Eternal youth thanks to digital: ABBA is launching a series of state-of-the-art digital avatar concerts in London on Friday, which will “take over” from the four septuagenarians of the Swedish cult group.
“We put our hearts and souls into these avatars and they’re going to take over,” told AFP Björn Ulvaeus, one of the members of the Scandinavian quartet met in Stockholm ahead of the premiere.
After nearly four decades of silence and de facto separation, ABBA released a new album in November (Travel). The kings and queens of disco had also announced the construction of a special room in London for a digital show prepared for years with special effects experts.
If it is indeed the current voices of Anni-Frid, Björn, Benny, and Agnetha (acronym “ABBA”) that we will hear, it is not them in flesh and blood that we will see on stage but four ABBA Tars released as a hologram, depicting the band members with their faces from 1979.
After other mixed experiences of concerts of holograms by artists who have disappeared or who are too tired, the four hope to have found the key to pass the emotion this time.
“This is one of the most daring projects that has ever been done in the music business”, believes Björn Ulvaeus, who composed most of the group’s greatest hits with his friend Benny Andersson.
“How the public will receive it, I have no idea, but I believe that they will feel an emotional power from the avatars, that they will see them as real people”, says the one who at 77 is the oldest of the ABBAs.
The movements of the septuagenarians were captured in the studio to reproduce them on stage.
If the avatars must sometimes appear dressed in the legendary emblematic seventies outfits of ABBA, they will also be dressed in futuristic combinations, according to the trailers for the concert.
In a 3,000-seat venue in east London (the “ABBA Arena”), concerts are scheduled seven days a week until early October.
“I don’t know about the others but as far as I’m concerned, I was more stressed a month ago than today. Now I know that we did our best”, says Björn.
ABBA Voyage lighting up London town…just 4 days to go! ✨ pic.twitter.com/6EG6fRV6Mq
— ABBA Voyage (@ABBAVoyage) May 23, 2022
The four avatars were developed in collaboration with a visual effects company of George Lucas, director of the Star Wars saga.
For Björn Ulvaeus, ABBA’s ubiquitous archival footage primed him to see himself in the face of his 30-something glory.
“For most people it will probably be weird, but I’ve seen myself younger almost every day, my whole life since we broke up,” explains the star, who is also launching a musical show in Sweden dedicated to Pippi Longstocking.
“In one form or another, in photos, on TV, so I’m quite used to ‘him’ (…) It’s me but it’s almost someone else”, underlines one of the two “B” of ABBA.
“When I see my avatar on stage, it’s like a mixture. As if I had a life infused in this guy we see on screen”.
Winner of Eurovision in 1974, ABBA enjoyed worldwide success thanks to his cult songs such as Waterloo, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!(A Man after Midnight) or The Winner Takes it All until its dissolution in the early 1980s.
But to everyone’s surprise the band’s success continued after their breakup, fueled later by clever revivals like the film series Mamma Mia.
With hundreds of millions of albums sold all over the world, ABBA has largely contributed to promoting the Swedish music industry, which is still today the third music exporting country after the United States and the United Kingdom.
In London, spectators will be entitled to an hour and a half of concert – with a dozen musicians themselves present. But seeing ABBA on stage again in real life or releasing a new album is not planned. “ABBA has no project… That’s how it is”, assures Björn Ulvaeus to AFP.