LONDON, Might 26 (Reuters) – Performing their much-loved hits like “Mamma Mia!” and “Dancing Queen”, Swedish supergroup ABBA returned to the stage on Thursday, albeit as digital avatars, for a brand new London live performance residency.
The band – Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad – have been dropped at digital life as digital variations of themselves from their Nineteen Seventies heyday, because of motion-capture know-how. Their final efficiency collectively was some 40 years in the past.
The foursome, all now of their seventies, posed for footage collectively on the concert events’ crimson carpet premiere on Thursday at a purpose-built venue, dubbed ABBA Enviornment.
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
“I feel all of us are very completely satisfied to be again in London as a result of I have not been right here for I do not know what number of years,” Faltskog advised Reuters.
“It’s so good to see all of the faces and all of the expectations and the whole lot. It goes proper into your coronary heart.”
ABBA labored with an 850-strong workforce from Industrial Mild & Magic, based by “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, for the challenge.
Accompanied by a dwell band, the avatars, or ABBA-tars, carry out some 20 songs in the course of the 90-minute present, known as “Voyage”. In the course of the present, they made jokes and even had costume adjustments.
The true ABBA watched among the many viewers and got here on stage on the finish, hugging one another and waving to the group.
Members of Swedish music band ABBA arrive for the opening efficiency of the “ABBA Voyage” live performance in London, Britain Might 26, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
The concert events, which formally start on Friday, are a part of a massively profitable comeback for the band, who topped charts final November with “Voyage”, their first album in 40 years.
Shaped in 1972, ABBA gained legions of followers world wide and has bought an estimated 385 million information.
They cut up within the early Nineteen Eighties, with rumours swirling for years they might reunite on stage.
“ABBA has by no means left us,” Faltskog advised one reporter.
Requested if this was it for the band, Lyngstad advised Reuters: “Relies upon how lengthy we keep alive… If we’re fortunate.”
“I do not suppose we’ll do one other one… Undoubtedly no however by no means say by no means,” Andersson added.
“The avatars go on dwelling,” Ulvaeus mentioned.
Register now for FREE limitless entry to Reuters.com
Reporting by Kristian Brunse and Sarah Mills; Extra reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Enhancing by Lisa Shumaker
: .
