British pop star Ed Sheeran.
Since their separation at the end of 1982, a year after their last album The Visitors, Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid (acronym ABBA) had not released any more songs.
Trip is their 10e UK number one ranked album: Only seven other bands or artists – The Beatles, Elvis Presley, The Rolling Stones, Robbie Williams, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie – have more.
“We are so happy that our admirers seem to have enjoyed our new album as much as we enjoyed doing,” the band commented in a statement.
“We are absolutely delighted to have an album at the top of the charts again,” they added.
The 204,000 sales made include 90% of physical albums, including 29,900 vinyls, making it the strongest vinyl launch of the 21e century in terms of weekly sales.
The previous record was held by Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by British rock group Arctic Monkeys, which sold 24,500 records in one week in 2018.